Cities in the Developing World
Henry Overman and
Anthony Venables
CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE
Abstract:
Rapid urbanisation is a major feature of developing countries. Some 2 billion more people are likely to become city residents in the next 30 years, yet urbanisation has received little attention in the modern development economics literature. This paper reviews theoretical and empirical work on the determinants and effects of urbanisation. This suggests that there are substantial productivity benefits from cities, although unregulated outcomes may well lead to excessive primacy as externalities and coordination failures inhibit decentralisation of economic activity. Policy should operate both by identifying and addressing these market failures, and by seeking to remove institutional obstacles to decentralisation.
Keywords: Urbanisation; economic development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 R0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-geo, nep-sea and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)
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Related works:
Working Paper: Cities in the developing world (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0695
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