IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijurrs/v41y2017i6p997-1009.html

Creating an Environment for Economic Growth: Creativity, Entrepreneurship or Human Capital?

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandra Faggian
  • Mark Partridge
  • Edward J. Malecki

Abstract

Scholars and policymakers interested in the growth and prosperity of regions have long recognized that talent and knowledge are fundamental. Yet the question is what types of talent are needed in a growing twenty‐first‐century economy: human capital, creativity and innovation, or entrepreneurship? The latter we define broadly to include any type of risk taking, and not only radical innovation. The literature does not clearly point to one factor as being the most essential. This study assesses this question separately for rural and urban United States (US) counties. We find that human capital––measured by educational attainment––is considerably more conducive to employment growth than the share of creative occupations. Likewise, the share of small and medium businesses is also very conducive to local growth, although this does not apply to the self‐employment share. Rural and urban areas experience similar patterns, although the magnitude thereof tends to be larger for urban counties, whereas high‐technology employment share has had a positive effect in rural areas. Policy conclusions suggest that enhancing small business development and increasing educational attainment are the two strategies that are most likely to succeed.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandra Faggian & Mark Partridge & Edward J. Malecki, 2017. "Creating an Environment for Economic Growth: Creativity, Entrepreneurship or Human Capital?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(6), pages 997-1009, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:41:y:2017:i:6:p:997-1009
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12555
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12555
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-2427.12555?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jesse Sutton & Yawo Mamoua Kobara & Godwin Arku, 2025. "Regional economic resilience, adaptive capacity, and underlying factors: insights from Canadian regions during the COVID-19 pandemic," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 74(3), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Andrés Arronte Ledo & Adelheid Holl, 2023. "Ultrahigh‐Speed Fixed Broadband and Rural Development," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 114(5), pages 479-500, December.
    3. Anthony M Levenda & Eliot Tretter, 2020. "The environmentalization of urban entrepreneurialism: From technopolis to start-up city," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(3), pages 490-509, May.
    4. Moutinho, Victor & Santos de Oliveira, Helena M. & Viana Espinosa de Oliveira, Henrique & Puime Guillén, Félix, 2023. "The augmented and integrative model of economic growth: Theoretical and empirical evidence from USA," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Miar & Sunaryo Neneng & Jeky Melkianus Sui, 2022. "The Impact Covid-19 Outbreak, Green Finance, Creativity and Sustainable Economic Development on the Economic Recovery in G20 Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(6), pages 432-440, November.
    6. Maximillian M. J. Kapa & Agus A. Nalle & Paul G. Tamelan & Worakamol Wisetsri, 2022. "The Impact of Green Finance, Agriculture Growth and Creativity on Carbon Emissions of High Carbon Emissions Producing Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(5), pages 432-440, September.
    7. Yao, Yongling & Pan, Haozhi & Cui, Xiaoyu & Wang, Zhen, 2022. "Do compact cities have higher efficiencies of agglomeration economies? A dynamic panel model with compactness indicators," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    8. Jiangyuan Fu & Huidan Xue & Fayuan Wang & Liming Wang, 2023. "The Impact of High-Quality Energy Development and Technological Innovation on the Real Economy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China: A Spatial Economic and Threshold Effect Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-14, January.
    9. Ana Cuadros & Juan Carlos Cuestas & Joan Martín-Montaner, 2021. "Self-employment convergence in Europe: The role of migration," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-14, April.
    10. Federico Aresu & Emanuela Marrocu & Raffaele Paci, 2026. "EU funds and TFP growth: how the impact changed over time and space," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 75(1), pages 1-35, March.
    11. Silvia Cerisola, 2019. "A new perspective on the cultural heritage–development nexus: the role of creativity," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(1), pages 21-56, March.
    12. Rajbhandari, Isha & Faggian, Alessandra & Partridge, Mark D., 2022. "Oil and gas boomtowns and occupations: What types of jobs are created?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    13. Katarzyna Szara, 2019. "Technology as a stimulus for the development of creative capital at the local level on the example of municipalities of the Podkarpackie Voi-vodeship," Ekonomia i Prawo, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 18(4), pages 499-514, December.
    14. Henrique Oliveira & Vítor Ferreira Moutinho & Oscar Afonso, 2025. "Exploring the Relationship Between Technological Progress, Human Capital, Political Uncertain, Energy Consumption, and Economic Growth: Evidence from a Panel Data Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(3), pages 13482-13515, September.
    15. Shi, Shuai & Wang, Ruiyang & Dong, Zhaoyingzi, 2025. "The paradox of entrepreneurial cities: How business venturing inflates housing prices in China’s Silicon Valley," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    16. M. Malathi & Pulidindi Venugopal, 2025. "Entrepreneurial intention and engagement in entrepreneurship education," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, December.
    17. Guan, Chenghua & Xu, Wanting & Yang, Peijin & Xiao, Yao & Rasul, Byann, 2025. "How does large-scale internal migration affect innovation? Evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    18. Alessandra Faggian & Isha Rajbhandari & Kathryn R. Dotzel, 2017. "The interregional migration of human capital and its regional consequences: a review," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 128-143, January.
    19. Margarida Rodrigues & Cidália Oliveira & MárioFranco & Ana Daniel, 2024. "A Bibliometric Study About the Rural Creative Class: Proposal of a Conceptual Framework and Future Agenda," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 15278-15303, September.
    20. Giorgi, Julien & Plunket, Anne & Starosta de Waldemar, Felipe, 2025. "Inter-regional highly skilled worker mobility and technological novelty," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    21. Jae Teuk Chin, 2020. "Location Choice of New Business Establishments: Understanding the Local Context and Neighborhood Conditions in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, January.
    22. Silvia Cerisola & Elisa Panzera, 2021. "Cultural and Creative Cities and Regional Economic Efficiency: Context Conditions as Catalyzers of Cultural Vibrancy and Creative Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-23, June.
    23. Rembert, Mark, 2017. "Creative Destruction & Inter-Regional Job Reallocation during the Great Recession," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 48(01), November.
    24. Francesco Ceresia & Claudio Mendola, 2019. "The Effects of Corruption in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems on Entrepreneurial Intentions," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-14, November.
    25. Ricardo Teruel‐Sánchez & Antonio Juan Briones‐Peñalver & Juan Andrés Bernal‐Conesa & Carmen de Nieves‐Nieto, 2021. "Influence of the entrepreneur's capacity in business performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 2453-2467, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:41:y:2017:i:6:p:997-1009. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0309-1317 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.