RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

new series 19 - May 2020

Contents

RSAI membership information
1
Welcome
2
RSAI Conference2
Meet the Fellows: Isabelle Thomas
2Center of Excellence in Regional Science:
Hannover3
ERSA Summer School 2019 (Katowice)
5
NARSC 2020 (Pittsburgh)
5
Rethinking Input-Output Analysis
6
Positions6
Theme: real estate
7
Regional Science and Real Estate: two worlds
drifting apart?
7
Regional Science 20+7
Theme: Corona research
8
Coworking spaces and pandemic Covid-19: will
peripheral areas matter?
8
COVID-19 outbreak and the older adults in
Italy: two faces of the sociality 
9Colophon
10

RSAI membership information
All RSAI members have online access to Papers in Regional Science (PiRS)
and Regional Science Policy and Practice (RSPP): journals of the Regional
Science Association International. Members will need to log in to access fulltext articles online.
In addition to the RSAI publications, members are offered an opportunity topurchase other regional science journals at reduced rates and participate in thenational and international conferences at reduced rates.
For details on how to become a member, contact the Executive Director,
Andrea Caragliu at andrea.caragliu@polimi.it, or visit www.regionalscience.
org.

page 1RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

new series 19 - May 2020

WelcomeRSAI Conference

Greetings, Regional Scientists.

On 20 March 2020, prof. Partridge sent around the following
announcement regarding the RSAI World Conference which
Covid-19 has presented challenges to about the entire world. Regional science
was to be held in Marrakech in June, which so many of us wereis no exception. Most directly, RSAI and our sections have had to cancel many
looking forward to attending. We reproduce the most important parts ofconferences including the World Congress in June, ERSA in August, WRSA/
that message here.
PRSCO last March, SRSA last April, among others. We have gathered virtuallyfor now to continue intercourse in our community. To be sure, RSAI has been Dear RSAI Members and World Congress Participants,
hard at work with many initiatives and our two journals continue to produce
It is with great regret that I have to announce that the June 2020 World Congressvery high quality output.
in Marrakech is postponed and will not be held this June. While European
While Covid-19 has presented personal and professional challenges to each countries have suffered the recent brunt of the virus, until late last week, themember of our community, it has also presented opportunities. Many of us have situation in Morocco was quite good in terms of Covid 19 with zero cases, but
started gathering in virtual meetings and webinars have replaced seminars. It is that has greatly changed. Last weekend, the local organizers asked to cancel the
an interesting time to see how much, if at all, virtual meetings have replaced the Congress given the rapidly deteriorating conditions on the ground and RSAI
networking and knowledge transfer of face-toCouncil agreed.
face meetings and conferences. But, isn’t that one
We had expected a fantastic program for the Congress in an excellent location.
of our main regional-science research questions:
Our local organizers and RSAI Executive Director had done incredible work and
Is distance dead? If so, there will be less reason
it is a disappointment. We are considering multiple future options, including
for regional scientists because the “world is flat,”
again holding the World Congress in Morocco in May 2021. Of course, at thisthough I suspect we will survive to tell the tale.
stage, we have to let the dust settle to see what plans we can feasibly make for
The other opportunity from Covid-19 is that itnext year. When appropriate, we will have further announcements. I appreciatepresents a chance to assess the spatial dimensions
all of your support for the Congress and Regional Science and take care ofof how the pandemic unfolded and how the
yourselves and family.
world can be put back together in a moreMark Partridge
sustainable just manner. Regional scientists
are the scholars who are best fit to answer these questions. The effects of this President of RSAI
pandemic hit regions differently and it also had different effects across regions
based on the institutional quality that affect the ability of governments to manage
the pandemic and the economic aftermath. Because these factors are spatial,
Meet the Fellows: Isabelle Thomas
regional scientists understand the data, the empirical and theoretical models,
and the institutional frameworks. This is an opportunity to raise the visibility
APS AND ATLASES always fascinated meof regional science on a worldwide basis to other scholars and policymakers.
as a child, even if I would have loved (andWhile Covid-19 has created great suffering and inconvenience, we need tostill do!) to be an English/Dutch schoolteacher! I
take advantage of this opportunity for high-profile research and policy interest
chose geography instead of philology because I
to advance our field.
perceived very early that geography was a science
Mark Partridgeat the crossroad of many other disciplines, not too
specialized but challenging enough and dealing
President Regional Science Association International & The Ohio State University
with societal and environmental issues … andforeign languages could also be useful! I now
think that I took the right decision!

M

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONSIn all probability, Covid-19 (or simply corona) will still be aroundin November, when the next issue of this newsletter comes out, andboth the pandemic and the structural changes it might set in motion
will feed our research for years to come, it seems. If you already haveplans or early results from such research, you are warmly invited tocontribute a short or longer piece to the next newsletter.
• Size: 400-600 words works best, longer is possible• Formatting: none, but images/graphs are appreciated• Deadline: 15 October• Submit to Martijn Smit, m.j.smit@uu.nl

From the very beginning of my research career,
I was oriented to quantitative analyses andmodelling by my promoter/supervisor Hubert
Beguin. He almost forced me to do a PhD and decided for me that it would deal
with optimal locations, using operational research models and applying them toreal-world situations (in my case post-offices). This was quite novel at that time.
After a fruitful Post-doc period, there was unfortunately no academic positions
available that were compatible with my family constraints so I left the university
for a quite unusual and challenging position: scientific collaborator at the
Gendarmerie Headquarters (Brussels). We were a team of two geographers
hired as civilians to work in a military environment, two women in a work
environment where officers were still men only: an adventure! Our mission:
to provide support with geostatistical tools, maps and models. I was in chargeof road accidents, my colleague of criminality. Where do accidents occur?
Why there? What is the best location of police patrols? What is the optimal

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partitioning for police districts? This was a period where I learned how to use
geospatial techniques or models, and present their results in layman’s terms,
showing the usefulness of geography in operational decision making. I thinkmost academics would gain from working for a while out of the academic world:such an experience helps enormously in teaching or in writing multidisciplinary
research projects.

Center of Excellence inRegional Science: HannoverO

UR WORLD IS facing radical and very rapid changes.
Economic globalization and global environmental change,
including climate change, are affecting our planet in entirely new
ways. These changes are leading to transformations of the economy andpeople’s livelihoods – globally, regionally and locally. More than ever before,
the world is interconnected, and changes in one world region thus have serious
and often immediate repercussions for others. The Department of Economic
Geography at Leibniz University Hanover (LUH) is concerned with how
regional economic systems and people act and react to these rapid changes. This
motivates our research as well as our teaching in Hanover.

After this unconventional experience, I came back to university with a FNRS
permanent research position at the Department of Geography in Louvain-laNeuve (Be) where I mainly conducted research in economic and transport
geography, and additionally taught several courses such as statistical cartography,transport or economic geography and gave tutorials on thesis preparation. I also
wrote a second doctoral dissertation on the sensitivity of location-allocation
models to transportation issues. I later moved to the Center of Operations
Research and Econometrics (CORE), an internationally well-known scientific
The economic geography group with its three professors forms the largest
research centre, where I was the only geographer among mainly economists,group within the Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography at Leibniz
operational researchers and engineers.
University Hanover (LUH) and plays a significant role in regional studies
Now more than ever I feel rich and stronger for those multidisciplinary research within the German-speaking academic world. The group includes about 20
experiences. I’ve particularly appreciated to work at the border of my discipline. researchers and technical staff including postdocs and doctoral students, as well
I’ve engaged with very nice and openminded researchers with whom I have as roughly 15 student assistants supporting the group.
exchanged ideas and published. Not only geographers of other universities/
The group’s three professors work on a diverse range of topics relating tocountries, but also economists, physicists, engineers, epidemiologists andthe above- mentioned thematic context, emphasizing theoretical relevance,
medical doctors. Constructing a scientific project or publishing together is formethodological advances and policy relevance. Rolf Sternberg is focusing
sure not an easy task: we think differently, we’ve other priorities, we refer tohis research on the spatial implications of entrepreneurship, innovation andother models/theories, and even write our scientific papers differently. But what
digitalization. He has also led the German team of the Global Entrepreneurship
satisfaction when we succeed in respecting each other, taking advantage of our
Monitor (GEM), the largest global research consortium to compare
complementarities, constructing new ideas and realizing in fact that we deal
entrepreneurial activities across countries, since its inception in 1999. Ingo
with the same questions but with different words, tools or theories.
Liefner has a profound interest in knowledge flows and knowledge dynamics,
Quantitative geography has a great future especially in regional sciences. sustainability innovation, and innovations in developing countries. His research
Geography has always dealt with locations, large data sets or nested scales and often involves studies in China and other Asian countries. Kerstin Nolte is
has accumulated knowledge, even if geographers are often shy in putting this interested in rural transformation – triggered by global environmental change
forward. Geography is hence now more than ever ready to deal with topics and economic globalization – and the resulting livelihood strategies. She hassuch as complexities or “big data”. Small or big, new data types appear every extensively researched large-scale land acquisitions with a regional focus onday: sensors become censors in the new smart environments. Geographers Sub- Saharan Africa. The economic geography group fosters the exchange ofknow better than any other researcher that spatial data are special… Big data do ideas through a number of regular events such as a biweekly research brown
not change fundamentally the problems; there is no need to reinvent the wheel: bag, a more formal research colloquium and informal junior scholar discussion
aggregation biases, close things are more related than distant things, statistical rounds. These events also promote scholarly exchange with the culturalbiases, etc. It seems that nowadays I too frequently read papers that simply let the geography group within the institute as well as with researchers from outside
data speak by themselves, without any caution. I hope to have time in the coming the institute.
years to further work on these topics, to fight with geographical tools against
data bulimia and theory anorexia, to help machine learning researchers in further
constructing meaningful models that
do not reinvent geography but pushforward their results into further
models and theories.
I’m so happy and proud as ageographer to be awarded the RSAI
Fellowship. I never aimed for it, but
it happened in 2019 (pictured on theleft, with prof. Partridge). I’m simply
enjoying the moment!
Isabelle Thomas
Research Director at the National Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS)Extraordinary Professor, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve(Belgium)

page 3

RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

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History

Hanover is a city with roughly 500,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Federal
State of Lower Saxony, located in the northern part of Germany. The LUH is its
largest university with about 30,000 students and 3,100 researchers. Despite theuniversity’s previous status as a technical university up until 1978, the university
is now also known for its strong social sciences.
Economic geography in Hanover was established as early as 1921. It hascontinuously stimulated the direction of research and education in German
economic geography since the late 1970s. The economic geography group in
Hanover has consistently emphasized the trinity of theory, empirical analysis
and policy relevance as three interconnected aspects of economic geography.
Following this concept, economic geography is understood to aim atunderstanding spatial economic systems with their structural, interactive andprocess characteristics. This concept provides our starting point to address theresearch needs and topics that require our attention today.

master’s programs in this field, the Hannover program
teaches quantitative methods on an advanced level andencourages students to explore big data. The master’s
program in economic geography has a capacity of 25
students, and on average recruits half of its graduate students
from internal undergraduate programs and the other half fromother universities.
The institute’s research priorities leave a strong mark on teaching, for example
by including students in research projects from early on through introducing
current research findings in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as
regularly hiring student assistants to support ongoing projects, which provides
early contact to research. Therefore, many of our master students also decide topursue a doctoral degree.

Besides excellence in education and research, we believe in and promoteinternationalization. We have ERASMUS exchange cooperation with about
Economic geography in Hanover emphasizes students’ employability, research 20 European universities and encourage students during their master’s degree
abilities and career prospects at all levels of education. As of today, close to 1,000 to spend a semester abroad, either at a university or for an extended internship,
students have entered the labor market equipped with a bachelor’s degree, a within or outside Europe.
master’s degree or a diploma in economic geography from Hanover, and nine Moreover, the economic geography group hosts a biannual International
current full professors in economic geography working at research universities Seminar in Economic Geography (ISEG) twice a year. This week-long seminarworldwide received a significant part of their education in Hanover.
invites non-German scholars from fields related to economic geography toteach and interact with students and staff of the department. The list of guests
To provide but a few examples, researchers at our institute focus on research includes scholars such as Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (1998), Maryann Feldman(2006), Ron Boschma (2011), Roberta Capello (2012), David Rigby (2016) andtopics including:Elisa Giuliani (2019).
Global environmental changes and sustainable development

Research priorities• How do households and firms react to structural and environmental changes
in a globalized economy?
• How can new technology contribute to a more sustainable economic
development?

Rolf Sternberg
Kerstin Nolte
Ingo Liefner

Entrepreneurship and start-ups• What drives business formation and how does it affect the regional economy?
• How does the regional and institutional context influence start-ups?
Knowledge and innovation• Which regional characteristics influence the formation of new knowledge?
• How do radically new technologies change the established landscape ofindustry leadership?
• How are ideas transferred between and within globalized firms?
Mobility and digitalization

Student participants of one of the ISEG seminars.

• How does digitalization impact regional disparities?
• How do new mobility concepts change spatial economic patterns? How
can they contribute to a more sustainable mobility?
Regional foci of our research are on all those places in the world that exemplify
different approaches towards dealing with the global changes outlined above
and that shape the ways in which economies and people affect our world.
Current research projects include empirical research in and intensive academic
exchange with Germany, North America, China, India, South-East Asia and
Sub-Saharan Africa.

Teaching priorities

The concept of economic geography in Hanover motivates and influences
the master’s program, which delivers courses in theory, methods and policy,
besides stressing the need for acquiring international expertise and competence
while developing individual abilities and profiles. In contrast to many otherpage 4Students at
an ISEGseminar, with
Rolf Sternberg(standing) and
Attila Varga from
Pécs (sitting, back).

RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

new series 19 - May 2020

ERSA Summer School 2019 (Katowice)
The idea behind the ERSA Summer
School – international summer
schools for PhD candidates andjunior researchers – has remained
unchanged for many years: theschool brings together budding andseasoned researchers. The 32nd ERSA
summer school, which was held on
16–22 June 2019, crowned almost
two-year of preparations by the ERSA
Polish Section and the University of
Economics of Katowice.

Prof. Torre at the ERSA
summer school.

Participants at the ERSA summer school (top)and prof. Van Leeuwen in action (bottom).

The seven days of the school were extremely intense – they featured 8 lecturesdelivered by the mentors, recognized scientists, and 24 presentations given by
the junior researchers. Each presentation was followed by a heated discussion
and constructive criticism about the theoretical and methodological aspectsof the research works as well as the interpretation of the research findings.
Questions, suggestions and the exchange of views often took more time thanthe presentations themselves, which proves the value of this kind of discussion.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of issues were raised by the presentations of the experienced
academics, among whom there were Ron Boschma of Utrecht University,
Andrea Caragliu of the Polytechnic University of Milan, Leila Kebir of the
University of Lausanne, Chiara del Bo of the University of Milan, Evelinevan Leeuwen of Wageningen University, Stefan Rehak of the University of
Economics in Bratislava, and Mariusz Sokołowicz of the University of Lodz.
Their lectures covered the following research areas:• regional smart specializations in the context of the related / unrelated variety
concept,• relationships between urban and extra-urban areas in the EU, proximity NARSC 2019 (Pittsburgh)
and territory as indicators of company productivity,• generic and specific resources and their role in urban and regional
HE NORTH AMERICAN Regional Science Council met for the 66th
development,
annual conference last fall in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the• the role of universities in urban and regional development,
historic Omni William Penn Hotel. Over 400 conference participants had the• historical heritage and its role in the development of cities,
opportunity to watch the annual cleaning of the hotel’s famous Maria Theresa• urban economics and research methods in urban economics,
Chandeliers, a ritual that kicks off the holiday season, all the while meeting with• smart cities and smart cities policies.
co-authors and discussing conference sessions in the lobby of the hotel.
Also, the participants took part in a study visit to the Guido coal mine, which
The Presidential Addressprovided an opportunity to look at various models used across the world to
In his presidential address, Stephan Goetz discussed the importance of network
revitalize post-industrial objects and the role of preserved objects in cities
analysis to regional science examining how regional interdependence shapes
and regions. The event brought together representatives of 32 research andregional economic growth.
academic centers from Europe and Asia, just three from Poland, thus gathering
an extraordinary multicultural group. The junior researchers, who came to Awards
Katowice from 15 countries, developed an instant rapport based on the research Daniel McMillen received the 2019 Walter Isard Award for distinguishedinterests they share. In the evaluation reports of the event, the participants scholarly achievement for his continued work advancing regional scienceappreciated the school, stressing that it is an excellent way to learn and gain by highlighting the importance of spatial heterogeneity and pioneeringexperience in the international setting. They also expressed their wish for the non-parametric econometric methods. The 2019 William Alonso Prize forschool to become a regular entry in the Katowice-based university’s calendar of innovative work in regional science was awarded to Alan Murray and Richardscientific events.
Church. Elizabeth Mack was awarded the 2019 Geoffrey Hewings Award

T

Artur Ochojski for distinguished scholarly contributions for her work evaluating the impactof emerging technologies such as broadband and entrepreneurial ecosystems(Parts of the text have been published in UE Forum, iss. 2019, the on the development trajectory of regional economies. Dan Rickman received
magazine of the University of Economics in Katowice) the 2019 David Boyce Award for distinguished service to regional scienceand Jim LeSage received the 2019 Jean Paelinck Award recognizing the truly
outstanding scholarly achievement of a senior and internationally recognizedpage 5RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

new series 19 - May 2020
Rethinking Input-Output
Analysis
Jan Oosterhaven, Rethinking Input-Output Analysis.
A Spatial Perspective. Springer Briefs in Regional Science,
December 2019, ISBN 978-3-030-33446-8

Prof. Alan Murray is awarded
the Alonso Memorial Prizeregional scientist. Tidiane Ly, GATE Lyone Saint-Etienee, received the
NARSC graduate student-authored paper competition award for his paper“Taxes, traffic jam and spillover in the metropolis”. Oudom Hean, The Ohio
State University, received the NARSC graduate student-led paper competition
for his paper, “The impact of metropolitan technology on the non-metropolitan
labor market: evidence from US patents”. Prottoy A. Akbar, the University ofPittsburgh, won the 19th Annual Benjamin H. Stevens Graduate Fellowship inRegional Science to support his dissertation research entitled, “Public Transit
Accessibility and Income Segregation”.

This book primarily aims at upper level Bachelor and Master students, but isalso helpful for practitioners in research and consulting firms and agencies. It
showcases the social, economic and environmental importance of the relations
between industries in the same and in different regions and countries, andlearns how to model these relations by means of regional, interregional andinternational IO models. It shows how to extend the basic IO models withendogenous household expenditures, and teaches how to use the modern IO
tables called supply-use tables, which explicitly distinguish the products usedand sold, and Social Accounting Matrices that additionally show the spatial
and governmental redistribution of value added. Besides the standard demanddriven IO quantity model, this book also lays out the economic assumptionsof its supply-driven mirror image, indicates its extremely limited usefulness,and explains that its lesser known, accompanying revenue-pull IO price modelis almost as useful as the much better known cost-push IO price model that
accompanies the standard IO quantity model.

For a look at the full conference program, please visit the website at http://
www.narsc.org. Follow NARSC on twitter, @NARSCRegScience for thelatest updates in regional science from NARSC including information on the After the mainly theoretical first chapters, the final chapters critically discuss
next conference, the 67th annual conference that will be held in San Diego, three well known applications of the IO model, namely (1) economic impact
California November 11-14, 2020.
analysis of negative supply shocks caused by, for example, natural and man-madeAmanda Weinstein disasters, (2) regional and interregional forward and backward linkage analysis,
University of Akron better known as key sector analysis, and (3) structural decomposition analysisof regional, national and interregional economic growth. In all three cases,
the standard IO approach is shown along with its problematic implications,such as producing misleadingly high multipliers in the first case and presenting
policy makers with only half of the truth in the other two cases. Of course, thenecessary additions to and changes in the standard approach are presented as
well.
This book emphasizes the behavioural foundations of the two IO quantity
and the two IO price models, and the plausibility of the causal mechanisms
implied by the mathematics of the base models. This leads to a far more criticalevaluation of the usefulness of IO analysis than found in standard textbooks.
This book thus hopefully provides a better understanding of the foundations,the power, and the limitations of input-output analysis.
Student awards presented to Oudom
Hean (left) and Tidiane Ly (right)

Jan Oosterhaven

Positions
GSSI in L’Aquila, Italy, announces it has open PhD positions with 7 scholarships
in Regional Science and Economic Geography. The official language for all
PhD courses is English. The scholarships are awarded for 4 years and their yearlyamount is € 16,159.91 gross. All PhD students will have free accommodation at
the GSSI facilities and use of the canteen.
The application must be submitted through the online form available at www.
gssi.it/phd/ by 11 June 2020, 5 pm (Italian time zone).

NARSC Awards Lunch. Left to right: prof.
Roberta Capello, Rosella Nicolini, prof.
Isabelle Thomas, and prof. André Torre

For more information, check the GSSI website.

credit for all pictures from NARSC: Luis Armando Galvis

page 6RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

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Theme: real estate
Before the advent of corona, this newsletter was to have the position of real estate withinregional science as a theme: what are themes we currently work on, what are possible
avenues for the future, what are our relationships with real estate researchers outside
regional science, and, last but not least, what do we teach ? The newsletter editors are
grateful for the two submissions received, and more contributions are welcome, so that
we can continue this topic in the next newsletter. Contributions from Latin America,
Asia and Africa are particularly welcome.

The thematic niche tendency and the preoccupation
with advanced econometrics implies that regional
science research (and education) into real estate is partial
and tends to only scratch the surface. Interdisciplinary
research and a greater methodological variety are needed toconnect the different subthemes within real estate and to gain abetter insight in the underlying mechanisms that determine what we seeat the surface.

Regional Science 20+

Arno J. van der Vlist, Department of Economic
Geography at the University of Groningen

Regional Science and Real
Estate: two worlds drifting
apart?

O

Edwin Buitelaar, Professor of Land and Real Estate
Development at Utrecht University

R

EAL ESTATE IS not an academic discipline initself, in the sense that it does not have its own
body of distinctive theories and methods that ties
together its knowledge. It is nevertheless a subjectof research and education, in universities, research
institutes and business schools. For a proper understanding of real estate, it
should be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, which combines
urban economics/regional science, finance, law, urban planning, organisational
studies and management. This is because real estate is a multifaceted object or
phenomenon. It requires both regional science and finance because real estate
offers accommodation to businesses and households on the one hand andoffers a return to investors as a financial asset on the other. Urban planningand management are required because we need to understand both the coming
about of real estate (i.e. real estate development) and the management of it once
it is operational (i.e. property, asset and portfolio management).

NE OF MY colleagues asked me the otherday about the future of Regional Science.
This signaled two things. First, I sensed a kindof urgency as if Regional Science had no longer
anything to offer. Second, this revealed that mycolleague must be considerable younger than I
am. I recall similar discussions in the 1990s being agrad student in my 20s. Admittedly, the issue did
not cross my mind thereafter until my colleague’squestion only recently.
A simple search in EBSCO/ECONLIT gives a long list of papers in all kind of
Journals on the future of regional science. So the future of Regional Science:is it pointy or pointless? Recent years have seen a further specialization within
Regional Science and Urban Economics. The specialization perhaps does not
relate to the specific topic but in terms of narrative and approach. It also lead tomore and more specialized conferences and workshops each with its own styleand preconceptions. At least that is what I sense.

These developments in Regional Science and Urban Economics seems a little
orthogonal to what Heckman and Singer (2017) describe as an abductive
approach. The authors indicate that, I cite: ‘Abduction is the process of
An interdisciplinary field needs experts that are willing to stretch beyond theirgenerating and revising models, hypotheses, and data analyzed in response toown discipline and engage with others. It is my observation that this attitude issurprising findings.’ (p.298). Indeed, in the reflection of different perspectives isunder pressure as a result of disciplinary specialisation. And this is the result of
the glittering of diamonds.
the institutionalised (or self-imposed) pressure to publish (a lot) in A-journals.
Books, such as general textbooks, policy reports or other socially relevant outlets The current outbreak of Covid-19 provides a perfect test case, or if you want a
are much less credited. Although publishing by journal articles helps to have quasi-natural experiment, of how combining research approaches brings aboutsome form of quality control and some form of performance measurement, it new knowledge and understanding. Knowledge and understanding which isharbours the risk of producing one-trick ponies. The probability of having an urgently needed. Knowledge on the transmission and spatial diffusion, and on
article accepted in a highly rated journal increases if one focuses on particular societal implications of Covid-19 is almost absent. This includes many aspects
typically covered in regional science and urban economics broadly defined.
niches rather than covering a subject with more breadth.
Also 2020+.
A specific form of disciplinary specialisation that I seem to notice in regional
science and urban economics, is what I call methodological specialisation.
Increasingly, the focus appears to be on methodological innovation and References
improving statistical identification strategies, rather than on trying to understandthe empirical phenomena. Coming up with an instrumental variable (IV), Heckman, J.J. en B. Singer (2017) Abducting Economics. American
however far-fetched they sometimes are, becomes the aim rather than the Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings. 107:298-302‘instrument’. This is because the endogeneity police are never far away.
In the case of real estate, there is a specific, additional problem. Real estatemarkets (commercial real estate rather than housing markets) are inherently‘thin’: there are few heterogenous transactions. This causes problems for theavailability and quality of datasets. This, too, does not help the popularity of realestate as a research object within regional science.

page 7RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

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Theme: Corona researchWithin this context, the COST Action project CA18214“The geography of new working spaces and the impact
Of course the RSAI Newsletter cannot ignore the problems but also opportunities the on the periphery” (2019-2023) aims at exploring theworldwide corona pandemic presents. Three contributions arrived in time to be included phenomenon of new working spaces, including cohere; if you also have something to contribute, please send an email to m.j.smit@uu.nl. working, with a specific focus on those located in peripheral
areas, which, in the context of the present pandemic, might become
more and more attractive for CS and CW for the following main reasons.
1First, the potential benefits deriving from a workplace located in a remote
Coworking spaces andarea are well known, such as a higher general well-being, lower congestion, lesspandemic Covid-19: will
polluted air, lower cost location, exploiting institutional leeway, etc. As Eder
peripheral areas matter?
and Trippl (2019) have pointed out, peripheral areas host the so-called “slowIlaria Mariotti & Dante Di Matteo, Politecnico diinnovators” that rely less on information and knowledge that is time-sensitive.
MilanoTheir ideas result in incremental and process innovation rather than in radical
HE PANDEMIC CAUSED by the massive
innovations and they benefit from the social and cultural diversity their small
spread of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2
communities offer. Moreover, the positive effects of being in peripheral areas
in 2019-2020 has rapidly altered the habits andhave been depicted by Mariotti and Di Matteo (2020) in their recent work onlifestyle of every citizen worldwide and will havethe effects of CS location on CW revenue growth in Italy. It results that CW
effects in the medium-long run. The need to feedworking in CS settled in peripheral areas may have higher chances to increasethe ‘social distancing’ in order to minimise thetheir revenues if compared to individuals working in CS in urban poleschances of transmission of the virus has unavoidably
Finally, peripheral destinations in Italy, probably because of their geographicalbrought to light also the need for a reschedule ofisolation, are those which have suffered less from the spread of the Covid-19,
working methods. Most of the service workers had
and these places might be the first to remove the ‘social distancing’ and restart
to move from traditional work in the office (second
a normal life at the end of the emergency, thus being considered ‘safer places’.
place) to work at home (first place) through smart
From the perspective of local administrators of peripheral municipalities,
or remote working. Besides, while many services
attracting CS located in urban poles that have been greatly affected by the(i.e. as financial and basic public services), may
Covid-19 might be a good strategy, maybe offering them incentives and/or
be successfully provided without the need of a
tax benefits to relocate to their municipality. This suggestion may also be ofphysical interaction, other types of services needgreat importance both for CS managers and CW in order to reschedule theface-to-face contacts: it is the case of the creative
resumption of their activities. If we consider that being in such places may be
and innovative class of workers, to which mostprofitable both for the hosting destinations and for the individuals, relocation
the co-workers (CW) of the co-working spaces
hypotheses of CS and CW from the urban poles to remote areas should not be(CS) belong. The co-working space is defined
underestimated.
“third place” (Oldenburg, 1989), where free-lance,autonomous workers, innovative start-up and firms can interact and develop Nevertheless, the scenario we depict presents some criticalities and uncertainties.
a “community”. The proximity measures a là Boschma (2005) – geographical, First, creative innovative, and skilled workers are more willing to live insocial, institutional, cognitive, and organizational – represent the spirit of co- metropolitan areas (Florida, 2002). If, from one side, the locus amoenus patterns
working, where interaction and knowledge exchange are pivotal for such of remote areas improve the quality of life, the lack of infrastructures (i.e.
working communities (Mariotti, Akhavan, 2020).
broadband, low transport accessibility) can inhibit every type of work. Besides,

T

The (full or partial) lockdown of activities imposed by a growing number ofcities and metropolitan areas represents a possible threat for the creative andinnovative class of CW and for the CS itself. The majority of CS worldwide are,indeed, located in metropolitan cities, where there is a concentration of urban
amenities (Mariotti et al., 2017).

if the policy makers promote the location of CS in peripheral areas by hosting
them, for instance, in public libraries or other public premises (Di Marino,
Lapintie, 2018), it is necessary to verify: (i) the potential demand of CW andCS managers and their willingness to pay for these services, evaluating also thesustainability of the project in the long run; (ii) the technical feasibility andstart-up costs; (iii) the risk to denature the co-working concept, due to the lossof dynamism and involvement in sharing the space in favour of a more staticand utilitarian use of it. This scenario, beyond the complexity of the time being,
is characterised by the uncertainty of the operation’s time lane and, therefore,by the impossibility to estimate the investment payback time.

In Italy, more than the 80% of the 548 CS (at 2018) are located in poles ormulti-municipality service centres, 16% is in ‘belt’ municipalities, while only
3.5% is in intermediate or peripheral areas (SNAI classification of Inner Areas).
On the other side, a (sad) analogy concerning the spread of the new coronavirus
in Italy shows that the most relevant clusters of the pandemic are recognised in
the more innovative, densely populated NUTS-3 provinces of northern Italy(in particular, Milan, Brescia and Bergamo), whose cities and metropolitan areas References
host the large majority of CS.
Boschma, R. (2005). Role of Proximity in Interaction and Performance:
Nonetheless, even after the end of the health emergency, many services, like Conceptual and Empirical Challenges. Regional Studies, 39(1): 41–45.
those related to the CS, may not turn back to their initial state (at least in the
mid-term), since dramatic exogenous shocks like a global pandemic require a
1
The CA18214 project involves 28 countries, and aims to: (i) identify new working spaces’
resilience capacity that not every individual or enterprise own. Besides, since typologies, reveal their spatial distribution, and explain their location patterns; (ii) measure and evaluate
most activities run by the CW can be carried out at home via smart working, a the (direct and indirect) effects of these new working spaces; (iii) collect, discuss and develop guidelines for
tailored policy and planning measures. The authors are members of the project. See https://www.cost.eu/
contraction of the CS is more than plausible.
cost-action/the-geography-of-new-working-spaces-and-the-impact-on-the-periphery/.

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RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

new series 19 - May 2020
COVID-19 outbreak and theolder adults in Italy: twofaces of the sociality

Mina Akhavan, Ilaria Mariotti, & Federica Rossi,
DAStU-Politecnico di Milano

T

HE COVID-19 PANDEMIC has mostly
affected older adults (over 65). Yet, why has
Italy suffered more confirmed coronavirus deaths
than Germany and the Nordic countries? In a recent
publication, Bayer and Kuhn (2020) argue thatwithin this outbreak, patterns of social interaction
play a key role in determining fatality rates. In
Italy, there are relatively higher intergenerational
interactions, which partly explain the data gap
with other European countries. This trend is also
proved by data on the share of adults, aged 30-49,
who co-habit with a parent. That in Italy is above
20%, while in others (i.e. France, Switzerland andthe Netherlands) it is relatively lower (less than 5%).
In 2019, the Italian National Institute of Statistics(ISTAT) estimated an approximate number of 6,810 young adults aged 1834, single and unmarried, who live with at least one parent. In addition,
grandparents represent a precious resource for families, especially with two fulltime working parents, in managing their school-age children.

Figure 1: The location of coworking spaces in Italy
Di Marino, M., Lapintie, K. (2018). Exploring multi-local working:challenges and opportunies in contemporary cities. International
Planning Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13563475.2018.1528865
Eder, J., & Trippl, M. (2019). Innovation in the periphery: Compensationand exploitation strategies. Growth and Change, 50(4): 1511-1531.
Florida, R. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.

An interesting analysis on the older adults’ level of ‘sociality’ in Italy is provided
by the survey ‘Aspects of Daily Life- Multi-Purpose Survey’ on families,
conducted by ISTAT since 1993. From the total number of the respondents in
2017, 5,867 (12%) are older adults aged between 65 and 75 and 5,952 (12.2%)
are in the age group 65-74. A first point of reflection comes from the question:
How often do you meet friends in your spare time? 52.3% replied “at least oncea week”, while 14% said every day. The most popular places where to meet
are: cinemas (15.3%), museums (17.6%), archaeological sites and monuments(14.3%). The seniors’ habits also concern their attendance at churches or otherplaces of worship (39% go at least once a week). About 19.4% declared theywent out for dinner/lunch at least once a month, while the participation inassociation activities or voluntary groups is lower (about 7%).

Mariotti, I., Akhavan, M. (2020), Exploring Proximities in Coworking Spaces: What has been described so far concerns national average values but it isevidence from Italy. European Spatial Research and Policy, forthcoming.
interesting to deepen the study of the older adults’ level of “sociality” with afocus on an urban context, specifically the case of Milan. The analysis refers to the
Mariotti I., Di Matteo D. (2020), Coworking in emergenza Covid-19:
MOBILAGE project2, which aims to explore the mobility behaviours of older
quali effetti per le aree periferiche? EyesReg, 10(2): 1–5.
adults in three peripheral Milanese neighbourhoods (Gallaratese, Niguarda-CàMariotti, I., Pacchi, C., Di Vita, S. (2017). Coworking
Granda and Gratosoglio) in 2018-19, showing a concentration of older adults
Spaces in Milan: Location Patterns and Urban Effects.
higher than the city’s average, and exploiting different levels of accessibility to
Journal of Urban Technology, 24(3): 47–66.
Local Public Transport (TPL) and other services. A representative sample ofOldenburg, R. (1989) The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee
246 seniors, selected on the basis of gender and age groups (65-69 years, 70-74
Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts atand 75+), participated in the interviews, which have been carried out indoors
the Heart of a Community. New York: Paragon House.
(clubs for seniors, commercial centres, sports centres, etc.) and outdoors (parks,
TPL stops, etc.). In fact, the survey was addressed to “active” seniors, i.e. those
who, alone or accompanied by others, can go outside, even with the help ofmobility aids such as wheelchairs or walking sticks. An interesting question is:
how often do you interact with your friends, your family or the people wholive in your neighbourhood? Figure 1 shows that 72% replied once or several
times a day.
2
The project ‘MOBILAGE: Mobility and Ageing: Daily Life and Welfare Supportive Networks
at the Neighbourhood Level’ is financed by Fondazione Cariplo (grant n.2017-0942, www.mobilage.unina.
it). Three universities are involved: DAStU-Politecnico di Milano (Leader), University of Groningen (NL)
and the University of Naples Federico II (IT).

page 9RSAI Newsletterthe regional science association international

new series 19 - May 2020
the target of the MOBILAGE project were the active
elderly.

Figure 1: How often do you interact with your friends, family or
people living in your neighbourhood? (%, own elaboration)
Figure 2: Online activities (%)

The intense interpersonal relationships of the elderly in Italy has been confirmed
by Mossong et al. (2008) who highlight how Germans record the lowest References
number of daily contacts (average value: 7.95), while Italians represent the
Akhavan M., Mariotti I., Bouwer A. (2019), Factual and perceived preferences
largest (average value: 19.77).
for aging in place in Milan, ERSA 2019 conference, Lyon, 27-30/08, France.
The question regarding ‘meeting place’ underlines the key role of the “home”,
followed by community spaces (associations, library, clubs, etc.), open public Akhavan, M.; Mariotti I., Pinto, F. (2020). Towards an Agespaces, bars and online interactions. Moreover, the project highlighted the friendly City: exploring ageing mobility in the city of Milan
importance of accessible -by foot or by LPT- services within the neighbourhood - Verso una città “age-friendly”: la mobilità degli anziani(e.g. supermarkets, drugstores, etc.) , investigating what is known as “aging in nella città di Milano. Urbanistica, forthcoming.
place” - that is the ability to live in their home and neighbourhood safely andindependently (Mestheneos, 2011). On the other hand, the so-called “place inageing” concerns “the identification and understanding of the environment’s
role in aging” (Gardner, 2011). The results of the survey show that the majority(88%) of the elderly would like to keep on living in their neighbourhoods(ageing in place), and a high number of respondents (74%) is happy with theoverall offered services in the neighbourhood (place in ageing).
In the current lockdown situation and in the following phases 2 and 3 of thepandemic, older adults have been forced to change their way of living, andwill have to further adapt their habits, reducing physical interactions. Thus, theactive lifestyle promoted by the literature is no longer practicable (Banister and
Bowling, 2014). An interesting example of how the neighbourhoods for elders
might look like comes from the Dutch “Integrated Service Area (ISA)” policy,
where community support services are located within 400 meters (Jansen etal., 2018). If the home becomes the centre of the elderly person’s lives during
the pandemic, useful support can certainly come from home automation andthe use of internet, that will allow them to be as independent as possible, keep
relations – despite the physical distance – and buy goods and services online.
But, do Milanese older adults use internet? The survey shows that 59% (144people) use a smartphone and, among them, 87% (105 people) use internet byphone. Moreover, 45% of respondents (114 people) use internet for: e-mailexchanges, collecting information on LPT, consulting Facebook, accessing
health and travel services, booking tickets, home banking, and postal services(Figure 2). In addition, 15% uses e-commerce services.
The national context is rather different: 75% have never used the internet, whileamong those using internet, 55% use it daily and 32.3% few times a week.
Finally, 67.6% of the users have never ordered and bought online. Therefore,
although elderly living in Milan seem to be “smarter”, it cannot be denied that

Banister, D., Bowling, A. (2004). Quality of life for the elderly:
The transport dimension. Transport Policy, 11(2), 105– 115.
Bayer C., Kuhn M. (2020), Intergenerational ties and case fatality
rates: A cross-country analysis. VOX, CEPR Policy Portal.
Gardner, P.J. (2011), Natural neighborhood networks—
Important social networks in the lives of older adults aging
in place. Journal of Aging Studies, 25(3): 263-271.
Jansen, E., Pijpers, R. A. H., de Kam, G. R. W. (2018). Expanding
capabilities in Integrated Service Areas (ISAs) as communities of care:
A study of Dutch older adults’ narratives on the life they have reason tovalue. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 19(2): 232–248.
Mestheneos, E. (2011), Ageing in Place in the European
Union. IFA Global Ageing Journal, 7(2): 17-24.
Mossong, J., Hens N., Jit M. et al. (2008), Social contacts and mixing
patterns relevant to the spread of infectious diseases. PLoS Medicine 5(3).

Colophon
The newsletter of the Regional Science Association International(RSAI) appears two times a year and contains information
about upcoming conferences and meetings, recent eventsand publications, and short contributions on current themes.
Contributons are most welcome, and can be submitted directly
to Martijn Smit (m.j.smit@uu.nl) and/or Graham Clarke(g.p.clarke@leeds.ac.uk). Deadline for the next issue is 15 October;earlier contact is much appreciated.

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