Published July 2012 | Version public
Journal Article

Culture and diversity in knowledge creation

  • 1. ROR icon Washington University in St. Louis
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 3. ROR icon Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry

Abstract

Is the paradise of effortless communication the ideal environment for knowledge creation? Or, can the development of local culture in regions raise knowledge productivity compared to a single region with a unitary culture? In other words, can a real technological increase in the cost of collaboration and the cost of public knowledge flow between regions, resulting in cultural differentiation between regions, increase welfare? In our framework, a culture is a set of ideas held exclusively by residents of a location. In general in our model, the equilibrium path generates separate cultures in different regions. When we compare this to the situation where all workers are resident in one region, R&D workers become too homogeneous and there is only one culture. As a result, equilibrium productivity in the creation of new knowledge is lower relative to the situation when there are multiple cultures and workers are more diverse.

Additional Information

© 2012 Elsevier B.V. Received 2 December 2011; Received in revised form 28 February 2012; Accepted 29 February 2012; Available online 7 March 2012.

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
34495
DOI
10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2012.02.008
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20120927-093622178

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Dates

Created
2012-09-27
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-09
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