SSTI abstract on cities

[David Breecker]

Further to the Geoff West interview on his work with scaling laws and  
cities (which is great IMO, for those who haven't heard it), this may  
interest some of you doing modeling. From the State Science and  
Technology Institute weekly digest, August 8, 2007:

Do Cities Still Matter?
In today?s world, a trip to the doctor may entail your test results  
to be analyzed in India, your specialist to be called in Canada, and  
your billing information to be processed in South Africa. Given the  
prevalence and speed of modern forms of communication, information  
can be sent around the globe at a moment?s notice, hastening the  
speed of business.
With this in mind, from an economic development standpoint, is it  
still important to organize ourselves, our businesses and our  
economic development strategies within the confines of cities?

The answer is a resounding ?yes?, according to a recent working paper  
by Glenn Athey, Max Nathan, and Chris Webber titled What Role Do  
Cities Play in Innovation, and to What Extent Do We Need City-Based  
Innovation Policies and Approaches? The authors make the compelling  
case that cities are extremely important in the context of innovation  
production and economic development. They contend attraction to  
cities is dependent on three basic advantages: proximity, density and  
variety.

In their review of existing literature, the authors present reasons  
why levels of urbanization are increasing all over the world. From  
the encouragement of knowledge sharing between workers to the  
creation of transportation and communication hubs, urban areas assist  
the development of markets and enable innovation.

Also provided in the study is a model incorporating the authors?  
?hubs? and ?links? typology. In this case, hubs focus on urban  
assets, markets and business networks, while links focus on the role  
of institutions, knowledge networks and public-private cooperation.  
Using examples from the U.K., the authors use hubs and links to  
examine the categorization of urban innovation.

For example, London has a strong hub because of its huge domestic  
economy and has strong links because of things like the city?s  
creative industries and financial services sectors that reach out  
into international markets. Alternately, the authors contend a place  
like Cambridge has a weak hub because of its relatively small size,  
but has strong ties because of the economic opportunities that are  
developed in and around the university.

Because both the relative size of a city and the actions of firms  
within a city can be so varied, policies to encourage innovation need  
to be tailored to the various characteristics of urban areas. This is  
especially important to consider as the array of policies that exist  
to encourage innovation are very different from national to local  
levels.

The paper provides an overview of many theories as to the importance  
of cities and can be found at http://www.nesta.org.uk/assets/pdf/ 
cities_and_innovation_working_paper_NESTA.pdf


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