A note on the need to account for spatial dependence: a case of migratory flows in Spain

Abstract

The potential existence of spatial dependence in the relevant literature on migratory flows has not been dealt with sufficiently. This paper tries to fill this gap by applying spatial statistic techniques to the Spanish case. First, the paper shows that there is indeed spatial dependence in some of the variables conventionally included in migration equations. Second, these variables are filtered to remove spatial dependence. Third, in order to evaluate the influence of spatial dependence on migration, a conventional migration equation is estimated with both actual and filtered data, revealing key differences. Spatial dependence clearly matters in migration analysis.