This book contains the complete text of the special Golden Anniversary issue of the flagship journal of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI), Papers in Regional Science (Volume 83, Number 1), as well as the full text of Walter Isard's Presidential Address "The future (near and far) of regional science." Professor Isard originally delivered the speech in a special plenary session of the fiftieth North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International. The session began with a ceremonial kickoff to the year-long celebration of the multidisciplinary field's...

The volume on New Directions in Spatial Econometrics appeared in 1995 as one of the first in the then new Springer series on Advances in Spatial Sciences. It very quickly became evident that the book satisfied a pent up demand for a collection of advanced papers dealing with the methodology and application of spatial economet- rics. This emerging subfield of applied econometrics focuses on the incorporation of location and spatial interaction in the specification, estimation and diagnostic testing of regression models. The current effort is a follow up to the New Directions volume. Even...

The field of spatial econometrics, which is concerned with statistical and econo metric techniques to be used to handle spatial effects in multiregional models, was first touched upon in the 1950s. It was given its name in the early 70s by Jean Paelinck and has expanded since. Its development can be monitored in various monographs that have been published since, starting with the seminal work by Andrew Cliff and Keith Ord. Also, the wide array of journals in which contributions to spatial econometrics have been published, shows that the relevance of the field is not restricted to regional...