A Treatise on the Geographical Scale of Agglomeration Externalities and the MAUP

In this article, we test to what extent the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) moderates the effect of agglomeration externalities on areal sectoral employment growth by varying the initial geographical scale of analysis. Using spatial cross-regressive modelling, we find different effects of agglomeration forces across geographical scales. As the MAUP is a theoretical as well as a methodological problem, research should not only work with proper statistical specifications, but also relate this more explicitly to hypotheses concerning the geographical scale at which agglomeration externalities operate. .

Trattato sulla scala geografica delle esternalità di agglomerazione ed il MAUP (Articolo ricevuto, gennaio 2008; in forma definitiva, ottobre 2008) Sommario In questo articolo verifichiamo a quale livello il problema dell’unita d’area modificabile (MAUP) attenua gli effetti delle esternalita d’agglomerazione sulla crescita dell’occupazione settoriale d’area variando l’iniziale scala geografica d’analisi. Utilizzando modelli spaziali cross-regressive, troviamo differenti effetti delle forze di agglomerazione attraverso le scale geografiche. Poiche il MAUP e un problema sia teorico che metodologico, la ricerca non dovrebbe funzionare solo con corrette specificazioni statistiche dei modelli di agglomerazione spaziale che incorporano differenti scale geografiche, ma anche collegandolo piu esplicitamente alle ipotesi che riguardano la scala geografica alla quale operano le esternalita di agglomerazione.

Keywords:Agglomerazione, crescita dell’occupazione, econometria spaziale, MAUP. Classificazione

Jel codes:C21, O18, R11, R12.

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Martijn J. Burger, Frank G. van Oort, Bert van der Knaap, A Treatise on the Geographical Scale of Agglomeration Externalities and the MAUP in "SCIENZE REGIONALI " 1/2010, pp , DOI: 10.3280/SCRE2010-001002