Cultural Identity and Knowledge Creation in Cosmopolitan Cities

Gianmarco Ottaviano and Giovanni Prarolo ()

No 7432, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We study how the city system is affected by the possibility for the members of the same cultural diaspora to interact across different cities. In so doing, we propose a simple two-city model with two mobile cultural groups. A localized externality fosters the productivity of individuals when groups interact in a city. At the same time, such interaction dilutes cultural identities and reduces the consumption of culture-specific goods and services. We show that the two groups segregate in different cities when diaspora members find it hard to communicate at distance whereas they integrate in multicultural cities when communication is easy. The model generates situations in which segregation is an equilibrium but is Pareto dominated by integration.

Keywords: Cosmopolitan cities; Cultural diaspora; Cultural identity; Knowledge creation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F0 O4 R1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-geo, nep-knm and nep-ure
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP7432 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: CULTURAL IDENTITY AND KNOWLEDGE CREATION IN COSMOPOLITAN CITIES* (2009)
Working Paper: Cultural Identity and Knowledge Creation in Cosmopolitan Cities (2009)
Working Paper: Cultural Identity and Knowledge Creation in Cosmopolitan Cities (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7432

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP7432

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().