This book contains contributions from friends of Ben Stevens, remembering and celebrating his life and his work. Following his untimely death, a set of special sessions were organized for the program of the November 1998 meetings of the Regional Science Association International, held in Sante Fe, New Mexico.

In all 41 papers were presented in 11 of these sessions. Those invited to participate included former colleagues and students from Ben's days on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania as well as friends and collaborators from the economics and regional science community at large - academic, private and government.


It is the intention of the editors to make available with this book a selection of current work in regional economics and regional science. Some of the papers reflect on aspects of Ben's legacy, suggesting how his early work (in the 1960s) served as a basis for subsequent theoretical advances or applied developments - for example, in residential choice theory, in land-use and transportation modeling and in regional econometric modeling in general and regional input-output analysis in particular (which remained one of Ben's primary interests throughout his life). The variety of topics covered by the papers in this volume is a testament to the breadth and depth of Ben's active curiosity.