Raymond J.G.M. Florax (1956) holds degrees in economics and sociology from universities in his native country, The Netherlands. He joined Purdue and the Agricultural Economics Department in 2005. He is also associated with the Department of Spatial Economics at the VU University in Amsterdam, where he formerly directed the department’s MASTER-point research group engaged in research on meta-analysis in spatial, transport, and environmental economics. At Purdue he coordinates the department’s program focusing on Space, Health and Population Economics (SHaPE). He is enthusiastically engaged in researching and teaching topics at the interface of economics, space and the environment, and he has a keen interest in investigating and contributing to local and regional university-economy interactions. Dr. Florax is an active member of the Regional Science Association International, and served a ten-year tenure as editor-in-chief of their flagship journal “Papers in Regional Science.” He has held various administrative offices, including President of the University Council at Wageningen Agricultural University, and has been advisor of the Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis, is a fellow of the Spatial Econometrics Association, the Netherlands Network of Economics (NAKE) and the Mansholt Graduate School of Social Sciences, is editorial board member of three regional science journals, and has been visiting professor at universities in San Diego and Tucson in the US, and Barcelona in Spain.

His research deals with spatial data analysis, spatial econometrics, spatial and environmental modeling, and meta-analysis. He has published widely on various topics in these areas, and authored books, contributions to edited volumes and journal articles, in addition to editing collected volumes and special journal issues.

Professor Florax has extensive experience in teaching undergraduate and graduate classes, and has been the advisor of numerous Master and Ph.D. students. Recently taught classes and workshops cover the areas of spatial econometrics, urban and regional economics, and meta-analysis.

His recent publications include the following edited volumes and special issues:

• Advances in Spatial Econometrics: Methodology, Tools and Applications, Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2004 (ed. vol. with Luc Anselin and Serge J. Rey)

• The Brightest of Dawns: 50 Years of Regional Science, special double issue Papers in Regional Science 83(1), 2004 (with David. A. Plane)

• Spatial Econometric Data Analysis: Models, Extensions and Applications, International Regional Science Review 26(3), 2003, 223–418 (with Arno van der Vlist)

• Comparative Environmental Economic Assessment, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2002 (with Peter Nijkamp and Kenneth G. Willis)

Recent journal articles include:

• A Meta-Analysis of the Investment-Uncertainty Relationship, Southern Economic Journal 76(1), 2009 (forthcoming, with Mark Koetse and Henri L.F. de Groot)

• Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Income Inequality and Economic Growth, Scottish Journal of Political Economy 55(5), 2008, 654–82 (with Laura de Dominicis and Henri L.F. de Groot)

• Technological Leadership, Human Capital and Economic Growth: A Spatial Econometric Analysis for U.S. Counties, 1969–2003, Annals of Economics and Statistics 83, 2008 (in press; with Valerien O. Pede and Henri L.F. de Groot)

• Spatial Sorting of Immigrants across Urban and Rural Areas in the United States: Changing Patterns of Human Capital Accumulation since the 1990s, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 90(5), 2008, 1312–18 (with Brigitte S. Waldorf and Julia Beckhusen)

• Capital-Energy Substitution and Shifts in Factor Demand: A Meta-Analysis, Energy Economics 30(5), 2008, 2236–51 (with Mark J. Koetse and Henri L.F. de Groot)

• Spatial Analysis of Yield Monitor Data: Case Studies of On-farm Trials and Farm Management Decision-making, Precision Agriculture 9(5), 2008, 269–83 (with T.W. Griffin, T. Vyn, C.L. Dobbins and J. Lowenberg-DeBoer)

• Optimal Environmental Policy Differentials in Open Economies under Emission Constraints, Journal of Economics 91(2), 2007, 129–49 (with Cees A. Withagen and Abay Mulatu)

• The Empirics of Wetland Valuation: A Comprehensive Summary and a Meta-Analysis of the Literature, Environmental and Resource Economics 33(2), 2006, 223–50 (with Luke Brander and Jan Vermaat)

• A Meta-Analysis of the Willingness to Pay for Reductions in Pesticide Risk Exposure, European Review of Agricultural Economics 32(4), 2005, 441–67 (with Chiara Travisi and Peter Nijkamp)

• A Meta-Analysis of Beta-Convergence: The Legendary 2%, Journal of Economic Surveys 19(3), 2005, 389–420 (with Maria Abreu and Henri L.F. de Groot)

• Environmental Regulation and International Trade in Germany, the Netherlands and the US, 1977–1992, Contributions to Economic Analysis & Policy 3(2), 2004, art. 5 (with Abay Mulatu and Cees A. Withagen)

• Price and Income Elasticities of Residential Water Demand: A Meta-Analysis, Land Economics 79(2), 2003, 292–308 (with Jasper M. Dalhuisen, Henri L.F. de Groot and Peter Nijkamp)