On A Comparison between Two Measures of Spatial Association

Abstract

Two measures of spatial association between two variables were used by many researchers. These are the Wartenberg (1985) and Lee (2001) measures. Based on simulation for lattice data, the sensitivity of both measures was studied and compared with different choices of spatial structures, spatial weights and sample sizes using bias and mean square error. Different scenarios are used in terms of assumed numbers and sample sizes. Moran’s I is used to examine the spatial autocorrelation of such a variable with itself. Both the Wartenberg and Lee measures are found to be sensitive, however, Wartenberg’s measure is found to be somewhat better than Lee’s measure because it is slightly more sensitive when sample size is small.