Research Center Events

Stern's Urbanization Project Hosts a Conversation with Harvard University's Edward Glaeser

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The challenge of the 21st century is how to make these cities livable as well as prosperous.
As a part of the Conversations on Urbanization series held by NYU Stern’s Urbanization Project, Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University, spoke with Paul Romer, Director of the Urbanization Project, Interim Director of NYU's Marron Institute on Cities and the Urban Environment 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 developing world.

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.

“The challenge of the 21st century is how to make these cities livable as well as prosperous,” Glaeser noted. The speakers also discussed crime, the importance of effective policing, air pollution and the transportation implications of the de-industrialization of cities.