Cities in the Developing World

Gharad Bryan, Edward Glaeser and Nick Tsivanidis

No 26390, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The fast and often chaotic urbanization of the developing world generates both economic opportunity and challenges, like contagious disease and congestion, because proximity increases both positive and negative externalities. In this paper, we review the expanding body of economic research on developing world cities. One strand of this literature emphasizes the economic benefits of urban connection, typically finding that agglomeration benefits are at least as high in poor countries as they are in rich countries. Yet there remains an ongoing debate about whether slums provide a path to prosperity or an economic dead end. A second strand analyzes the negative externalities associated with urban density, and the challenges of building and maintaining infrastructure to moderate those harms. Researchers are just beginning to understand the links between institutions (such as Public Private Partnerships), incentives (such as congestion pricing) and the effectiveness of urban infrastructure spending. A third line of research addresses the spatial structure of cities directly with formal, structural models. These structural models seem particularly valuable when analyzing land use and transportation systems in the far more fluid cities of the developing world.

JEL-codes: H23 J61 O10 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
Note: DEV LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as Gharad Bryan & Edward Glaeser & Nick Tsivanidis, 2020. "Cities in the Developing World," Annual Review of Economics, vol 12(1), pages 273-297.

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