Something in the air

摘要

In The Late 19th century Alfred Marshall, a founding father of modern economics, asked why firms in the same industry were often geographically near each other. Proximity, he said, created something "in the air": "...if one man starts a new idea, it is taken up by others and combined with suggestions of their own; and thus it becomes the source of further new ideas." Marshall was thinking about Victorian manufacturing, but the same is true of the information-technology companies of the 2010s. Silicon Valley is home to many of the industry's giants, and hopeful founders of young start-ups still head for northern California. A certain Mark Zuckerberg left Harvard for Palo Alto as soon as he got the chance. Others beat a path to newer hubs, such as Berlin, London, Moscow, New York or Tel Aviv.