Research

Indian cities are facing challenges due to their low-rise structures and sprawling slums that are projected to increase with the growth of urban populations in the future. To cope with this trend and take advantage of agglomeration externalities, India needs to adopt a more upward, pyramid-like approach with increased density. Although strengthening property rights has been suggested as a solution, India’s fragmented land ownership system makes this option difficult.

Previously, the Indian government used eminent domain to acquire and amalgamate land for industrial or infrastructural use, but this led to significant political opposition in the 2000s. As a result, the 2013 Land Acquisition Act was passed, which narrowed the circumstances under which land could be acquired, increased compensation payments, and extended those payments to non-owners who relied on the land for their livelihoods. While this approach has ensured political acquiescence among rural and slum dwellers, it has created a problem for private businesses that require land for property or industrial development, causing a significant time and cost burden.

This political reality, while necessary for a democratic India, may not be conducive to good economics and may lead to dysfunctional urbanization.

In the coming decades, rapid urbanization and climate change will bring about significant transformations, especially in developing countries. It is essential to understand how their interaction will compound growing urban pressures. More specifically, how does climate change affect urbanization trends and city growth? Eva Klaus’ working paper assesses the situation in India, employing a 40-year panel dataset from 1971 – 2011 covering 485 districts across the country to examine how changes in climatic moisture affect urbanization, urban population growth, and rural population growth at the district level. Second, this study employs another 40-year panel dataset covering 2,222 urban centers in India to assess the impact of changes in climatic moisture on city population growth.

Selected candidates will present their papers during the upcoming “Governing Africa’s Urban Transitions” conference

For decades, policymakers, donor organizations, and academics have engaged in a debate over economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa, proposing different policy responses over time. In recent years, there has been a renewed emphasis on the significance of infrastructure, especially due to the exorbitant transportation costs in the region. The question remains: can improved road infrastructure help sub-Saharan Africa surmount the geographic distance barriers that impede economic growth? This paper seeks to delve into the potential long-term economic effects of Zambia’s road construction boom between 2011 and 2022.

Charter cities, and special jurisdictions more broadly, can boost economic growth, prompt institutional reform, and allow for diverse policy experimentation. However, how to conceptualize the optimal economic model to guide the development of a charter city or special jurisdiction remains unclear. Web3-enabled Harbergeorgism is one such model that is well-suited to the charter city context.

Learning from the history of walls and a modest proposal to “Tear Down This Wall.” This paper uses a historical case-study methodology by returning to the last great age of wall building to search for lessons.

The African Union (AU) has pioneered a vision of a network of high-speed railways to link up all the major African cities. This paper draws on lessons from the railways of the nineteenth century to help us answer questions about the prospects of the African railway renaissance today.

Submit your paper for the 2022 New Cities Conference, hosted by CCI and the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab, that focuses on utilizing new cities in the 21st century as economic engines.

This paper contributes to the growing literature around charter cities and new city developments and makes a case for the salience of the charter city model from two surprising case studies – the Suez and Panama Canals.

Dublin and Singapore are two cities of historical interest for the charter cities movement. There are significant policy continuities between Dublin and Singapore, such as with housing, the focus of this research.

This working paper series on charter cities in Africa is a joint effort of the Charter Cities Institute and the African Centre for the Study of the United States at the University of the Witwatersrand to highlight the scholarship of African scholars interested in how charter cities will shape the future of the continent across various themes and disciplines.

CCI’s new research agenda outlines the 5 research topics most important to the charter cities movement and helps guide our research on urban governance, economic growth, and poverty alleviation.

Barefoot planning proposes to dynamically organize private development and public goods without a static master plan by employing barefoot planners, a new class of community-level planning practitioners.

The CCI Summer Fellowship exposes participants to academic and real-life urban discourse. This document, through several Project Briefs, overviews the proposed projects of the 2021 CCI Fellows.

By adopting the innovative governance system offered by the charter cities model, the DRC can not only address its development challenges, but would also demonstrate that it can also deliver on bold and innovative models of economic development for its people.

A charter city operated via a public-private partnership at the Port of Berbera, Somaliland will substantially increase the positive impacts of Somaliland’s already effective national development strategy.

Curiously, some cities have, over time, become better at preparing for crises, while others have not. This paper explores how to optimize cities for crises, as well as growth, learning, and other seismic changes.

Improving the Lives of Congolese Citizens and Creating a Stable and Ethical Source for Critical Minerals

The Charter Cities Institute (CCI) accepts submissions for research paper ideas related to charter cities and innovative urban governance.

CCI’s first academic publication on Honduras’ charter cities law, written by Jeffrey Mason and Carl Peterson.

In a world with increasing numbers of forcibly displaced persons, this paper explores how charter cities can generate more effective responses to refugee movements and place refugee and local community needs firmly at the center of local governance.

Mark Levin offers lessons for charter cities from his four decades of experience in city management.

Paul Healy and Matt Prewitt detail three RadicalxChange policies for improving charter city governance.

Sustained economic growth is the world’s best poverty reduction tool. In this paper, Research Associate Jeffrey Mason argues that charter cities are a highly cost-effective way to ignite long-run growth.