โA timely and smart discussion of how different cities and regions have made a changing economy work for themโand how policymakers can learn from that.โ โBarack Obama
Weโre used to thinking of the United States in opposing terms: red versus blue, haves versus have-nots. But today there are three Americas. At one extreme are the brain hubsโcities like San Francisco, Boston, and Durhamโwith workers who are among the most productive, creative, and best paid on the planet. At the other extreme are former manufacturing capitals, which are rapidly losing jobs and residents. The rest of America could go either way.
For the past thirty years, the three Americas have been growing apart at an accelerating rate. This divergence is one of the most important developments in the history of the United States. But the winners and losers arenโt necessarily who youโd expect.
Enrico Morettiโs groundbreaking research shows that you donโt have to be a scientist or an engineer to thrive in one of the brain hubs. Taxi drivers, teachers, nurses, and other local service jobs are created at a ratio of five-to-one in the brain hubs, raising salaries and standard of living for all. Dealing with this splitโsupporting growth in the hubs while arresting the decline elsewhereโis the challenge of the century, and The New Geography of Jobs lights the way.
โBrilliant.โ โForbes
โMr. Moretti says the data support the argument that technology innovators are one of the most important engines of job creation in the USโ โJessica E. Vascellaro, Wall Street Journal
โExcellentโ โThe National Review
โA clear and insightful account of the economic forces that are shaping America.โ โThe New Republic