Culture and creativity, skills building, and growth: what have we missed?

In this paper, we discuss the role of culture and creativity as a so far neglected growth factor, filling an important gap in the existing literature. We analyse both the relevant theoretical and empirical studies, and we find that there is a solid basis to integrate culture and creativity into a more comprehensive growth paradigm. Working on the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) database, we adopt a cross-sectional design. We find that cultural and creative sectors are characterised by higher levels of problem solving, numeracy, and literacy skills with respect to other productive sectors, and that the same positive gap holds for cultural and creative jobs with respect to other kinds of jobs. Taking into account the well-documented effects of cultural participation on pro-social attitudes and behavioural changes, we conclude that culture and creativity deserve more attention as a socially sustainable growth factor, simultaneously acting on both the supply and demand sides. Harnessing the skills-building potential of culture and creativity may, therefore, provide the basis for a new cycle of research and policy developments on the soft determinants of growth performance.