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Secondary Towns and Poverty Reduction: Refocusing the Urbanization Agenda

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  • Christiaensen, Luc

    (World Bank)

  • Kanbur, Ravi

    (Cornell University)

Abstract

This review is framed around the exploration of a central hypothesis: A shift in public investment towards secondary towns from big cities will improve poverty reduction performance. Of course the hypothesis raises many questions. What exactly is the dichotomy of secondary towns versus big cities? What is the evidence for the contribution of secondary towns versus cities to poverty reduction? What are the economic mechanisms for such a differential contribution and how does policy interact with them? We find preliminary evidence and arguments in support of our hypothesis, but the impacts of policy on poverty are quite complex even in simple settings, and the question of secondary towns and poverty reduction is an open area for research and policy analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Christiaensen, Luc & Kanbur, Ravi, 2017. "Secondary Towns and Poverty Reduction: Refocusing the Urbanization Agenda," IZA Discussion Papers 10637, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10637
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    secondary towns; poverty reduction; mega cities; urbanization; rural-urban migration; Zipf's Law;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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