Spatial econometrics is a fastgrowing and rapidly expanding field in quantitative social sciences. In 1979, Paelinck and Klaassen defined the specificity of spatial econometrics. Anselin (in 1988) formally established the theoretical and methodological framework. This field provides a set of tools to model the interaction and measure the spillover effects among a group of spatial units with particular attention to location, spatial structure, and spatial processes. The current relevance debate centers on such issues as comparative spatiotemporal dynamics, big spatiotemporal data, and open source movement.
