Most of the existing literature in spatial econometrics uses data at
aggregate level. The paper by Arbia, Espa, Giuliani and Mazzitelli take
a different approach and present a methodology based on micro data
referring to single individual economic agents. Following such an approach
they treat each firm as a point in the space and present a
methodology to analyse the regularities in their arrangement using
point pattern techniques. In particular they propose a nonparametric
approach for the analysis of spatial heterogeneity, based
on the so-called inhomogeneous K-function. They present an empirical
application of the method to analyse the spatial distribution of
2654 high-tech manufacturing plants in Italy, for the year 2001. The
authors assume the economic space to be non-homogenous, and
take the pattern of inhomogeneity as an instrument to disentangle
spatial heterogeneity from spatial dependence.