Boosting, sorting and complexity

urban scaling of innovation around the world

authored by

Tom Broekel, Louis Knuepling, Lars Mewes

Abstract

It is widely understood that innovations tend to be concentrated in cities, which is evidenced by innovative output increasing disproportionately with city size. Yet, given the heterogeneity of countries and technologies, few studies explore the relationship between population and innovation numbers. For instance, in the USA, innovative output scaling is substantial and is particularly pronounced for complex technologies. Whether this is a universal pattern of complex technologies and a potential facilitator of scaling, is unknown. Our analysis compared urban scaling in urban areas across 33 countries and 569 technologies. Considerable variation was identified between countries, which is rooted in two fundamental mechanisms (sorting and boosting). The sorting of innovation-intensive technologies is found to drive larger innovation counts among cities. Among most countries, this mechanism contributes to scaling more than city size boosting innovation within specific technologies. While complex technologies are concentrated in large cities and benefit from the advantages of urbanization, their contribution to the urban scaling of innovations is limited.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Economic and Human Geography

External Organisation(s)

University of Stavanger
Utrecht University

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of economic geography

Volume

23

Pages

979-1016

No. of pages

38

ISSN

1468-2702

Publication date

18.04.2023

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development, Economics and Econometrics

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad006 (Access: Open)