Everyday I watch a new vlog from Youtuber Casey Neistat ( https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat) , generally a short 10 minute of his life in New York City.  He often talks about how the city is incredibly good for workflow and creativity.  This got me wondering, is there anything about cities that would inherently cause more creative flow and a better work ethic?

For this specific topic, I’m going to define a city as not only a place where a lot of people live, but also one with a high population density.  The Quarterly Journal of Economics contains this piece categorizing cities as the heart of technological innovation, and as a result a place where more growth is expected to happen.  Because cities are tightly packed, you will interact with more people on a daily basis.  Also, the people who are able to afford living there will generally have a better job, meaning they have more ideas.

Post-Rent breakdown of income across the US. Note the higher income in coastal cities Source 

Over 90% of America’s GDP comes from Metropolitan areas, while around 65% of the population live in them.  So what is it about these places that foster success?  This study from notable economists shows that as you increase the population density, efficiency and output increase at a disproportionate rate.  New York, despite it’s absolutely massive population, manages to be 4th in the country in output/worker.  However, it could be argued that since these cities are so massive, they are creating success based on their name alone.

However, it has been proven that being exposed to more culture will make a person more creative.  This article discusses multiple studies that have proven living in more then one country in their lifetime will make a person more creative.  To do this, one of the studies surveyed 205 students and asked them to solve a task in a creative manor.  60% of the kids who had lived over seas figured out the problem, while only 42% who hadn’t could.  That said, it’s not a very large study and there could be a confounding variable such as kids who have lived in more then one country have parents who are in higher ranking jobs.  Another study with 108 college students showed that 70% of students who had lived abroad were able to negotiate a beneficial business deal, while none of the students who had lived domestically were able to.

One major argument is that the type of jobs that exist in cities are corporate jobs, ones that challenge their workers to foster strong ideas and push the boundaries.  According to this article, 33% of people in America are working in jobs that they would define as allowing “creativity”.  These jobs are disproportionately centered around urban areas, and as a result cities are more creative places to exist.  And I guess that brings about the point that it’s not truly cities that make someone creative, but rather the environment that grows around them.  You will meet more people who are in turn more likely to work at a job that pushes them to innovate and be more productive.