A space--time varying coefficient model: The equity of service accessibility

Abstract: Research in examining the equity of service accessibility has emerged as economic and social equity advocates recognized that where people live influences their opportunities for economic development, access to quality health care and political participation. In this research paper service accessibility equity is concerned with where and when services have been and are accessed by different groups of people, identified by location or underlying socioeconomic variables. Using new statistical methods for modeling spatial-temporal data, this paper estimates demographic association patterns to financial service accessibility varying over a large geographic area (Georgia) and over a period of 13 years. The underlying model is a space--time varying coefficient model including both separable space and time varying coefficients and space--time interaction terms. The model is extended to a multilevel response where the varying coefficients account for both the within- and between-variability. We introduce an inference procedure for assessing the shape of the varying regression coefficients using confidence bands.