Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa’s relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanisation at higher per capita GDP. In this lecture Tony discussed a deeper reason: that African cities are closed to the world. Compared with other developing cities, cities in Africa produce few goods and services for trade on regional and international markets. He explored how African cities can escape their development trap, develop scale economies, and increase investment.
Tony Venables, BP Professor of Economics, University of Oxford
Tony is director of the Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, and serves on the Steering Group of the International Growth Centre. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Econometric Society. Former positions include Chief Economist at the UK DFID, professor at the London School of Economics, research manager of the Trade Research Group in the World Bank, and advisor to the UK Treasury. He is a pioneer of New Economic Geography (along with Paul Krugman and Masahisa Fujita) and has major publications in international trade theory and spatial economics. He has co-authored two highly influential books, ‘The Spatial Economy – Cities, Regions and International Trade’, and ‘Multinationals in the World Economy’. Most recently he has co-authored the book ‘Africa’s Cities : Opening Doors to the World’. His publications have been cited almost 50,000 times, making him one of the world’s most cited economists. Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa’s relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanisation at higher per capita GDP. Tony will discuss a deeper reason: that African cities are closed to the world. Compared with other developing cities, cities in Africa produce few goods and services for trade on regional and international markets. He will explore how African cities can escape their development trap, develop scale economies, and increase investment.
This is the link to the lecture: https://www.dropbox.com/s/khe6d4urf7dl5wp/Land_Society_291117.mp4?dl=0
