Spatial Economics

An authoritative and cutting-edge exploration of how land, transportation, and economic forces shape cities, regions, and the distribution of economic activities from a local to a global scale.

Land, by its very nature, is immobile and unproduced, creating competition for prime locations that drives disparities in economic outcomes. Transportation, meanwhile, serves as the mechanism for overcoming spatial frictions but imposes costs that influence where firms and individuals choose to locate. Together, these factors explain the emergence and persistence of cities, regional disparities, and even global patterns of economic concentration. In Spatial Economics, Hans R.A. Koster, Stef Proost, and Jacques-François Thisse explore how cities, regions, and the global economy are shaped by the interplay between location, land use, and transportation. The authors examine why economic activities are clustered in large metropolitan areas and dispersed in vast areas, driven by the balance between the gains from concentration and various congestion and pollution costs. Blending classical theories with modern data and modeling approaches, the book addresses urbanization, spatial inequality, and the effects of policies like infrastructure investments and land regulations. Accessible yet rigorous, it offers valuable insights for understanding the geographic organization of economic activity in today's interconnected world.

Hans R.A. Koster is Professor of Urban Economics and Real Estate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and an urban economist focusing on housing markets, urban spatial structure, spatial inequality, and regional policies. He teaches courses on applied econometrics, spatial and urban economics and serves as associate editor at Regional Science and Urban Economics. His work has appeared in leading journals and has earned several awards.

Stef Proost is Professor Emeritus at KULeuven, where he taught Environmental, Energy and Transport economics to engineers and economists. His research focuses on tax reform, climate change, and political economics of transport pricing and investment. He was visiting professor at several universities in the US, France, Germany, and Sweden.

Jacques-François Thisse is Professor Emeritus at UC Louvain. A Fellow of the Econometric Society and the Regional Science Association International, he has published over 200 articles in scientific journals and in different fields such as industrial organization, spatial and urban economics, trade and management science. He was awarded in 2024 the Founder's Medal of the Regional Science Association International.