Projekt: Beyond spillovers: The effects of creative-density on innovation

In this article, we take a fresh look at the geographical determinants of innovation, doing so by
examining density, and more specifically the density of creativity, as a key factor influencing
metropolitan area innovation. Density has become a topic of increasing interest to scholars studying
the factors that influence regional innovation and growth. This article builds upon this recent
attention while also extending the existing literature on the determinants of regional innovation in a
number of important ways, foremost by focusing on the relationship between innovation outcomes
and the interaction of highly skilled individuals and population density. In doing so, we expand
upon, and in some important ways depart from, the inter-related concepts of proximity, knowledge
spillovers, and face-to-face interactions of intellectual human capital often discussed in recent
economic geography literature. A few recent papers have begun to explore the relationship between
forms of density and the production of new knowledge. For example, at the state level, Ciccone and
Hall (1996) find that employment density increases average labor productivity, while Sedgely and
Elmslie (2004) find a positive relationship between state population density and innovation.