Gravitational Fields and Spatial Autocorrelation as Methods for Economic Analysis: An Application to Wages in the United States

The primary goal of this paper is to compare and combine different spatial analysistools, Moran’s global and local Index, the Getis-Ord Index with the gravitational mo-del. These techniques were applied to a sample of wages from the manufacturingand financial sectors across counties in the United States. The method identifies andinvestigates patterns of spatial concentration through a cross-analysis that integratesgravitational fields. It also expands the study of trade and market dynamics beyondconventional theories, and highlights the significance of spatial analysis in improvingthe understanding of how economic forces shape such spatial patterns.