Aims and scope

Spatial Economic Analysis is a pioneering economics journal dedicated to the development of theory and methods in spatial economics. A spatial perspective is more relevant than ever to our understanding of economic and geographical phenomena, both globally and at the scale of neighbourhoods, cities and regions. Differences in economic performance at these scales are topical subjects for intellectual enquiry and have long been the focus of policy initiatives by national, regional and local governments.

The emphasis on space in the wider economics community builds on the longstanding work of regional scientists, spatial economists, economic geographers and political economists, and has been stimulated by the emergence of new theories that analyse the role of geography and location in economic phenomena.

Moreover, spatial economic analysis is increasingly supported by the emergence of new analytical methods, with an explosion of interest in new models and techniques for spatial data analysis and visualization. These include big data analytics, machine learning, geoinformatics, computational modelling, advances in input-output analysis, network econometrics, spatial econometrics and causal inference from spatial processes.

The editorial board of Spatial Economic Analysis therefore particularly welcomes:

  • innovative contributions to theory, methods and models related to urban and spatial matters;
  • contributions to key underrepresented geographical areas;
  • spatial economic analytical contributions to key underrepresented topics in the social sciences, such as criminology, demography, political science, public health, sociology, human geography; and
  • applications of spatial econometrics to microeconomic data, survey data, flow data, and limited dependent variables.

The journal also welcomes contributions to the Replication Studies section that replicate or document robustness tests of studies within the scope of the journal.

The journal is published by two of the world's leading learned societies in the analysis of spatial economics, the Regional Studies Association and the British and Irish Section of the Regional Science Association International.

Peer Review Statement

All articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and double-anonymized refereeing.

Authors can choose to publish gold open access in this journal.

Read the Instructions for Authors for information on articles, Replication Studies and how to submit your article.