RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

new series 23 -April/May 2024

Contents

From the Editors

From the Editors
1
Welcome
2
RSAI membership information
2Young Scholar Interview: Evan Cunningham 3
RSAI medals: the Founder’s Medal
4
RSAI medals: the Martin Beckmann Award 4
In memoriam: Gordon Mulligan
4
Geography of Innovation Winter School 2024 6

The newsletter of the Regional Science
Association International (RSAI) appears twotimes a year and contains information about upcoming
conferences and meetings, recent events and publications,and short contributions on current themes.
Mina Akhavan (TU Delft) and Martijn Smit (Utrecht
University) form the editorial team. Text contributions
for the newsletter are always welcome, and can be submitted directly
to Martijn (m.j.smit@uu.nl) or to Mina (m.a.akhavan@tudelft.nl). The
deadline for the next issue is 15 October. In particular, short contributions
on your current research are most welcome; these can be extracts fromarticles or reports, or opinion pieces. We also welcome proposals for apiece in the Center of Excellence series.
Martijn Smit
Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Mina Akhavan
TU Delft, the Netherlands

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WelcomeD

EAR REGIONAL SCIENTISTS across the world,

I am writing these lines a few days before RSAI’s World Congress in
Kecskemet, Hungary, starting April 8-11, 2024. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic
and all the uncertainties it led to, this is our first congress in six years – butnow, finally, regional scientists from all continents are meeting again to present
and discuss new findings in theories and empirics. We look forward to having
outstanding keynote speakers from four continents, three policy sessions onstate-of-the-art issues, lots of presentations, planned and spontaneous meetings,
and exchanges of knowledge and ideas.
I am very grateful to the Local Organizing Committee, co-chaired by Dr Balázs
Forman and Dr József Kárpáti, together with Mr. Imre Vegvari. Besides all
their regular tasks and commissions, they have done an incredible job withthe preparations for the congress. Moreover, the RSAI Executive Director, Dr.
Andrea Caragliu and the secretariat, Ms Elisabete Martins, have been completely
indispensable in organizing the congress.
I also would like to take the opportunity to say welcome to the new Vice
President and upcoming President of the RSAI, Professor Hiroyuki Shibusawa,at the Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan. As a former Executive
Director of PRSCO, Professor Shibusawa is well-known in the regional science
community.
In various parts of the world, initiatives are taken that we hope will manifest
in new sections of the RSAI. This is great and a sign that there is a need forregional science, both in the academy and in “the real world”. Life would beeasy if the task of RSAI were only to organize conferences in new countries.
However, there are also sections that do not work so well and that need newenergy. To solve these problems, RSAI and the supranational associations needto collaborate better in order to support these sections.

The world congress and the yearly meetings of the supranational and national
sections are fantastic events where we share and learn knowledge, meet old andnew friends, and feel the spirit of regional science. I hope to see you at someof these events.
And don’t forget: Keep on rocking’!

Another issue that the regional science community at all levels needs to be betterat is gender equality and representation of minorities – in the organizations assuch but even more in leading positions. This is not a quick fix. Power structuresand uneven allocation of resources are not changed during a coffee break – but
the worst we can do is to pretend that they don’t exist. Therefore, my call to theregional science community at all levels is to put these issues as standing itemson the agenda for our associations.

RSAI membership information
All RSAI members have online access to Papers in Regional Science (PiRS)
and Regional Science Policy and Practice (RSPP), the journals of the Regional
Science Association International. Some recent articles from both journals arehighlighted in this newsletter.
Members can log in and access full text articles online. In addition to the RSAI
publications, members are offered an opportunity to purchase other regional
science journals at reduced rates and participate in the national and international
conferences at reduced rates.
To become a member and for details on your membership, contact the
Executive Director, Andrea Caragliu at andrea.caragliu@polimi.it, or visit
www.regionalscience.org.

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Hans Westlund
President of the RSAI

RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

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Young Scholar Interview:
Evan Cunningham

regional science? how would you advise young scholars
to build a successful career in academia or outside (in theindustry?)It’s worth noting that I am only just getting started in myresearch career, but from my own experience so far, I have threerecommendations:

Evan Cunningham won the 2023 student paper competitionat that year’s NARSC conference in San Diego. He is a PhD
student in Minnesota (USA). Mina Akhavan interviewed
him for this newsletter.

First, I strongly recommend choosing a research topic that you are passionate
about. Writing a dissertation or job market paper is a multi-year slog, and it canbe difficult to stay motivated if you aren’t really interested in the topic. If you
don’t truly believe your research is important, how can you expect to convinceothers of its importance?

Tell us a little bit about yourself (career-wise), yourrelationship with the Regional Science community and theimportance of receiving awards and prizes, in general, forearly career researchers.

M

Y NAME IS Evan Cunningham, and I am an
economist and PhD candidate in the Economics
Department at the University of Minnesota, focusing
on labor economics, urban economics, and public
policy. I also work part-time in the Opportunity andInclusive Growth Institute at the Federal Reserve Bankof Minneapolis*. Prior to my PhD, I worked at the
Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Current Population Survey (CPS) Office, on
the team responsible for the monthly jobs report. My current research studies
the labor market effects of the expansion of Amazon’s fulfillment center network
across the U.S.
I’ve only recently become involved with the regional science community. I
discovered the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC) last year
when I was looking for graduate student-friendly conferences to present myresearch. I was drawn to the interdisciplinary nature of the group – researchers
from different regional science disciplines often have unique ways of thinking
about economic questions, and especially as a younger scholar, I think being
exposed to those different perspectives is valuable.

Second, seek feedback from a wide range of people, and choose advisors whobelieve in you and your research. PhD students sometimes take their advisorscomments as gospel. While advisors are often subject matter experts, and theiradvice should be given proper weight, soliciting feedback from a diverse set ofcolleagues will provide greater perspective when making key decisions in yourresearch. I would be skeptical of advisors who expect students to always follow
their advice (and ignore all others). Instead, I would seek out advisors whobelieve in the value of your work, and who can provide feedback in a style thatworks for you.
Third, connect with your colleagues and lift them up! I highly recommend
presenting and attending conferences as often as you can. When you attend,
be generous with your time and attention. Ask questions, discuss related work,and offer to read drafts. These conversations are how joint projects get started,and how friendships are formed. The connections you build will make being amember of the regional science community more fulfilling and may help you
find a job someday!
*Views expressed here are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

I was incredibly grateful to win the Best Graduate Student-Authored Paper
Award at the 2023 NARSC Conference in San Diego, especially considering how
many high-quality student papers there were. I think early career recognition,even if it’s just being invited to present at a conference, is important because
it provides external validation that we are on the right track. Writing my first
paper as a PhD student, I often doubted whether I would find any interesting
results, and whether anyone would care. The recognition I have gotten fromthe regional science community has given me the confidence to keep pushing
forward and to believe in the value of my research.
As a young scholar, how do you make a balance between research, teaching andactivities outside academia (if any)? In this regard, did the pandemic and the shift
towards hybrid working affect your work, and how did you recover?
I am most productive and focused when I take care of myself physically andemotionally. To me, this means working hard on my research, but also spendingtime on non-economics activities I enjoy. For instance, I enjoy running, so I
prioritize weekly meetups with a running club in the Twin Cities, even if I’mbehind on work. I think it’s also helpful to make friends outside of the academic
world. Spending time with them can help keep the challenges of graduate
school and research in perspective.

Alicante, Spain, where the ERSA 2023 took place.

For me, the pandemic reinforced the importance of spending time with yourcolleagues, sharing ideas, and asking for help when you need it. In the earlystages of your career, producing good research is difficult. It is even harder to
do it alone!
Lastly, do you have general advice for PhD students and early career researchers inpage 3

RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

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RSAI medals: the Founder’s
Medal

RSAI medals: the Martin
Beckmann AwardA

T

HE COMMITTEE IN charge of selecting the winnerof the 2024 Martin Beckmann award completed theselection of the papers published in PIRS in 2023. The committee wasmade up of Carlos Azzoni (LARSA), Janet Kohlhase (NARSC), Frank van
Oort (ERSA) and Rosella Nicolini (ERSA, PiRS EiC). The winner of the 2024
edition of the Martin Beckmann is the paper:

S YOU MAY know, the single most important
award bestowed by the RSAI is called ‘Founder’s
medal’. In 1978, the Association honored its founder,
Professor Walter Isard, by establishing the Founder’sMedal. The prize is awarded every four years, and isassigned in view of extraordinary scientific contributions
to the discipline. As such, it is the single most importantprize awarded by the RSAI. You may find a list ofeminent previous winners at https://regionalscience.
org/index.php/awards/rsai-founder-s-medal.html.

Vicente Rios, Mercedes Beltrán-Esteve, Lisa Gianmoena, Jesús Peiró-Palomino,
Andrés J Picazo-Tadeo: Quality of government and women’s politicalempowerment: Evidence from European Regions,
Papers in Regional Science vol. 102, issue 6, pp. 1067-1097.

The 2024 Founder’s medal goes to Prof. Jacques Thisse,
University of Louvain.

The motivation from the Jury is as follows: “This study proposes a novel
contribution that shifts the research frontier of the literature on the quality of
government, from a regional perspective, by emphasizing the relevance of thegender dimension. Referring to European regions, the authors produce valuable
insights endorsed by precise quantitative evidence on the extent women’s
political empowerment rises the quality of the government that, in turn,boosts female empowerment. From a technical viewpoint, this contribution
implements a solid research methodology that addresses endogeneity with atailored identification strategy by exploiting GS3SLS-RF method and dealing
with spatial analysis in a causal framework.”

To come to this decision, the RSAI Honors committee
appointed a five-members committee, comprising
past presidents and Fellows of the RSAI, to selectnominees. The committee comprised Hans Westlund(RSAI president); Isabelle Nillson (Charlotte, Council
member); Kara Kocklemann (UTexas, Fellow); Carlos
Azzoni (University of Sao Paulo, Fellow); Budy
Resosudarmo (past President and Fellow, Australian
National University). The three nominees were ranked by all previous winners I extended the congratulations to all winners on behalf of the Council.
of the prize as jury in charge.
Andrea Caragliu, RSAI executive dirctor
Congratulations to Jacques!
Andrea Caragliu, RSAI executive dirctor

In memoriam: Gordon Mulligan

T

HE WESTERN REGIONAL Science Association is deeply saddened by
the loss of Professor Gordon F. Mulligan, who passed away at home in
British Columbia on November 12, 2023, after a short period of hospice care.
Gordon lived a week and day past his 76th birthday, having been born on
November 4, 1947.
Growing up in the company-owned mill town of Woodfibre, British Columbia,
accessible to the outside world only by boat, Gordon’s wide-ranging polymath
attributes and mathematical acumen became apparent at an early age. He
attended Howe Sound Secondary in the nearby central place of Squamish, B.C.,
where he excelled in both academics and sports.
As an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia (UBC) beginning in
the mid-1960s, Gordon discovered the focus of his scholarly interests, economic
geography and mathematical models, as well as a passion for academia. He loved
UBC so much that he spent a full decade there. He produced a 1972 M.A. thesis,
City Size Distributions: Foundations of Analysis, and a 1976 Ph.D. dissertation,
Structure and Processes in the Christallerian System, that set the stage for a
distinguished and prolific career in regional science. Following a pair of visiting
positions at the University of Washington and Queens University, Gordon
joined the faculty of the Department of Geography and Regional Development
at the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1978, where he taught until he retiredin 2006.
Throughout his time in Arizona, Gordon remained personally connected tosmall-town British Columbia, returning each summer to visit his parents. The
Woodfibre pulp mill, where his father had worked until shortly before his deathand Gordon had held summer jobs, was closed by its owner, Western Forest

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RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

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geography. Student teams eachyear carried out studies in
Arizona’s diverse ecosystems
and in small, often remote, smalltown communities. There student
teams would census and then interview
and assemble micro transaction and trade figuresfrom all local businesses. Gordon was fascinated by thepotential of these nearly comprehensive data to expose
the workings of functionally specialized economies
and to benchmark models. Together with student andcolleague collaborators, he deployed this unique Arizona
community data base in a series of papers evaluating
the accuracy and proposing extensions to traditional
economic base multiplier methods.

In 1980–81, the Arizona department would add its third
active regional scientist, David Plane from the regional
science department at Penn, and in the subsequent year,
under the tenure of Lay Gibson as Department Head,the geography department would leave the College ofBusiness and Public Administration to join a fledging
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Gibson at this
Gordon Mulligan lunching in Squamish, B.C., intime was also assuming the leadership position (replacing
2010 with WRSA’s 52nd President, Warren Gill
Robert Monahan of Western Washington University)of the Western Regional Science Association, with
Products, in 2006. The mill and townsite were razed and put up for sale. Today it
Mulligan and Plane beginning what would become lifetime involvements withis the location of Woodfibre Liquid Natural Gas, a large hydroelectric-powered
the Association.
facility. Its parent company plans to open it in 2027 to supply growing markets
in Asia, touting the environmental benefits of displacing coal and reducing In 1985, the departmental headship passed to Gordon. During his five-year
term he would lay substantial groundwork for, and touch off the upcoming
greenhouse gas emissions.
rise in prominence of Arizona as one of the U.S.’s top-20 geography doctoral
Post-retirement, Gordon moved back up to Squamish, where he kept up an
programs and as a world-renowned center of regional science. (Gordon would
active agenda as an independent scholar and continued on as Book Review
later come back to serve one-year stint as Acting Head). Gordon increased theeditor of the WRSA’s official journal, The Annals of Regional Science. An avid
visibility of geography and regional development on campus and externally bymovie buff, he was also extremely well-read in fiction and literature. He segued
extending courtesy joint and adjunct faculty appointments to geographers andfrom his long-time University of Arizona faculty-staff bowling career into
faculty with geographic expertise who had been hired in other units across thethrowing the rock on a senior curling team, and, as part of providing care foruniversity.
his aging mother, he no doubt raised the level of play of her bridge group.
During the 1990s, the core group of internationally active regional scientist
Gordon’s theoretical and empirical research contributions to regional sciencescholars at Arizona was expanded with the hirings of University of Illinois
directly reflected the locational circumstances of his upbringing. He listed his
Ph.D.’s, Adrian Esparza and Brigitte Waldorf in Geography and Regional
disciplines on ResearchGate as Transport Economics, Real Estate Economics,
Development, and University of Washington Ph.D., John Carruthers in theand Economic Geography, and among his skills and expertise, Regional
M.S. program in Planning, a group whose faculty also included Penn Regional
Development, Regional Science, Regional and Urban Economics, Cities, andScience Ph.D., Arthur Silvers.
Place. The faculty group he joined in 1978 at Arizona was the last geography
department at a major U.S. university to be housed within a business college. The department’s regional development undergraduate major numbers rose
Gordon’s research interests in the economic base of communities, settlement- dramatically during Gordon’s administration after the degree program was
size distributions, central place theory, transportation, regional development moved from Business and Public Administration to Social and Behavioral(in particular, the “chicken-and-egg” connections between economic and Sciences, and then during Plane’s subsequent headships when it peaked at
population growth), and the structure of small-town and micropolitan area more than 300. Gibson, Mulligan, and Plane served as student faculty advisors
economies, which were kindled in his childhood and in grad school, would and taught the majority the core curriculum. Gordon’s staple, highly enrolled
be further enflamed and greatly expanded thanks to his career-long academic undergraduate courses were titled, Economic Geography, Urban Geography,
Locational Analysis, and Regional Analysis. The 1980s and 1990s would also
home base.
see Gordon mentoring and carrying out collaborative research with increasing
As part of both its unique and highly popular business school undergraduate
numbers of graduate students.
major in regional development (originally area development) and its geographymaster’s degree, the University of Arizona’s department offered a six-week After stepping down as Head in 1990, Gordon’s extramural professional service
summer traveling field camp course. Co-directed by Professors Richard Reeves commitments increased in 1994 when Plane was asked by longtime Journal of(Gordon’s closest Tucson personal friend) and Lay Gibson, the camp’s unique Regional Science Managing Editor, Ronald Miller, to move the journal’s officecurriculum featured and integrated projects in both physical and economic from Philadelphia to Tucson. Plane agreed, on the condition that Mulligan

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join him as Co-editor. Their efficient working arrangement and happy tenure
guiding the JRS would extend through 2002, when the editorial team reins
were passed to Marlon Boarnet and Andy Haughwout. Marlon recalls that,during the transition, Gordon told him that he and Dave had worked hard tomaintain the JRS as a “classy” operation.

Geography of Innovation
Winter School 2024

Up through last summer, Gordon continued to travel the globe and to present
and participate at regional science conferences, in particular those of the WRSA
and the British and Irish Section (BIS). At the July, 2023 BIS meeting in
Newcastle, he gave a talk on the legacy and central place research contributionsof John Parr in the Regional Science Academy’s Great Minds session.

Enduring a late January chill, dozens of students proved that the interest in thegeographical aspects of innovation is anything but waning. Very vibrant inclass discussions, often spilling over to the breaks, suggest that the field’s mostproductive days may still lie ahead.

I

N THE WEEK following the consolidated Geographyof Innovation conference, a new levy of doctoral students andThough Gordon formally retired in 2006, he did not stop his work in regional young researchers gathered in Pavia for the Geography of Innovation
science or his devotion to it: he remained a prolific author and a stalwart mentor Winter School – co-organized by the University of Pavia and Bocconi
to junior members of the field. In February, 2010, a celebratory dinner and a University (Stefano Breschi, Andrea Morrison, Roberta Rabellotti).
series of special sessions were held in his honor at the WRSA’s annual meeting
Against the outstanding neoclassical background of 18th Century Scarpa hall, I
in Sedona, Arizona, yielding a special (2012) issue of The Annals of Regional
had the pleasure to teach at a school that featured a high-profile lineup of guest
Science.
lecturers, including Michela Bello (JRC, European Commission), Ron Boschma
The year 2010 also saw Gordon’s election as a Fellow of the Regional Science (Utrecht University), Nicoletta Corrocher (Bocconi University), Evgeni
Association International. Although this honor is usually conveyed at a Evgeniev (DG RTD, European Commission), Balazs Lengyel (Hungarian
major international conference, he chose to receive his plaque, presented by Research Network), Rasmus Lema (Maastricht University), David Rigby
David Boyce, while hiking in Glacier National Park. The “Meet the Fellows” (UCLA), Gianluca Tarasconi (IpQuant AG), and Jerome Vicente (University
autobiographical article that Gordon wrote in 2015 for the RSAI Newsletter is of Toulouse).
a lively and interesting read, with the piece beginning: Imagine if you can an
The intensive 5-day program covered many of the field’s workhorses – clusters,
Allan Stilltoe novel set on a Norwegian fjord and you might have some idea
relatedness, knowledge space and recombination, diversification, complexity,
about my childhood years!
and networks, to mention a few –but also newly emerging themes, such as
In recognition of Gordon’s corpus of intellectual accomplishments and his four green and digital innovation. It also included practical training in the form of
decades of contributions to WRSA, he was named a WRSA Fellow at the 2014 data labs and meet-the-editor sessions, as well as student presentations receiving
Annual Meeting in San Diego.
feedback from the winter school lecturers.

At the upcoming February 11–14, 2024, WRSA Annual Meeting in Monterey,
California, Professor Neil Reid, University of Toledo, will present a Regional
Science Academy, Great Minds in Regional Science talk on Gordon Mulligan’s
scholarship.

Dario Diodato
Joint Research Centre, European Commission

While Gordon gave talks and tended to various duties at academic meetings,
he played another, very special role: he was a hub of activity, both socially andprofessionally. Whether it was the (late) morning, afternoon, evening, or wee
hours of the night, he was with friends and colleagues, launching new projects
and revisiting past explorations. His generosity with ideas was infectious, fun,and inspiring, particularly to junior colleagues. A man of tall stature, Gordon
was informed and passionate about big concepts in all realms, not just those ofgeographic location and economic theory about which he was especially expert.
Like so many members of our field, Gordon loved models—especially gravity
models and models of spatial equilibrium. It seems fitting, then, to end thisdescription of his life and career with an analogy to a model. In the mid1500s, the great mathematician Copernicus advanced a model of heliocentrism,
placing, for the first time, the Earth and other celestial objects in orbit aroundthe sun. A Copernican model of WRSA might well place Gordon at a central(albeit far from stationary!) location, with those of us lucky enough to be in his
orbit drawn close by his gravity and warmed by the bright light of his intellect,
humor, and enduring smile.
John Carruthers and David Plane

David Rigby giving the winter school inaugurallecture in the University of Pavia’s Scarpa hall

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