A Note on the Use of Amenities to Attract Creative Class Members to a City

We study the decision problem faced by a city authority (CA)who seeks to attractmembers of the creative class to his city by providing amenities. Creative class members careabout their own incomes and about the amenities that the city provides. We construct astylized model of this interaction and shed light on three questions. First, we determine howmuch additional income must be paid to a representative creative class member to maintainher utility if amenities are withdrawn. Second, we compute the cost of generating amenitybenefits that equal a specific fraction of the representative creative class member’s income.Finally, we discuss whether the provision of amenity benefits is a cost-effective way ofraising the representative creative class member’s utility