The Innovation Market

The Economic Development Curmudgeon in its critical review of Enrico Moretti brings up a good point regarding the innovation global market. He states that, “Today’s winners can become losers in the future”. The innovation market seems to be thriving on the surface level right now but it is not certain what will happen in the future. As the innovation market continues to grow, we have no way of knowing where this market will take us. Richard Florida also makes the point that the technology capital is very concentrated. The United States alone accounts for 68.6% of total global venture capita not to mention it is only concentrated in metro cities such as New York and Boston. The technology market is very concentrated which makes it limited only to these cities that are densely populated with “great universities, and the open-mindedness and tolerance required to attract talent from across the world”. Not all cities have the draw to attract talents and investors won’t invest in those cities either because they don’t see the appeal. Metro cities like New York and Boston are safe bets for investments because the technology sector is blooming in those cities. Because of the concentrated investments in technology in only these few selected cities, the innovation global market itself is very limited. It is not certain whether this market will grow outside of these metro cities if other cities don’t have the resources or appeal to attract investments.

Having said that, I would still consider myself as a “techno-optimist”. Maybe it is the influence of movies but I want to believe that the technology market can expand more and more so that flying cars and robot helpers can become a reality. Of course, there will always be a downside to everything but I am optimistic about the benefits of technology overweighting the negatives. Though before that, the issue of technology market being concentrated in only certain areas definitely needs to be addressed. If only certain cities have big technology investments and a growing market, we might potentially see a world in which one city has flying cars replacing road cars while the next city has no access to flying cars. The economy gap is a huge factor in this and it is happening right now with education, incomes, healthcare, and etc. In order for further technology advancements, the gaps between all the cities from different parts of the world need to close so that there won’t be such a vast difference. If all the cities in the world have a good balance of good education, good earning income, healthcare, and more, this can serve as the attraction point for investors to invest in different cities. The spread of investments thus won’t be concentrated and there will be a larger potential for growth and creativity in innovation.