Spillover and Income Distribution in Europe: Do Physical Distance and Spatial Interations Matter? Nonparametric Modelling

The purpose of this paper is to take into account the importance of spatial interactions between regions with respect to the evolution of income distribution process, in order to investigate whether geographical distance between regions matters. Hence, the empirical analysis is expected to answer to the following question: can spatial spillovers and, in particular, spatially concentrated technology spillovers be considered factors that help explaining the European regional income patterns? To this aim, we are going to exploit a nonparametric conditioning methodology together with some tools frequently used in spatial econometrics analysis.