Article Creative Workforce and Economic Development in Precrisis Europe: Main Trends and Causality Relationships Alessandro Crociata 1 , Massimiliano Agovino 2 , Antonio Russo 3 , and Alan Quaglieri Domı ´nguez 3 Abstract Building on work funded by the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network 2013 Program, the article analyzes the regional development of the ‘‘creative workforce’’ among its active population against regional economic growth measured by changes in per capita gross domestic product over the period 2001 to 2008. The analysis establishes regional typologies in this relationship according to the ‘‘sense’’ and evolution of this association, allowing a critical evaluation of processes and policies that may explain the large degree of spatial variation encountered, and addresses the issue of causal relationships between these two dimensions, sug- gesting the need to rethink development policies based on ‘‘creative capital.’’ Keywords creative workforce, innovation, regional growth, causality, precrisis Europe 1 University ‘‘G. D’Annunzio’’ of Chieti Pescara, Pescara, Italy 2 University of Naples ‘‘Parthenope’’, Napoli, Italy 3 University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain Corresponding Author: Alessandro Crociata, University ‘‘G. D’Annunzio’’ of Chieti Pescara, Viale Pindaro 42, Pescara 65127, Italy. Email: crociata@gmail.com International Regional Science Review 1-32 ª The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0160017615607054 irx.sagepub.com at LEDUCACIO PSICOL VIRGILI on June 8, 2016 irx.sagepub.com Downloaded from