The 42nd Pacific Northwest Regional Economics Conference will take place in Tacoma, Washington May 14-16, 2008. Proposals are encouraged for presentations by economists and allied professionals on many issues of relevance to the economies of the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. In addition, this conference will have an international focus on innovation networks due to a collaboration between the conference organizers at Seattle University and Universite du Littoral Cote d'Opale in Dunkerque, France. Presenters in the innovation networks sessions will have the opportunity to see their papers included in one or more peer reviewed books. A number of presentations in this set of sessions are expected from economists from all over the world, offering exciting opportunities to examine innovation processes in regional economies in several countries.

Featured speakers at PNREC 2008:
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• Maryann Feldman, Zell Miller Distinguished Professor of Higher Education, University of Georgia. Professor Feldman, who has extensive experience on the faculties of universities in the U.S. and Canada and a deep knowledge of industry clusters, will be giving the Tiebout Lecture.
• Nigel Gault, Managing Director - North American Macroeconomics Group, Global Insight. Nigel Gault will provide the U.S. economic outlook; he will be followed by the PNREC forecast panel representing each state and province in the region.
• Heike Mayer, Assistant Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning, Virginia Tech. Heike Mayer will give a talk on "The Technology Universe in Three Northwest Cities".
• Francisco Louca, Economics Professor at the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao ("Higher Institute of Economics and Management", a unit of the Technical University of Lisbon. Professor Louca is also an active politician, with service in the Portugese Parliament and a campaign for the presidency in 2006. He is the author of several books and scientific articles on the history of economic thought, the dynamics of complex adaptive systems and the nature of long-term techno-economic change.

Call for Papers:
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The 2008 PNREC conference will be focused on innovation processes in many aspects of economics. Schumpeter, Branscom, Nelson, Rogers, von Hippel and many other well known-economists have written about innovation. We are interested in individual paper and panel presentation proposals examining innovation processes in the many fields traditionally covered by presenters at PNREC conferences:

• Technology and Development
• Energy Issues and Economic Development
• Urban Growth and Transportation Issues
• Education - Building Capacity for a Global Economy
• Accountability and Performance Measures in the Public Sector
• Land Use
• Security Issues
• Welfare Reform
• First Nations Development
• Health Care in the U.S. and Canada
• Environmental Change in the Region
• Taxation and the New Economy
• Cross-Border Trade & Transportation Issues

Proposals for individual or panel presentations for PNREC 2008 are due by email to sommersp@seattleu.edu by February 29, 2008; the proposal should consist of a short abstract describing the proposed presentation. Presenters will be expected to register for the full conference and provide a Powerpoint presentation, if it will be used at the conference, not later than May 1, 2008. Presenters are encouraged to bring 15-20 copies of full papers on their topics to the conference for distribution to conferees.

A special feature of the 2008 conference will be a set of plenary and breakout sessions representing the third annual "The Spirit of Innovation" Forum, an international conference co-sponsored by the Research Unit on Industry and Innovation (Lab.RII), Universite du Littoral Cote d'Opale, Dunkerque (France), and the Institute of Public Service, Seattle University, Washington (USA). "The Spirit of Innovation" sessions will focus on innovation and networks. Participants who want to present in these sessions will submit an abstract to an international scientific committee that will consider inclusion of the resulting paper in one or more peer reviewed books to be published by an academic press. The focus of one of the three themes of the international Forum is "Characteristics of Innovation in the Northwest." Proposers are asked to submit an abstract no later than November 26, 2007, and a 25 page paper of publishable quality 30 days prior to the conference. Proposals are expected from economists and economic geographers from the Northwest and from several countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world. This international element at PNREC 2008 will provide new perspectives on regional issues Northwest economists are already analyzing; however, fresh perspectives on these issues will come from international colleagues and the deliberations at the conference itself. For a more detailed call for papers for "The Spirit of Innovation" sessions, click here.

Click here to download a printable version of the PNREC 2008 Call for Papers (Adobe Acrobat format).

PNREC 2008 Conference Planning Committee:
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PNREC 2008 Chair:
Paul Sommers
Professor, Economics and Public Service
Seattle University
Institute of Public Service
901 - 12th Avenue, P.O. Box 222000
Seattle, WA 98122-1090

Phone: (206) 296-6967

E-mail: sommersp@seattleu.edu

PNREC President:
Gary W. Smith
Director, Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Analysis Project

Phone: (253) 219-6604

E-mail: gsmith@pnreap.org