Cities

The currently emerging cities have the potential to be either the greatest drivers of growth or the largest group of missed opportunities for the developing world.

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  • Making the most of urban land Paul Collier, Michael Blake, Priya Manwaring

    Land is a city’s most valuable resource, but is liable to be badly misused.  As cities grow, land risks becoming occupied without coordination or supporting infrastructure,...

    Publication
  • Financing fast-growing cities Astrid Haas, Paul Collier

    Many developing country cities are growing at an unprecedented rate. To respond to this unplanned, rapid expansion, it will be beneficial for city authorities both to expand...

    Publication
  • Growth brief: Contagion, crime, and congestion –... Edward Glaeser, Helen Dempster

    With rapid urbanisation in the developing world comes contagion, crime, and congestion. Overcoming these is one of the great policy challenges of the 21st century. This brief...

    Publication
  • Cities that Work

    An IGC initiative for more effective urban policy.

  • Urban Myanmar Tim Dobermann

    Cities conjure a sense of commotion. They can be hives of economic activity and interaction or centres of congestion and crime. Today, the majority of the world’s population...

    Publication
  • IGC cities research programme

    One of the main challenges the IGC addresses through its research is the rapidly growing rates of urbanisation in developing countries. Through increased density and the...

    Publication

  • Research Programme Directors
    Edward Glaeser

    Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics

    Harvard University

    Gharad Bryan

    Lecturer in Economics

    London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)