Moran's I

The value of ${\displaystyle I}$ can depend quite a bit on the assumptions built into the spatial weights matrix ${\displaystyle w_{ij}}$. The idea is to construct a matrix that accurately reflects your assumptions about the particular spatial phenomenon in question. A common approach is to give a weight of 1 if two zones are neighbors, and 0 otherwise, though the definition of 'neighbors' can vary. Another common approach might be to give a weight of 1 to ${\displaystyle k}$ nearest neighbors, 0 otherwise. An alternative is to use a distance decay function for assigning weights. Sometimes the length of a shared edge is used for assigning different weights to neighbors. The selection of spatial weights matrix should be guided by theory about the phenomenon in question.

The expected value of Moran's I under the null hypothesis of no spatial autocorrelation is

${\displaystyle E(I)={\frac {-1}{N-1}}}$

At large sample sizes (i.e., as N approaches infinity), the expected value approaches zero.

Its variance equals

${\displaystyle \operatorname {Var} (I)={\frac {NS_{4}-S_{3}S_{5}}{(N-1)(N-2)(N-3)W^{2}}}-(E(I))^{2}}$

where

${\displaystyle S_{1}={\frac {1}{2}}\sum _{i}\sum _{j}(w_{ij}+w_{ji})^{2}}$

${\displaystyle S_{2}=\sum _{i}\left(\sum _{j}w_{ij}+\sum _{j}w_{ji}\right)^{2}}$

${\displaystyle S_{3}={\frac {N^{-1}\sum _{i}(x_{i}-{\bar {x}})^{4}}{(N^{-1}\sum _{i}(x_{i}-{\bar {x}})^{2})^{2}}}}$

${\displaystyle S_{4}=(N^{2}-3N+3)S_{1}-NS_{2}+3W^{2}}$

${\displaystyle S_{5}=(N^{2}-N)S_{1}-2NS_{2}+6W^{2}}$[3]

Values of I usually range from −1 to +1. Values significantly below -1/(N-1) indicate negative spatial autocorrelation and values significantly above -1/(N-1) indicate positive spatial autocorrelation. For statistical hypothesis testing, Moran's I values can be transformed to z-scores.

Moran's I is inversely related to Geary's C, but it is not identical. Moran's I is a measure of global spatial autocorrelation, while Geary's C is more sensitive to local spatial autocorrelation.