Dear colleagues, The WU Department of Economics cordially invite you to an ad-hoc Research Seminar in Economics on May 2, with Mauro Ferrante (University of Palermo) on "Measuring concentration in time and space: A novel proposal and empirical applications" Abstract: Many disciplines are concerned with phenomena distributed across time and space. In Economics, as the volume of research within the sphere of the New Economic Geography has increased, concentration, agglomeration and inequality have become familiar themes in the attempt to provide insights in the spatial structure of economies on different spatial scales. From the temporal perspective, seasonality in economic activities has also attracted the attention in the literature, due also to its impacts from the economic, social and environmental perspective. Whilst concentration of economic activities over time and space has been widely investigated in the literature, current measurement approaches do not adequately take into account the well-defined structure of the phenomena investigated from temporal and spatial perspectives. This paper proposes a new measurement approach relating to temporally- and spatially- concentrated phenomena, by introducing a new class of indices based on the transportation problem approach. Deploying accommodation statistics from the Eurostat database, the seasonality of tourism flows across European countries will be analyzed over a ten-year period. In addition, the spatial distribution of selected indicators at NUTS3 levels will be analyzed in order to show compelling features of the proposed approach, not adequately captured by alternative approaches currently adopted. An accurate measurement of concentrated phenomena is required in order to more precisely evaluate the effectiveness of policy actions at the national, regional and sub-regional levels, and to assess the economic, social and environmental impacts of the time and space concentrations of economic activities. Time and place: Thursday, May 2, 10.00 a.m. - 11.30 a.m., Campus WU, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, building D4, entrance A, 2nd floor, Department meeting room 2.008. With best regards, Harald Oberhofer --- Univ.-Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer Institute for International Economics WU Vienna University of Economics and Business Phone: +43/1/31336-4984 Fax: +43/1/31336-4984 Email: harald.oberhofer@wu.ac.at<mailto:harald.oberhofer@wu.ac.at> Webpage: https://www.wu.ac.at/ie/mitarbeiter/harald-oberhofer/ Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) Phone: +43/1/7982601-468 Fax: +43/1/7989386 Email: harald.oberhofer@wifo.ac.at<mailto:harald.oberhofer@wifo.ac.at> Webpage: http://www.wifo.ac.at/harald_oberhofer