Amitrajeet A. Batabyal is an Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He obtained a B.S. in Applied Economics and Business Management from Cornell University in 1987, an M.S. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota in 1990, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994. He was the recipient of the Geoffrey J. D. Hewings Award from the North American Regional Science Council in 2003, the Moss Madden Memorial Medal from the British and Irish Section of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) in 2004, and the Mattei Dogan Foundation Prize from the International Social Science Council in 2013. He is an Honorary Member of the RSAI’s Japan Section and a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association.Yoshiro Higano received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Yokohama National University in 1974, his Master of Arts from the University of Tsukuba in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Hokkaido University in 1986. He became Lecturer at Toyohashi University of Technology in 1986, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1987. In 1994, he became a Professor of Environmental Policy at the University of Tsukuba, and became an Emeritus Professor in 2017. Having served as President of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) from 2011 to 2012, he specializes in Environmental Policy and Comprehensive Evaluation of Environmental Remediation Technology, Location Decision Analysis, Marshallian Externalities, etc.Peter Nijkamp is an Emeritus Professor of Regional and Urban Economics and Economic Geography at VU University in Amsterdam. He is currently affiliated with the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan (Poland) and the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS). He serves on the editorial/advisory boards of more than 20 scientific journals. According to the RePec list, he belongs to the top 25 best-known economists worldwide. He is also a fellow and past vice-president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the most prestigious scientific prize in the Netherlands, the Spinoza award, and has authored over 2,000 articles and books. He has not only been involved in academic research, but also in many practical policy issues in the field of decision-making, regional development, environmental management, governance of culture, transportation and communication, and advanced data analytics.
