Corvinus
Corvinus

Intercity connectivity and urban innovation

Liang, Xiaofan, Hidalgo, César A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6977-9492, Balland, Pierre-Alexandre, Zheng, Siqi and Wang, Jianghao (2024) Intercity connectivity and urban innovation. Computers Environment and Urban Systems, 109 . DOI 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2024.102092

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2024.102092


Abstract

Urban outputs, from economy to innovation, are known to grow as a power of a city’s population. But, since large cities tend to be central in transportation and communication networks, the effects attributed to city size may be confounded with those of intercity connectivity. Here, we map intercity networks for the world’s two largest economies (the United States and China) to explore whether a city’s position in the networks of communication, human mobility, and scientific collaboration explains the variance in a city’s patenting activity that is unaccounted for by its population. We find evidence that models incorporating intercity connectivity outperform population-based models and exhibit stronger predictive power for patenting activity, particularly for technologies of more recent vintage (which we expect to be more complex or sophisticated). The effects of intercity connectivity are more robust in China, even after controlling for population, GDP, and education, but not in the United States once adjusted for GDP and education. This divergence suggests distinct urban network dynamics driving innovation in these regions. In China, models with social media and mobility networks explain more heterogeneity in the scaling of innovation, whereas in the United States, scientific collaboration plays a more significant role. These findings support the significance of a city’s position within the intercity network in shaping its success in innovative activities.

Item Type:Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:Innovation ; Intercity networks ; Connectivity ; Scaling
Divisions:Corvinus Institute for Advanced Studies (CIAS)
Subjects:Knowledge economy, innovation
Transport and communications
Funders:National Natural Science Foundation of China, European Research Executive Agency, European Lighthouse of AI for Sustainability
Projects:National Natural Science Foundation of China No. 42222110, REA grant No. 101086712-LearnData-HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-TALENTS-01, 101120237-HORIZON-CL4-2022-HUMAN-02, ANR-17-EURE-0010, ANR-19-P3IA-0004
DOI:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2024.102092
ID Code:9830
Deposited By: MTMT SWORD
Deposited On:25 Apr 2024 13:26
Last Modified:25 Jun 2024 07:23

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