Her remarks reported by The Herald  contradict a number of Scottish business leaders who call for the country to be handed more fiscal powers to adopt low-tax, business friendly economic policy.

Her remarks also cast doubt on the current strategies of bodies such as Scottish Enterprise that encourage inward investments with matched funding to attract external companies to move to Scotland.

Noting that Ireland’s strategy of offering low corporate taxes to encourage businesses to relocate “did not do so well, ” Professor Markusen, author of Reining in the Competition for Capital, told The Herald “Taxes pay for public services and businesses get public services. In my state of Minnesota, we have big business organisations saying we do not want lower taxes here. We need the higher-quality, better services you get for it. I think that is the trade-off."

“This whole idea that businesses should get tax breaks but get the same level of services – who pays for that? That means householders are paying for it.”

Professor Markusen said a focus should be placed on encouraging cultural activities because the “multiplier effect” is so much larger than other sectors, such as retail.

In her discussion Creative Placemaking she begins with human rather than physical capital, with creators such as artists and designers, to make several points about their under-appreciated contributions to cities, places, and regional economies.

Using census data and qualitative methods, she explore the career trajectories of creative workers and underscore the place-based strategies, arts organizations, and dedicated spaces that nurture them.  

From a scan done this year for US National Endowment for the Arts, she  explored  artists and designers roles as initiators of and partners in revitalisation, showcasing successful cases in large cities and tiny towns, recording the challenges in building partnerships and assembling resources."

The Glasgow Urban Laboratory is a partnership between the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow City Council’s department of Development & Regeneration