The Regional Studies Association has bestowed its Regional Studies Best Paper 2014| Award on Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose. The award was given for his 2013 paper “Do Institutions Matter for Regional Development??” (Regional Studies, Volume 47, Issue 7, July 2013, pages 1034-1047).
In this article Rodríguez-Pose discusses from a theoretical perspective how institutions shape economic development, as well as the difficulties in generating an institution-based regional development strategy, given the lack of agreement on what are efficient institutions. The paper has very quickly become one of the most downloaded papers in the journal’s history.
The award was voted for by the Editors of Regional Studies.