Role of spatial dispersion of creative capital for understanding regional differences in Spain

It has been argued that 'creative class' as a source of growth has gained increasing attention in recent years. According to Florida, a main factor in explaining creativity driven growth is the locational choice of creative people. This research investigates the spatial distribution of creative capital and its effects on regional disparities by considering geographic differences of human capital and employment. First we analyze the dispersion of creative capital related with the dispersion of employment, human capital and regional inequalities. Second, this dispersion is tried to be used as a possible factor behind the differences in Spain. There are high regional differences in terms of creative employment endowments and this picture is persistent for year 1996 and 2004. Results indicate that for both 1996 and 2004 creative employment is spatially dependent. Since this finding only gives clues at a very general level (global in this sense) its decomposition can increase the information set regarding the dispersion of creative employment at the local level. Findings also indicate that there are hot spots in mostly the north eastern geography of Spain. Creative capital is spatially unequal. In line with central aim of this research, our central concern is to carry out this discussion towards the relationship between this unequal pattern and general regional differences in Spain. There is similarity between the geographical patterns in regional inequalities and creative employment endowments. According to the objectives, models containing valuable information about regional development differences in Spain are constructed for year 2004. Models show that creative employment is influencing the differences in regional per capita income in Spain. Finally, it is interesting that in the final model, once we control for the human capital development level of the population for each provinces, creative capital (as well as sectoral composition) fails to explain the regional income differences. In short results of the final model should not be regarded as the insufficiency of the creative capital to explain regional differences; rather it should be remarked that human capital development is dominating the impact of the creative capital.