Regional Science and Urban Economics 38 (2008) 407

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Regional Science and Urban Economics

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Introduction

This special issue honorsMasahisa Fujita on the occasion of his official retirement fromKyoto University. Most, though not all, ofthe papers published in this special issue were presented at several special sessions of the 2006 North American Regional ScienceAssociation Meetings in Toronto, Ontario honoring Masahisa Fujita, and several are written by former students and co-authors.Apart from being written to honor Masahisa Fujita, the papers do not bear a common theme. All papers went through the journal'snormal refereeing process.

Fujita majored in civil engineering as an undergraduate at Kyoto University. He obtained his Ph.D. in regional science from theUniversity of Pennsylvania, under Tony Smith, in 1972. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania for some 20 years, was on thefaculty at the Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University (KIER) from 1995 to 2007, and is currently President and ChiefResearch Officer of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry.

Fujita is well known for his work in urban location theory and also, along with Paul Krugman and Anthony Venables, as one ofthe pioneers in the new economic geography. He is the recipient of the 1983 Tord Palander Prize, the 1998 Walter Isard Award inregional science, and the First Alonso Prize, with Paul Krugman.

He has written four books:Spatial Development Planning. 1978. North-Holland.Urban Economic Theory — Land use and city size. 1989. Cambridge University Press.The Spatial Economy — Cities, regions and international trade. 1999. MIT Press (with Paul Krugman and Anthony Venables).Economics of Agglomeration — Cities, industrial location, and regional growth. 2002. Cambridge University Press (with Jacques-

François Thisse), as well as many journal articles, of which Multiple equilibria and structural transition of non-monocentric urbanconfigurations. 1982. Regional Science and Urban Economics 12: 161–196 deserves special mention.

Over a long and distinguished scholarly career, he has worked persistently and tirelessly in developing the economic theory oflocation and land use. Four contributions stand out: hiswork in elaborating and systematizingmonocentric city theory,which remainsthe cornerstone of urban economic theory; his seminal work in extending monocentric city theory to treat polycentric cities (whichentails determining the simultaneous locational equilibriumoffirms and households) and therefore in developing a theory of locationand land use for modern cities; his pioneering work, in conjunction with several co-authors but particularly Jacques Thisse,strengthening themicroeconomic foundations of agglomeration; and his seminal work, with Paul Krugman and Anthony Venables, inthe new economic geography, whichmodels the dynamics of agglomeration at the urban, regional, national, and international levels.

Fujita worked for many years with little professional recognition outside the regional science community. Academic celebritycame late, with his work in the new economic geography. But even today fewappreciate the breadth and depth of his contributionsto location theory. His corpus of work will endure, and future historians of economic thought will place him prominently in thepantheon of location theorists.

Fujita is an ideal scholar. Early on he chose his path – to modernize location theory and to strengthen its economicfoundations – and has never wavered from it. He has focused consistently on important and difficult problems and has nevercompromised on analytical or conceptual quality.

Masa – as he is generally known – is not only a scholar but also a gentleman. He is much beloved by his students, co-authors andother professional colleagues, for his gentle sense of humor, modesty, kindness, and overall generosity of spirit.

Thank you, Masa, for your invaluable contributions to the theory from which we all draw, for the example you have set us ofexcellence in scholarship, and for your fellowship and good nature. We are confident that official retirement does not meanintellectual retirement, and look forward to the benefit of your insight for many years to come.

Richard Arnott⁎Antonio Ciccone

⁎Corresponding author.E-mail address: richard.arnott@ucr.edu (R. Arnott).

0166-0462/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2008.05.005