Superlinear Scaling for Innovation in Cities

TL;DR

This paper introduces a network model explaining the superlinear relationship between city population size and innovation, providing a theoretical basis for observed sociological phenomena.

Contribution

It offers a novel network-based theoretical model that accounts for superlinear scaling of innovation with city size, filling a gap in understanding urban sociological patterns.

Findings

The model reproduces the superlinear scaling exponent within realistic ranges.

It provides a theoretical explanation for the empirical superlinear relationship.

The approach links network structure to urban innovation dynamics.

Abstract

Superlinear scaling in cities, which appears in sociological quantities such as economic productivity and creative output relative to urban population size, has been observed but not been given a satisfactory theoretical explanation. Here we provide a network model for the superlinear relationship between population size and innovation found in cities, with a reasonable range for the exponent.