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The relevance of personality traits for urban economic growth: making space for psychological factors

Author

Listed:
  • Harry Garretsen
  • Janka I Stoker
  • Dimitrios Soudis
  • Ron Martin
  • Jason Rentfrow

Abstract

Economic growth differences across regions and cities can only be partly explained by standard explanations in economic geography. One reason for this might be the neglect of the psychological make-up of cities and its citizens. To assess the value added of incorporating psychological factors alongside the more standard explanations, this paper tests the relevance of personality traits for economic growth for a sample of UK cities. We argue that Neuroticism and Conscientiousness, and the traits that make up entrepreneurship culture help to explain urban growth differences. The personality scores of >400,000 UK residents are combined with economic data for 63 UK cities from 1981 to 2011. We find that both Neuroticism and entrepreneurship culture matter for economic growth. Our main contribution is that geographically clustered personality traits help to understand economic growth differences, and add explanatory power over and above standard determinants, also when the recursive relationship between personality traits and economic growth is taken into account.

Suggested Citation

  • Harry Garretsen & Janka I Stoker & Dimitrios Soudis & Ron Martin & Jason Rentfrow, 2019. "The relevance of personality traits for urban economic growth: making space for psychological factors," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 541-565.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:19:y:2019:i:3:p:541-565.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jeg/lby025
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jessica Birkholz & Jarina Kühn & Mariia Shkolnykova, 2022. "Exploration or Exploitation: Innovation Behavior of SMEs and Large Firms during the COVID-19 Crisis," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2203, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    2. Liang Xu & Yanyang Luo & Xin Wen & Zaoyi Sun & Chiju Chao & Tianshu Xia & Liuchang Xu, 2022. "Human Personality Is Associated with Geographical Environment in Mainland China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-13, August.
    3. Matt Kammer-Kerwick & Kara Takasaki & J. Bruce Kellison & Jeff Sternberg, 2022. "Asset-Based, Sustainable Local Economic Development: Using Community Participation to Improve Quality of Life Across Rural, Small-Town, and Urban Communities," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(5), pages 3023-3047, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Personality traits; psychology; economic geography; UK cities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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