Economists say you could be missing out on 'knowledge spillovers' if you build your career away from a big city
"Knowledge spillovers" are serendipitous meetings that expand your networks or help you grow your career. They're harder to come by in smaller cities.
Westend61/Getty Images
- "Knowledge spillovers" are IRL meetings that can expand your network or help you learn new things.
- They're more common in industry hubs.
- It's one reason the big-city exodus post-pandemic could hamper future career prospects.
"Knowledge spillovers" are just one reason why a big-city exodus in the wake of the pandemic could impair future career prospects for people.
Economists define knowledge spillovers as serendipitous meetings — on the bus or in a bar, for example — that can expand your professional network or help you learn new things.
And they're much more common in industry hubs, Business Insider's Aki Ito writes in a feature about the hidden price of leaving big cities:
That's why innovation, as measured by patents, is higher in large markets, and why businesses in big cities tend to have higher productivity.
It's one reason big cities have been "underappreciated" during the pandemic, says economist Enrico Moretti.
A 2022 study on knowledge spillovers in Silicon Valley cited the work of developer AnnaLee Saxenian, stating that "frequent face-to-face interactions, and the knowledge flows that resulted, were a large part of what made Silicon Valley the dominant technology hub it is today."
The study used smartphone data to measure meetings, and concluded that "face-to-face interactions — instrumented by the meetings of workers in adjacent establishments in unconnected industries — substantially increase knowledge flows."
You can read more about the professional benefits to living in a big city right here.