6/17/14 The Marron Institute of Urban Management, in partnership with the Urbanization Project, recently hosted a discussion between Paul Romer and Edward Glaeser on the causes and consequences of rapid urbanization. Video below.

HOW TO HAVE LESS CRIME AND LESS PUNISHMENT October 9, 2014 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Kaufan Management Center Cantor Boardroom (11th Floor) 44 W. 4th St. New York, NY 10012 Mark Kleiman and Paul Romer will discuss crime and punishment in the United States. The United States has about four times the homicide rate, and about six times the incarceration rate, of Canada or Western Europe. Both problems are concentrated in cities, and among the socially and economically disadvantaged.

The homicide rate in the United States is now back down to levels that prevailed in the 1950s. (See Figure 1.) The incarceration rate has peaked, but remains extremely high compared to the rate we saw then and the rate we see now in other countries. The new policy challenge is to find a way keep crime down while reducing the staggering social costs implied by our current incarceration rate.

Brandon Fuller Paul Romer Abstract The developing world already packs 2.6 billion people into its relatively dense cities. In 100 years, it could have three times as many urban residents. As their per capita income grows, they will they will also demand more land, perhaps twice as much per person as they do today. Governments can accommodate this increased demand either with a sixfold increase in the average built area of existing cities or with a combined strategy of expanding existing cities and developing entirely new cities.

Throughout the developing world, public agencies often act like illegal squatters. Because they lack title and an incentive to sell the land they manage, these agencies keep the land from being put to its most valuable use. Often this idle or underutilized land is in high-value districts of central cities. Meanwhile, these same cities often have trouble mustering the funds to invest adequately in urban infrastructure. The city’s residents would be much better off if the municipality adjusted its balance sheet, divesting some of its land assets and reinvest the proceeds in infrastructure assets.