Expert Meeting on Externalities
January 11-13, 2001

The concept of "externalities" in general and "spatial externalities" in particular has gained considerable recent attention in economics. Both from a theoretical perspective as well as empirically, the explicit modeling of interacting agents (e.g., strategic interaction) rather than isolated agents has come to the fore in a range of sub-fields in economics (economic geography, labor economics, public, urban and real estate economics, environmental and natural resource economics, etc.). In addition, new paradigms that emphasize increasing returns, path dependence and imperfect competition have led to a renewed interest in agglomeration economies and spatial externalities. Complementing this theoretical focus, the explosion in the availability of geo-coded economic information collected at a range of spatial scales has strengthened the need to explicitly take into account spatial effects in econometric methodology (spatial econometrics).

Our ultimate purpose is to identify the ways in which CSISS can support the development and dissemination of spatial theories and concepts, tools and techniques (such as geographic information systems), and formal analytic methods that will support research efforts.

Meeting Goals

• research questions related to externalities, where consideration of the spatial dimensions of the issues has led to, or is most likely to lead to new insights;
  
  
• emerging issues in research on externalities requiring new developments in spatial theory, methodology or technology, with an eye to developing future CSISS workshops (this would include identifying topics, target audiences, and potential workshop instructors);
  
  
• specific learning materials that could be collected, developed, and disseminated by CSISS, to support research and instruction on the spatial aspects of externalities;
  
  
• specific software tools, including methods, platforms, and implementations, that CSISS could refine or further develop to support research and instruction on externalities; and
  
  
• specific materials related to the study of externalities that could be collected as part of CSISS' virtual community

Steering Committee

• Luc Anselin, Chair
  (CSISS, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
  
  
• Jan Brueckner
  (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
  
  
• Robert Deacon
  (University of California, Santa Barbara)