Model boosting for spatial weighting matrix selection in spatial lag models

The spatial lag specification is often used in spatial econometrics. The choice of an appropriate spatial weighting matrix is an important outstanding methodological problem in the quantitative spatial dependence literature. This paper proposes applying a component-wise model-boosting algorithm to deal with the issue of the choice of a spatial weighting matrix amongst a predetermined set of alternatives. The resulting procedure is computationally simple and easy to implement. I present an empirical application of the proposed methodology. Some possible extensions to a more general setting are discussed.