Previous Winners

Winners of the Charles M. Tiebout Prize in Regional Science

This prize is awarded in honor of the outstanding contributions to regional science made by Charles M. Tiebout before his untimely death in 1968. In addition to his scholarly achievements, “Charlie” Tiebout brought wit, irreverence, and goodwill to everything he did and everyone he knew. He was particularly good in advising, counseling, and encouraging graduate students; thus, it is fitting that the WRSA’s annual prize bearing his name be awarded to the best graduate student paper in regional science.


  • 37th Competition 2023: Martina Pardy, London School of Economics & Political Science, “Multinationals and intra-regional innovation concentration”
  • 36th Competition 2022: Austin Landini, Colorado State University, “Addressing Endogeneity in the Relationship Between Local Race Composition and Public Expenditure”
  • 35th Competition 2021:
    • Seunghoon Oh, University of Cincinnati, “Public Transportation Finance, Agglomeration Economies, and Equity: A dynamic panel analysis on the effect of transit operation revenues on employment growth and opportunities for low-skilled workers in Ohio”
    • Noe Nava, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, “Who Benefits from Local Agriculture?”
  • 34th Competition 2020: I Gede Nyoman Mindra Jaya, University of Groningen, “Identifying Spatiotemporal Clusters by Means of Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering and Bayesian Regression Analysis”
  • 33rd Competition 2019: Chad Chriestenson, University of Wisconsin, “Do Factors Contributing to Appearance and Success of Conservation Referenda in the West Differ from those Found in Other Regions?”
  • 32nd Competition 2018: Robert Manduca, Harvard University, “The spatial structure of U.S. metropolitan employment: New insights from LODES data”
  • 31st Competition 2017: Brian Asquith, University of California, Irvine, “Rent Control and Evictions: Evidence from San Francisco”
  • 30th Competition 2016: Xian Fang Bak, University of Illinois, “Measuring Foreclosure Impact Mitigation: Evidence from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program in Chicago”
  • 29th Competition 2015: Sungyup Chung, University of Illinois, “Assessing the Regional Business Cycle Asymmetry in a Multi-level Structure Framework: A Study of the Top 20 U.S. MSAs”
  • 28th Competition 2014: Zhenhua Chen, George Mason University, “Multilevel Assessment of Public Transportation Infrastructure: A Spatial Economic Computable General Equilibrium Approach”
  • 27th Competition 2013: Douglas Wrenn, The Ohio State University, “Time is Money: An Empirical Examination of the Dynamic Effects of Regulatory Uncertainty on Residential Subdivision Development”
  • 26th Competition 2012: Carlianne Patrick, The Ohio State University, “Do More Economic Development Incentives Result in More Jobs? An Examination of the Influence of the Economic Development Incentives Environment on County Jobs in the U.S., 1970-2000”
  • 25th Competition 2011: Pengyu Zhu, University of Southern California, “Are Telecommuting and Personal Travel Complements or Substitutes?”
  • 24th Competition 2010: Colleen Donovan, University of California, Berkeley, “Direct Democracy, Term Limits, and Fiscal Decisions in U.S. Municipalities”
  • 23rd Competition 2009: Yiming Wang, University of Southern California, “White Flight in Los Angeles County, 1960-1990: A Model of Fuzzy Tipping”
  • 22nd Competition 2008: Haifeng Qian, George Mason University, “Talent, Creativity, and Regional Economic Performance: The Case of China”
  • 21st Competition 2007:  Michael Wenz, Winona State University, “Matching Estimation, Casino Gambling and the Quality of Life”
  • 20th Competition 2006:  Rocco R. Huang, The University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, “Industry Choices and Social Interactions of Entrepreneurs: Identification by Residential Address”
  • 19th Competition 2005:  Shaoming Cheng, George Mason University, “How Can Western China Attract FDI? A Case of Japanese Investment.”
  • 18th Competition 2004:  Sandy Dall’Erba, Université de Pau, France, “Productivity Convergence and Spatial Dependence Among Spanish Regions.”
  • 17th Competition 2003 (Co-winners):  Chokri Dridi, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, “Toward a Quantitative Analysis of Industrial Clusters: Shapely Value, Entropy, and Fuzzy Measures,” and Bhanu Yerra, University of Minnesota, “The Emergence of Hierarchy in Transportation Networks.”
  • 16th Competition 2002:  Tracy Gordon, University of California, Berkeley, “Crowd Out or Crowd In?: The Effects of Common Interest Developments on Political Participation in California.”
  • 15th Competition 2001:  Brian Mikelbank, Ohio State University, “Spatial Analysis of the Relationship between Housing Values and Investments in Transportation Infrastructure.”
  • 14th Competition 2000:  Arno van der Vlist, Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, “Patterns of New Household Formation and Residential Career.”
  • 13th Competition 1999:  Kara Kockelman, University of Texas, Austin, “A Utility-Theory-Consistent System-of-Demand Equations Approach to Household Travel Choice.”
  • 12th Competition 1998:  Alexander C. Vias, University of Arizona, “An Analysis of Population and Employment Growth in the Rocky Mountain West, 1970-95.”
  • 11th Competition 1997:  (Co-winners) Seong Woo Lee and Woo Suk Zhee, University of Southern California, “Independent and Linked Migration: Individual Returns of Employment Opportunity and Household Returns of Poverty to African-American Inter-State Migration in 1975-78 and 1985-88.”
  • 10th Competition 1996:  Steven P. Raphael, University of California, Berkeley, “The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis of Black Youth Unemployment: Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area.”
  • 9th Competition 1995:  David M. Levinson, University of California, Berkeley, “Location, Relocation, and the Journey-to-Work.”
  • 8th Competition, 1994:  Ricardo Gazel, University of Illinois, “Measuring Regional Economic Effects of International Trade: A Pledge for Better Policy.”
  • 7th Competition, 1993:  (Cowinners) Hsin-Ping Chen, University of California, Irvine, “The Simulation of the Proposed Nonlinear Dynamic Urban Growth Model” and Alastair McFarlane, University of Michigan, “Taxing Developers.”
  • 6th Competition, 1992:  Henry Buist, University of Pennsylvania, “Firm Relocation, Suburbanization, and Central City Problems.”
  • 5th Competition, 1991:  Katherine M. O’Regan, University of California, Berkeley, “The Spatial Concentrations of Household by Race and Income Level: Labor Market Outcomes, Social Networks, and the Economics of Information.”
  • 4th Competition, 1990:  T. Wong, University of Manitoba, “Theories of Development and the Experience of Taiwan.”
  • 3rd Competition, 1989:  Scott Campbell, University of California, Berkeley, “From Dust Bowl to Defense Buildup: Labor Migration and Regional Development during the Second World War.”
  • 2nd Competition, 1988:  Stephen J. Appold, University of North Carolina, “The Location of Industrial Research Laboratories.”
  • 1st Competition, 1987:  Timothy J. Fik, University of Arizona, “Competing Central Places and the Spatially Autocorrelated, Seemingly Unrelated Regression System.”