S0908 Cities as Incubators of Innovation

Cities have been called the “natural incubators of innovation,” this because
of the positive externalities – knowledge and information exchange – associated with
close, especially face to face, contact. Economists, city planners and architects have all warmed to this notion and phenomenon, which the course will explore through the existing analytical and empirical literature on cities and growth, and cities and concentrations of “talent.” The emphasis will be on comparative and historical analysis: we will compare pairs of cities in different historical periods: for example, Florence and Bruges; Antwerp and Venice; Paris and London; New York and Berlin.

Texts on the growth and decline of cities, industrial “districts,” de-industrialization, the configuration of city neighborhoods and the impact of local agglomerations of skills.