The mobility of "creative workers" and their potential contribution to the recovery of old industrial cities in Spain

Abstract

Strategies of attraction and retention of talent are gaining importance in the policy agendas of Spanish old industrial cities. However, since more evidence is needed regarding the effectiveness of these approaches this study begins by analysing the stocks and flows of ‘creative workers’ within the urban system. The inspection of a sample of their working histories confirms the capacity of this workforce to transform the nine studied cities by upgrading local human capital levels, fostering pecuniary externalities or improving local institutional frameworks. Nevertheless, some of these effects appear somehow blurred by low-skilled immigration and the dualisation of the labour market.