Prof. Tomaz Dentinho, EiC, and the RSPP editorial team picked up two winners of the 2023 RSPP Best paper award. The two winning papers are as follows:

Daniel S. A. Carvalho and Gervásio F. Santos (2022) Transport and density of population groups in the urban area of the city of Salvador. Regional Science Policy Practice 14(6), 234-253. https://doi.org/10.1111/rsp3.12496

The paper tries to find the effect of geographical features in transport accessibility for white and black in Salvador (Brazil), estimates and index of accessibility and applies a two-stage least square regression relating it to history using the proxy of geography (valleys), to density and to race. Conclusions indicate the trade-offs density and accessibility while indicating the effect of transport policies in the social profile or the urban structure. It is an important topic of human interaction within space, analysed with replicable methods and creative generation of data, leading to interesting policy awareness. The paper has a very nice background information on Salvador, focus an interesting topic with a well-executed analysis that includes physical geographic variables and using transport mode-choice issue which is important in Latin America.

AND

Harry Aginta (2022) Spatio-temporal analysis of regional inflation in an emerging country: the case of Indonesia. Regional Science Policy Practice 14(3), 667-688. https://doi.org/10.1111/rsp3.12539

This paper analyzes regional inflation dynamics in Indonesia and, estimation a spatio-econometric model, finds the transmission of price changes from regions to regions. Results are very interesting for an archipelago but also can be very useful for large monetary areas. A study that is ahead and leads to way to study the interaction between regional and monetary policies. It is an innovative space-time analysis. The adjustment to the Indonesian archipelago spatial context makes of an interesting application with the results for different components of inflation of general interest.

Congratulations to the prize winners on their achievement!