Examining the consistency of spatial association patterns across socio-economic indicators: an application to the Greek regions

This paper addresses an important empirical question for spatial economics that has so far attracted little attention in the literature, namely, how patterns of spatial association differ across socio-economic indicators. This issue is examined here with a large socio-economic dataset from the Greek prefectures. We start by identifying spatial patterns of association in the data through an exploratory spatial data analysis and then explore the persistence of spatial clustering across socio-economic indicators through the application of a number of simple statistical tests. Greece presents an interesting case for examination, given its complex nature of geographical disparities and spatial heterogeneity. The derived results are important for Greek regional policy, as they help highlight yet another dimension of the challenges it faces for regional development, but they are also of particular relevance for applied spatial analysis, as they offer new insights in the analysis of spatial processes.