Spatial panel data models: An application in aviation industry

When analyzing the data with geographical units (cities, countries, states, regions, etc.), it should be investigated whether neighboring units have spatial effects on each other. Because it is assumed that geographical units, namely places, which are close to each other, namely places, will affect each other. When analyzing the data with geographical units, spatial models taking into account the spatial effects are used. Spatial panel data models are used in the analysis of data that includes both geographical units and time series. Within the scope of this thesis, the spatial effect of aviation data and econometric variables on airport terminal revenues of airports in Turkey between 2013 and 2018 were examined with both classical panel data models and spatial panel data models. For this purpose, a spatial weight matrix was created considering the distances between airports, and spatial panel data models were applied using this weight matrix. The best model was decided according to the model selection criteria and the model results were interpreted.