July 28, 2007
Portland, Oregon
Click
here for the Agenda
Sponsored by:
The
Farm Foundation
Rural Studies Program, Oregon State University
Resource
Economics Program, University of Nevada, Reno
Rural
Poverty Research Institute (RUPRI), University of Missouri
Swank
Program in Rural-Urban Policy, The Ohio State University
The
Emery Castle Chair in Resource and Rural Economics, Oregon
State University
Objectives of the Workshop
The primary objectives of this workshop are (1) to enhance
the capacity of applied economists in all disciplinary specializations
to incorporate spatial economics into their research and teaching
and (2) to strengthen the role of agricultural economics as
the lead discipline in rural economics.
This workshop will engage faculty in economics and regional
science departments who are doing pioneering and fundamental
research in spatial economics. It will give faculty and graduate
students who are incorporating spatial dimensions into their
research and teaching the opportunity to interact with leading
spatial economists not in agricultural economics departments
whose work they read and cite.
This workshop also seeks to serve two particular needs of
rural and regional economists within the agricultural economics
profession. It seeks to both (1) provide an environment in
which the new and established faculty in this discipline can
redefine the scope and focus of their work to better incorporate
spatial dimensions and (2) address the need for disciplinary
enrichment for many new “rural/regional economics”
faculty.
Timeliness of the Subject/Topic
Economists in all of the applied economics disciplines who
participate actively in the AAEA (resource, environmental,
agricultural, marketing, agribusiness, consumer, and regional
economics) have increasingly incorporated spatial dimensions
into their research and teaching.
Resource economists, for example, have been incorporating
spatial considerations into their research by using GIS to
analyze the importance of space in natural resource development
and conservation. Development economics, which has traditionally
focused on macro models, is increasing its focus on regions
within countries that are diverging from national economies,
and there is increasing interest in applying spatial economic
analysis to regions within countries.
The interest in, and need for, enhancement of spatial economics
training among rural/regional economists is particularly strong.
Rural/regional economics is inherently spatial and the emerging
literature on agglomeration economies and spatial externalities
has particular importance in the work of rural economists.
The emergence of the new growth theory and new economic geography,
the globalization of the economy and the increasing importance
of international economic development to rural economies,
and the recognition of the role of natural amenities in the
growth or rural areas, has led to a blurring of the lines
between regional/spatial economics, international economics
and trade, and resource economics. This convergence of interest
and the development of spatial econometric methods have made
the potential gains from collaboration and cross-fertilization
across disciplines much greater. This workshop would provide
a rich environment in which to develop new cross-disciplinary
collaboration.
Intended Audience
The primary target audience here would be applied economists
(faculty and graduate students) working in the AAEA disciplines
of resource, environmental, agricultural, marketing, agribusiness,
consumer, international trade and development and rural/regional
and community economics who are seeking to better incorporate
empirically-testable, micro-foundations-consistent spatial
economics into their research and teaching.
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