Urban Innovation and Collective Learning: Theory and Evidence from Five Metropolitan Cities in Europe

Abstract

The tendency for innovation activity to cluster in large metropolitan areas is a widespread and well established phenomenon. Such areas are often regarded as ‘centres of creativity’ and have recently been referred to as ‘islands of innovation’, due to their capacity to induce economic progress and technological innovation (Davelaar and Nijkamp 1990; European Commission 1995; Hingel 1992; Simmie 1998 and forthcoming). The main explanation for their success is that they generate much greater agglomeration economies than elsewhere, so the metropolitan area is often conceived of as a breeding place for new activities. As has already been suggested (Glaeser et al. 1992), such a dynamic view of the city fits nicely with the recent approach to economic growth, which sees externalities [and particularly externalities associated with the stock of knowledge] as the ‘engine of growth’ (Romer 1986; Lucas 1988).