Spatial Analysis with Spatial Religion Explorer

Shuming Bao University of Michigan [email protected] IIntroduction Although spatial phenomena have been extensively studied in various research fields, such as economic geography (e.g., convergence in per capita income growth rates, inter-regional and intersectorial flows of labor and capital, and regional resource endowments), environmental sciences (e.g., dispersion of air-borne pollutants, soil erosion, and forest growth), environmental criminology (e.g., social organization and processes of informal social control within neighborhoods), geographical epidemiology (e.g., mapping disease areas), and urban economics (e.g., human interaction patterns and spatial behavior), the study of spatial linkages in financial markets has essentially been overlooked. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were some studies of regional banking structures, urban mortgage markets, regional credit availability and regional interest rate differentials; but the studies that appeared hardly added up to a substantial or coherent body of theoretical or empirical research. During the 1990s, however, the relationship between money and space began to attract