Regional Science Association InternationalEdit
Regional Science Association International (RSAI) is the international umbrella organization for the field of regional science, a multidisciplinary approach that studies how economic activity is distributed in space and how policies shape the growth, structure, and governance of regions. Since its mid-20th-century origins, RSAI has connected researchers, policymakers, and practitioners across continents to share methods, data, and results that help regions become more productive and competitive.
The association coordinates a network of national and regional societies, sets research standards, and fosters conferences and publications that translate abstract models into practical analysis. Its work spans the core topics of economic geography, urban economics, transportation planning, land use, and regional development, with a strong emphasis on statistical rigor, spatial analysis, and policy relevance.
From a pragmatic, market-friendly viewpoint, regional science seeks to explain where firms locate, how cities grow, and why some regions thrive while others lag. The RSAI approach emphasizes the productive potential of connectivity—good infrastructure, efficient markets, and clear property rights—while acknowledging that institutions and governance shape incentives, competition, and outcomes. In this view, policy is most effective when it enhances growth-generating opportunities and is restrained from distorting markets or propping up uncompetitive sectors.
History
Origins and Founding RSAI traces its roots to the postwar development of regional science, a field pioneered by scholars who drew on economics, geography, and planning to understand spatial organization. The movement is closely associated with figures such as Walter Isard, whose work helped shape a formal, quantitative approach to how regions grow and interact. In the 1950s and 1960s, national and regional societies began to form, and the international umbrella organization that would become RSAI emerged to coordinate research, conferences, and networks across borders.
Global expansion and structure As the field expanded, regional science societies formed across major economies, giving rise to a global ecosystem of scholars and practitioners. RSAI grew into an international platform that links these regional groups, supports cross-border collaboration, and helps standardize methods for measuring regional performance, mobility, and productivity. The organization maintains active ties with leading regional associations in North America, Europe, and Asia and fosters a culture of empirical testing, policy relevance, and methodological rigor.
Structure and Activities
RSAI operates through a suite of activities designed to advance both theory and application. It works with regional associations such as the North American Regional Science Council and the European Regional Science Association to organize joint meetings, share datasets, and sponsor special sessions that bridge academia and policy. The flagship global gathering is the World Conference on Regional Science (WCRS), a venue where researchers present cutting-edge work on spatial econometrics, urban systems, transport networks, and regional growth dynamics, and where policymakers can engage with the latest evidence on place-based and growth-oriented strategies.
Publications and dissemination RSAI supports scholarly outlets that advance the field, including conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in regional science. One notable lineage is the series known as Papers in Regional Science, which has long served as a repository for high-quality studies on spatial economics, location theory, and regional development. RSAI’s involvement with journals like the Journal of Regional Science helps ensure that robust, policy-relevant findings reach both academics and public decision-makers. Through these channels, RSAI promotes rigorous empirical work, transparent data practices, and replicable modeling.
Areas of collaboration and impact In addition to conferences and publications, RSAI facilitates collaborative research projects, data-sharing initiatives, and methodological advances in areas such as econometrics of regional data, geographic information system (GIS) applications, and the measurement of regional performance. Its work influences how governments and private actors think about infrastructure investment, land use planning, transportation policy, and regional development strategies, emphasizing that well-designed policy can unlock growth while maintaining a stable and predictable business environment.
Key themes in RSAI research
- Spatial economics and location theory
- Urban and regional development patterns
- Transportation networks and accessibility
- Land use, housing, and zoning efficiency
- Regional productivity, growth accounting, and policy evaluation
- Data, measurement, and methodological advances in spatial analysis
- Governance, institutions, and the role of policy in regional outcomes
Internal links to related concepts and actors include economic geography, urban economics, transportation planning, regional development, and GIS.
Controversies and debates
A central debate in the field concerns the appropriate balance between growth-driven policy and redistribution concerns. From a market-friendly viewpoint, RSAI research often emphasizes how improvements in infrastructure, trade connectivity, and regulatory clarity lift regional productivity, with the logic that gains in growth eventually spill over to living standards more broadly. Critics argue that focusing on efficiency can neglect equity, leaving disadvantaged communities behind. Proponents counter that growth is the best engine for broad-based improvement, and that growth-friendly reforms—paired with targeted, time-limited transfers and accountability—deliver the necessary resources for lagging regions without sacrificing overall efficiency. This debate plays out in policy circles as whether to prioritize universal subsidies, place-based subsidies, or market-led investments with selective public support.
Industrial policy and the role of the state are also contested. RSAI research often stresses that misallocation can occur when governments attempt to pick winners or prop up uncompetitive sectors, suggesting that a strong emphasis on property rights, rule of law, and predictable policy climates fosters private investment and innovation. Nonetheless, there is recurring discussion about the need for targeted infrastructure and education investments that expand the productive capacity of regions, especially where connectivity and human capital constraints impede growth. In this context, the right-of-center view tends to favor competitive, rules-based policies that improve incentives and reduce distortion, while acknowledging that well-designed public investments in critical infrastructure can yield high social returns.
Controversies around data, measurement, and modeling also shape RSAI debates. Critics may question the limits of spatial models, the quality of regional data, or the transferability of empirical results across countries with different institutions. From the perspective described here, robust data standards, transparent methodologies, and careful generalization across contexts are essential to ensure that regional science informs prudent, market-friendly policy choices. Advocates argue that rigorous spatial analysis—when paired with credible policy evaluation—helps identify high-return investments and reduces the risk of misallocation.