Human capital in cities and suburbs

Abstract

Research on talent or human capital generally focuses on the metro level and neglects the relative effects of its distribution between center cities and their surrounding suburbs. This research examines the connection between human capital in urban centers (defined here as principal cities) versus suburbs on the economic performance of US metropolitan areas. The findings indicate that this distribution of human capital has significant connection to metro economic performance, with suburban human capital being more strongly related to performance than human capital in the principal city. This result also varies by metro size.