Editors

Tomaz Ponce Dentinho, - University of the Azores (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Gabriela Carmen Pascariu - Alexandru Ioan Cuza University

Introduction

Regional Science Policy and Practice aims to publish scientific papers that look into the interactions between people across space using sound replicable methods and showing effective evidence to support regional policies and aim sustainable development.

The journal Regional Science Policy and Practice wants to give Regional Scientists the chance to show innovative multidisciplinary work on the spatial effects of conflicts, with special attention if possible to the Middle East. Sustainable peace in the Middle East matters not only to the people of Israel, West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordania, but also to the rest of the world.  Thus, RSPP welcomes researchers from the region, with work related to the region or with novel methodologies to assess the socioeconomic consequences or effects of conflict across space.

The Focus

Trying to understand the multiple causes of conflicts in the world (political, cultural, religious, historical, etc.), and in particular in the Middle East, analysing the role of regional and global powers in conflicts and evaluate their impact on regional development are not simple tasks of this Special Issue.

Nevertheless, RSPP also aims to use Regional Science methodologies to understand the impact of sustainable peace (or the lack of conflicts) on the regional development of an area, and if possible, focusing on the Middle East and providing an evidence-based knowledge to inform policy decisions and potential avenues for improvement.

The Expectations

Inspired by Walter Isard, the founder of the field of Regional Science, and his interest in Peace Science, this Special Issue of RSPP will combine techniques and methodologies of Regional Science with Peace Science topics such as conflict management, resolution and sustainable peace, with special focus on the Middle East.

This Special Session could include, among others, the following topics:

1. Impacts of conflicts/sustainable peace on the economic performance of the countries-regions along the last decades;
2. Conflicts/sustainable peace and the commuting and shopping behaviour (for instance using a spatial interaction urban model);
3. Social and spatial integration/disintegration processes;
4. Sustainable country borders;
5. Sustainable peace and rents allocation of natural and locational resources;
6. Sense of belonging;
7. Migration Flows and conflicts;
8. Cost Benefit Analysis of Peace/conflict;
9. Digital and AI challenges;
10. Impact on disparities (at regional and global levels) and on the UN’ Sustainable Development Goals

Manuscript submission information:

All submissions must be original and may not be under review elsewhere. All manuscripts will be submitted via the Regional Science Policy & Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/rspp/). Authors should indicate in the cover letter that the paper is submitted for consideration for publication in this special issue “Sustainability and regional challenges of GVC-dependent FDI development path”, otherwise, your submission will be handled as a regular manuscript.

• Submissions open until October 15, 2025

Editors:

Alfredo Cartone - University of Pescara, Italy; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Paolo Postiglione - University of Pescara, Italy; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Diana Gutierrez Posada - University of Oviedo, Spain; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Regional development and inequalities remain nowadays lively topics in Europe (Panzera and Postiglione, 2022; Diaz-Dapena et al. 2021). Despite many theories try and explain the persisting differences in regional trajectories of development (Iammarino et al. 2019), regional inequalities continue to be worsened by downturns and changes in regional economies. In this direction, two crucial issues have emerged in the analysis of regional disparities. First, subsequent shocks starting from the year 2008 (e.g., financial crisis, the pandemic, and the current geo-political instability) are putting more and more focus on regional capacity to change and promote growth in the long run (Kitsos et al. 2023; Faggian et al. 2018). Second, a large debate is sparked – both empirically and methodologically – by the impact that digital economy and path of ICT innovation have on agglomerations, insurgent urban-rural divide, and persistent regional inequality (De Palo et al. 2018).

In this special issue for Regional Science Policy & Practice we aim at more evidence through applications and innovative methodologies to help a broader comprehension on the links between development, inequality, and innovation in Europe over the recent years. Also, the special issue would welcome contributions that attain the analysis of European policies closely related to those topics.

Particularly, papers that involve innovative applications, novel methodologies, and policy analysis are expected to consider NUTS 2 regions or lower spatial levels. We kindly invite contributions on topics related (but not limited) to:

• Spatial disparities in Europe at the subnational level, causes and effects.
• Urban agglomerations and urban rural divide.
• Spillovers and spatial effects in territorial inequality, regional innovation, or economic growth.
• Geography of innovation.

Invitation for submission:

We welcome original, unpublished papers that address the above questions, or any other research questions not mentioned, as they relate to regional economics. We look forward to papers from all parts of the world.

Manuscript submission information:

All submissions must be original and may not be under review elsewhere. All manuscripts will be submitted via the Regional Science Policy & Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/rspp/). Authors should indicate in the cover letter that the paper is submitted for consideration for publication in this special issue “Development, Inequality, and Innovation in European Regions over the Era of Downturns”, otherwise, your submission will be handled as a regular manuscript.

• Submissions open until October 15, 2025.

References

• De Palo, C., Karagiannis, S., & Raab, R. (2018). Innovation and inequality in the EU: for better or for worse? Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. ISBN 978-92-79-90948-1, doi:10.2760/365700, JRC112623
• Díaz Dapena, A., Fernández Vázquez, E., Rubiera Morollón, F., & Viñuela, A. (2021). Mapping poverty at the local level in Europe: A consistent spatial disaggregation of the AROPE indicator for France, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Regional Science Policy & Practice 13(1): 63-81.
• Faggian, A., Gemmiti, R., Jaquet, T., & Santini, I. (2018). Regional economic resilience: The experience of the Italian local labor systems. The Annals of Regional Science 60: 393-410.
• Iammarino, S., Rodriguez-Pose, A., & Storper, M. (2019). Regional inequality in Europe: evidence, theory and policy implications. Journal of economic geography 19(2): 273-298.
• Kitsos, T., Grabner, S. M., & Carrascal-Incera, A. (2023). Industrial embeddedness and regional economic resistance in Europe. Economic Geography 99(3): 227-252.
• Panzera, D., & Postiglione, P. (2022). The impact of regional inequality on economic growth: a spatial econometric approach. Regional Studies 56(5): 687-702.

Guest editors

Jian Wang (SILC Business School, Shanghai University, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ying Long - School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Xueliang Zhang - School of Urban and regional science, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Xuepeng Qian - Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Sophia University, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Urban shrinkage, a concurrent manifestation of population decline and economic recession, significantly impacts urban economic performance and sustainable development. Initially prevalent in Western Europe post the era of remarkable post-war urban growth, many cities, such as those in the Ruhr basin, northern England, and Wallonia, began to experience shrinkage during the 1970s and 1980s. However, urban shrinkage is not confined to the developed western territories. It has emerged as a universal phenomenon, accompanying the ongoing process of global urbanization. Numerous large cities in Eastern Asia, for instance, are grappling with population decline. Thus, urban shrinkage warrants extensive attention from urban scholars as it continues to become a prevailing issue across a growing number of global cities.

The objective of this Special Issue is to delve deeper into the realm of urban shrinkage, aiming to properly define it, understand its impacts on local growth, regional development, governance, and sustainable development. Moreover, this issue aims to explore potential responses and remedies to counter the shrinkage pattern and to glean cross-cutting insights from investigating the nature of urban shrinkage.

This Special Issue invites contributions that advance our comprehension of the conceptualization, driving forces, consequences, and responses surrounding urban shrinkage. We welcome research articles characterized by, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Reconceptualizing and Identifying Urban Shrinkage
• Utilizing Refined, Granular Data to Analyze Shrinking Landscapes
• Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Dynamics in Urban Shrinkage
• Sustainable Transition of Resource-Based Cities and Revitalization
• Uncovering Driving Factors of Urban Shrinkage
• Regional Economic Dynamics Amidst Urban Shrinkage
• Interlinkages between Urban Shrinkage and Sustainable Development
• Green Urban Planning Strategies for Shrinking Cities
• Urban Decline: Government Policies and Interventions

We encourage submissions that offer innovative insights, interdisciplinary approaches, and actionable solutions to the challenges posed by urban shrinkage. By fostering a diverse dialogue, we aim to propel forward the global discourse on fostering resilience and sustainable growth in the face of urban shrinkage.

Guest editors

Konstantinos Eleftheriou - University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Peter Nijkamp - Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, the Netherlands

Konstantinos Christopoulos - University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Context

Human health has important place-based characteristics. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has again articulated in the research arena the importance of the geography of public health and its consequent economic effects. While the scientific field of medical (health) geography (see for a comprehensive overview Earickson, 2009) has grown fast in recent years, the channels through which public health outcomes are transmitted and the corresponding economic consequences have not been thoroughly examined. Specifically, the spillover effects of public health outcomes are usually either examined in isolation from their economic effects or prominent attention is given to the economic aspects, whereas the interrelation of health outcomes at the spatial level are sometimes ignored.

Aims and scope

In an attempt to bridge this gap, the aim of this special issue of RSPP is to study the economic implications of public health by incorporating its spillover effects at the supra-regional, regional and sub-regional level.

There are several micro and macro pathways through which neighboring regions can affect local health (a thorough review on how the spillover effects on health outcomes are manifested at the micro-level can be found in Benjamin-Chung et al. 2017). These include but are not limited to:

• Environmental pathways, such as water and air pollution;
• Infectious diseases as a result of climate change or tourism activity or any other spatial interaction mechanism;
• Micro level behavioral risks from lifestyle spillovers;
• Urban walkability or cyclability and green space;
• Criminal activity including smuggling of illegal substances and weapons;
• Other social or anthropological factors that may create public health spillovers;
• Changes in healthcare resources or medical technology.

An indicative but not restrictive example on how candidate-authors could approach the topic of this special issue is the study by Atasoy et al. (2017) in which the regional spillover effects of the adoption of electronic health records on healthcare costs are examined.

Relevance

Healthcare costs do not challenge only the sustainability of health systems but fiscal sustainability as well (see, for example, Christopoulos and Eleftheriou, 2020). In order to develop effective regional polices that contain negative and increase positive health externalities, one has to identify and quantify the economic impacts of health spillovers. This process may also aid in the mitigation of regional health disparities. Contributions to this special issue should serve the policy and practice aims of the journal.

Keywords: economic impact; health geography; public health; spillovers

References

Atasoy, H., Chen, P.-y., Ganju, K. (2017), The Spillover Effects of Health IT Investments on Regional Healthcare Costs, Management Science 64(6), 2515-2534.

Benjamin-Chung, J. and others (2017), Spillover Effects on Health Outcomes in Low- and Middle-income Countries: A Systematic Review, International Journal of Epidemiology 46(4), 1251-1276.

Christopoulos, K. and Eleftheriou, K. (2020), The Fiscal Impact of Health Care Expenditure: Evidence from the OECD Countries, Economic Analysis and Policy 67, 195-202.

Earickson, R. (2009), Medical Geography, In: Kitchin, R., Thrift, N. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Elsevier, 9-20.