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AEDE

Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics

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AEDE Demonstrates Strength in Urban and Regional Economics with Award Wins at RSAI North American Meeting

Nov. 21, 2013

Maintaining its strong presence in the field of regional economics, AEDE recently sent a dozen faculty members and doctoral students to Atlanta, Georgia for the 60th annual North American meeting of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI), which was held from November 13-16, 2013.

The interdisciplinary gathering is organized yearly by the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC) and brings together the best and brightest researchers working in regional science, urban and regional economics, and urban planning in North America. Click here to see the 2013 conference program.

At this year’s event, AEDE faculty members Mark Partridge, Chair of the William C. Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy, Elena Irwin, Alessandra Faggian, and Sathya Gopalakrishnan all presented their research. Additionally, eight AEDE doctoral students participated in the meeting.

Of particular importance, the following AEDE faculty and students were recognized with awards at the event:

  • Professor Mark Partridge received the “David Boyce Award for Service to Regional Science”. This award honors Professor David Boyce, a world-recognized scholar in regional science who spent many years promoting the work of RSAI. Dr. Partridge was chosen for the award due to his commitment to the study of regional science and his service to regional science organizations. Dr. Marlon Boarnet from the University of Southern California was also a winner of the prize. Both Dr. Partridge and Dr. Boarnet serve as co-editors of the Journal of Regional Science and were chosen for the "David Boyce Award" based on this service, in addition to their other work in the field. 
  • Doctoral student Wendong Zhang was awarded the “Graduate Student-Led Paper Competition Prize” for his paper “The Housing Market Bust and Farmland Values: Identifying the Changing Influence of Proximity to Urban Areas", which was co-authored with Dr. Cynthia J. Nickerson from the USDA-Economic Research Service. The paper was also selected to be presented at the conference’s Urban Economic Association sessions. An early draft of the paper can be found here (the paper is currently under review for journal publication). This is the second year in a row that Zhang has won this award at the RSAI North American gathering, which is a first for the conference.

RSAI is comprised of an international community of scholars who are interested in the regional impacts of national and global processes of economic and social change. The organization was founded in 1954 and is the premier organization in the field of regional science. NARSC promotes the field of regional science in North America.

AEDE continues to build a strong base of scholars working in the field of regional economics.  Not only has the department received prominent awards in the field, hosted a graduate student conference on regional economics, and had faculty travel extensively for engagement in the subject area, but the two most popular academic journals in the field of regional science – Papers in Regional Science and the Journal of Regional Science – are both co-edited by AEDE faculty members (Dr. Faggian co-edits Papers in Regional Science and Dr. Partridge co-edits the Journal of Regional Science). This is an unprecedented event and is a further testament to the outstanding strength of AEDE’s work and expertise in the study of regional and urban economics.

November 21, 2013