Revisiting Spatially Targeted Policies for Regional Development

On April 5, Penn IUR hosted a panel discussion of The World Bank’s Place, Productivity, and Prosperity: Revisiting Spatially Targeted Policies for Regional Development, the most recent volume in the World Bank’s Productivity Project. The event featured presentations by report co-authors followed by a discussion among economic development researchers at Penn and beyond. The event was the second in the Penn IUR series “City Form for Sustainable Growth,” launched in Fall 2021.

The panel discussion began with presentations by report co-authors Arti Grover, Senior Economist, Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice, The World Bank; Somik Lall, Lead Economist, Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Vice Presidency & Head, Climate Economics and Policy team, The World Bank; and William F. Maloney, Chief Economist, Latin America and the Caribbean Region, The World Bank Group. A discussion featuring Penn IUR Faculty Fellow Gilles Duranton, Dean's Chair in Real Estate Professor, The Wharton School; Vernon Henderson, School Professor of Economic Geography, London School of Economics; and Danny Leipziger, Managing Director, The Growth Dialogue, and Professor of Practice of International Business, George Washington University, followed. Penn IUR Co-Director Susan Wachter served as moderator.

Place, Productivity, and Prosperity offers new empirical evidence on the drivers of economic geography, arguing that agglomeration economies, migration, and distance are playing out differently in developing countries than they have in advanced economies: urbanization in developing countries is not accompanied by structural transformation, often resulting in cities that are more crowded but less productive. The book explains the disappointing results of some spatially targeted development policies and provides a framework to help policymakers determine the regions where place-based policies are most likely to be successful. The first event in the “City Form for Sustainable Growth” series, held September 17, 2021, focused on the World Bank’s Pancakes to Pyramids: City Form to Promote Sustainable Growth report, which demonstrates links between an ongoing increase in global urban density and productivity.