The Economics of Creativity

The economics of creativity

(35 hours, 5 credits)

Teacher : Marina Bianchi

This course is devoted to the study of the creative economy. The Creative economy is the economy of knowledge and talent. In this type of economy the competitive advantage of firms is measured by their ability to attract and stimulate human resources and capabilities. Traditionally the creative economy has been associated with the arts – the visual arts, literature, music – but creativity belongs also to sciences, to research and development, and to all those activities of consumption and production that are linked to entertainment, design, marketing, fashion, media, and sports. Firms are having to accept this, and are changing accordingly, even if measured against the quite recent past. The diffusion of new technologies and the use of the internet, the shift to a type of competition that privileges quality rather than low costs, renders ideas, creativity, and excellence the most important determinants of competitive edge. The new competitive tools become copyright, patents, trademarks and design. In the last ten years the creative economy, measured by the mentioned skills sought and applied, has been the fastest-growing sector of the economy and this process is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. It is important therefore to understand the market for the new skills and the organizing principles that characterize this economy. The course will be structured as follows:

1. Definition of creativity. Early psychological studies on what creativity is and how it works. New contributions to our understanding of the determinants of creativity. The nature and role of motivations and the social dimension of creativity. Curiosity and exploration. 2. The creative economy and the firms: definition, characteristics, economic relevance and organization of creative firms. New forms of strategic competition. 3. Creativity and consumption. The changing role of consumers, and the new significance of consumption skills in ratifying value. Consumer motivations and the formation of aesthetic preferences. 4. The social dimension of Creativity. The role that social interactions play in creativity. The relationship between firms’ strategies and consumers’ communities (i.e. open source, co-design, crowdsourcing, blogs) 5. Creativity and space. The role of cities – closeness and scale – in attracting and fostering talent. Policy implications in terms of incentives to innovation and talent formation.

Additional information: The course is will be interactive. Students will participate through short presentations of papers selected with the help of the Professor. During the course students are required to keep a journal that will collect both the teaching material discussed in class plus students’ own research and ideas. The final exam will consist of a short paper and a written discussion of some of the topics of the course. The final grade will take into account also the active participation and involvement shown by students during the course.

Teaching material Much of the teaching material will be provided by the Professsor during the course and it will be based on articles from scientific journals and magazines and on the works of the following authors.

Amabile, T. M. (1982) “ The Social Psychology of Creativity: A Consensual Assessment Technique,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43,5: 997-1013. Amabile, T. M., and J. Pillemer (2012) "Perspectives on the Social Psychology of Creativity," Journal of Creative Behavior, 46,1: 3-15. Caves, R.E. (2002) Creative Industries: Contracts between the Arts and Commerce, Harvard University Press. Csikszentmihalyi, M. 2008 (1990) Flow: the psychology of optimal experience New York: Harper Perennial. Florida, R. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class. New York, Basic Books.) Florida, R. (2005) Cities and the Creative Class. London: Routledge Howkins, J (2001) The Creative Economy. London, Penguin. Glaeser, E.L. and Gottlieb J.D. (2006) Urban resurgence and the consumer city. HIER Discussion paper n. 2109. Lehrer, Jonah (2012) Imagine. How Creativity Works. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Sawyer, R. K. (2006). Explaining creativity: The science of human innovation. New York: Oxford University Press. Scitovsky, T. (1992a [1976]). The Joyless Economy: The Psychology of Human Satisfaction, revised edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seybold, P. B. (2006) Outside Innovation, New York Harper Collins. Von Hippel, E. (2005) Democratizing Innovation, Cambridge MA, MIT Press.