Diversity has been thought to influence innovation and economic growth in many ways. The mechanisms proposed as underlying these relationships interestingly operate at different spatial scales. Differing estimates across levels of spatial resolution therefore provide empirical insight into the processes underlying regional differences in innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. After discussing these mechanisms and why they operate at different spatial scales, this essay revisits a number of the existing studies of diversity through this lens. Diversity appears to have had the largest effects at fine-grained scales, suggesting that its economic value to regions emerges most strongly from facilitating innovation and information exchange through serendipitous interactions.

人们认为多样性可以通过多种方式影响创新和经济增长。有趣的是，作为这些关系的基础而提出的机制在不同的空间尺度上运作。因此，不同空间分辨率水平的不同估计为创新、创业和经济增长的区域差异背后的过程提供了实证见解。在讨论了这些机制以及它们为何在不同空间尺度上运作之后，本文通过这个视角重新审视了一些现有的多样性研究。多样性似乎在细粒度范围内产生了最大的影响，这表明其对地区的经济价值最强烈地体现在通过偶然的互动促进创新和信息交流。