ITEA Annual Conference and School on Transportation Economics, 21-26 June 2021

The 2021 ITEA Annual Conference and School on Transportation Economics is hosted as a Virtual Event by the Department of Computer Control and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 21 – 26 June 2021.

Professor Tommaso Valletti (Imperial College, London) will be our keynote speaker.

ITEA 2021 Rome website

Editor-in-chief-conference on Economics, 11-20 June 2021

Beijing Jiaotong University will organize an Editor-in-chief conference on Economics 11-20 June 2021. The conference will be online, and it will be free of charge. Eight journal editors are invited to introduce their journals and best writing practice including Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Environment Economics and Management, and Energy Economics.

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May 10, 2021

Dear members and friends of the International Transport Economics Association,

It was ten years ago today that the International Transport Economics Association ITEA was formally created and registered as a society. Since its inception ITEA has contributed indeed to establish in a prominent place the economics of volitional flows in time and space. The annual conference and school, and our Journal, Economics of Transportation, have become references in the area. And this has been done with no concessions, simultaneously keeping rigor and good will, making constructive criticism, casual interaction, equations, data, models, music, answers to referees and conversations between students and teachers, coexist in a very fluid manner. This tenth years’ anniversary is the right time to acknowledge the contributions of all members in the community to make all this happen, be it as authors, conference presenters, reviewers, session chairs, and other forms of active participation.

ITEA has grown with empathy and intellectual strength. So there are many reasons to be proud of what the society has achieved so far, but this should be no cause to be self-indulgent but to continue the never ending task of contributing to knowledge, voicing our doubts, and disseminating ideas.

We have reasons to be optimistic in the middle of the complex situation the world is facing. As all of you know by now, the forthcoming school and conference is being organized in a virtual mode by our colleagues in Rome, headed by Chairwoman Tiziana D’alfonso, where a large number of papers has been received. This work presents new challenges as, for example, the need to account for the different time zones while organizing the sessions, the new role of session stewards, managing tools to facilitate interaction among attendants, making sure that technology is running as expected, designing how to intervene in case of “logistic” problems, and so on. This has required joint work between the Organizing Committee, and the Scientific and School Committees, chaired by Ricardo Flores-Fillol and Jos van Ommeren, respectively. Not a simple task but one that is being done with great responsibility.

The present health situation has created many very short-run problems that, paradoxically, will impact long-run research in the Economics of Transportation. The need to keep a reasonable distance between persons has made the issue of crowding in vehicles and housing density re-emerge with new strength. Virtual communication has reinforced the distinction between activities that can be made remotely and those that require physical presence, impacting on work and leisure activities. Thinking about these and other transport related dimensions with wisdom and a long-run perspective is indeed necessary.

So this message is to invite you to renew your commitment with ITEA as a place for illustrated interaction within the fascinating world of movements in time and space. You can do this by registering to the forthcoming Rome conference (and School), by submitting your contributions to Economics of Transportation, and by preparing your participation in the next conference in Beijing during 2022, which will take place in whatever format is feasible.

The tenth years’ birthday of ITEA is a good opportunity to welcome the new generations of transport economists, whom we would love to meet in person as soon as we can, and we hope that despite their virtual entry they will soon feel at home. It is also the right moment to thank the devoted work of my predecessors as Presidents of the Association: Kenneth Small, Robin Lindsey, Jan Brueckner, and Marc Ivaldi. They have been the real architects of this community.

Regards to all,
Sergio Jara-Diaz
President of ITEA