Cultural diversity, institutions, and urban economic performance
Cultural diversity, institutions, and urban economic performance
Interactions between culturally diverse individuals can spur economic benefits by stimulating new ideas that raise urban residents’ productivity. But diversity can also diminish economic well-being by making communication difficult, and by stimulating conflict. This paper investigates whether urban institutions—in particular residents’ sense of generalized trust—determine when diversity is an economic asset and when it is a liability. To do so, data on trust, birthplace diversity, wages, and demographics in US metropolitan areas are combined. The evidence suggests that workers are much better able to harness the productivity-enhancing spillovers that arise from cultural diversity when they live in cities endowed with strong informal institutions.
2134-2152
Kemeny, Thomas
b9e4ac0c-bc73-4905-8229-f970518cde88
2012
Kemeny, Thomas
b9e4ac0c-bc73-4905-8229-f970518cde88
Kemeny, Thomas
(2012)
Cultural diversity, institutions, and urban economic performance.
Environment and Planning A, 44 (9), .
(doi:10.1068/a44385).
Abstract
Interactions between culturally diverse individuals can spur economic benefits by stimulating new ideas that raise urban residents’ productivity. But diversity can also diminish economic well-being by making communication difficult, and by stimulating conflict. This paper investigates whether urban institutions—in particular residents’ sense of generalized trust—determine when diversity is an economic asset and when it is a liability. To do so, data on trust, birthplace diversity, wages, and demographics in US metropolitan areas are combined. The evidence suggests that workers are much better able to harness the productivity-enhancing spillovers that arise from cultural diversity when they live in cities endowed with strong informal institutions.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Published date: 2012
Organisations:
Economy, Society and Space
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 369533
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/369533
ISSN: 0308-518X
PURE UUID: b1246235-c240-4dce-97dc-d44cef24121b
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 06 Oct 2014 10:47
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 18:05
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Thomas Kemeny
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics