Eveline S. Van Leeuwen

Wageningen University & Research | WUR · Urban Economics

In his presidential address to the Regional Science Association over thirty years ago, William Alonso presented the case for “Five Bell Shapes in Development” and argued that “the developed countries will enter fully in to the realm of the right-hand tail of these curves” (p. 16) and that this transition might result in several surprises. He propos...

Cultural services of the landscape contribute to a higher quality of life. The provision of these services differs along the urban–rural gradient, as does their appreciation by local residents. This paper investigates residents’ preferences for cultural services along the urban–rural gradient through a map-based survey in and around the Dutch city...

There has been much progress in regional science with the development and application of both multi-sectoral macro-economic models and microsimulation models of household attributes. Yet, to date, there have been few, if any, major projects to link both models within a regional economic system. The aim of this chapter is to put forward a number of...

In his presidential address to the Regional Science Association over thirty years ago, William Alonso presented the case for “Five Bell Shapes in Development” and argued that “the developed countries will enter fully in to the realm of the right-hand tail of these curves” (p. 16) and that this transition might result in several surprises. He propos...

This paper combines game theory and agent-based modelling, two powerful tools that economists use to understand the behavior of economic agents. We construct an agent-based version of Hotelling’s two-stage game of spatial competition and explore the possibilities of creating synergies between the two approaches. Game theoretic insights into strateg...

This article addresses the differentiated impacts of various sectors and branches in a multi-layer spatial system. The key question is whether in an interdependent spatial system – comprising a local, regional and national component – one or more core industries or sectors can be identified that may act as strategic handles for long-range sustainab...

Regions are continually developing. Innovations in agricultural and industrial production affect urban and rural areas in different ways, and climate change and developments in transport and (tele)communication have strong effects on the interaction between them. Although urban and rural areas are often studied separately, systemic effects are clea...

With more than 50 percent of the European population (EU-24) living in rural areas and a renewed focus on stimulating smart, sustainable and socially inclusive growth, Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) are an important instrument for economic, social and environmental policies. Evaluating the impact of rural development programmes is, however, co...

E-services are increasingly important communication tools for tourism providers but not all tourists prefer the same type of services. This work compares the preferences for e-services according to the characteristics of tourists and the implications on their expenditures during travel to the cities of Amsterdam and Leipzig. In addition, the determ...

The varied supply of tourism services – with particular emphasis on tangible and intangible cultural aspects – corresponds ideally to visitors' characteristics and wishes. This paper considers a major tourist destination, such as Amsterdam, as an export-oriented multiproduct company, characterized by spatial and functional market segmentation and m...

Iterative Proportional Fitting (IPF), also known as biproportional fitting, 'raking' or the RAS algorithm, is an established procedure used in a variety of applications across the social sciences. Primary amongst these for urban modelling has been its use in static spatial microsimulation to generate small area microdata – individual level data all...

The concept of sustainability is increasingly applied in urban facilities planning, including a University campus. A campus can essentially be seen as a living laboratory for the development of ecologically-benign practices connected to the social interactions of an academic environment. Sustainable (re)development of a University campus calls for...

Complex datasets to better understand complex urban networks Massive new streams of data with respect to movement and location patterns in city systems are rapidly becoming available. Comprehensive data are being routinely collected at the individual level relating to where economic and social activities are carried out in cities. These are providi...

As a result of advances in ICT services, transportation and local development, among others, more destinations are competing to attract both national and international visitors. Globalization requires destinations to increase their competitiveness or risk losing out on tourist revenues. While the research into destination competitiveness and touris...

This paper addresses the question of the value attached by residents to the wealth of cultural heritage in their city. Particular attention is given to the impact of various types of information (ranging from traditional to advanced ICT sources) on residents’ valuation of cultural heritage. Based on an extensive survey among inhabitants of Amsterda...

Apart from their contribution to the local economy in terms of input, output and employment, farmers also play a major role in shaping and maintaining our (natural) environment and landscapes. However, with the (planned) decrease in agricultural subsidies, these activities are at risk. For that reason, it would be useful when farmers could benefit...

Focusing on the strategic position of towns in rural development, this book explores how they act as hotspots for knowledge creation, diffusion for vital business life and innovation, and social networks and community bonds. By doing so, towns - even the smallest - can cope with processes of socio-economic decline and promote a geographically balan...

Focusing on the strategic position of towns in rural development, this book explores how they act as hotspots for knowledge creation, diffusion for vital business life and innovation, and social networks and community bonds. By doing so, towns - even the smallest - can cope with processes of socio-economic decline and promote a geographically balan...

This article addresses the differentiated impacts of various sectors and branches in a multi-layer regional system. As a case-study the Cairngorms National Park (CNP) in Scotland is used. In this area, policy makers ”at different administrative levels” strongly emphasize the need for new sustainable economic development. We use a novel combination...

This paper addresses the question of the value attached by residents of tourist places to the wealth of cultural heritage in their city. Particular attention is given to the impact of various types of information (ranging from traditional to advanced ICT sources) on the residents’ valuation of cultural heritage. Based on an extensive survey among i...

‘If … then …’ is a conditional proposition that describes precisely a logical causal statement about possible future events. Obtaining due insight into an uncertain future has been a permanent source of rational speculation in the history of mankind. In the Hellenistic period, the foundation for systematic foresight analysis was already laid by the...

Abstract: Complexity and uncertainty are key issues in exploring future developments. Moreover, although the future cannot be predicted, it is clear that certain decisions/actions can influence the future in desired directions. In this respect, planners are being challenged to focus on the development of new approaches and tools, capable of dealing...

Innovations in information and communication technologies (ICT) in recent decades have had profound implications for tourism services, promotion, or distribution. We apply a Structural Equations Model (SEM) to analyse the eelationships between the characteristics of tourists visiting Amsterdam, the importance they attach to different kinds of infor...

The increasing scarcity of natural resources prompts the need to develop effective strategies for sustainable development at regional levels with a view to balancing the interests of different groups of actors or stakeholders. This study aims to address the stakeholders' multifaceted viewpoints on future sustainable development, mainly at regional...

Popular urban tourist destinations attract large numbers of overnight visitors and excursionists. Since cities perform a multitude of functions, the space requirements of tourists can sometimes interfere with those of local users. This paper addresses the issue of disutilities of space congestion through a dichotomous choice experiment. A resident...

Complexity and uncertainty are key issues in exploring future developments. Moreover, although the future cannot be predicted, it is clear that certain decisions/actions can influence the future in desired directions. In this respect, planners are being challenged to focus on the development of new approaches and tools, capable of dealing with comp...

It is increasingly acknowledged that a careful planning of urban areas is needed to cope with the negative effects of future climate changes. The planning process calls for finding a balance between various ecosystem services, such as, water and air purification, the regulation of rainfall, the preservation of natural and cultural values, increased...

The purpose of this study is to investigate and model the way touristic agents in Amsterdam design and organize their products in order to satisfy the needs of tourists with different geographic origins, characteristics, motivations and purposes. Applying the concept of a multi-product firm to a city, Amsterdam is presented as a multi-product touri...

VAN LEEUWEN E. S. and RIETVELD P. Spatial consumer behaviour in small and medium-sized towns, Regional Studies. Small and medium-sized towns are often recognized as important components of the rural economy. This paper focuses on the current function of small and medium-sized towns in providing retail services to local households in five European c...

This study attempts to formulate a conceptual and operational model that encapsulates the highlights of scientific sustainability research and that identifies the critical success factors of sustainable development from the perspective of different stakeholder groups. It seeks to identify viable consensus pathways in sustainable development strateg...

Despite a busy lifestyle – or perhaps as a result of a stressful lifestyle – more people than ever before make leisure trips, sometimes for a long time but in many cases just for short periods. Modern telecommunication technology brings attractive tourist destinations directly into the living rooms of potential travelers, also destinations that wou...

Despite a busy lifestyle -- or perhaps as a result of a stressful lifestyle -- more people than ever before make leisure trips, sometimes for a long time but in many cases just for short periods. Modern telecommunication technology brings attractive tourist destinations directly into the living rooms of potential travellers, also destinations that...

Nowadays, e-services technology has demonstrated a pervasive character in the modern tourism industry. E-services implemented by the tourism industry, e.g., e-tourism, appeared to produce significant cost reductions and market efficiencies. Since online services are continuously accessible, time and geographic differences do not hinder the interact...

The aim of this research is to evaluate future retail developments in a medium-sized town and the indirect effects of individual behaviour on the local economy. Therefore we combine a spatial microsimulation model with a conditional logit model estimating the spatial shopping behaviour of households to simulate the effect of future retail developme...

Tourism is on a rising curve from both policy and research perspectives. This paper presents new research advances on individual tourist behaviour and motives, with particular reference to the role of e-services in cultural heritage tourism. An innovative tool adopted here is (spatial) microsimulation modelling (MSM). This method is used to offer a...

Both traditional (von Thünen) and modern (Hayami & Ruttan, Krugman) theories on land use suggest that productions with a high value added per unit of land tend to be located near urban centres. In this article it is tested to what extent these theoretical findings are confirmed by empirical data on agricultural land use and production for the EU-9...

Taking into account the significant changes and challenges in rural areas and the economic and organizational advantages of towns, it can be expected that towns will become increasingly important for (inter)national policy makers, especially in relation to the decentralization of rural policies. This book aims to answer the following research quest...

This paper calls attention to the critical role of greenspaces in cities, while it overviews the many functions they provide. From a theoretical perspective, the utility function of urban greenspaces concerns multiple dimensions. Temporal, spatial and social aspects clearly need a taxonomic approach, which is also described in this study. Thus, the...

Microsimulation (MSM) is a technique that aims at modelling the likely behaviour of individual persons, households, or individual firms. In these models, agents represent members of a population for the purpose of studying how individual (i.e. micro-) behaviour generates aggregate (i.e. macro-) regularities from the bottom-up (e.g. Epstein, Complex...

A Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) can be seen as an analytical and predictive tool to represent and forecast system-wide effects of changes in exogenous factors. A great advantage of a SAM is its ability to capture a wide variety of developments in a (macro-) economy, as it links production, factor and income accounts. We use SAMs in this chapter be...

We can look at urban centres as advantageous exchange points for producers and consumers, in which both agglomeration economies and scope economies have a higher probability of occurring. History justifies this argument, and experience underlines the importance of towns in their organizational capacity. In this chapter we explore town and hinterla...

A great advantage of social accounting matrices (SAM) is their ability to capture a wide variety of processes in a (macro) economy as it links production, factor and income accounts. However, it lacks a certain distributional detail. A major advantage of (spatial) microsimulation (MSM) is the way in which individual behaviour can be simulated, whic...

In particular in remote rural areas, farm households (still) form a significant part of the local population and thus contribute to the vitality of rural settlements. In addition, also in the more urbanized regions, they are important providers of amenities such as the rural landscape, traditions and tranquillity: often called the ‘rural idyll’, In...

In this chapter, first of all the importance of small and medium-sized towns for rural households in relation to shopping, working and living in five European countries will be described. This analysis demonstrates the different functions towns can perform in different European contexts. With the help of a regression analysis we explore the determi...

Our modern space-economy is showing clear signs of far-reaching transformations, where the balance between urban and rural areas is at stake, both demographically and functionally. This study has addressed in particular the functioning of towns in modern rural areas. It can be concluded that, today as well, small and medium-sized towns still have...

This special issue is one of several reporting on papers presented during the 2nd General Conference of the International Microsimulation Association (IMA): “Microsimulation: Bridging Data and Policy”, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Canada, June 8th to 10th, 2009. The papers all deal with tax issues and are selected on the basis of innovativeness and r...

Modern Europe has rural roots. Even today, as much as 90 per cent of Europe (EU25) consists of rural areas in which half of the population lives. While different rural areas often face different challenges, the shift from agricultural production towards a multifunctional landscape and the increasing value assigned to environmental values affect all...

The behaviour of individual economic agents (e.g. persons, households or firms) influences policy efficiency. At the same time, policy and changes to policy affect behaviour of economic agents. In this paper, we focus on on- and off-farm activities of Dutch farmers. The share of income gained by off-farm activities, such as a job in town, has been...

On a local (town) scale, tourism is more and more being regarded as a possible instrument to change the future. With decreasing employment in agriculture, tourism is often seen as a new activity in the rural economy, generating employment and income and at the same time embracing local tradition and (landscape) qualities. Over the last decades, tou...

The ISAAC project has generated a wealth of new insights on cultural tourism. Particular attention has been paid to the strategic and operational importance of e-services in various European cities. The present paper brings together empirical insights from two angles, viz the supply and demand side, for the city of Amsterdam. First, a scenario anal...

This special issue is one of several reporting on papers presented during the 2nd General Conference of the International Microsimulation Association (IMA): “Microsimulation: Bridging Data and Policy”, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Canada, June 8th to 10th, 2009. The papers all deal with methodological issues and are selected on the basis of innovativ...

This paper aims to map out various research and policy challenges inherent in the need to cope with climate change. Therefore, four critical domains are identified which will most likely be seriously affected by climate change. Next, both the global/general and the regional/specific dimensions of these domains are described, with a view to the iden...

This paper draws the attention to the use of urban land use as a promising and new playground for urban green space design, including viable small-scale agricultural activities. First, an overview of urban green space planning is given, followed by a typology of approaches to evaluate urban green space. Next, the specific importance of urban green...

We show that the pseudo empirical maximum likelihood estimator can be recast as a calibration estimator. The process of estimating the probabilities pk of the distribution function can be done also in a maximum entropy framework. We suggest that a minimum cross-entropy estimator has attractive theoretical properties. A Monte Carlo simulation sugges...

This article presents the results of a study into the factors governing success and failure in innovative projects in the area of sustainable transport. This can be regarded as an important example of ‘social learning by doing’. Data obtained through interviews with key players in eight ambitious innovation cases for the Netherlands are analysed. C...

In planning research and, practice, many different tools are used, to understand spatial situations. As Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) are models that can include communicative qualities along with more analytical qualities, we argue that it can be a useful tool in spatial planning. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to show the possibilities of multi-...

In planning research and practice, many different tools are used to understand spatial situations. As Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) are models that can include communicative qualities along with more analytical qualities, we argue that it can be a useful tool in spatial planning. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to show the possibilities of multi-ag...

Nieuwe bedrijvigheid op voormalige boerderijen. Als gevolg van de terugloop van het aantal agrarische bedrijven komen in toenemede mate bedrijfsgebouwen vrij. Dit WOT rapport komt met een LEI inventarisatie van nieuwe bedrijvigheid. Het onderzoek bevat een literatuurstudie en beschrijft het belang van natuur en landschap als vestigingsfactor hierbi...

This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection a...

The growth of industries and cities is in many ways dependent on the agricultural sector, and thus indirectly on rural areas. In the past, the agricultural development has accelerated the growth of many cities, while, on the other hand, the growth of cities in various regions had a pervasive impact on agricultural production. Nevertheless, populati...

Projects carried out in river basin areas often impose changes in spatial functions that are situated in these areas. For decades, project evaluation was carried out by measuring tangible streams of cost and benefits summarised in a cost-benefit analysis. Recently, environmental and social aspects gradually have got more attention in the public dec...

In deze studie wordt een beeld geschetst van de plattelandseconomie in Nederland en wordt onderzocht hoe de plattelandseconomie kan worden versterkt. Er wordt met twee verschillende ruimtelijke afbakeningen van de plattelandseconomie gewerkt: COROPgebieden en het landelijk gebied buiten de dorpen en steden. Het behoud van de duurzame kwaliteit van...

This paper addresses the local-regional-supra-regional orientation of small-scale farms and firms in rural areas. Due attention is given to the role of local centres (villages, towns) for the functioning of rural areas. With help of a quantified indicator spatial linkages related to sales and purchases of small enterprises are shown. Furthermore th...

Since climate changes became more obvious and since growing concern about our responsibility for the environment started, water management became more important. Projects carried out in river basin areas often impose changes in spatial functions that are situated in these areas. The analysis of scarcity issues regarding spatial functions observed i...

A general concern on quality of life, with a particular view to the city has emerged in the last decade. The positive relation between quality of life and urban green is often described as significant. Therefore, public and private decision-makers want and need better information about the quantity and quality of urban green available in their city...