Cities in the developing world

By 2050, the world’s urban population is estimated to reach nearly seven billion, driven mainly by urbanisation in developing countries. Despite this growth, development economists have often chosen to focus on rural areas. In this VoxDevTalk, Ed Glaeser discusses a new paper that brings together research into urbanisation in the developing world. He argues that policymakers should not try to slow migration into cities, given the benefits of urbanisation that existing research has shown. These benefits include higher productivity and wages over the long-term.