Replication Data for: Interpretation: The Final Spatial Frontier

The use of spatial econometric models in political science has steadily risen in recent years. However, the interpretation of these models has generally ignored the important substantive, and even spatial, nature of the estimated effects. This leaves many papers with a (non-spatial) interpretation of coefficients on the covariates and a brief discussion of the sign and strength of the spatial parameter. We introduce a general approach to interpreting spatial models and provide several avenues for an exposition of substantive spatial effects. Our approach can be generalized to most models in the spatial econometric taxonomy. Building on the example of the diffusion of democracy, we elucidate how our approach can be applied to modern political science problems.

近年来，空间计量经济学模型在政治学领域的应用持续稳步增长。然而，现有研究对这类模型的解读普遍忽略了估计效应所具备的重要实质性乃至空间性本质，这使得诸多学术论文仅对协变量的系数进行非空间视角下的解读，仅简要探讨空间参数的符号与强度。本研究提出一种通用的空间模型解读框架，并为实质性空间效应的系统阐释提供多条可行路径；该框架可推广至空间计量经济学分类体系下的绝大多数模型。本研究以民主扩散问题为实例，阐明该框架如何应用于当代政治学研究议题。