Creativity and the City: Testing the Attenuation of Agglomeration Economies fo r the Creative Industries in Barcelona

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to infer the spatial extent of agglomeration economies for the creative service industries (SCI) in Barcelona and its relationship with firms’ performance. Using data from Mercantile Register (SABI) that provides micro-geographic data of firms between 2006 and 2015 I estimate the effect of intra-industry and inter-industry agglomeration in rings around location on productivity in Barcelona. Main results are that, (1) for CSI, at a micro-spatial level, localisation economies are not so relevant, although much work still remains to be done on this issue ; (2) while for Non-SCI having creative workers in the near proximity (250 metres) seems to enhance their productivity; and (3) for the symbolic - based CSI localisation economies – mainly understood as networking and knowledge externalities – have positive effects on TFP at shorter distances (less than 250 metres), while for the two other knowledge based CSI (i.e., synthetic and analytical) localisation economies seem not to be so relevant. These results strongly suggest the importance of networking or information spillovers in CIs, which are strongly concentrated in the largest cities. Keywords: creative industries, agglomeration economies, distance - based methods, micro-geographic data, Barcelona