The basis of the Department of Territorial Development Management and Urban Economics is the oldest department of the Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management – Department of Political Economy, which was founded together with the renewed Riga Polytechnic Institute in 1958. Over the years, the Department has changed its name and structure. Since 2000, it has acted as the Institute of National and Regional Economy, but since 2014 after reorganisation it has become a subordinate unit of the Institute of Civil Engineering and Real Estate Economics.