Those Taxes are all over the Map! A Test for Spatial Independence of Municipal Tax Rates in British Columbia

Abstract

A test for spatial independence based on characteristic functions is introduced. The test is shown to be consistent against a fairly general class of alternatives, and the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic is determined. The test is then put to use in analyzing the spatial pattern of municipal property tax rates for the province of British Columbia. Results of the new test are compared with those of Moran's test on this data set. Some intriguing differences are found.