RSAI NEWS

Content

Winner Martin Beckmann Annual Award for the best paper published in Papers in Regional Science in 2015

REMINDER | Nominations for Councilor-at-large

Call for papers and Applications | Symposium in Yerevan October 2nd and Workshop in Dilijan October 3 and 4, Armenia

The latest issues of Regional Science Policy & Practice are available! Volume 8, Issue 1-2, March-June 2016

REMINDER | Submissions for the 2016 RSAI Best Dissertation in Regional Science – Deadline: July 31, 2016

REMINDER | Submissions for the Stan Czamanski Prize – Deadline October 02, 2016

REMINDER | Nominations to Jean Paelinck RSAI Award – Deadline: December 31, 2016

The William Alonso Memorial Prize for Innovative Work in Regional Science

Call for Applications | THE BENJAMIN H. STEVENS 2017-2018 GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP IN REGIONAL SCIENCE

RSAI has the great pleasure to announce that the jury consisting of Antoine Bailly, Masahisa Fujita, Roberta Capello and Erik Verhoef  chose the article "Fiscal decentralization and regional disparities: The importance of good governance" by Andreas P. Kyriacou, Leonel Muinelo-Gallo, Oriol Roca-Sagalés,  published in Volume 94, Issue 1, Marh 2015, Pages: 89-108 as the winner of the Martin Beckmann Prize as the best paper published in Papers in Regional Science in 2015.

Motivation:

The paper deals with the measurement of the role of government quality in mediating the relationship between fiscal decentralization and regional disparities. The paper, based on evidence from a sample of 24 OECD countries over the period 1984 to 2006, provides support to the idea that fiscal decentralization has the potential to reduce income differences across regions but that this potential may not be realized because of governance problems associated with sub-national authorities. Based on the originality of the interest in the topic, and the important results achieved, the jury concluded that the paper was the best published one in 2015.

Many congratulations to Andreas P. Kyriacou, Leonel Muinelo-Gallo and Oriol Roca-Sagalés!

Dear members of RSAI,

Taking into account that nominations for Councilor to be elected at-large shall be made by the Council after solicitation of suggestions from the members of the Association we inform that the proposals for councilor-at-large can be send to rsai@apdr.pt before the 20th of August 2016. Suggestions shall include a CV and a photo.

The election of one councilor-at-large for the period 2017-2019 will be done electronically by RSAI members along September 2016.

Best regards,

Tomaz Ponce Dentinho

Executive Director

The Regional Science Association International (www.regionalscience.org/) will organize a Symposium, on the theme Regional Development in Western Asia; a Regional Science Perspective, that will be held on October 2nd  at Armenian State University of Economics, Yerevan and a Workshop, on October 3rd and 4th at the Dilijan Training and Research Centre of central bank of Armenia, Dilijan.

The call for abstracts to the Symposium is open.

Deadline for Abstracts submissions to the Symposium: August 5, 2016.

Applications for the Workshop are welcomed.

Deadline for the Application to the Workshop: July 30, 2016.

All information at the event website: http://regionalscience.org/armenia2016

Looking forward to meeting you in Armenia!

Anahit Harutyunyan

Chair of the Local Organizing Committee

Organization and Support

Regional Science Policy & Practice

© RSAI
Volume 8, Issue 1-2 Pages 1 – 91, March-June 2016

The latest issue of Regional Science Policy & Practice is available on Wiley Online Library

ISSUE INFORMATION

Issue information (pages 1–2)
Version of Record online: 29 JUN 2016 | DOI: 10.1111/rsp3.12062

ARTICLES

Rural prosperity and federal expenditures, 2000–2010 (pages 3–26)
Bev Wilson and Mallory L. Rahe
Version of Record online: 27 MAY 2016 | DOI: 10.1111/rsp3.12070

Equity in regional access to renal dialysis in Brazil (pages 27–44)
Pedro V. Amaral and Alan T. Murray
Version of Record online: 29 JUN 2016 | DOI: 10.1111/rsp3.12071

Innovation and knowledge spillovers in Turkey: The role of geographic and organizational proximity (pages 45–60)
Irfan Kaygalak and Neil Reid
Version of Record online: 29 JUN 2016 | DOI: 10.1111/rsp3.12072

The economic impact of a new solar power plant in Arizona: Comparing the input-output results generated by JEDI vs. IMPLAN (pages 61–73)
Jinwon Bae and Sandy Dall'erba
Version of Record online: 29 JUN 2016 | DOI: 10.1111/rsp3.12073

Retail employment in rural America: The case of New Mexico (pages 75–91)
Richard V. Adkisson and Francisco J. Pallares
Version of Record online: 29 JUN 2016 | DOI: 10.1111/rsp3.12074

REMINDER | Submissions for the 2016 RSAI Best Dissertation in Regional Science – Deadline: July 31, 2016

The Regional Science Association International (RSAI) invites submissions for the annual competition for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Regional Science. Regional science is an interdisciplinary field concerned with theory, method, and application of regional, urban and rural, geographic and spatial investigations and analyses.

The winner will be decided by the Selection Committee and will receive a cash award of 750 Euros. Award announcements will be made at the North American Meetings of the RSAI, where participants in the competition are strongly encouraged to be present. The Selection Committee reserves the right to not make an award. Decisions made by the Selection Committee are final.

Eligibility:

1. A dissertation completed in any Ph.D. program in any country is eligible,
2. A dissertation written in English,
3. A dissertation successfully defended, with official graduation date between July 1st 2015 and June 30th 2016,
4. A dissertation on a single or multiple general regional science topics. The Selection Committee reserves the right to determine whether a dissertation is relevant to the field of regional science.

Application (in either PDF or MS Word format):

1. A two-page curriculum vita;
2. A letter of support and nomination from the major professor (also known as dissertation committee chairperson or supervisor) on stationary paper and with signature. The letter should clearly explain the dissertation’s originality and contributions to the field of regional science;
3. The dissertation.

Applications should be submitted electrically by July 31, 2016 to the Selection Committee Chair, Dr. Shaoming Cheng (scheng@fiu.edu). Large submissions can be uploaded to a cloud file-sharing site. Questions regarding the dissertation competition may be sent to him too.

The Stan Czamanski Prize is awarded by the Regional Science Association International in memory of Professor Stan Czamanski, an early recipient of a Ph.D. in regional science (1963), a member of the University of Pennsylvania regional science faculty (1963-1966), a member of the regional science faculty of Cornell University (1966-1988), and a past-president of the Regional Science Association (1975-1976).

The annual prize is awarded to author of the best Ph.D. dissertation proposal judged to exemplify the philosophy and approach of Professor Czamanski, as described below.

The US$1,000 prize is awarded to the student and a plaque to the student’s advisor.

The selection will be made by a panel of three persons: a senior and long-standing member of the regional science community, a representative of the field of Regional Science at Cornell and a member of the RSAI Council.

Students writing dissertations on problems in regional science from around the world are invited to enter the competition, in the spirit of Stan’s all-embracing philosophy.

The award is presented at the North American Regional Science Meetings.

Rules of the competition

Applications are to be submitted by October 02 of 2016 to rsai@apdr.pt. To be eligible, the dissertation proposal must have been defended and approved during the past 12 months.

Each applicant will submit the following:

1. A statement in six pages or less that clearly sets out the research question(s) and issues to be addressed, approach to be used, and product expected from the dissertation research. The six-page limit is exclusive of references, tables and figures. This text and references should be in 12 point or larger font and single-spaced. In addition, a summary (maximum one page) describing the intellectual merit of the proposed research and why the proposed approach may be regarded as implementing Professor Czamanski’s philosophy and approach, as described below.
2. A curriculum vita of no more than two pages.
3. Copies of the candidate’s transcripts for all graduate study. Unofficial copies are acceptable.
4. A separate, confidential letter from the dissertation supervisor assessing the quality and significance of the proposed dissertation research.

Philosophy and Research Approach of Professor Stan Czamanski

In his Introduction to Regional Science (Prentice-Hall, 1975, p. 2), Walter Isard wrote:

“In brief, regional science as a discipline concerns the careful and patient study of social problems with regional or spatial dimensions, employing diverse combinations of analytical and empirical research.”

Professor Czamanski’s research exemplified the analysis of social and economic problems with regional and spatial dimensions. In doing so, he chose judiciously the right combination of analytical and empirical research methods from his tool box to address the specific issue at hand.

Dissertation proposals submitted for the Stan Czamanski Prize will be judged with regard to how the student proposes to bring an appropriate combination of analytical and empirical methods to bear on a social and economic problem with spatial or regional dimensions, and how this combination of methods is expected to deliver greater insights into the problem in question.

Nomination and Process for Making the Award

1. It is expected that The Jean Paelinck Award for Distinguished Sustained Scholarship in Regional Science Methods will be made every two (2) years.
2. Nominations or consideration for The Jean Paelinck Award for Distinguished Sustained Scholarship in Regional Science Methods will be solicited every second year.
3. A nomination for consideration for The Jean Paelinck Award for Distinguished Sustained Scholarship in Regional Science Methods comes from Fellows of RSAI. At least five (5) Fellows must agree on the nomination.
4. A nomination may remain active for five (5) years.
5. A nomination must be accompanied by testimonials from a minimum of five (5) eminent scholars from at least three (3) nations who are able to verify the importance and scholarly standing and importance of the nominee’s publications.
6. The nomination and supporting documents are to be sent to the Executive Director of RSAI who will then forward it to the members of a Selection Jury.
7. The Selection Jury comprises a Chair, selected by the RSAI Council, and who is a member of the RSAI Long Range Planning Committee, plus four (4) RSAI Fellows. A Chair’s tenure is limited to four (4) years. Two (2) RSAI Fellow members of the Selection Jury rotate off every two (2) years.
8. When the Selection Jury recommends making the Award, the Executive Director will inform the RSAI Council in writing of that nomination. Unless within fourteen (14) days more than one-third of the members of the RSAI Council advise the Executive Director in writing of their dissent regarding the nomination, then the RSAI President or Executive Director will advise the member recommended for the Jean Paelinck Award and invite that person to accept the Award.
9. The presentation of The Jean Paelinck Award for Distinguished Sustained Scholarship in Regional Science Methods will occur at one of the supra-regional meetings of RSAI (NARSC/RSAmericas, ERSA, PRSCO), or at the RSAI World Congress.

Demonstration of:

1. Early career scholarly contribution.
2. Sustained continuing scholarly contribution.
3. International impact.
4. Inter-generational impacts (students and colleagues).
5. Impact on other related areas to regional science.

The nominations can be send to rsai@apdr.pt, before the December 31, 2016.

Nomination deadline coming up, July 31!

The William Alonso Memorial Prize for Innovative Work in Regional Science

The William Alonso Memorial Prize for Innovative Work in Regional Science was established in 1999 to honor the memory of a revered, pioneering scholar. In 1960 William Alonso was awarded the first Ph.D. in Regional Science by the University of Pennsylvania. The book based on his dissertation, Location and Land Use (Harvard University Press, 1964), is often credited with launching the field of urban economics. He made numerous major contributions to the study of migration, regional development, and the politics of numbers, and his work ranged from meticulous mathematical theory to far-ranging think pieces. William Alonso was Assistant and Associate Professor of Regional Planning at Harvard University (1959-67), Professor of Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley (1966-76), and Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Policy at Harvard (1976-99).

The objective of the Prize is to recognize the recent innovative research contribution of Regional Science scholars in the spirit of Dr. William Alonso. Previous Prize Winners are:

2002    Masahisa Fujita and Paul Krugman, The Spatial Economy (MIT Press, 1999)

2004    Jacques-François Thisse, Economics of Agglomeration (Cambridge University Press, 2002)

2006    Luc Anselin, Local Indicators of Spatial Association (Geographical Analysis, 1995)

            Ann Markusen, Sticky Places in Slippery Space (Economic Geography, 1996)

2011    Michael Batty, Cities and Complexity (MIT Press, 2007)

2013    Robert Sampson, Great American City (University of Chicago Press, 2012)

The next prize, the 2017 Prize, is scheduled to be announced in 2016 at the North American Meetings in Minneapolis.

Nominations for the 2017 prize to be announced in 2016 are invited by the Alonso Prize Committee. They may come from any individual or organization including book publishers, university departments, government agencies, and other public or private entities. Each organizations is limited to make two nominations for each occasion. The deadline for nominations is July 31, 2016.

• The nominated work must be a book published in 2011 or later. An edited book will be considered only if it is tightly-integrated, not a loose collection of chapters.
• The nominated work may have single or multiple authors.
• Authors are encouraged to self-nominate, and jurors will not know which books were self-nominated.
• Previously nominated books may be re-nominated and will be considered anew.
• Six copies of the book must be received by the deadline. Please send books to Neil Reid, Department of Geography and Planning, Mail Stop 140, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606

To nominate a book (1) send an e-mail to neil.reid@utoledo.edu with citation information, such as William Alonso, Location and Land Use, Harvard University Press, 1964, (2) attach up to three published book reviews, if available, using pdf files, and (3) arrange for the six copies to be sent, usually by the author or publisher. No letters of nomination or support are required, and, if provided, will not be sent to jurors. The selection criteria are innovation and expected impact.

Although occasionally awarded to an article, the Alonso Prize is primarily a book prize. A book’s key idea might have been presented first in a journal article, such as Alonso’s “A Theory of the Urban Land Market,” Papers of the Regional Science Association, 1960, but its fuller development and synthesis with other work can make the book innovative and eligible for the Prize.

Members of the Prize Committee include:
Professor David Plane, Chair, University of Arizona, plane@email.arizona.edu
Professor Kyung-Hwan Kim, Sogan University, stamitzkim@gmail.com
Professor Janet Kohlhase, University of Houston, kohlhase@central.uh.edu
Professor Philip McCann, University of Groningen, p.mccann@rug.nl
Professor Emeritus, Gordon Mulligan, University of Arizona, mulligan@email.arizona.edu

Graduate students enrolled in Ph.D. programs in North America are encouraged to apply for the Seventeenth Benjamin H. Stevens Graduate Fellowship in Regional Science, administered by the North American Regional Science Council of the Regional Science Association International (NARSC-RSAI). This Fellowship, in support of thesis research in Regional Science, is awarded annually in memory of Dr. Benjamin H. Stevens, an intellectual leader whose selfless devotion to graduate students as teacher, advisor, mentor, and friend had a profound impact on the field. Regional Science is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the theory and method of urban and regional phenomena. Regional Scientists apply theoretical and empirical frameworks and methods of the social and other sciences, as well as develop new ones specifically for regional analysis and policy.

Eligible students should have completed all degree requirements except for their dissertation by the time the Fellowship commences. A requirement of the Fellowship is that the recipient has no duties other than dissertation research during the Fellowship, although the recipient may hold other fellowships concurrently. Applications from students working in any area or any Ph.D. program are welcome as long as their dissertation research addresses a research question in Regional Science.

The Fellowship consists of a stipend in the amount of $30,000 (U.S.), paid over a twelve-month period. Applications for the 2017-2018 Fellowship should be sent electronically by the applicant to the Selection Committee Chair, Professor Elena Irwin at irwin.78@osu.edu, and received by February 15, 2017. An application consists of the following materials:

1. A curriculum vita of no more than two (2) pages in length.

2. A statement in ten (10) pages or less explaining the questions and issues to be addressed, the approach to be used, and the product expected from the thesis research, preceded by a summary (1-page maximum) describing the intellectual merit of the proposed research, and the broader impacts that may result. The 10-page limit is inclusive of references, but exclusive of tables and figures. This text should be in 12 point or larger font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins; references may be single-spaced.

3. Copies of the candidate’s transcripts for all graduate study. Unofficial copies are acceptable.

In addition, the thesis supervisor shall provide a confidential letter sent separately as an attachment from her/his email account with the student’s name in the subject line to Professor Elena Irwin. In the letter the supervisor should assess the quality and significance of the proposed dissertation research, specify the current state of progress toward the candidate’s degree and provide a commitment by the thesis supervisor to obtain a tuition waiver for the candidate for the year of the Fellowship. A condition of the Fellowship is the granting of a tuition waiver for the year of the Fellowship by the university, or equivalent payment of the student’s tuition.

Applications should be emailed to Professor Elena Irwin at irwin.78@osu.edu. Questions may also be sent to her at irwin.78@osu.edu. For information about NARSC, go to www.narsc.org/newsite/. For information about RSAI, go to www.rsai.org.

July 15, 2016