The volume emphasizes the need to rethink cities and to imagine a better urban future by providing the reader with diverse perspectives on urbanization such as the changing economic landscape, city competitiveness, entrepreneurship, inclusion, informality, sustainability, and provision of essential services.

List of Tables, Figures, Boxes, and Maps ; Preface ; Acknowledgments ; Rethinking Cities ; Edward Glaeser and Abha Joshi-Ghani ; 1 URBANIZATION AS OPPORTUNITY - BRANDON FULLER AND PAUL ROMER ; 2 THE SHIFTING URBAN ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE: WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR CITIES? - RICHARD DOBBS AND JAANA REMES ; 3 URBANIZATION AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF DEVELOPMENT - J. VERNON HENDERSON ; 4 ANALYZING URBAN SYSTEMS: HAVE MEGACITIES BECOME TOO LARGE? - KLAUS DESMET AND ESTEBAN ROSSI-HANSBERG ; 5 ARE CITIES THE NEW GROWTH ESCALATOR? - ENRICO MORETTI ; 6 ENTREPRENEURSHIP, PUBLIC POLICY, AND CITIES - JOSHUA LERNER ; 7 URBANIZATION AND (IN)FORMALIZATION - EJAZ GHANI AND RAVI KANBUR ; 8 BRIDGING DIVIDES: ENABLING URBAN CAPABILITIES - SASKIA SASSEN ; 9 TH E GREAT MIGRATION: URBAN ASPIRATIONS - MICHAEL KEITH ; 10 INFRASTRUCTURE: DOING MORE WITH LESS - JONATHAN WOETZEL AND HERBERT POHL ; 11 URBAN TRANSPORT: CAN PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS WORK? - EDUARDO ENGEL AND ALEXANDER GALETOVIC512 ; 12 SUSTAINABLE AND SMART CITIES - MATTHEW E. KAHN ; 13 HOUSING MATTERS - SONIA HAMMAM ; 14 CONVERTING LAND INTO AFF ORDABLE HOUSING FLOOR SPACE - ALAIN BERTAUD ; 15 HOUSING AND URBANIZATION IN AFRICA: UNLEASHING A FORMAL MARKET PROCESS - PAUL COLLIER AND ANTHONY J. VENABLES ; Index ; About the Editors and Contributors