Analysis of the Cybercrime with Spatial Econometrics in the European Union Countries

Abstract

The main objective of this chapter is to analyze the crimes related to the new information technologies in the European Union using the data provided by the European Commission and the spatial econometrics approaches. The data were analyzed with several tests, namely the Moran´s I, to verify the existence of global (for all countries of the European Union) and local spatial autocorrelation. The presence of spatial autocorrelation in the data means that the variable analyzed in a determined country is auto correlated with the same variable in the neighboring countries. The data analysis was complemented with some cross-section estimations, considering namely the Lagrange Multiplier tests, to examine the spatial lag and the spatial error autocorrelation. The spatial autocorrelation is a statistical infraction, so the consideration of these subjects prevents result bias and on the other hand allows some conclusions important to help in the definition of adjusted policies.