Mid-Continent Regional Science Association

51^st Annual Conference

IMPLAN 13^th Biennial National User’s Conference

~ June 3-5, 2020 ~ Bloomington, Minnesota ~

Call for Papers

The MCRSA will hold its 51st Annual Conference together with the IMPLAN 13th Biennial National User’s Conference June 3-5, 2020 at The Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. The hotel offers complimentary shuttle service to and from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport and is located near such attractions as the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, the Mall of America, and the Twin Cities Light Rail transit system to take you anywhere in the metro area.

The program committee welcomes individual papers and organized sessions on a wide range of topics relating to applied economics, planning, geography, business, public administration, sociology, and political science.

The deadline for abstract submission is April 1, 2020.

Hotel Reservations:
The Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America Hotel
3800 American Boulevard East · Bloomington, Minnesota 55425
Tel: 952-854-2100
Toll Free: 1-800-HILTONS
The conference room rate is $159 per night. The conference room rate will be honored three days before and after the conference. Onsite self-parking is complimentary for conference attendees. Complimentary shuttle service from and to the airport is available. To make a reservation, call  1-800-HILTONS and mention the Mid-Continent Regional Science Association (MCRSA) conference. You can reserve your room online by clicking here.

The cutoff date for the conference room rate is May 11, 2020

MCRSA Surcharge for Participants Not Staying at the Conference Hotel to Booking Outside the Conference Block

Note that attendees who do not register for an overnight stay at the conference hotel, The Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America Hotel, or who book outside the conference room block, will incur an additional conference registration surcharge of $150. This surcharge does not apply to students or to attendees with a local business address, i.e. the Twin Cities area.

2020 M. Jarvin Emerson Student Paper Competition

The deadline for submission is April 1, 2020

The Mid-Continent Regional Science Association announces the Student Paper Competition for our 2020 conference (June 3-5) in Bloomington, Minnesota. All students enrolled in undergraduate or graduate degree programs as of January 1, 2020 are eligible. Student papers dealing with all aspects of regional development, including cultural, physical and economic processes, are welcome. The first place winner will receive $1,000 and the M. Jarvin Emerson Award. The winning entry will also be considered for publication in the Association’s journal, The Journal of Regional Analysis & Policy. Only papers authored solely by students (i.e., no faculty co-authored papers) will be eligible for the competition and resulting publication. Addition information can be found at http://mcrsa.org/student-paper-competition/

North Central Regional Center for Rural Development

Graduate Student Travel Grants to the MCRSA Conference 

The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) at Michigan State University is partnering with the MCRSA to strengthen research capacity in the North Central Region. We’re doing so by offering a limited number of MCRSA conference travel grants to graduate students from NCRCRD member institutions. Students can request up to $500 to pay eligible travel-related expenses. Only M.S. and Ph.D. graduate students from NCRCRD-member institutions are eligible for these awards.

Information about the MCRSA conference is at: 

http://mcrsa.org/conference/

NEW & EXPANDED in 2020!* Workshop:

Spatial Econometrics: Empirical Analysis of Geospatial Association and Cross-Unit Interdependence

Robert J. Franzese, Jr. (franzese@umich.edu)

Do the outcomes in the units or individuals of your research analyses cluster geospatially or within networks? Do some units’ or individuals’ outcomes depend on outcomes in other units/individuals? That is, are the outcomes of interest in your studies likely contagious from units to neighboring or otherwise proximate or connected units? Do the processes you study diffuse across units in some manner? Are there spillovers across subjects? If you study anything in the social sciences, and likely most things beyond, almost certainly they are/do.

This NEW & EXPANDED!* workshop (July 20-24 in Ann Arbor) teaches empirical methods for modeling, for estimating, and for the interpretation of such spatial or cross-unit clustering or interdependence (a.k.a., contagion/diffusion/spillover/network-dependence...).

*Now with more intro to models and methods for spatial or geospatial clustering (as opposed to contagion/interdependence) and distinguishing between the alternate sources of spatial association (common exposure, contagion, network selection).

Applied (computer-lab) sessions and exercises are bilingual, i.e. with lab scripts in Stata and R both available, and students are of course welcome to use other software as they prefer.

Register through the ICPSR Summer School portal, linked here:

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/sumprog

The course description from the ICPSR website is linked here & copied below:

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/sumprog/courses/0129

Spatial Econometrics: Empirical Analysis of Geospatial Association and Cross-Unit Interdependence

20-24 July 2020

PLEASE DO EMAIL (franzese@umich.edu) with any & all questions

Description: Spatial (i.e., geospatial or otherwise cross-unit) association and interdependence are ubiquitous throughout the social sciences, and beyond. That is, events or outcomes in one observational unit are almost always related to similar occurrences in other observational units. This is so for such diverse phenomena as disturbances and conflicts within and among nations; crime, health, and environmental outcomes; economic and other policies in political jurisdictions; consumer, investor, and producer choices in markets; individuals’ opinions and behavior in societies; and voting by citizens in elections or by legislators in legislatures. In contexts where this omnipresent cross-unit association (or correlation) arises from interdependence (or contagion), "standard" statistical methods (which assume independent observations) are inappropriate, and design-based methods of "nonparametric causal-inference" are (at best) inadequate. This workshop introduces strategies appropriate for distinguishing spatial association from spatial interdependence and for proper estimation of processes involving interdependent observations, emphasizing spatial and spatiotemporal models of interdependent continuous and limited outcomes.

The main objective of the workshop is to demonstrate how such spatial, i.e. geo-spatial or otherwise cross-unit, interdependence can be incorporated into empirical analysis most productively. Course participants will learn how to: diagnose spatial-correlation patterns; estimate spatial-regression models; distinguish between different sources of spatial correlation (common exposure, contagion, and selection); and calculate and present the spatial and spatiotemporal effects that empirical models which incorporate interdependence imply. Methods to be covered include: measures of spatial association; models and methods for (exogenous) spatial correlation; instrumental-variable and maximum-likelihood estimators for models with (endogenous) spatial interdependence; multiple-spatial-lag models; spatial interdependence in models with limited and qualitative dependent-variables; and models for coevolutionary processes (i.e., processes with both spatial-cum-network interdependence and endogenous-connectivity/network-selection).

Prerequisites: None; in particular, although participants should be familiar with linear regression and models for qualitative/limited dependent variables (e.g., logit, probit, etc.), this workshop does not assume any prior knowledge of, or experience with, spatial statistics. Indeed, all necessary mathematical, statistical, geospatial-analytic, and spatial-econometric background will be reviewed as needed, albeit (obviously) very quickly.

Dear Colleagues,

Attached, please find the call for papers for the next EU REAL meeting that will be hold in Warsaw on September 3-4 2020.

This is the week following the ERSA conference, so it could be a good reason to extend your stay in Europe if you already plan to attend the ERSA.

Hope to meet you all in Warsaw!

Bart Rokicki

Dear NECTAR colleagues,

Silvio Nocera (Università IUAV di Venezia, Italy) and Maria Attard (University of Malta, Malta) are launching a  Call for Papers for the Special Issue: Active Travel and Mobility Management.

This is linked to the NECTAR Joint Meeting of Cluster 2: Policy and Environment and Cluster 7: Social and Health Issues, to be held in Venice, Italy, 26-27 March 2020. However, Guests Editors welcome papers not necessarily presented at the Meeting.

Best wishes 

--

Ana Condeço-Melhorado

NECTAR Secretary

https://www.nectar-eu.eu/

Nomination and Selection Protocol of RSAI Fellows

1. Each RSAI member - except RSAI fellows – is entitled to nominate candidates for the RSAI fellowship, but self-nominations are not allowed. Each nomination has to be done through a standard concise nomination form that follows a systematic template.
2. A nominee has to be RSAI member (or a member of any section recognized by the RSAI) and to meet the qualifications mentioned in Annex A.
3. The selection of new RSAI fellows takes place only once a year, but nominations can be sent in at any time and will be considered for a given selection round, if they have been received before a given deadline. A nomination has a maximum life of two years.
4. All nominations will be put on a list supplemented with non-elected candidates for the RSAI fellowship who were on the short list from the previous year.
5. The short list will be screened by the RSAI fellows selection committee (in consultation with the RSAI director). This committee comprises 3 RSAI fellows appointed by the RSAI Council for a period of staggered 3-year terms. The selection committee has to seriously consider all available information on the candidates and can remove candidates (unanimous vote) who do not qualify.
6. The selection committee can also decide to reduce the list of nominated RSAI members to a manageable number, so that candidates can be selected with a qualified majority. This short list should normally not contain more than 10 to 12 names.
7. The short list is next circulated to all RSAI fellows, who have the exclusive right to vote for (a maximum of) 3 candidate-fellows. No ranking of candidates is allowed.
8. The selection committee can put an upper ceiling on the maximum number of candidates to be selected in a given year, if circumstances dictate so.
9. A vote of at least 1/3 will normally mean election, unless that would exceed the ceiling.
10. The selection committee informs the RSAI Director of the final selection results, who will communicate these results to the selected RSAI fellows, the RSAI Council, and the home institutions of the newly appointed fellows.

Standard Nomination Form for RSAI Fellows

1. Factual bio-data on candidate, including a proof for RSAI membership
2. Professional career of candidate (max. 100 words)
3. Substantive contribution to regional science (max. 200 words)
4. Path-breaking publications on regional science (max. 5)
5. Signs of international scientific recognition (max. 50 words)
6. Reasons for nominating the candidate (max. 50 words)

To ensure full consideration by the committee, these materials should be provided in electronic format (pdf preferred) by April 6, 2020 to Kieran Donaghy (kpd23@cornell.edu), Chair 2020 Fellows Election Committee  and cc to Andrea Caragliu (andrea.caragliu@polimi.it), Executive Director of RSAI.

Dear RSAI members,

I hope this email finds you all well.

This year many exciting events are expected in our Association. In a few months (June 2-5) we will celebrate the 13th World Congress of the RSAI. Submissions have passed the 600 threshold and represent authors from 58 Countries, with 39 special sessions submitted from some of the best regional scientists worldwide. Thank you! We all look forward to seeing many of you at the congress venue.

I am also writing you to elicit candidatures (as well as self-nominations) for the 2020 edition of the prestigious RSAI Founder’s Medal. As you probably know, this is among the most importand prizes awarded by the Association, and is bestowed every four years to outstanding regional scientists for outstanding contributions to our discipline. More information on the prize can be found here:

http://www.regionalscience.org/index.php/awards/rsai-founder-s-medal.html

Nominations should be sent within March 27 to the RSAI Executive Director (andrea.caragliu@polimi.it). Candidatures will  then be screened by a committee appointed by the RSAI Council, which consists of Mark Partridge (President); Philip Mc Cann; Lily Kiminami; Andrés Rodrigues Pose; and Dan McMillen. The announcement of the recipient will take place during the next RSAI World Congress in Marrakech.

A written nomination/self-nomination of a candidate for consideration for the RSAI Founder’s Medal should articulate the merit of the nominee for receiving the Founder’s Medal. It must include a detailed statement of the nature of the lifetime contribution a candidate has made to RSAI. The nomination/self-nomination must explain how and why that contribution of the nominee meets the criteria of the RSAI Founder’s Medal outlined below:

• The recipient should be a senior scholar who has contributed in an important way to the field of Regional Science in a scholarly sense;
• The recipient should have been active in the RSAI for a sustained period, but not necessarily active at the time of the award; also, the award is not given posthumously;
• The recipient should be a person with whom many members can identify; his/her contributions could be a major work in one area or many works in several areas;
• The contribution need not be limited to one type of contribution; it might be theory, method or policy, for example;
• It is recognized that the native country and language of scholars affect the extent to which they are known by the membership, and an effort should be made to take this into account.

Thank you all in advance for your participation in the process,

Kind regards,

-- -- Andrea CaragliuExecutive Director, Regional Science Association InternationalAssociate Professor of Regional and Urban EconomicsPolitecnico di MilanoABC DepartmentPiazza Leonardo da Vinci, 3220133 Milan (MI)Italy

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host the 13th annual Midwest Graduate Student Summit on Applied Economics, Regional and Urban Studies (AERUS) on April 24th – 26th, 2020.

In addition to giving participants the occasion to present their research and receive feedback, this year’s meeting will feature 2 workshops targeted to graduate students, 2 faculty panels on system dynamics and 2 keynote speakers on regional economic systems. 

Workshops:

• Machine learning and big data. Prof. Zhenhua Chen (The Ohio State University).
• Job market season. What to expect? Prof. William Ridley (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). 

Keynote speakers:

• Christa Court,  Assistant Professor and Director of the Economic Impact Analysis Program, Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida. Christa specializes in regional economic modeling, the energy-water nexus, applied spatial econometrics, environmental accounting, and connections in human and natural systems.
• Zhenhua Chen, Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning Department, The Ohio State University. His research interests include economic impact assessments of infrastructure investment, disasters and resilience using machine learning, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models and big data analytics.

Faculty panel:

• Mark Brown, Statistics, Canada
• Sandy Dall’erba, Dept. of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
• Brian Deal, Dept. of Landscape Architecture
• Monica Haddad, Dept. of Community and Regional Planning (Iowa State University)
• Maria Chu Librada, Dept. of Agricultural and Biological Engineering
• Bo Li, Dept. of Statistics
• Nicolas Federico Martin, Dept. of Crop Sciences
• William Ridley, Dept. of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
• Yilan Xu, Dept. of Agricultural and Consumer Economics

The summit is designed to initiate intellectual dialogue on wide array of research areas and spur future research collaborations among participating young scholars. Work at any stage will be accepted, including completed research, research in progress, and research idea/proposal.

Conference presentations address a variety of areas of growing importance to regional scientists, economists, planners, and geographers. Participants are encouraged to submit a proposal on subjects related to the conference themes: Regional Science, Urban Economics, Labor Economics, Economic Geography, Environmental Economics, Resource Geography, Energy Economics, Health Economics, Housing and Real Estate, Development Economics, Spatial Econometric, Computable General Equilibrium, Agent-Based Modeling, Input-Output Analysis. 

 Participants have to send their abstracts (300 words max), by March 15th, 2020.

For register and submitting abstracts please visit  http://aerus2020.web.illinois.edu/ 

Registration fee will be $60, includes 2 workshops, 2 breakfast, 2 coffee-breaks, 2 lunches and a dinner Saturday night.

Please direct your questions or concerns to aerusconference@gmail.com 

Looking forward seeing you here!

 Local organizing committee

AERUS 2020