Is It Really Tolerance? Expanding the Knowledge About Diversity for the Creative Class

Among current theories on regional development the creative capital has received major attention. Several assessments of the theory have shown that tolerance and creativity cannot be ignored. However, as the focus in these assessments mainly has been to replicate the results of Richard Florida, they have put less emphasis on the issues the tolerance measures pose. This paper argues that tolerance has only been measured by diverse population and that this is insufficient. To solve this issue a variety of tolerance measures are introduced and underlying effects of other variables are tested for. Surprisingly, the only measure significant in the model is the bohemian measure. On the one hand, this renders support for the creative capital theory and suggests that attracting bohemian employees can gain economic growth. On the other hand, it problematises the tolerance concept and indicates that tolerance is hard to grasp and add to economic models.