The Special Autonomy, Spatial Dependence and Regional Economic Convergence of Papua, Indonesia

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the influence of government spending in the education sector sourced from special autonomy funds on regional economic convergence in districts/cities in Papua, using panel data from 29 districts/cities during the 2013-2021 period. The influence of education spending and spatial dependence was analyzed using the non-spatial MRW (Mankiw, Romer, Weil) model and the Spatial MRW Model with a spatial weighting matrix customized transportation route contiguity estimated using Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) panel data regression. This research proves that Papua's regional economic convergence will occur at a higher speed when the region considers the role of other regions that are connected via available transportation routes between regions in Papua.