This cumulative dissertation consists of five chapters. In terms of research content, my thesis can be divided into two parts. Part one examines local interactions and spillover effects between small regional governments using spatial econometric methods. The second part focuses on patterns...

Spurious regression analysis in panel data when the time series are cross-section dependent is analyzed in the paper. We show that consistent estimation of the long-run average parameter is possible once we control for cross-section dependence using cross-section averages in the spirit of the...

The estimation of the impact of public investment on regional economic growth requires consideration of the spatio-temporal dynamics among the state variables of each region. Recent austerity policies in Spain that feature temporary decreases in the accumulation of regional public capital should...

This paper contributes to the empirical literature on convergence by applying convergence model to components of government expenditures (by function) in EU15 during 1995-2010, using the data from United Nations Statistics Division. Moreover, we extend the traditional convergence model to allow...

The recent growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) has led to a proliferation of scholarly efforts to analyse the various dimensions of this phenomenon. Two main streams of research have emerged in the literature. The first analyses the economic effects of FDI inflows in the economy of the...

In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that policy makers' choices concerning health spent at the local level are spatially correlated and electorally oriented. We check the influence of a set of demographic, electoral and economic determinants of public health activity. We performed a spatial...