Editorial: Advances in the statistical modelling of spatial interaction data

The papers appearing in this special issue of the Journal of Geographical Systems come from an International Exploratory Workshop entitled ‘Advances in the Statistical Modelling of Spatial Interaction Data’, organized at the University of Lugano (Switzerland) on 15–16 September 2011. The aim of the workshop was to provide a common ground for discussion between researchers active in this field and to discuss some of the most recent developments. As guest editors, we would particularly like to thank the authors for contributing to the scientific success and cordial climate of the workshop and for accepting to be included in this special issue. We also wish to thank the referees for their work and for their important contribution to what we believe represents an interesting selection of papers touching several frontier topics in the field. Spatial interaction (SI) models have been, for many decades, the workhorse of regional science in the analysis of the interactions observed in space between social and economic agents. As a matter of fact, SI is at the basis of all processes involving choices in regional science problems, and it may equally refer to all economic agents (firms, workers or households) and to their behaviour in various fields such as commuting, shopping trips, journey-to-work, migration, housing choices and international and interregional trade.