Main research programs

  • Sustainable Regional Development — Integrate satellite remote sensing, spatial econometrics, and machine learning to evaluate local progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), quantify environmental trade-offs, and model regional resilience.
  • The Geography of Development — Harness Earth observation data to map subnational wealth and health globally. This approach proxies economic activity, tracks poverty dynamics, and reveals spatial inequality in data-scarce regions.
  • Regional Growth and Inequality — Apply econometrics and machine learning to analyze regional income convergence, identify persistent spatial poverty traps, and measure the impact of economic spillovers across national and subnational borders.
  • Spatial Structural Change — Model how localized sectoral shifts and labor productivity improvements drive regional development. This includes detecting economic clusters and mapping their evolutionary dynamics.
  • Spatial Energy Economics — Quantify the spatial disparities of energy poverty and electricity access while mapping the localized socio-economic impacts of the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Research publications

Further information including current projects, slides, and summaries is available on the Research page.

Browse the interactive publications library

  1. Tifani Husna Siregar, Harry Aginta and Carlos Mendez (2026). Okun's law and spatial regimes in Indonesia: A machine learning approach. Economic Modelling.
  2. Oana M. Garbasevschi, Andrea Sofia Garcia de León, Lykke E. Andersen, Guillermo Guzmán Prudencio, Michael Wurm and Hannes Taubenböck (2026). Spatio-temporal estimation of electricity consumption in Bolivian municipalities using nighttime lights. Geocarto International.
  3. Hussein Suleiman and Yilin Chen (2026). Regional economic inequality in Egypt: A Kuznets curve, convergence, or shock-driven decline?. The Annals of Regional Science.
  4. Katerine Restrepo (2026). Exploring the spatial heterogeneity of obesity determinants in Mexican municipalities using multiscale geographically weighted regression. Discover Public Health.
  5. Tifani Siregar and Carlos Mendez (2026). Minimum wage differentials and commuting across districts. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science.
  6. Ragdad Cani Miranti and Sri Juli Asdiyanti (2026). Illuminating inequality: Heterogeneous effects of financial inclusion on urban-rural economic performance and economic resilience in Papua. Regional Science Policy & Practice.
  7. Carlos Mendez (2026). Comparative Causal Metrics: An Introduction to Regional Impact Evaluation. Book.
  8. Carlos Mendez (2026). Econometrics powered by AI: An Introduction Using Cloud-based Python Notebooks. Book.
  9. Mitsuhiko Kataoka (2026). Endowments help; returns do not: unconditional quantile regression decomposition of Indonesia's gender expenditure gap. Applied Economics Letters.
  10. Osmar Bolivar (2026). High-frequency inflation forecasting: A two-step machine learning methodology. Latin American Journal of Central Banking.
  11. Linda Glawe (2025). Club convergence in innovation activity: Evidence from the US. Papers in Regional Science.
  12. Alvaro Dominguez, Felipe Santos-Marquez and David Castells-Quintana (2025). The geography of energy transitions: A network approach for post-Fukushima Japan. Energy Economics.
  13. Khoun Theara, Ate Poortinga, Soe Thwal, Gonzalez de Alba, Andrea McMahon and Carlos Mendez (2025). Mapping the dimensions of poverty through big data, socioeconomic surveys and machine learning in Cambodia. Social Indicators Research.
  14. Linda Glawe (2025). Nonlinearities in the institutions-growth relationship in a dynamic panel data framework: Evidence from China's provinces. China Economic Review.
  15. Chandan Kumar Jha, Swarup Joshi and Sujana Kabiraj (2025). Do racist attitudes and behaviors impede economic growth? Cross-national and regional evidence. Public Choice.
  16. Ragdad Cani Miranti, Deltha Airuszh Lubis and Yongky Choirul Anam (2025). What drives green finance development? Evidence from provincial-level data in Indonesia. GeoJournal.
  17. Andres Ramirez-Hassan, Carlos Mendez and Estephania Rueda-Ramirez (2025). Bayesian average of classical estimates for panel data: Can the puzzle of the shape of the regional Kuznets curve be solved?. Empirical Economics.
  18. Lykke E. Andersen, Fabiana Karina Argandoña Gonzales, Diego Calderón, Sergio Choque Sunagua, Alvaro Mauricio Muñoz Quisberth, Carla Olmos and Sebastián Miranda (2025). Valoración económica de los servicios ecosistémicos en Bolivia: estimación del aporte de las áreas protegidas y los territorios indígenas. Revista Latinoamericana de Desarrollo Económico.
  19. Katikar Tipayalai and Chayaton Subchavaroj (2025). Living with disadvantages: how does healthcare professional inequality spatially affect NCD mortality in Thailand?. GeoJournal.
  20. Yilin Chen (2025). Geographically Heterogeneous Spatial Inequality in the People's Republic of China: A Luminosity-Based Analysis of Prefectural Cities and Counties. Asian Development Review.
  21. Lykke E. Andersen, Fabiana Karina Argandoña Gonzales, Carla Olmos, Diego Calderón, Sebastián Miranda, Alvaro Mauricio Muñoz Quisberth and Sergio Choque Sunagua (2025). Estimación de las emisiones de CO2 por deforestación e incendios en Bolivia entre 2010 y 2023. Revista Latinoamericana de Desarrollo Económico.
  22. Carlos Mendez and Mehak Sachdeva (2025). On the political and socioeconomic geography of violence: Spatial heterogeneity and scale effects in Brazil. Spatial Economic Analysis.
  23. Hussein Suleiman, Minh-Thu Thi Nguyen and Carlos Mendez (2025). Predicting subnational GDP in Vietnam with remote sensing data: A machine learning approach. Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences.
  24. Mitsuhiko Kataoka and Geoffrey Mwenda Kirugi (2025). Persistent regional income inequalities in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from a bi-dimensional inequality decomposition analysis. Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences.
  25. Mehak Sachdeva (2025). Models and Human Geography. Book chapter.
  26. Linda Glawe and Carlos Mendez (2024). Harmonized luminosity and economic activity across provinces in China: Cross-sectional differences, regional time series, and inequality dynamics. Applied Economics.
  27. Mitsuhiko Kataoka and Rendra A.A. Putra (2024). Mancession vs. Shecession: gender disparities during COVID-19 in Indonesia. Applied Economics Letters.
  28. Katerine Restrepo (2024). Mapping obesity in women and chronic malnutrition in children across the municipalities of Bolivia: Spatial clusters and regionalization. Regional Science Policy & Practice.
  29. Ugur Ursavas (2024). Regional human capital convergence in Türkiye: an exploratory space-time approach. Applied Economics Letters.
  30. Osmar Bolivar (2024). GDP nowcasting: A machine learning and remote sensing data-based approach for Bolivia. Latin American Journal of Central Banking.
  31. Ragdad Cani Miranti, Sabar I. Siregar and Ade B. Willyana (2024). How does inclusion of digital finance, financial technology, and digital literacy unlock the regional economy across districts in Sumatra? A spatial heterogeneity and sentiment analysis. GeoJournal.
  32. Yilin Chen (2024). Regional decline and structural changes in Northeast China: an exploratory space-time approach. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science.
  33. Carlos Mendez and Ayush Patnaik (2024). Exploring Economic Activity from Outer Space: A Python Notebook for Processing and Analyzing Satellite Nighttime Lights. REGION.
  34. Yilin Chen, Ugur Ursavas and Carlos Mendez (2024). Can higher-quality nighttime lights predict sectoral GDP across subnational regions? Urban and rural luminosity across provinces in Türkiye. Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences.
  35. Harry Aginta (2024). Inflation and Spatial Spillovers in a Large Archipelago: Evidence from Indonesia. Economic Papers.
  36. Jiaqi Li (2024). Examining the impact of digital financial inclusion on economic development in urban and rural areas of China using remote sensing. GeoJournal.
  37. Carlos Mendez and Tifani Siregar (2023). Regional unemployment dynamics in Indonesia: Serial persistence, spatial dependence, and common factors. Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences.
  38. Harry Aginta, Carlos Mendez and Masakazu Someya (2023). Regional Okun’s law and endogeneity: evidence from the Indonesian districts. Applied Economics Letters.
  39. Eleonora Cutrini and Carlos Mendez (2023). Convergence clubs and spatial structural change in the European Union. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.
  40. Carlos Mendez (2023). Measuring and understanding regional inequality through the lens of the Indonesian experience. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science.
  41. Yilin Chen, Dohèto Othniel Kpoviessi and Harry Aginta (2023). Investigating regional income convergence in China: an exploratory spatio-temporal perspective. Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences.
  42. Linda Glawe and Helmult Wagner (2023). New evidence on the Human Capital Dynamics within China: Is There a Human Capital Trap?. The Singapore Economic Review.
  43. Linda Glawe and Helmut Wagner (2023). The 'Double Trap' in China: Multiple Equilibria in Institutions and Income and their Causal Relationship. Open Economies Review.
  44. Harry Aginta (2023). Revisiting the Phillips curve for Indonesia: What can we learn from regional data?. Journal of Asian Economics.
  45. Bangkit A. Wiryawan, Harry Aginta and Al Muizzuddin Fazaalloh (2023). Does GVC participation help industrial upgrading in developing countries? New evidence from panel data analysis. The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development.
  46. Ugur Ursavas and Carlos Mendez (2022). Regional income convergence and conditioning factors in Turkey: Revisiting the role of spatial dependence and neighbor effects. The Annals of Regional Science.
  47. Linda Glawe and Carlos Mendez. (2022). Schooling ain’t learning in Europe: A club convergence perspective. Comparative Economic Studies.
  48. Cani Miranti and Carlos Mendez (2022). Social and economic convergence across districts in Indonesia: A spatial econometric approach. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies.
  49. Katikar Tipayalai and Carlos Mendez (2022). Regional convergence and spatial dependence in Thailand: Global and local assessments. Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy.
  50. Carlos Mendez and Felipe Santos. (2022). Economic and social disparities across subnational regions of South America: A spatial convergence approach. Comparative Economic Studies.
  51. Muhamad Rifki Maulana and Harry Aginta (2022). Testing for convergence clubs in real wage across Indonesian provinces from 2008 to 2020. Regional Statistics.
  52. Harry Aginta (2022). Spatiotemporal analysis of regional inflation in an emerging country: The case of Indonesia. Regional Science Policy & Practice.
  53. Harry Aginta and Masakazu Someya (2022). Regional economic structure and heterogeneous effects of monetary policy: evidence from Indonesian provinces. Journal of Economic Structures.
  54. Alvaro Dominguez, Felipe Santos and Carlos Mendez (2021). Sectoral productivity convergence, input-output structure and network communities in Japan. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.
  55. Felipe Santos-Marquez (2021). Spatial Beta-Convergence Forecasting Models: Evidence from Municipal Homicide Rates in Colombia. Journal of Forecasting.
  56. Anang Gunawan, Carlos Mendez and Shigeru Otsubo (2021). Provincial income convergence clubs in Indonesia: Identification and conditioning factors. Growth and Change.
  57. Harry Aginta, Cani Miranti and Carlos Mendez (2021). Regional Economic Growth Convergence and Spatial Growth Spillovers at Times of COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia. Book chapter.
  58. Carlos Mendez and Erick Gonzales (2021). Human Capital Constraints, Spatial Dependence, and Regionalization in Bolivia: A Spatial Clustering Approach. Economía.
  59. Carlos Mendez (2020). Convergence Clubs in Labor Productivity and its Proximate Sources: Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries. Springer Publisher.
  60. Harry Aginta (2020). Spatial dynamics of consumer price in Indonesia: Convergence clubs and conditioning factors. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science.
  61. Felipe Santos-Marquez and Carlos Mendez. (2020). Regional Convergence, Spatial Scale, and Spatial Dependence: Evidence from Homicides and Personal Injuries in Colombia 2010-2018. Regional Science Policy & Practice.
  62. Harry Aginta (2020). Does the law of one price hold in 82 Indonesian cities? Evidence from a club convergence approach. Economics Bulletin.
  63. Carlos Mendez (2020). Promoting both Industrial Development and Regional Convergence: Towards a Regionally Inclusive Industrial Policy. Book chapter.
  64. Carlos Mendez (2020). Labor Productivity, Capital Accumulation, and Aggregate Efficiency Across Countries: New Evidence for an Old Debate. Forum of International Development Studies.
  65. Carlos Mendez (2020). Regional Efficiency Convergence and Efficiency Clusters: Evidence from the Provinces of Indonesia 1990–2010. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science.
  66. Carlos Mendez (2019). Lack of Global Convergence and the Formation of Multiple Welfare Clubs across Countries: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach. Economies.
  67. Alvaro Dominguez and Carlos Mendez (2019). Industrial Productivity Divergence and Input-Output Network Structures: Evidence from Japan 1973–2012. Economies.
  68. Carlos Mendez and Erick Gonzales (2019). A Comparison of TFP Estimates via Distribution Dynamics: Evidence from Light Manufacturing Firms in Brazil. Empirical Economics Letters.
  69. Carlos Mendez (2018). Beta, Sigma and Distributional Convergence in Human Development? Evidence from the Metropolitan Regions of Bolivia. Latin American Journal of Economic Development.
  70. Carlos Mendez (2018). Investment constraints and productivity cycles in Bolivia. Coyuntural Economics.
  71. Carlos Mendez (2018). On the Distribution Dynamics of Human Development: Evidence from the Metropolitan Regions of Bolivia. Economics Bulletin.
  72. Carlos Mendez (2017). Heterogeneous Growth and Regional (Di)Convergence in Bolivia: A Distribution Dynamics Approach. Coyuntural Economics.
  73. Carlos Mendez (2015). The World Productivity Distribution: Convergence and Divergence Patterns in the Postwar Era. Latin American Journal of Economic Development.
  74. Carlos Mendez (2015). Divergent and Unequal Development in Latin America: Causes and Policy Challenges. Book chapter.
  75. Carlos Mendez (2015). Essays on Aggregate Productivity, Structural Change, and Misallocation. Book.
  76. Carlos Mendez (2015). On the Development Gap between Latin America and East Asia: Welfare, Efficiency, and Misallocation. Forum of International Development Studies.

76 publications.