March 15, 2006
Edward Glaeser (Glimp Professor of Economics, Harvard University) Christopher Berry (Assistant Professor, University of Chicago)
This policy brief is based on "The Divergence of Human Capital Levels Across Cities," a paper by Berry and Glaeser that appeared in Papers in Regional Science; 2005, Vol. 84 Issue 3.
If skilled individuals raise wages for the workers around them—and if skilled individuals flock to smart cities—then we risk seeing intensified concentrations of wealth in some areas of the country and pockets of poverty in others. This suggests that local and regional policymakers have a stake in ensuring that their communities and regions become "smart" and stay "smart."