1. Been thinking about the geography of innovation in light of #coronavirus.
2. Initially, I thought perhaps it might reinforce or further spur decentralization & declustering, at least at the margin. Now I think it might cut both ways.
3. On the one hand, I think the response from companies is to encourage more people to work from home remotely. And this could in turn spur some employees to relocate to more affordable locations.
4. It could also spur some large companies to decentralize some functions to create more resilience.
5. We know that business location has follower and herd-like characteristics, so if some large established companies do some of this, others will likely follow. BUT ...
6. On the other hand, if #coronavirus leads to a significant shift/ reduction in business travel or flights, this would reinforce clustering in established hubs.
7. The viability of remote work & decentralized hubs depends on the ability to connect/ travel seamlessly (on-demand) to superstar places.
8. If we see even a small lasting reduction in the ease of travel to leading hubs & superstar cities, this will reinforce clustering in these places.
