Clustering dynamics of creative and knowledge-intensive industries. Analysis for Bogota and Medellin, Colombia

Recent literature has wide empirical evidence on growth patterns and employment spatial agglomeration in knowledge-intensive and creative sectors (SICC by its acronym in Spanish), with broad reference to post-industrial economies and, to a lesser extent, economies of emerging countries, where processes coexist rooted of spatial inequity. Using data on forced mobility by skilled workers and land uses for cadastral economic destinations, this article analyses the clustering processes of SICC employment in the two metropolitan systems with the greatest economic dynamism in Colombia, Bogota and Medellin, to determine the impact produced by agglomeration and network economies processes in comparison to the clustering generation public policies determined by local governments. Additionally, through a multivariate regression analysis, the impact of the distance to metropolitan centres and other central areas of economic agglomeration and the dynamics of employment clustering of the economic activities studied is determined. The results show the value of distance to areas of the territory with economic specialization, such as the metropolitan centre and new business centres, where economies of diversity also operate, for the agglomeration of SICC employment. Likewise, the analysis shows how these agglomerations are not completely aligned with other areas of the territory demarcated by public policy for the generation of districts or clusters in these economic activities, which has important implications for the adjustment of these policies in aspects that are decisive in the agglomeration dynamics of employment in these economic sectors in space.