P. Nijkamp

Tinbergen Institute · Economics

The spatial configuration of urban systems has garnered significant interest from various disciplines, including urban planners, economists, and ecologists, due to its interconnectedness with various aspects of sustainable development. Research on urban form suggests a departure from the conventional model of a gradually declining density gradient...

This note presents the scope and contents of a special collection in the Journal of Transport and Land Use, devoted to the theme of “Modeling Choice Behavior of Cyclists and Pedestrians in Urban Activity Space.” The aim of the special issue is to explore the significance of active transport modes—specifically, cycling and walking—in promoting susta...

This paper introduces a model of political competition under distinct institutional regimes to trace the economic performance of what we call "techno-creative places." Specifically, we analyze how political competition in high-tech places that are creative in the sense of Richard Florida affects fiscal (tax) policy and consequent economic outcomes....

Understanding the complex spatial interaction between urban livability and tourism is critical for promoting sustainable development of tourist destinations taking into account the spatial spillover effects of visitors. The present chapter assumes that the local recreation system—comprising of effective demands, internal mobility, and spatial costs...

There are no book length treatments of spatial spillovers that provide theoretical and empirical analyses of this topic within different regions in the continent of Asia. As such, the primary objective of this book is to provide expansive studies of spatial spillovers and their salience by focusing on several regions in Asia. Following this introdu...

Sustainable tourism development is a major policy challenge for many cities, regions or countries. This paper describes various novel analytical ingredients to ensure a consistent and professional policy strategy in tourism destinations. In all cases, reliable and accessible data are necessary for an actionable tourism policy. In the present study...

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has provided a renewed impetus for empirical research on slow and active modes of transportation, specifically bicycling and walking. Changes in modal choice appear to be sensitive to the actual quality of the environment, the attractive land use and built environment conditions, and the ultimate destination choice. Thi...

This paper addresses the global imperative of implementing sustainable initiatives in contemporary industrial and service sectors, with a focus on the tourism industry's quest for resilience and recovery post the COVID-19 pandemic. To foster balanced tourism development, the necessity for evidence-based information at local and regional levels is e...

This paper assesses the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) of EU member states and regions to uncover commonalities and differences between green and digital transitions, focusing on the role of institutions, among additional socio‐economic drivers, in modeling them. To that end, relevant indicators have been assembled, and several econ...

A strong and attractive educational system serves normally as a cornerstone for enhancing a nation’s long-term socio-economic development potential. In recent years, bullying among pupils or students has become a pressing issue in many schools, with significant negative repercussions for both pupils (or students) and their educational environment....

The ‘ Happy Feet ’–‘ Green Beauty ’ tourism nexus represents the functional spatial interplay between entertainment‐centered tourism and nature‐based visitors' choices. This paper seeks to explain rural (non‐urban) tourism patterns emerging from the interaction between the two forms of tourism in the context of sustainable destination development,...

In the context of the increasing frequency and coverage of natural and manmade hazards and disasters worldwide and their relation to climate change, more and more approaches in resilience studies highlight not just the importance of bouncing back but also the idea of bouncing forward to a higher quality or superior equilibrium state. Building upon...

There are no book length treatments of spatial spillovers that provide theoretical and empirical analyses of this topic within different regions in the continent of Asia. As such, the primary objective of this book is to provide expansive studies of spatial spillovers and their salience by focusing on several regions in Asia. Following this introdu...

We analyze aspects of economic growth in a stylized, high-tech region with two distinct features. First, the residents of this region are high-tech because they possess skills. Using the language of Richard Florida, these residents comprise the region's creative class and hence they possess creative capital. Second, the region is high-tech because...

Resilience has become a crucial concept in understanding the ability of complex systems to withstand shocks and adapt to future challenges. This concept has recently gained much attention in various disciplines, including geography and regional science. For example, the European Union has recognized the importance of resilience-based policies in th...

The city comprises of a wide variety of heterogeneous territorial units (e.g. districts or neighbourhoods). In many – especially larger – cities, social capital assets (like community bonds) are mirrored at the level of neighbourhoods which form the home for many sociocultural communities or distinct socio-economic classes. We postulate in this stu...

This paper presents a controlled AI-experiment investigating text interpretation in the context of the regional development literature. With the rapid advancement of digital technology applications, text interpretation and generation have become increasingly prevalent, offering profound implications for scientific research in the social sciences, i...

In the age of smart or intelligent cities, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a spectrum of new opportunities and challenges for both the research and policy community. The present study explores the intricate interplay between AI-generated content and actual choice spectra in urban planning. It focuses on the concept of 'city intelli...

This introductory chapter sketches out the challenges inherent in attempts to create or maintain a liveable urban world. Particular attention is given to climatological and environmental issues in modern cities (e.g. circular cities, carbon–neutral cities). In this context the notion of ‘smart cities’ is highlighted as an anchor point for achieving...

Most cities exhibit a rise in socio-economic heterogeneity and cultural diversity. Is there a common future perspective for a balanced development of liveable cities? Adopted at Habitat III in Quito, the New Urban Agenda envisages future cities as inclusive places for sustainable development. However, if people’s conceptions of liveability are very...

The special issue has two objectives. First, it aims to improve our understanding of the impacts of pandemics and public policy responses, especially their economic impact across different sectors and geographical space. Second, it showcases how various spatial analysis tools and modelling techniques can be employed for an evidence-based impact ass...

Education plays a vital role in the development of any country or region, making it imperative to address obstacles that hinder educational quality such as school bullying. This is an under-researched topic in the social sciences. Bullying is a form of social mistreatment that may have detrimental effects, because students who experience frequent b...

Labor market dynamics is shaped by various social, psychological and economic drivers. Studies have suggested that job quit and labor market turnover are associated with job satisfaction. This study examines the determinants of job satisfaction using a large survey dataset, namely the LISS Work and Schooling module on an extensive sample of persons...

Urban areas provide the seedbed conditions for a variety of agglomeration advantages, including incubator conditions for the ICT sector. This study aims to present the foundations for a data-driven digital architecture based on the notion of open access platform organisations (e.g., platform cities). The principles of coordinated multi-actor data h...

Local energy transition initiatives – as part of a broader climate-benign and sustainability policy – have become a focal point of future-oriented resource and environmental strategies. Place-based energy conversion however, has turned out to be a very complicated task, from both a governance and research perspective. The present study seeks to ske...

COVID-19 has a dramatic impact on the use of public transport (PT). Most European cities report a decline in PT use during 2020 and 2021. Nevertheless, not all cities report similar decline patterns or comparable resilience paths. We investigate the resilience patterns of PT use during 2020 and 2021 in 15 European cities from 11 different countries...

In recent years, slow travel modes (walking, cycling) have gained much interest in the context of urban air quality management. This article presents the findings from a novel air quality measurement experiment in the Netherlands, by regarding cyclists as carriers and transmitters of real-world information on fine-grained air quality conditions. Us...

This chapter aims to explore the determinants of the reduction in workplace mobility during 2020 in 10 Canadian provinces and 50 US states. A set of 29 variables representing regional industrial composition, remote working potential and government support policies along with other main socio-economic and demographic attributes is used. The main emp...

Cities are increasingly seen as people’s habitat. Citizen tend to regard urban life not only as a convenient way of finding a job or acquiring income, but also as a modus vivendi to enjoy a great variety of urban amenities (culture, friendship, entertainment, urban ‘ambiance’, etc.). Against this background, we observe a rapid rise in urban [un]hap...

Settlement centers of various types, including cities, produce basins of attraction whose shape can be regular or complexly irregular (from the point of view of geometry). This complexity depends in part on properties of the space surrounding a settlement. This paper demonstrates that by introducing a dynamic approach to space and by including an e...

Climate change, energy transition needs and the current energy crisis have prompted cities to implement far-reaching changes in public energy supply. The present paper seeks to map out the conditions for sustainable energy provision and use, with a particular view to the role of citizens in a quadruple helix context. Citizen participation is often...

The recent COVID-19 experience has left deep traces in the urban fabric and has prompted a re-orientation regarding the future of cities. Is an urban overhaul on the way? And will digital technology erode conventional urban agglomeration advantages? The socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic will definitely leave their mark on cities.

The Russian invasion in Ukraine prompts a range of policy and research challenges, not only on geopolitical issues, but also on knowledge capital that is needed for a sustainable reconstruction of Ukraine. This paper seeks to sketch the desired or necessary regional science expertise during the recovery stage of this country (‘prosilience’), after...

Knowledge management technology is now ubiquitous in many businesses, yet it is much less common among local authorities. Following a “brainstorm meeting” in Lyon on knowledge management for regional planning and policymaking, a proposal was developed to set up a research agendum for future development of this topic. The main difficulty we identifi...

This paper aims to map out the significance of blockchain technology systems for smart spatial (urban and regional) strategies and applications. After a general introduction to blockchain application domains, it offers a critical review of, as well as operational design principles for blockchain possibilities in a smart spatial context. Next, a rec...

In Section 2 – Some tools for a new governance of Reconnecting the city with nature and history

We focus on the interaction between a representative polluting tannery and a negatively impacted small farmer in Kanpur, India. The tannery produces leather and toxic chemical waste that ends up in wastewater used by the small farmer to irrigate agricultural land and grow vegetables. The waste generated by the tannery is functionally related to its...

COVID-19 had a dramatic impact on the use of transit. Most European cities report a decline in transit use during 2020 and 2021. Nevertheless, not all cities report similar decline patterns or comparable resilience paths. We investigate the resilience patterns of transit use during 2020 and 2021 in 15 European cities from 11 different countries usi...

This study examines and tests the concept of ‘city love’ in the context of social resilience for urban neighbourhoods. It introduces the notion of ‘city body’ and ‘city soul’ so as to create an operational framework for measuring the citizens’ appreciation and attachment for the local neighbourhood. Particular attention is given to the social bonds...

Regional science has, in its great history since the 1950s, made a decisive contribution to a better scientific understanding of spatial development issues and dynamics and to a more effective implementation of knowledge-based regional policy in many countries of the world, in both developed and developing nations on our planet. This special issue...

After the 2008 financial crisis, institutional adaptability and economic diversification through smart specialization have been considered key forces for attaining an effective resilience trajectory of regional economies. Successful policy responses should not capture only limited, conjunctural and transitory measures, but should rather promote pro...

Leisure mobility forms an important part of people's spatial activity and mobility spectrum. This study aims to analyse the inequality dimensions of spatial mobility of individuals who seek to move to recreational and leisure destinations (often 'green' and 'blue') on designated days. The study traces-through the use of spatially dependent multilev...

After the worldwide interest in global sustainability and climate change challenges, an increasing concern is voiced on local quality of life and neighbourhood liveability. In recent urban studies, human well-being, satisfaction and happiness studies are gaining much popularity in a local context (the ‘microcosmic city’). The present study seeks to...

To limit the spread of Covid‐19, most countries in the world have put in place measures which restrict mobility. The co‐presence of several people in the same place of work, shopping, leisure, or transport is considered a favourable vector for the transmission of the virus. However, this hypothesis remains to be verified in the light of the daily d...

Settlement centers of various types, including cities, produce basins of attraction whose shape can be regular or complexly irregular (from the point of view of geometry). It depends, among others, on the properties of the space surrounding a city. Central Place Theory (CPT), a well-known concept in economic geography and spatial economics, explain...

Over the past decades, the Asia-Pacific Rim has exhibited an unprecedented high degree of economic and geographic dynamics. Clearly, cities in this region display heterogeneity in terms of economic performance, technological innovativeness, environmental conditions and cultural recognition and interaction. It is, therefore, interesting to develop a...

This paper seeks to analyse the significance of cultural amenities in a city for its socio-economic performance. In particular, our study aims to provide an evidence-based answer to the question which cities are the most efficient in terms of their multidimensional economy-culture ratio, and why. This analysis is pursued by using a large database o...

There is an abundance of studies on the urban-rural dichotomy. In the mainstream economic and regional science literature, the urban centers have usually been described as growth machines, growth poles, or growth foci, and urbanization as a driver of economic growth. It is commonly assumed that the assemblage of factors of production in urban cente...

Asia hosts several mega-cities with great economic power, which are often in a mutual competitive relationship. Despite smart specialisation and heterogeneity on national and global markets, they are often in pursuit of the highest possible socio-economic outcome so as to outperform their peers in this dynamic region. The present study seeks to pre...

Ups and downs in city life are dependent on the citizens' appreciation for their urban ‘home’, in particular the neighbourhood liveability. Taking modern research on urban wellbeing and happiness as a point of departure, this study presents and tests a new methodology for assessing the residents' affection for their local neighbourhood. This approa...

We identify vulnerable groups through the examination of their employment status in the face of the initial COVID‐19 shock through the application of tree‐based ensemble machine learning algorithms on a sample of individuals of over 50 years old. The present study elaborates on the findings through various interpretable machine learning techniques,...

We study interregional competition for mobile creative capital between regions A and B. Regional authorities (RAs) in both regions use tax policy to attract the creative capital possessing members of the creative class to their region. The resulting tax revenues help RAs finance other objectives such as the provision of one or more public goods. In...

The multivariate pluriformity and complexity of economic-geographic space (e.g., cities or countries) are reflected in their empirical multidimensional data structure with space–time characteristics. The need to reduce the multiple dimensions of an observation space is present in all social (and other) sciences seeking to identify basic patterns or...

This paper seeks to study work-related and geographical conditions under which innovativeness is stimulated through the analysis of individual and regional data dating from just prior to the smartphone age. As a result, by using the ISSP 2005 Work Orientations Survey, we are able to examine the role of work flexibility, among other work-related con...

This study aims to conceptualise the organisational framing of tourism management in touristified cities, focusing on the assessment of participatory processes of tourism planning. A grounded theory approach is used to analyse and discuss the role of the newly created consultive Tourism Council of Barcelona. An analysis of in-depth interviews under...

Ageing outcomes are shaped by not only health conditions, but also their interactions with the external environment. While the effects of some specific neighbourhood characteristics such as rurality on ageing have been evaluated in various studies, we still know little about the relative importance of particular natural and urban environments and h...

Modern cities face many new challenges as a result of the ‘digital age’, in particular the uncertain promise of high urban benefits from the widespread use of communication technology in a smart city context. This essay introduces the theme of ‘Shared Spaces in Smart Places’, the connection between information technology and urban community. Just l...

The geographic dispersion and size distribution of cities seem, at first glance, to exhibit a random pattern. Clearly, physical geography, geo-political history and climatology shape irregular constraints and forms in the global pattern of urban evolution, so that an entirely regular spatial picture of cities and their interactions in space is not...

The ‘X Factor’ is a British reality show – broadcasted all over the world – in which a heterogeneous set of contestants showcase their musical talent so as to obtain the winning bid from a jury. The X factor refers to the critical condition that has the most significant influence on the final result. This popular television series on the X fact...

This contribution posits that the tourism sector—as part of the leisure society—deserves a more prominent position in regional science. After a general outline of trends in modern tourism, this chapter argues that promising research angles can be found in: (a) the closer examination of the complex components of leisure time, (b) the income drivers...

Tourism is an important key sector in regional and national economies which appears to have often a favorable recovery potential after a shock, leading to the notion of resilience capacity of regions. In the context of a tourism-led growth mechanism, the concept of tourism-led resilience capacity is introduced (constituted of sustained tourism resi...

The rise of peer-to-peer booking networks for accommodations such as Airbnb has significantly altered the tourism landscape and has had broad implications for destination management. Apart from providing direct competition to the traditional hospitality sector, concerns have been raised about urban gentrification effects—through an influence on hou...

This chapter aims to provide an empirical contribution to trace key geographical factors for inbound and domestic tourism in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. In this study we use a set of relevant input and output data in 2015 for a set of 54 cities, towns and villages in Hokkaido Prefecture, so as to evaluate and compare their territorial tourism effic...

In the wake of current urbanization trends, Creative Class theory has gained much popularity. According to the theory, in order to achieve sustainable socioeconomic growth and citizens' well-being, cities have to attract the Creative Class, who prefer places that simultaneously provide amenities such as tolerance, talent, technology, and territoria...

This study combines three interconnected streams in tourism literature: analysis of the utilisation of common pool resources (CPR) in tourism, studies on sustainable tourism development and theoretical contributions to the articulation of roles, missions and strategies of a destination management organisation (DMO). Starting from an integrative lit...

This paper posits that regional science—as a multidisciplinary analysis of the functioning of regions—has, in its historical evolution, largely neglected the specific role of borders. Borders do not only act as barriers with friction costs in an otherwise open human interaction space; they are multidimensional organizing principles for mobility, in...

The link between the management of uncertainty and knowledge creation is the core element behind firm survival, as these two factors are critical for true innovation. This article links the survival of highly innovative firms to their knowledge creation and application in the context of two types of uncertainty management: (i) the individual firm's...