Heterogeneous spatial models in R: spatial regimes models

Abstract

This paper presents the progress made so far in the development of the R package hspm. The package hspm aims at implementing a variety of models and methods to control for heterogeneity in spatial models. Spatial heterogeneity can be specified in different ways, ranging from exogenous (or endogenous) spatial regimes models, to models with coefficients that potentially vary for each observations (i.e., continuous heterogeneity). We focus on a few R functions that allow for the estimation of a general spatial regimes model, as well as all of the nested specifications deriving from it. The models are estimated by instrumental variables and generalized method of moments techniques.