| Publications [#147111] of Charles M. Becker
Chapters in Books
- C.M. Becker and A.R. Morrison, Urbanization in Transforming Economies,
in HANDBOOK OF REGIONAL URBAN ECONOMICS, North-Holland Handbooks in Economics, edited by P. Cheshire and E.S. Mills
(1999), Elsevier North-Holland (Ch. 43, pp. 1172-1290..)
(last updated on 2008/06/26)
Abstract: The past half-century has witnessed a dramatic change in
the way in which people live. Fifty years ago, only a
small proportion of the less developed world lived in
cities, and world poverty was overwhelmingly rural. In
1950, less than one-fifth of the population of the "third
world" was urban; in the next five years or so, a majority
of developing countries' populations will be urban.
This dramatic social change has captured the attention of
development economists and, to a lesser degree, urban
economists. The following pages examine what has been
learned in a variety of areas. Section I discusses the
stylized patterns of urbanization in the developing world,
while Section II turns to models of third world city
growth and their empirical estimates, discussing partial
equilibrium models, general equilibrium models, economy-
wide computable general equilibrium (CGE) models,
demographic-economic perspectives, and household migration
modeling. Section III considers the impact of government
policies on urbanization. Particular attention is devoted
to structural adjustment policies, urban biases in public
expenditures, and issues unique to (ex)-socialist
economies. Section IV examines structural impediments to
urban development, including labor and land markets,
transportation issues, public finance and social
infrastructure concerns, and urban spatial structure. The
final section looks at the macroeconomic impacts of
urbanization -- on wage gaps and income distribution, on
demand patterns, and on economic efficiency.
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