Edward Glaeser & Paul Romer on Rapid Urbanization

Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University, spoke with Paul Romer, Director of NYU's Marron Institute of Urban Management and Professor of Economics, in a public presentation on April 22. During the conversation, they discussed the challenges and realities of rapid urban development in the low and middle income countries. They also discussed the reasons why today's rapidly urbanizing countries are becoming urban at levels of income that are substantially lower than the historical levels of income at which high-income countries urbanized.
The two professors examined the challenges of providing public services in fast growing cities characterized by limited government capacity. They considered some possibilities for increasing governmental capacity, such as privatizing the provision of certain services or the notion of government-to-government (G2G) trade in services.