As the world's biggest cities attract more talent, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to remain productive. This is why policymakers should focus on diffusing the development process geographically by embracing a broader and deeper process for nurturing innovation ecosystems.
WASHINGTON, DC – Around the world, the creation of good new jobs is increasingly concentrated in some of the largest cities. Innovative people want to work and live in close proximity to one another. This process of talent agglomeration has accelerated in recent decades and shows no signs of abating. It has also produced some increasingly glaring adverse side effects: worsening congestion (of roads, schools, and social services) in megacities; economic segregation as lower-income people are pushed out of big cities by rising housing costs; and potentially deeper social polarization as people elsewhere feel excluded from the best opportunities.
WASHINGTON, DC – Around the world, the creation of good new jobs is increasingly concentrated in some of the largest cities. Innovative people want to work and live in close proximity to one another. This process of talent agglomeration has accelerated in recent decades and shows no signs of abating. It has also produced some increasingly glaring adverse side effects: worsening congestion (of roads, schools, and social services) in megacities; economic segregation as lower-income people are pushed out of big cities by rising housing costs; and potentially deeper social polarization as people elsewhere feel excluded from the best opportunities.