Empirical work in regional science has seen a growing interest in causal inference, leveraging insights from econometrics, statistics, and related fields. This has resulted in several conceptual as well as empirical papers. However, the role of spatial effects, such as spatial dependence (SD) and spatial heterogeneity (SH), is less well understood in this context. Such spatial effects violate the so-called stable unit treatment value assumption advanced by Rubin as part of the foundational framework for empirical treatment effect analysis. In this article, we consider the role of spatial effects more closely. We provide a brief overview of a number of attempts to extend existing econometric treatment effect evaluation methods with an accounting for spatial aspects and outline and illustrate an alternative approach. Specifically, we propose a spatially explicit counterfactual framework that leverages spatial panel econometrics to account for both SD and SH in treatment choice, treatment variation, and treatment effects. We illustrate this framework with a replication of a well-known treatment effect analysis, that is, the evaluation effect of minimum legal drinking age laws on mortality for US states during the period 1970–1984, a classic textbook example of applied causal inference. We replicate the results available in the literature and compare these to a range of alternative specifications that incorporate spatial effects.

中文翻译：

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程序评估计量经济学的空间视角

借助计量经济学，统计学和相关领域的见识，区域科学的实证研究对因果推理的兴趣日益浓厚。这产生了一些概念性和实证性论文。但是，在这种情况下，人们对空间效应（例如空间依赖性（SD）和空间异质性（SH））的作用了解得很少。这种空间效应违反了鲁宾提出的所谓的“稳定单位治疗值”假设，这是经验治疗效果分析基础框架的一部分。在本文中，我们将更紧密地考虑空间效应的作用。我们简要概述了扩展现有计量经济学治疗效果评估方法的多种尝试，并考虑了空间方面和轮廓，并说明了另一种方法。特别，我们提出了一个在空间上明确的反事实框架，该框架利用空间面板计量经济学在治疗选择，治疗变异和治疗效果方面考虑了SD和SH。我们通过重复著名的治疗效果分析（即最低法定饮酒年龄法律对美国各州在1970-1984年期间的死亡率的评估效果）来说明此框架，这是应用因果推理的经典教科书示例。我们复制了文献中提供的结果，并将其与纳入空间效应的一系列替代规范进行了比较。我们通过重复著名的治疗效果分析（即最低法定饮酒年龄法律对美国各州在1970-1984年期间的死亡率的评估效果）来说明此框架，这是应用因果推理的经典教科书示例。我们复制文献中提供的结果，并将其与纳入空间效应的一系列替代规范进行比较。我们通过重复著名的治疗效果分析（即最低法定饮酒年龄法律对美国各州在1970-1984年期间的死亡率的评估效果）来说明此框架，这是应用因果推理的经典教科书示例。我们复制文献中提供的结果，并将其与纳入空间效应的一系列替代规范进行比较。