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Urbanization and Development in Asia: Linkages with Globalization and Migration
Lorraine Telfer-Taivainen The Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, was the venue for the launch on 16 June 2012 of the just...
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Working Paper
Gender Earnings Differentials and Regional Economic Development in Urban China, 1988-97Gender earnings differentials in urban China by region and their changes during the first decade of economic reform are examined. It is found that the female–male earnings ratio increased during the early stage of reform. The male earnings premium...
Working Paper
Challenges for Latin American CitiesCurrent urban interventions, particularly in cities in developing countries like Santiago de Chile, evidence major neglect in understanding the way contemporary living takes place and how it is changing under processes of globalization, global...
Working Paper
Is Internal Migration Bad for Receiving Urban Centres?During the twentieth century, internal migration and urbanization shaped Brazil’s economic and social landscape. Cities grew tremendously, while immigration participated in the rapid urbanization process and the redistribution of poverty between...
Working Paper
Toward Efficient Urban Form in ChinaLand efficiency in urban China is examined, using Tianjin as a case study, from the perspective of agricultural land conservation; reduction in energy use, conventional pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions; and human time savings. Issues addressed...
Working Paper
Unlocking Public Entrepreneurship and Public EconomiesUnlocking human potential requires a rich network of institutional arrangements in both private and public spheres. Opening the private sphere to entrepreneurship and complex market organization is well understood as a key to increasing the level and...
Working Paper
A New Way of Monitoring the Quality of Urban LifeA growing number of cities around the world have established systems of monitoring the quality of urban life. Many of those systems combine objective and subjective information and attempt to cover a wide variety of topics. This paper introduces a...
Working Paper
Socio-Spatial Implications of Street Market Regulation PolicyUnlike in most Latin American cities, street vendors organized in farmers’ markets popularly known as ferias libres in Santiago de Chile, gained legal recognition early in the twentieth century. Since then, comunas, or local municipalities, have...
Working Paper
Growth and Recovery in a Time of DefaultInternational narratives on Argentina’s recovery from the crisis of 2001-02 tend to emphasize the role of rising commodity prices and growing demand from China. Argentina is said to have been ‘lucky’, saved by global demand for its agricultural...
Working Paper
Cocaine CitiesThe relationship between the cocaine trade and urban land markets in South America has been overlooked by the mainstream economics and urban studies literature. This paper examines two avenues through which the cocaine trade can have a large impact...
Working Paper
Latin American Urban Development into the 21st CenturyThis paper argues for a more systemic engagement with Latin American cities, contending it is necessary to reconsider their unity in order to nuance the ‘fractured cities’ perspective that has widely come to epitomise the contemporary urban moment in...
Blog
Density and Disasters: Economics of Urban Hazard RiskSomik V. Lall and Uwe Deichmann Following the terrible disaster which struck Haiti last month, in which more than 200,000 people are estimated to have...
Policy Brief
Rising Spatial Disparities and DevelopmentThe UNU-WIDER project on 'Spatial Disparities in Human Development' has collected and analyzed evidence on the extent of spatial inequalities within developing countries. The studies find that spatial inequalities are high, with disparities between...
Blog
Beyond the Urban Tipping PointJo Beall, Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, and Ravi Kanbur By many estimates, the world has just crossed the point where more than half the global population...
Journal Article
The Efficiency of India's CitiesOne reason for unsatisfactory public service delivery in Indian cities is that city finances are in poor condition. Recent research shows that given the fragmented institutional arrangements for land in India's cities, there is a case for...
Journal Article
Evaluating multiple spatial dimensions of economic growth in Brazil using spatial panel data modelsThe goal of this paper is to evaluate the results of regional economic growth model estimations at multiple spatial scales using spatial panel data models. The spatial scales examined are minimum comparable areas, microregions, mesoregions and states...
Blog
Urbanization and Development: The Big Questions
Lorraine Telfer-Taivainen In October the London School of Economics and Political Science hosted the launch of Urbanization and Development...
Working Paper
Youth in Tanzania’s Urbanizing Mining SettlementsOver the last fifteen years many African countries have experienced a ‘mining take-off’. Mining activities have bifurcated into two sectors: large-scale, capital-intensive production generating the bulk of the exported minerals, and small-scale...
Working Paper
Cities of YouthWith a focus on cities in eastern and southern Africa, this paper draws on recent scholarship and my own research in Lusaka, Zambia, to analyse pathways for, and challenges to, greater social mobility for youth against the background of economic...
Blog
From the Editor's Desk (June-July 2012)
Tony Addison I started writing this ‘From the Editor’s Desk’ in Accra, to the sound of an African drum band, preparing for a ceremony to mark the...
Blog
From The Editor's Desk (December 2012)
Tony Addison This year has rushed by at speed. For UNU-WIDER it’s been a year of big successes. We will have published some 110 working papers by the...
Blog
The View from Buenos Aires
Tony Addison A visit to Buenos Aires in September provided a good vantage point to look at the euro zone’s deepening crisis. Angle readers will recall...
Blog
From the Editor's desk (October 2011)
Tony Addison As autumn moves into winter in Helsinki, it is time to bring you the October edition of UNU-WIDER’s newsletter, WIDER Angle. Regular...
Working Paper
Habitat II and the Urban EconomyThe strategic conferences organized by the UN during the past 25 years have focused on assisting and mobilizing governments and other relevant actors of international life by enhancing collective thinking and action in those areas which may...
Working Paper
Gender Aspects of Urban Economic Growth and DevelopmentThe urbanization process is frequently shaped by prevailing constructions of gender. The recognition of this phenomenon is vital both in diagnosis and policy terms. This paper aims at illustrating the importance of gender in three major related...
Journal Article
Latin American Urban Development into the Twenty-first CenturyThis article argues for a more systemic engagement with Latin American cities, contending that it is necessary to reconsider their unity in order to nuance the ‘fractured cities’ perspective that has widely come to epitomize the contemporary urban...
Working Paper
Social Benefits in Urban ChinaThis study provides the first set of empirical evidence on the determinants of social benefits received by urban families in China and the impact on income inequality using the China Household Income Project (CHIP) 1988 and 2002 data. It finds that...
Working Paper
Evolving City SystemsThis paper reviews the literature on the forces driving urbanization in developing countries. It presents a model outlining how globalization can lead to the evolution of an urban structure which may approximate Zipf’s law. Policy implications are...
Research Brief
Decentralization in South AfricaIn the WIDER Working Paper ‘Vertical Decentralization and Urban Service Delivery in South Africa: Does Politics Matter?’ Robert Cameron looks at the ways in which politics affects decentralization and service delivery in South Africa. To do this he...
Working Paper
Vertical Decentralization and Urban Service Delivery in South AfricaThis study examines the role of politics on decentralization and service delivery in South Africa, with a specific focus on Johannesburg and Cape Town. The research delineates how national decentralization has affected service delivery...
Working Paper
Opposition Politics and Urban Service Delivery in Kampala, UgandaUganda, like other African countries, has implemented reforms to decentralize political authority to local governments and reintroduce multiparty elections. This combination creates opportunities for national partisan struggles to emerge in local...
Journal Article
Gender Earnings Differentials and Regional Economic Development in Urban China, 1988-97Part of Journal Special Issue Inequality and Poverty in China
Journal Article
Vertical Decentralisation and Urban Service Delivery in South AfricaPart of Journal Special Issue Urban Governance and Service Delivery in sub-Saharan Africa
Journal Article
Opposition Politics and Urban Service Delivery in Kampala, UgandaPart of Journal Special Issue Urban Governance and Service Delivery in sub-Saharan Africa
Working Paper
Globalization and the Urban Poor in ChinaThis paper examines the distributional impact of globalization on the poor in urban China. Employing the kernel density estimation technique, we recovered from irregularly grouped household survey data the income distribution for 29 Chinese provinces...
Blog
Decent work – discussion on working conditions in Helsinki and globally
How committed is Helsinki to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals? The discussion forum at the City Hall on Tuesday addressed one of the...
Journal Article
The Tangled Web of Associational LifePart of Journal Special Issue African Development in an Urban World
Journal Article
Is There Such a Thing as a Post-apartheid City?Part of Journal Special Issue African Development in an Urban World
Journal Article
Urban Development Transitions and Their Implications for Poverty Reduction and Policy Planning in UgandaPart of Journal Special Issue African Development in an Urban World
Journal Article
Infrastructure and Poverty ReductionPart of Journal Special Issue African Development in an Urban World
Journal Article
The Challenges of Global Environmental Change for Urban AfricaPart of Journal Special Issue African Development in an Urban World
Journal Article
Cityness and African Urban DevelopmentPart of Journal Special Issue African Development in an Urban World
Book Chapter
Globalization and the Urban Poor in ChinaPart of Book The Poor under Globalization in Asia, Latin America, and Africa
Working Paper
ICT Sector, Globalization and Urban Economic GrowthThis paper aims at economic analysis of economic globalization and urban growth of Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, as they are related to ICT sector. Overall analyses offer new insights and evidences for ICT sector as a major contributor for...
Working Paper
The Challenges of Global Environmental Change for Urban AfricaCities—especially those with substantial poor populations—will face increasingly severe challenges in tackling the impacts of global environmental change (GEC). As economic dynamos and increasingly important population concentrations, cities both...
Working Paper
The Tangled Web of Associational LifeThis paper examines how decentralization and informalization are reshaping urban governance in contemporary Africa. By exploring the interface between urban institutional failures and popular organizational solutions, the paper considers how informal...
Working Paper
Is There Such a Thing as a Post-Apartheid City?In an introductory section, this paper considers briefly the achievements and problems of urban governance in post-apartheid South Africa through an assessment of three categories: administrative reform, developmental issues and conflicts over...
Working Paper
Urban Development Transitions and their Implications for Poverty Reduction and Policy Planning in UgandaUrbanization is one of the critical global trends shaping the future of humanity. At the same time, it has been argued that full development requires an urbanized environment. This paper attempts to examine and characterize the major phases of...
Working Paper
Infrastructure and Poverty ReductionThe paper investigates the impact of infrastructural development on poverty reduction in Nigeria. Specifically, the relative effects of physical and social infrastructure on living standards or poverty indicators are examined, with a view to...
Working Paper
Cityness and African Urban DevelopmentThis paper explores one possible argument for how to respond to the epistemic troubles in the production of knowledge about urban Africa. The problem I have in mind is the preponderance of policy-oriented research on the development challenges and...
Working Paper
Urbanization and the South Asian EnigmaSouth Asia has the highest rate of child malnutrition in the world, despite rapid economic growth compared to other regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. Known as the ‘South Asian enigma’ this feature is partly attributed to the low status of women in...
Working Paper
Suburbanization and Residential Desegregation in South Africa's CitiesPopulation density gradients for South Africa's cities are quite small in absolute value, indicating a relatively flat population distribution across the cities. In contrast employment is less flatly distributed than the population. The relationship...
Working Paper
Infrastructure and City Competitiveness in IndiaDo local improvements in infrastructure provision improve city competitiveness? What public finance mechanisms stimulate local infrastructure supply? And how do local efforts compare with national decisions of placing inter-regional trunk...
Working Paper
Urban Violence Is not (Necessarily) a Way of LifeAs the world moves towards its so-called urban ‘tipping point’, urbanization in the global South has increasingly come to be portrayed as the portent of a dystopian future characterized by ever-mounting levels of anarchy and brutality. The...
Working Paper
Dar es Salaam as a 'Harbour of Peace' in East AfricaDar es Salaam is exceptional in East Africa for having a record of relatively little ethnic tension, and remaining tranquil and true to its name, the ‘harbour of peace’. This paper explores the interface between ethnic and national identities in...
Working Paper
Violent Urbanization and Homogenization of Space and PlaceThis paper aims at understanding the dynamics of sectarian violence in the city of Beirut, by looking at the early phase of violence in the Lebanese civil war (1975–90), and the process of dividing Beirut into various sectarian enclaves controlled by...
Working Paper
Firm Location Choice in CitiesWe use large survey data sets of firms provided by the World Bank for China, India, and Brazil—Investment Climate Surveys—to address the important question: what determines the locational choice of firms among cities in these countries. We find that...
Working Paper
Silicon Mountains, Silicon MolehillsThis paper investigates the effect of information technology on industrial patterns of concentration and convergence. Information-technology intensive industries exhibit slower employment convergence than other industries. The regression estimates...
Book Chapter
Towards a New Research Agenda for 21st Century Latin American Urban DevelopmentPart of Book Latin American Urban Development into the 21st Century
Book Chapter
A New Way of Monitoring the Quality of Urban Life in Latin AmericaPart of Book Latin American Urban Development into the 21st Century
Book Chapter
On-Street Upgrading?Part of Book Latin American Urban Development into the 21st Century
Book Chapter
Mobility Challenges in Santiago de ChilePart of Book Latin American Urban Development into the 21st Century
Book Chapter
Urban Violence, Quality of Life, and the Future of Latin American CitiesPart of Book Latin American Urban Development into the 21st Century
Book Chapter
Re-thinking the Latin American CityPart of Book Latin American Urban Development into the 21st Century
Book Chapter
Urbanization and the South Asian EnigmaPart of Book Urbanization and Development in Asia
Book Chapter
ICT Sector, Globalization, and Urban Economic GrowthPart of Book Urbanization and Development in Asia
Book Chapter
Youth in Tanzania’s Urbanizing Mining SettlementsPart of Book African Youth and the Persistence of Marginalization
Journal Article
Gender Earnings Differential in Urban ChinaPart of Journal Special Issue Poverty and Inequality in China
Book Chapter
Themes Emerging, Questions Outstanding, and the Value of a Multidisciplinary ApproachPart of Book Urbanization and Development
Book Chapter
Infrastructure and City Competitiveness in IndiaPart of Book Urbanization and Development
Book Chapter
Urban Violence Is (not) Necessarily a Way of LifePart of Book Urbanization and Development
Book Chapter
Dar es Salaam as a 'Harbour of Peace' in East AfricaPart of Book Urbanization and Development
Book Chapter
Violent Urbanization and Homogenization of Space and PlacePart of Book Urbanization and Development
Book Chapter
Suburbanization and Residential Desegregation in South Africa's CitiesPart of Book Urbanization and Development
Book
Urbanization and DevelopmentThis volume presents a significant new collection of multidisciplinary papers focused on urbanization and its implications for development. It raises four questions: What is so special about the urban context? Why is urbanization and urban growth...
Book Chapter
Social Benefits in Urban ChinaPart of Book Understanding Inequality and Poverty in China
Book Chapter
Social Security in Latin America and the CaribbeanPart of Book Social Security in Developing Countries
Book Chapter
Skill Requirements, Earnings and Labour Demand in Nigeria's Urban Informal SectorPart of Book Informal Labour Markets and Development
Book Chapter
Urban Informal Sector and NetworksPart of Book Informal Labour Markets and Development
Book
Urbanization and Development in AsiaThe 20th century was one of rapid urbanization—that is urbanization by urban growth, and by rural-to-urban migration. By the dawn of the 21st century, for the first time in human history, more than half of the world’s population was living in urban...
Book
Informal Labour Markets and DevelopmentThis book presents significant new research on the informal labour markets of developing countries. Examining the critical role of informal labour markets in allowing countries to adjust successfully to the forces of globalization, this volume also...
Book
Latin American Urban Development into the 21st CenturyAccording to UN-Habitat, Latin America is the most urbanized region in the world. Over three quarters of its population resided in cities at the turn of the twenty-first century, a proportion that is estimated will rise to almost 85 per cent by 2030...
Research Brief
Divided Authority in Kampala, UgandaFavouritism of government controlled councils is most distinct through interference in local politics rather than through funding mechanisms. The motivation of central government intervention in land deals is two-fold - their actions can be...
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