Editing Regional science (section)

==Academic programs==

[[Walter Isard]]'s efforts culminated in the creation of a few academic departments and several university-wide programs in regional science. At Walter Isard's suggestion, the [[University of Pennsylvania]] started the Regional Science Department in 1956. It featured as its first graduate [[William Alonso]] and was looked upon by many to be the international academic leader for the field. Another important graduate and faculty member of the department is [[Masahisa Fujita]]. The core curriculum of this department was [[microeconomics]], [[input-output analysis]], [[location theory]], and [[statistics]]. Faculty also taught courses in [[mathematical programming]], [[transportation economics]], [[labor economics]], energy and ecological policy modeling, [[spatial statistics]], spatial interaction theory and models, [[benefit/cost analysis]], urban and regional analysis, and economic development theory, among others. But the department's unusual multidisciplinary orientation undoubtedly encouraged its demise, and it lost its department status in 1993.<ref>Boyce, David. 2004. "A Short History of the field of Regional Science," ''Papers in Regional Science,'' 83, 31–57. The source for a few dates in this paragraph.</ref>

With a few exceptions, such as [[Cornell University]] which awards graduate degrees in Regional Science <ref>[http://aap.cornell.edu/crp/programs/regsci/ Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Department of City and Regional Planning: About Regional Science]</ref> and where Walter Isard had spent the rest of his life after UPENN, most practitioners hold positions in departments such as economics, geography, [[civil engineering]], [[agricultural economics]], [[rural sociology]], urban planning, public policy, or [[demography]]. The diversity of disciplines participating in regional science have helped make it one of the most interesting and fruitful fields of academic specialization, but it has also made it difficult to fit the many perspectives into a curriculum for an academic major. It is even difficult for authors to write regional science textbooks, since what is elementary knowledge for one discipline might be entirely novel for another.<ref>Scott Loveridge discusses the pros and cons of a multidisciplinary field. [http://www.rri.wvu.edu/loveridgeintroregsci.htm link]  {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100624065420/http://www.rri.wvu.edu/loveridgeintroregsci.htm |date=June 24, 2010 }}</ref>