Artists, engineers, and aspects of economic growth in a creative region

Abstract

We study aspects of economic growth in a region that is creative a la Richard Florida. Members of the creative class possess creative capital and they fall into one of two possible groups---they are either artists or engineers. We describe the optimal income redistribution rule that maximizes the creative class's average steady state income. Because this average income is increasing in the physical capital per creative class member ratio, the rule requires a regional authority to redistribute income away from (towards) the group that saves a lower (higher) fraction of its income. This is a negative finding in the sense that the rule's implementation will tend to favor the group that already saves more. Even so, the finding is consistent with the observation made by some researchers that there is a connection between income inequality and regions in which the creative class performs a large part of all economic activities.