Recent Research II: Study Finds Growth Greatest When S&E Employees Mix with Diverse Degree Holders

A consistent claim in many competitiveness reports and economic development strategies is the need to increase the number of scientists and engineers in a given geographic area. But are there other factors, when coupled with the presence of scientists and engineers, that influence local long-term employment growth more than others?

 

A recent paper from Desmond Beckstead, W. Mark Brown and Guy Gellatly explores this question and examines the factors that influence the number of scientists and engineers in cities. In Cities and Growth: The Left Brain of North American Cities: Scientists and Engineers and Urban Growth, Beckstead et al. find that cities concentrated with diverse mixtures of people with degrees, combined with science and engineering employment, experience the highest rates of long-term employment growth.

 

The authors use census data on 242 Canadian and U.S. cities to track employment numbers from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. According to their research, the concentration of people in a city with a “cultural” background is comparatively less influential than the concentration of people with a broad range of degrees for effecting the employment growth of scientists and engineers. That is not to say some things such as openness and amenities do not have an impact – just that a diverse pool of human capital from many sectors has a larger impact. Even when controlling for other urban characteristics such as climate and housing prices, cities with larger concentrations of non-science and non-cultural jobs have a more vigorous growth of scientists and engineers.

 

The study also found that cities are not likely to experience sustained relative increases in the number of scientists and engineers over an extended period. Often, cities with larger numbers of S&E employees witnessed a slower growth in the number of scientists and engineers a decade or two later. Additionally, the authors report that cities with more immigrants, regardless of their educational background, encountered stronger growth of scientists and engineers in the 1990s.

 

From a policy perspective, this research may show practitioners need to take actions to improve a variety of sectors within a local economy, instead of concentrating strictly on the development of an arts scene or only on the attainment of people with a technological background. The maximum impact occurs when a diverse assortment of employed degree holders interact with each other.



Cities and Growth: The Left Brain of North American Cities: Scientists and Engineers and Urban Growth can be found at: http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11-622-MIE/11-622-MIE2008018.pdf