Statistical and mathematical sources of regional science theory: Map pattern analysis as an example

Krugman states that “Regional science is not a unified subject. It is best described as a collection of tools.” Unfortunately such a perspective fails to fully acknowledge theoretical dimensions of the accompanying refocusing on geographic expressions of economic linkages, such as those highlighted in spatial externalities specifications. Such promulgated aspects of the spatial economic landscape relate to map pattern, and certainly the spatial statistics and spatial econometrics theory that accompanies it, as well as the underlying substantive theory garnered from a variety of sources. The principal implication is other than “loose- jointed, do-the-best-you-can theorizing”.