Moretti’s economic tale of two cites: where Microsoft is now and Albuquerque

In Moretti’s book, he provides a detail study of how innovation jobs can be economic driver and dictate the economic future of a town, city or region.
Moretti discusses where Microsoft (MSFT) is now , Seattle, and Albuquerque, NM.  These two cities embody the natural experiment that he suggest shows the impact of innovation jobs.  In short he shows how one town has grown and blossomed and the other has not.
 He points to three factors that have lead to the drastic divergence.
1 Job Creation.  The sheer number of innovation jobs created by Microsoft both directly and the tradition jobs that were created indirectly.
2. The MSFT millionaires. These millionairies changed the landscape of Seattle as they started their own companies in around the city (and the industry).
3. The Hubs.  According to Moretti cities like Seattle have become ‘Hubs’ that attract other businesses.  Many businesses find that the existence of other companies both in their industry (competitors) and related companies attracts other companies and makes it easier for them to do business

Published by

Dwight Steward, Ph.D.

Dr. Steward regularly writes and speaks on topics involving business and individual economic damages, employment audits, and the analysis of payroll and time data in wage and hour investigations. Dr. Steward has also held teaching positions at The University of Texas-Austin in the Department of Economics and in the Red McCombs School of Business, The College of Business at Sam Houston State University, and at The University of Iowa. He has taught numerous courses in statistics, corporate finance, labor economics, business policies, managerial economics, and microeconomics.