From September 24 to 26, 2025, the 16th Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Workshop in Regional Economics and the 20th EU-REAL Meeting took place at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) in Vienna.

Vera Ivanova presented the results of her study on manufacturing industries in the Russian Empire. The analysis revealed spatial distribution patterns of industries and showed that most industries were localized. In her presentation, Vera also provided quantitative estimates of the impact of distance to railways on the productivity of manufacturing plants, demonstrating that proximity to railways was significant for large factories and plants.