Development Accounting with Spatial Effects

Abstract The aim of this paper is to show how the spatial autocorrelation phenomenon often observed in the world distribution of income per capita, can be introduced structurally as the outcome of spillovers effects into a development accounting equation. Neglecting spatial autocorrelation potentially biases our vision of the role played by physical capital in the development process. We show that the total contribution of physical capital accounts for almost 90% of the differences between developing countries and the richest countries.