Fair Weather Friends? The Impact of the Creative Class on the Economic Health of Mid-sized US Metropolitan Areas, 1990-2009

Abstract

This paper considers the relationship between creative class indicators and economic health in mid-sized American metropolitan areas before and during the Great Recession. Our primary research question is whether more creative communities have been able to avoid the widespread downturn at the end of the last decade, or at least suffer a more limited decline than communities with less presence of creative class. We find that highly creative metropolitan areas are as likely to suffer an economic decline that is as severe as that of their less creative peers. Moreover, key creative measures, such as immigrant populations, are negatively related to economic health. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.