An international congress in Barcelona looks at new challenges for urban areas and European regions
The international congress organized by the European Regional Science Organization (ERSA), this year entitled "New Challenges for European Regions and Urban Areas in a Globalised World", will be held at the UB's Faculty of Economics and Business from 30 August to 3 September, with contributions expected from experts in various areas of the social sciences, including economists, geographers and public administration staff. The ERSA Congress, now into its 51st edition, moves to a different city every year and was held in 2010 in Jönköping (Sweden), with the distinguished guest Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics.
The international congress organized by the European Regional Science Organization (ERSA), this year entitled "New Challenges for European Regions and Urban Areas in a Globalised World", will be held at the UB's Faculty of Economics and Business from 30 August to 3 September, with contributions expected from experts in various areas of the social sciences, including economists, geographers and public administration staff. The ERSA Congress, now into its 51st edition, moves to a different city every year and was held in 2010 in Jönköping (Sweden), with the distinguished guest Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics.
The congress will focus on a variety of topics, in particular regional economic growth and development; agglomerations, clusters and policy; public finance and regional development; globalization and regional competitiveness; cross-border cooperation and development; geographical information systems and spatial analysis; infrastructures, transport and communications; and tourism, cultural industries and regional development. In addition, one of the sessions will be devoted to a case study of Barcelona and its surrounding area.
Speakers at the congress will include Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for Regional Policy; Richard Florida, Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and professor ar the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto; David Audretsch, Director of the Institute for Development Strategies at Indiana University and research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), London; Maryanne Feldman, Distinguished Chair in Public Policy at the University of North Carolina; and Diego Puga, professor at the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies and Co-Director of the International Trade and Regional Economics Programme at the CEPR. The congress is expected to attract over one thousand participants.
The European Regional Science Association is formed by academics and policy professionals specializing in spatial economics, planning and local and regional development, and academics, researchers and professionals from disciplines such as economics, geography and planning. The annual international congress has grown in size and prestige each year since its inception. This year's edition in Barcelona has been organized jointly with the Catalan and Spanish regional science associations and with the Research in Applied Economics Network, formed by the applied economics research groups of public universities in Catalonia (currently seven groups) and partly funded by the Ministry of Economy and Knowledge of the Generalitat. The UB professor Jordi Suriñach, President of the Organizing Committee for this year's congress, has made specific mention of the long tradition of regional scientific research in the Catalan capital. The congress is supported by various public bodies, including the Generalitat, the the Barcelona Regional Council and the Barcelona City Council.
Further information is given in the video below: