🌬️in 🏙️

2017: Oliver Harman's home in Brixton broke its World Health Organization (WHO) *annual* air pollution limit in 5⃣ days...

2024: International Growth Centre Prof Greenstone's work shows in Africa 'life expectancy could ⬆️ by 3⃣ years if meet World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines!

From Greenpeace International greenpeace.org/africa/en/pres…

'Madagascar's cities are the powerhouse of its economy, contributing three-quarters of the national GDP, with the capital, Antananarivo, alone accounting for 44%.'

😱&🥳

But it 'might not translate into poverty reduction' (esp secondary cities)

🤔

worldbank.org/en/country/mad…?

Migrating to cities can have large consequences for development, as can temporary international migration to accumulate capital.

From Laurent Bossavie et al. For IGC_Bangladesh

Blog (@vox_dev ): voxdev.org/topic/migratio…
Paper (@WorldDevJournal): doi.org/10.1016/j.worl…

Listening to cutting edge environmental economic research (some of which takes place in cities) ✅

Discussing new sustainable growth research agendas (much of which taking place in cities) ✅✅

A Nobel Laureate in the mix✅✅✅

Online attendance possible ✅✅✅✅

Join below!

Lovely new work from by Stephen Redding and Daniel Sturm (and their 20 named RAs!!!) just published by Centre for Economic Performance & NBER.

Using German bombing as the *most unnatural* 'natural experiment'.

(I'm not sure they are the 'blogging' type, so just...paper> cepr.org/publications/d…)

Misaligned incentives anybody?

Air quality monitoring system in China > improvements in local air quality, but ALSO > local governments strategically prioritise areas near the monitors to meet 🎯

VoxDev blog: voxdev.org/topic/energy-e…
AEA Journals paper: aeaweb.org/articles?id=10…

Not all infrastructure is created equal!
This study underscores the pivotal role of HSR infra in mitigating information barriers that often hinder firms in developing economies from entering foreign markets.

VoxDev blog> voxdev.org/topic/infrastr…

Paper> cepr.org/publications/d…

And given that masterplans are LIKELY not going away any time soon… we wrote a policy brief “Economics meets urban planning” drawing on many of Alain’s arguments, and focusing on lower-income countries theigc.org/sites/default/… 🙌

If you missed the 8th Urbanisation and Poverty Reduction Conference on 7 and 8 March, you can access the recordings here ⬇️

📌 Planning in African #cities : youtube.com/watch?v=27uFK3…
📌 Keynote address and debate: youtube.com/watch?v=iI8GH6…

For African researchers with a doctorate pursuing a career in economics: we could not recommend our friends CSAE and this Fellowship more highly!

Action shots from day two of the Urbanisation and Poverty Reduction Conference📸

Sessions examined IGC's new quantitative spatial model in policy contexts, labour markets, #housing , #transport , and segregation in #cities .

Access the IGC Cities that Work model here:
theigc.org/publications/c…

Join us, we're live at the Urbanisation and Poverty Reduction Conference 🔴

Welcoming remarks now underway, featuring IGC's Jonathan Leape, Bernice Van Bronkhorst (World Bank), and Deon Filmer (@wb_research).

Link to livestream ⤵️
worldbank.org/en/events/2024…

So excited to share our new R package for City Spatial Models (and its results!)

Last chance to sign up to our FABULOUS 8th edition of this research and policy conference...

New IGC blog 🚨

The ability to commute efficiently maximises employment opportunities and the #labourmarket size.

#Cities in lower-income countries must take this into consideration, when developing #landuse policy, says Juliana Oliveira-Cunha (@IGC_CtW) ⬇️
theigc.org/blogs/economic…

This programme has been called 'quite impressive' by more than one person...🥳

Sign up to the Urbanisation and Poverty Reduction Conference to join us in Washington D.C this March!

worldbank.org/en/events/2024…

Please join us online or in person for this exciting conference we've been working hard on!