Creativity, education or what? On the measurement of regional human capital

Abstract

This paper substantiates the debate following Richard Florida's suggestion to measure regional human capital by creative occupations rather than education. Consistent with Florida's notion of creativity, it suggests a microfoundation that relates creativity to workers’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills. It shows that this microfoundation is similar to that of human capital in recent labour economics, which has facilitated important new insights. While the regional measures of creative occupations developed by Florida or others are too crude to make a difference, occupations may help project workers’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills from the micro to the regional level.