C.P.A. Bartels - Böcker

In September 1977 a "Regional Science Symposium" was held at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Goningen in the Netherlands. The impetus in organizing this symposium was the recent estab­ lishmen t at the F acuIty of Economics of a group engaged in teaching and research within the field of regional science. The aim of the symposium was to familiarize university members with regional science and to introduce the new group to both the national and international scene. Two separate topics of potential interest to both researchers and policy-makers were selected. The first theme, spatial inequalities and regional development, was chosen because of its central place in regional science. Authors from several disciplines were asked to approach this theme from a general, policy-oriented point of view. This ensured the spotlighting of the various dimensions of spatial inequality and its implications for regional policy. The results of their efforts have been collected in a volume entitled Spatial Inequalities and Regional Development. The second theme focussed on spatial statistical analysis. This branch of statistics is a relatively new one. It is receiving growing attention from researchers in the field of applied regional science. The conference dealing with this topic concentrated on recent research results related to the use of appropriate statistical and econometric methods for analyzing spatial data. The papers con­ cerned have been collected in another volume, entitled Exploratory and Explanatory Statistical Analysis of Spatial Data.

This book is the product of research which I undertook for my doc- toral thesis. The project was started whilst I was at the Free Univer- sity of Amsterdam, and the State University of Groningen gave me ample opportunity to complete the work. At both universities I was lucky enough to find kind colleagues who were willing to perform my teaching tasks, enabling me to spend much of my time some of on my research. I should like to thank Wietze Boomsma, Kees van den Hoeven and Jan Oosterhaven for their kind help. I was also most encouraged to discover several students at both institutions who were interested in the research topic. This meant that some research could be performed with their co-operation, which proved most stimulating. Harry ter Braak and Henk van Metelen were especially enthusiastic helpers. During the initial stage of research, Fons Bertens did a great deal of meticulous work, with never a com- plaint. In the final stages, Arend Stemerding helped me greatly. The completed manuscript was read by Nol Merkies and Peter Nijkamp, who had some helpful comments on the contents.Pro- fessor Nijkamp succeeded in stimulating me during the research by his interest in the project and subsequent edifying discussions. Several persons helped to type the manuscript, but Yvonne van Tuyl took the lion's share, typing a perfect final copy in record time.