The UIA cordially invites you to its

3rd UIA Associations Round Table Asia-Pacific

on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 September

in Bangkok at the Centara Grand at CentralWorld.

The UIA Round Table is an opportunity to learn through networking and through practice. Meet decision-makers and staff members from other international associations and share experience and knowledge to help you run your organization better.

Participants come from all over, and from incredibly diverse associations. And, with all our diversity, we have so much in common: questions of management and administration, policies and regulations, values and vision and pragmatism.

This year’s programme includes presentations and workshops on governance, communication strategies, working with volunteers in the field and at management levels, and public relations, with speakers from the United Nations office and from non-governmental associations. For details, please see

http://www.uia.org/roundtable/asia-pacific-2015

The registration fee for association representatives is 2,500 THB. Thanks to the support of our partners at Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, we are able to offer a high-level educational programme for a low fee. All other elements of the programme are complimentary. Delegates are responsible for their own travel and accommodation arrangements and expenses.

To register for the Round Table, please go to roundtable.uia.org and log in: 

your username is D1288 and your password is LBIKVUTG.

Two delegates can register with this username and password. If you would like to send more delegates, please contact us.

We thank our partners and sponsors for making the event possible and affordable for all associations. They will be present, should you want to talk to them, but there are no sales presentations in the programme: this is an event for learning and networking.

For over 100 years the UIA has been working to promote and facilitate the work of international associations. We look forward to welcoming you at our Round Tables this year.

Cordially,

Nancy Carfrae

Coordinator, UIA Associations Round Table

RSAI has the great pleasure to announce that the jury consisting of Antoine Bailly, Masahisa Fujita, Roberta Capello and Erik Verhoef  chose the article "The sources of the urban wage premium by worker skills: Spatial sorting or agglomeration economies?" by Martin Andersson, Johan Klaesson and Johan P Larsson published in Volume 94, Issue 4, November 2014, Pages: 727-747 as the winner of the Martin Beckmann Prize as the best paper published in Papers in Regional Science in 2014.

Motivation:

The paper deals with the estimate of the respective importance of spatial sorting and agglomeration economies in explaining the urban wage premium for workers with different sets of skills. The paper is an innovative piece of work in the complex field of identifying the sources of differences in wages among cities. It provides empirical evidence on which type of skills are rewarded by density, and bear on the broader question of the contexts in which agglomeration is important. Based on the originality of the methodology used, and the important results achieved, the jury concluded that the paper was the best published one in 2014.

Many congratulations to Martin Andersson, Johan Klaesson and Johan P Larsson!

Call for papers
RSAI/ERSA
2015 BARCELONA WORKSHOP ON REGIONAL AND URBAN ECONOMICS
Spatial Perspectives of Human Capital
Barcelona, November 26th-27th 2015
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Barcelona

AQR-IREA is pleased to announce the RSAI/ERSA 2015 Barcelona Workshop on Regional and Urban Economics, to be held in Barcelona on November 26th-27th 2015. The workshop will be focused on Spatial Perspectives of Human Capital. Its aim is to bring together researchers in urban and regional economics who are working in topics where the broad concept of human capital plays a fundamental role. We are especially interested in original and innovative research papers that focus on the interconnections between space and human capital. Although the Workshop will focus on empirical papers, theoretical studies are also welcome. A non-exhaustive list of topics includes neighbourhood effects in human capital formation; spatial spillovers of human capital; local labour market and human capital accumulation; regional heterogeneity in returns to schooling and skills; regional disparities in schooling performance; the spatial distribution of human capital.

Keynote speaker: Stephen Gibbons (Department of Geography and Environment, SERC and CEP, LSE)

Audience: We will accommodate around 10-12 papers, to be presented in plenary sessions that will complement the keynote speaker’s presentation. Thanks to the financial support of the RSAI’s “Nurturing New Talent Initiative”, 4-6 slots will be reserved to talented young researchers* (primarily PhD students) who will have the opportunity to present and discuss their works with senior researchers in the field.

Submission: Papers should be sent in pdf format to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before September 13th 2015. Extended abstracts or incomplete drafts will also be considered, but full papers will be favoured. *Doctoral students or recent PhDs (thesis defence within 2015) must send a certificate that proves their status.

Travel and accommodation costs for presenters of accepted papers will be covered by the organisers.

Deadline for papers submission: September 13th 2015
Notification of acceptance: September 27th 2015
Preliminary programme: October 11th 2015
Final programme: November 15th 2015

Organising Committee
Antonio Di Paolo (coordinator), Enrique López-Bazo, Alessia Matano and Raül Ramos.

Scientific Committee
Antonio Di Paolo, Massimiliano Bratti, Oriol Escardíbul, Steve Gibbons, José Luis Roig, Montserrat Vilalta-Bufí and Felix Weinhardt.

Further information at http://www.ub.edu/aqr/workshop/2015/ or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Stan Czamanski Prize

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).

1. 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.
2. The US$1,000 prize is awarded to the student and a plaque to the student’s advisor.
3. 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. 
4. 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.
5. The award is presented at the North American Regional Science Meetings.

Rules of the competition

Applications are to be submitted by June 30 of each year. 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.

The deadline for submitting an abstract for the 62nd North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International in Portland, Oregon is only 10 days away. In this e-mail you will find the 1) the general call for papers, 2)  an invitation to submit abstracts for special sessions on GeoComputation, 3) an invitation to submit abstracts for special sessions on Spatial Econometrics.

1) CALL FOR PAPERS - NARSC 2015

Join us in Portland, Oregon for the 62nd North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) sponsored by the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC) and hosted by the Western Regional Science Association (WRSA).  The conference will be held at the Portland Hilton Hotel, November 11th – 14th, 2015.  You can learn more about the conference, submit an abstract, and register for the conference and workshops at the NARSC Website at:

http://www.narsc.org/

Click on the link to the conference section for general information on the conference.  To register for the conference or submit an abstract/session online you must first login to the User Area. If you attended a NARSC conference over the past couple of years or are a member of a North American regional science organization, when you reach the login page of the User Area, you will be asked to enter your provided username and password.  Otherwise, when you reach the login page of the User Area, you will be asked to click on a link and enter your e-mail address so we can check if you are already in our database. If you are in our database, your username and password will be e-mailed to you so you can login. If you are not in our database, you will need to register for a free NARSC user account and then you will be able to register for the conference and submit an abstract.

Once logged, you can change your password, update your profile, submit an abstract/session, register for the conference, and check the status of your registration.  You will be able come to your account in the User Area subsequently using your valid username and password.  In case you forget your password, just contact technical support at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your e-mail address and your password will be e-mailed to you so you can login.

Individual papers, posters, and sessions must be submitted online in the abstract submission section of the Website between now and July 1, 2015. The conference registration section is open and allows secure electronic financial transactions. We plan to have host poster sessions, and pre-conference workshops. The latter will be held on November 11th. Be sure to consult the conference website for additional information and details. More information about the workshops will be forthcoming.

Conference organizers welcome individual papers and organized sessions relating to a wide variety of topics inclusive within the diverse realm of regional science.  We are an international scholarly organization that focuses on regional analysis, ranging from urban and spatial theory to applied problems in regional development, sustainability, environmental management, and rural land use.  We are an interdisciplinary association, with members representing fields as diverse as economics, agricultural economics, public policy, urban planning, civil engineering, geography, finance, and demography.  The annual North American RSAI conference is the premier regional science meeting in North America and attracts scholars and practitioners from around the world.  

A block of rooms have been reserved at the Portland Hilton Hotel at a rate of $189 per night (plus tax).  The Hilton is extending the conference rate for those who wish to spend extra time in Portland, subject to availability.

If you have questions, here is contact information:

Local arrangements:

Elizabeth Mack: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Jaewon Lim: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Program Chair:

Rachel Franklin:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Overall Arrangements
Neil Reid: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We look forward to seeing you in Portland.

2) SPECIAL SESSIONS ON GEOCOMPUTATION

The special sessions on various aspects of GeoComputation are planned for the North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International (NARSC) to be held in Portland, Oregon, USA, November 11-14, 2015. Suitable topics for the session presentations are theoretical, methodological and applied issues related to GeoComputation – spatial analysis and modeling, and in the context of regional science.

Please let us know if you are interested to contribute to the special session(s) by sending an email at <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> with the title, abstract, name of author(s), affiliations, contact details and the unique ID number at your earliest but not later than June 25th, 2015. The abstract should be 2,000 to 5,500 characters and spaces.

Please note that in order to have your presentation included to the special session we do need the unique identification number (ID). The ID, or PIN, is a number included at the bottom of the confirmation email received following the submission of an abstract.

Detailed information about the NARSC conference can be found at <http://www.narsc.org >. Information about the submission process can be found at <http://www.narsc.org/newsite/?page_id=64>. Conference abstract submission deadline is July 1^st, 2015.

Looking forward to seeing you in Portland.

The organizers:

Prof. Suzana Dragicevic

Department of Geography

Simon Fraser University, Canada

Email: <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

Prof. Jean-Claude Thill

Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

Email: <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

3) SPECIAL SESSIONS ON SPATIAL ECONOMETRICS

Call for papers for a Special Session on “Spatial Econometrics” at the 62^nd Annual North American Meeting of the North American Regional Science Association International, Portland, OR, November 11-14, 2015. 

With the increased collection and the diffusion of geo-located spatial data, spatial econometrics has become a pervasive topic in many disciplines. This special session aims at bringing together researchers participating at the NARSC meeting with different substantive research focuses, but that share a common interest in spatial econometric methods and applications. Both theoretical and applied papers will find place in this special session. 

If you are interested to contribute with a paper to this Special Session, please follow the usual abstract submission procedure at http://www.narsc.org/newsite/conference/online-abstractsession-submission/ and then send the ID of the submitted paper to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

David Boyce and Huw Williams' new book Forecasting Urban Travel was recently published by Edward Elgar and as is available to NARSC/RSAI members at 35% discount

The offer is valid on the Edward Elgar website until the end of July, 2015, and is for purchases for personal use only (not for resale). The US list price of the hardback book is $205; therefore, the discounted price is $133.25 USD.

To obtain the discount, place ‘VIP35’ in the discount box at checkout.

http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/forecasting-urban-travel

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (UK & ROW) or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (N & S America) if you have any difficulty or need any further information.

Volume 3, Issue 1 of the NARSC Newsletter is now available. It can be accessed in the News and Announcements section of the NARSC website:

http://www.narsc.org/newsite/?page_id=417