IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/qzjwb.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Right to Rule by Thumb: A Comment on Epistemology in "A Route Map for Successful Applications of Geographically-Weighted Regression"

Author

Listed:
  • Wolf, Levi John

    (University of Bristol)

Abstract

Comber et al. (2022) provides an important contribution to the future of quantitative geography and geographic analysis. The contribution is chiefly in their development of a "GWR Route Map," a diagram showing the sequence of analytical steps that "successful" specification searches in local modelling tend to follow. Geographically-weighted techniques have been rapidly expanding, both in terms of complexity, users, and disciplinary reach. With geographically-weighted methods now in so many more analysts' hands, any new rule of thumb will have a major imprint. But, by what right does the thumb rule the analysts? That is, what "counts" as valid knowledge about local models in general? In the following comment, I argue that we probably should use theory, not route maps to decide specifications. But, if we're pressed to build route maps, we sorely need better epistemological foundations for them. I discuss a few previous examples of strongly-grounded route maps and offer a few paths to these better grounds as well as two ways to the exit.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolf, Levi John, 2022. "The Right to Rule by Thumb: A Comment on Epistemology in "A Route Map for Successful Applications of Geographically-Weighted Regression"," SocArXiv qzjwb, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:qzjwb
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/qzjwb
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/628630556a659e48a0eec5de/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/qzjwb?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Stewart Fotheringham & Ziqi Li & Levi John Wolf, 2021. "Scale, Context, and Heterogeneity: A Spatial Analytical Perspective on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 111(6), pages 1602-1621, September.
    2. Florax, Raymond J. G. M. & Folmer, Hendrik & Rey, Sergio J., 2003. "Specification searches in spatial econometrics: the relevance of Hendry's methodology," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 557-579, September.
    3. Stephen Gibbons & Henry G. Overman, 2012. "Mostly Pointless Spatial Econometrics?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 172-191, May.
    4. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    5. Anselin, Luc & Bera, Anil K. & Florax, Raymond & Yoon, Mann J., 1996. "Simple diagnostic tests for spatial dependence," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 77-104, February.
    6. James P. LeSage & R. Kelley Pace, 2014. "The Biggest Myth in Spatial Econometrics," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-33, December.
    7. King, Gary & Roberts, Margaret E., 2015. "How Robust Standard Errors Expose Methodological Problems They Do Not Fix, and What to Do About It," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(2), pages 159-179, April.
    8. Levi John Wolf & Luc Anselin & Daniel Arribas-Bel & Lee Rivers Mobley, 2021. "On Spatial and Platial Dependence: Examining Shrinkage in Spatially Dependent Multilevel Models," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 111(6), pages 1679-1691, September.
    9. Florax, Raymond J.G.M. & Folmer, Hendrik & Rey, Sergio J., 2006. "A comment on specification searches in spatial econometrics: The relevance of Hendry's methodology: A reply," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 300-308, March.
    10. A. Stewart Fotheringham & Wenbai Yang & Wei Kang, 2017. "Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR)," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(6), pages 1247-1265, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Demidova, Olga, 2021. "Methods of spatial econometrics and evaluation of government programs effectiveness," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 64, pages 107-134.
    2. Montmartin, B. & Herrera, M. & Massard, N., 2015. "R&D policies in France: New evidence from a NUTS3 spatial analysis," Working Papers 2015-11, Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory (GAEL).
    3. P. Dorian Owen, 2017. "Evaluating Ingenious Instruments for Fundamental Determinants of Long-Run Economic Growth and Development," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-33, September.
    4. Bonev, Petyo & Glachant, Matthieu & Söderberg, Magnus, 2018. "A Mechanism for Institutionalised Threat of Regulation: Evidence from the Swedish District Heating Market," Economics Working Paper Series 1805, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    5. Benjamin Montmartin & Marcos Herrera & Nadine Massard, 2017. "R&D Policy regimes in France: New Evidence from a spatio-temporal Analysis," GREDEG Working Papers 2017-22, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    6. Marcos Álvarez‐Díaz & Béatrice D’Hombres & Lewis Dijkstra & Claudia Ghisetti & Nicola Pontarollo, 2021. "Unveiling the local determinants of population growth in the European Union," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 150-166, March.
    7. Mur, Jesús & Angulo, Ana, 2009. "Model selection strategies in a spatial setting: Some additional results," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 200-213, March.
    8. Jianhuan Huang & Jiejin Xia, 2016. "Regional Competition, Heterogeneous Factors and Pollution Intensity in China: A Spatial Econometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-26, February.
    9. Solmaria Halleck Vega & J. Paul Elhorst, 2015. "The Slx Model," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 339-363, June.
    10. Chagas, André L.S. & Azzoni, Carlos R. & Almeida, Alexandre N., 2016. "A spatial difference-in-differences analysis of the impact of sugarcane production on respiratory diseases," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 24-36.
    11. Tobias Ruttenauer, 2024. "Spatial Data Analysis," Papers 2402.09895, arXiv.org.
    12. Frank Davenport, 2017. "Estimating standard errors in spatial panel models with time varying spatial correlation," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96, pages 155-177, March.
    13. Montmartin, Benjamin & Herrera, Marcos & Massard, Nadine, 2018. "The impact of the French policy mix on business R&D: How geography matters," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10), pages 2010-2027.
    14. Mohanty, Biswajit & Bhanumurthy, N. R. & Dastidar, Ananya Ghosh, 2017. "What explains Regional Imbalances in Infrastructure?: Evidence from Indian States," Working Papers 17/197, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    15. Emediegwu, Lotanna E. & Wossink, Ada & Hall, Alastair, 2022. "The impacts of climate change on agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: A spatial panel data approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    16. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Zhou, Ying, 2015. "Co-location and Spatial Wage Spillovers in China: The Role of Foreign Ownership and Trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 629-644.
    17. Cem Ertur & Julie Le Gallo & Catherine Baumont, 2006. "The European Regional Convergence Process, 1980-1995: Do Spatial Regimes and Spatial Dependence Matter?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 3-34, January.
    18. Katharina Schone & Wilfried Koch & Catherine Baumont, 2013. "Modeling local growth control decisions in a multi-city case: Do spatial interactions and lobbying efforts matter?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 95-117, January.
    19. Martinho, Vítor João Pereira Domingues, 2011. "A spatial model of the Keynesian theory for Portugal," MPRA Paper 33636, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7rrsl07p559bjr85tr7hsft1o9 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Bivand, Roger & Piras, Gianfranco, 2015. "Comparing Implementations of Estimation Methods for Spatial Econometrics," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 63(i18).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:qzjwb. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.