Is There a County Border Effect in Spatial Income Differences in Hungary?

The economic and social importance of administrative borders can be examined from the point of view of internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity of the delimited spatial units and of the effect on the intensity of spatial interactions. This paper deals with the first question. Hungarian county borders can be treated as strict limits from the administrative point of view. However, choropleth maps with county borders can suggest that county borders are strict limits for the social and economic indicators too. It is a conceptually interesting question, whether presenting data at county level is justified by the significant differences of various indicators along the county borders or if it is determined only by the availability of data. The aim of this study is to examine empirically the existence or non-existence of the county border effect by the example of spatial distribution of personal incomes in Hungary. The analysis is possible due to the availability of personal income data at the level of more than 3,000 Hungarian settlements. The results show that county borders have effect only in those cases where the border is determined by a physical geographical barrier, namely the Danube River and Lake Balaton. The settlements are more similar to the close settlements of a neighbouring county than to the average of its own county.