Creative economies of scale: an agent-based model of creativity and agglomeration

This article presents an agent-based model that simulates the social dynamics of the creative perspective within an evolutionary economic geography framework. Stylized facts are developed from the social psychology, network analysis and economic geography literature in order to construct specific agent behaviours with respect to four types of actions: social interaction, learning, creativity and migration. The model demonstrates how location affects the evolution of social networks from a neutral initial state and in turn how these trajectories establish varying contexts in which creative activity can flourish or founder. Ultimately, the model shows why individuals tend to be more creative in large and diverse locations. The article presents four additional scenarios which test notions of: local diversity versus specialization; nature versus nurture; the role of differing local education strategies; and competing talent attraction and retention strategies.