Why Openness Matters
by Richard Florida
June 19th, 2006
Robin, Thanks again for your thoughtful comments. The elaborations and clarifications in this dialogue are mighty useful. In that vein, one last clarification: My theory does not say regions “cause” hackers or anyone else to be innovative. It says instead that regions that have these “low barriers to entry” attract more potentially innovative people. As more of such people are attracted to these places, they form new combinations, and some of their work then turns into commercially useful and successful innovation, though much does not. Simply put, if innovative and entrepreneurial people (Ed, I’m trying to avoid another round) are mobile and have many locational choices (in other words, if talent is a flow rather than a stock), what matters is where higher proportions of talented people choose to locate. It is not enough, I think, to say they simply choose to be near one another, though Jacobs-Lucas’ human capital externalities certainly power the process. The flip side of it to understand why places that were once innovative and productive decline. I posit that it is because, at some point, they start to squelch these people and drive them away. I read a post recently commenting on our dialogue here with an apt header in this regard—”centers of repulsion.” Understanding the uneven flow and distribution of talent, I think, and the role of place or location in this, is perhaps the key element in generating more robust theories of innovation and economic growth.
