%A P. Piribauer %A J. Crespo Cuaresma %J Spatial Economic Analysis %T Bayesian Variable Selection in Spatial Autoregressive Models %X This paper compares the performance of Bayesian variable selection approaches for spatial autoregressive models. It presents two alternative approaches that can be implemented using Gibbs sampling methods in a straightforward way and which allow one to deal with the problem of model uncertainty in spatial autoregressive models in a flexible and computationally efficient way. A simulation study shows that the variable selection approaches tend to outperform existing Bayesian model averaging techniques in terms of both in-sample predictive performance and computational efficiency. The alternative approaches are compared in an empirical application using data on economic growth for European NUTS-2 regions. %N 4 %K determinants of economic growth; Markov chain Monte Carlo methods; model uncertainty; Spatial autoregressive model; variable selection %P 457-479 %V 11 %D 2016 %I Routledge %R 10.1080/17421772.2016.1227468 %L iiasa13930