16th Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Regional Economics Workshop. Videos: Research Seminars with Gabriel Ahlfeldt and Stefanie Peer

Oliver Fritz

Oliver Fritz (WIFO), Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt (Humboldt Universität Berlin) , Stefanie Peer (WU), Julia Bachtrögler-Unger (WIFO), Anna Burton (WIFO), Peter Huber (WIFO) © WIFO

10.10.2025

16th Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Regional Economics Workshop

Videos: Research Seminars with Gabriel Ahlfeldt and Stefanie Peer

For the 16th time, the Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Workshop in Regional Economics took place at WIFO from 24 to 29 September 2025. Under the patronage of its namesake – who, for many years, was a professor of geography and economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and founded the pioneering Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) – a total of 27 academic papers were presented. More than 40 colleagues from Austria and abroad participated. This year, the workshop was organised in cooperation with the EU-REAL network, a group of European economists who have conducted research at REAL or have collaborated with Geoffrey Hewings.

Highlights of the workshop included two keynote presentations.

Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt, Chair of Econometrics at Humboldt University of Berlin, former professor at the London School of Economics and editor of the journal Regional Science and Urban Economics, devoted his lecture "Geography of Life" to the ways in which demographic factors and major life events – such as marriage and childbirth – influence people's location choices, labour supply and income. Using panel data from Copenhagen, he illustrated how residential decisions and spatial mobility evolve over the course of life and how these relationships are relevant for future urban development from both a planning and societal perspective.

Stefanie Peer, Professor at the Institute for Socioeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, gave her keynote presentation on "Efficiency vs. Acceptability: Behavioral Effectiveness and Public Support in Urban Tolling". Her talk explored the tension between the economic efficiency of city toll models and their often low public acceptability. She focused on the challenges facing wider implementation and on how innovative solutions – such as personalised cashback schemes – could increase public support for effective measures to reduce congestion.

Workshop programme

programme (PDF)

After three days of intensive academic work and lively discussion, we are already looking forward to the 17th Regional Economics Workshop, which is planned for September 2026 and will be organised in cooperation with the German Speaking Section of the European Regional Science Association.