spatial Durbin model

Satellite nighttime lights reveal how poorer districts in India catch up. Accounting for connections between neighboring districts raises the estimated pace of catch-up and shortens the time needed to close half the gap from about 23 to 13 years.

Economic growth does not reduce unemployment equally across Indonesia: it helps a lot in some districts and barely at all in others. Because growth in one district also affects jobs in its neighbors, job policies work best when they fit local conditions and are coordinated across nearby regions.