Richard S. Conway Jr. - Empirical Regional Economics: Economic Base Theory, Models and Applications

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Empirical Regional Economics: Economic Base Theory, Models and Applications is an introduction to the field of regional economics for juniors, seniors, and graduate students majoring in economics, business, and geography. It should also appeal to anyone in the private or public sector who has an interest in gaining a better understanding of regional economic behavior and the practical methods of regional economic forecasting and analysis.

The book is based on a course (Economics 406: Topics in Applied Regional Economics) that I taught as an instructor in the University of Washington Department of Economics. The material is drawn from my fifty-year career as a researcher and consultant specializing in regional economic forecasting and analysis.

While earning a living as a private economist (Dick Conway and Associates, 19772017, and Conway Pedersen Economics, Inc., 19932017), I have managed to keep one foot in academia. Other courses I have taught include macroeconomics, regional analysis, and global trade, transportation, and logistics. I have published nineteen articles in regional economic journals and books and served for more than twenty years on the editorial boards of the Journal of Regional Science and the International Regional Science Review. For twenty-five years, Doug Pedersen and I published The Puget Sound Economic Forecaster, a quarterly forecast and commentary on the Puget Sound economy. The newsletter was sold to the Center for Economic and Business Research, Western Washington University, in 2017.

I have a particular interest in regional economic policy. Early in my career, I was principal consultant to the Washington State Economic Development Board, which was charged with preparing a long-term economic strategy for the state. Subsequently, I served 33 years as a member of the Washington Governors Council of Economic Advisors. I have also participated on the Washington State Tax Structure Study Committee and the Washington State Economic Climate Study Advisory Board.

As the title indicates, the book has an empirical orientation. With degrees in engineering, business, and regional science, I have come to appreciate the value of observation and testing in trying to explain regional economic behavior. Theory, specifically the economic base theory of regional growth, plays an important role in this study, but it is only a starting point.

As a final note, Empirical Regional Economics focuses on Washington state and the Puget Sound region. There are three reasons for limiting the geographical scope of the book. First, this is what I know, since Seattle is where I have spent virtually all of my professional career. Second, Washington and the Puget Sound region have a long and rich history of modeling, forecasting, and analysis, which has yielded many insights into regional economic behavior. Third, my work in other parts of the United States, involving such diverse economies as Oregon, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Hawaii, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, has convinced me that the lessons learned from the Washington and Puget Sound economies generally apply to other regions.

Since this book is primarily a textbook, a website has been designed to provide additional material for classroom use. It includes regional economic newsletters, case studies, and reports related to the book. The articles are selected to stimulate thought and discussion among the students. The URL of the website is www.empiricalregionaleconomics.com .