Richard Florida writes: The United States for America - for generations known as the land of opportunity and innovation - is on the verge of losing its competitive edge. It is facing perhaps its greatest economic challenge since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Tis challenge has little to do with business costs and even less with manufacturing prowess. And, no, the main competitive threats are not from China or India. Even though the Unites States led the world into the era of high-tech industry and constant innovation, it is by no means the nation's manifest destiny to stay on top. In fact, the great majority of U.S. business and political leaders, academics, and economic analysts fail to grasp the true reason behind American sucess in innovation, economic growth, and prosperity. It is not the country's generous endowment of natural resources, the size of its market, or some indigenous Yankee ingenuity that has powered its global competitiveness for more than a century. America's growth miracle turns on one key factor: its openess to new ideas, which has allowed it to mobilize and harness the creative energies of its people. As Stanford University economist Paul Romer has long argued, great advances have always come from ideas. <snip>
A close look at international statistics shows that the creative class represents a larger percentage of the workforce in many other countries than it does in the United States. Along with Irene Tinagli, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon, I set out to compare the size of the creative class in different countries by establishing the "Global Creative-Class Index" (GCCI). Using employment data and the job classifications established by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the index is a straightforward calculation of the number of people employed in creative job categories in each country divided by the country's total number of workers.
Far from being a leader, the United States is not even in the top ten. The creative class constitutes around a third of the workforce in Ireland, Belgium, Australia, and the Netherlands; it accounts for roughly a quarter of the workforce in six other countries: New Zealand, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, and Iceland. When our U.S. data are adjusted to be comparable to the ILO figures (which use a narrow definition of creative job categories that excludes "technicians"), the United States comes in, with 23.6% at 11th, worldwide. Still, if technicians are included in the international analysis, the creative class rises to more than 40% in some eigtht countries: the Netherlands (47%), Sweden (42.4%), Switzerland (42 %), Denmark (42%), Norway (41.6%), Belgium (41.4%), Finland (41%), and Germany (40%) /* USA data? */. It constitutes more than 30% of the workforce in virtually all the remaining countries. What's more, the growth rate of the creative class in several nations has been phenomenal over the past decade or so. Since 1991, for instance, New Zealand's creative class has jumped from 18.7% to 27.1%, and Ireland's has nearly doubles, starting from the same 18.7% and rising to 33.5% <snip>
His recommendations: Calculate the true cost of security. The United States is impeding its own progress when it makes scientific discovery pass religious tests or when it tightens visa restrictions unnecessarily. /* 100% agreement */ <snip> Invest generously in research and education. Corporate R&D funding dropped by nearly $8 billion in 2002 - the largest single-year decline since the 1950s, the National Science Foundation reports. And right now, the federal government is cutting key areas of defense R&D spending. Many state governments have slashed higher education funding for arts and culture while pumping millions into stadiums, convention centers, and other bricks-and-mortar projects. Never mind that the local economic benefits of such projects often dry up the minute the last construction worker drives off the site. These choices signal a profound failure to understand what's required to maintain an atmosphere of innovation. /* 75% agreement */ Tap into more people's creative capabilities <snip> The United States needs to substantially upgrade the pay, working conditions, and status of the huge number of service jobs its economy is generating. These are the port-of-entry jobs to the creative economy of today. During the Great Depression and the New Deal, the nation succeeded in turning a large number of formerly low-skill, low-pay, blue-collar jobs into the kind of occupations that could support families and become a launchpad for upward mobility. And many of the equivalent jobs today - hairdressing, massage therapy, and aestheticians, to name only a few - are virtually impervious to outsourcing. /* 0% agreement */
My take: There aren't any countries around in which the creativity class makes up 40 to 50 percent of the workforce. Even under the narrow definition the numbers seem highly inflated. If you take a look at Florida's creativity index you will see that there is no relationship between a country's rank and its GDP per capita. Since he wrote that "the growth rate of the creative class in several nations has been phenomenal over the past decade or so" I plotted his index against real GDP ($, due to lack of time) per capita growth for the period 1990-2000 and 1995-2000 (Penn World Table).
Outlier: Ireland. No relationship.
A close look at international statistics shows that the creative class represents a larger percentage of the workforce in many other countries than it does in the United States. Along with Irene Tinagli, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon, I set out to compare the size of the creative class in different countries by establishing the "Global Creative-Class Index" (GCCI). Using employment data and the job classifications established by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the index is a straightforward calculation of the number of people employed in creative job categories in each country divided by the country's total number of workers.Far from being a leader, the United States is not even in the top ten. The creative class constitutes around a third of the workforce in Ireland, Belgium, Australia, and the Netherlands; it accounts for roughly a quarter of the workforce in six other countries: New Zealand, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, and Iceland. When our U.S. data are adjusted to be comparable to the ILO figures (which use a narrow definition of creative job categories that excludes "technicians"), the United States comes in, with 23.6% at 11th, worldwide. Still, if technicians are included in the international analysis, the creative class rises to more than 40% in some eigtht countries: the Netherlands (47%), Sweden (42.4%), Switzerland (42 %), Denmark (42%), Norway (41.6%), Belgium (41.4%), Finland (41%), and Germany (40%) /* USA data? */. It constitutes more than 30% of the workforce in virtually all the remaining countries. What's more, the growth rate of the creative class in several nations has been phenomenal over the past decade or so. Since 1991, for instance, New Zealand's creative class has jumped from 18.7% to 27.1%, and Ireland's has nearly doubles, starting from the same 18.7% and rising to 33.5% <snip>
His recommendations: Calculate the true cost of security. The United States is impeding its own progress when it makes scientific discovery pass religious tests or when it tightens visa restrictions unnecessarily. /* 100% agreement */ <snip> Invest generously in research and education. Corporate R&D funding dropped by nearly $8 billion in 2002 - the largest single-year decline since the 1950s, the National Science Foundation reports. And right now, the federal government is cutting key areas of defense R&D spending. Many state governments have slashed higher education funding for arts and culture while pumping millions into stadiums, convention centers, and other bricks-and-mortar projects. Never mind that the local economic benefits of such projects often dry up the minute the last construction worker drives off the site. These choices signal a profound failure to understand what's required to maintain an atmosphere of innovation. /* 75% agreement */ Tap into more people's creative capabilities <snip> The United States needs to substantially upgrade the pay, working conditions, and status of the huge number of service jobs its economy is generating. These are the port-of-entry jobs to the creative economy of today. During the Great Depression and the New Deal, the nation succeeded in turning a large number of formerly low-skill, low-pay, blue-collar jobs into the kind of occupations that could support families and become a launchpad for upward mobility. And many of the equivalent jobs today - hairdressing, massage therapy, and aestheticians, to name only a few - are virtually impervious to outsourcing. /* 0% agreement */
My take: There aren't any countries around in which the creativity class makes up 40 to 50 percent of the workforce. Even under the narrow definition the numbers seem highly inflated. If you take a look at Florida's creativity index you will see that there is no relationship between a country's rank and its GDP per capita. Since he wrote that "the growth rate of the creative class in several nations has been phenomenal over the past decade or so" I plotted his index against real GDP ($, due to lack of time) per capita growth for the period 1990-2000 and 1995-2000 (Penn World Table).
Outlier: Ireland. No relationship.
Mahalanobis - am 2004-11-27 21:41 - Rubrik: economics
