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Urbanization

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Today 60 percent of Moroccans reside in urban areas, as opposed to 35 percent in 1970. By 2050, nearly three-quarters of the country's population will be living in cities. Along with the concentration of people, urbanization will lead to the increasing concentration of economic activities in cities, which today are estimated to account for about 75 percent of the country's GDP and 70 percent of investments at the national level. To accompany these transformations, the Moroccan government has adopted, in recent years, ambitious programs to improve living standards in urban and rural areas. Significant improvements in living standards have been achieved through national master plans. Cities are the engines of today's demographic and economic growth in Morocco, but they also face persistent challenges. Despite substantial public investments and strong potential for cities to absorb rural poverty, important pockets of urban poverty remain. Spatial disparities are a major cause for concern both for citizens as well as for national and local governments. In addition, Moroccan cities are not delivering on their full potential. Urbanization has not generated the same growth benefits in Morocco as it has in many other countries with similar contexts. These patterns suggest that Morocco needs specific policies to improve returns from its urbanization process. The main message of this note is that urbanization and spatial equity are not competing objectives when urbanization is supported and managed well. Well-managed urbanization allows for economies of scale in the provision of services and the development of more efficient labor. This note identifies priority actions to be taken at national, regional, and local levels to allow public authorities to act within a coherent framework and to help urban development to boost economic growth and promote shared prosperity for all.

Urbanization.

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Over the past four decades and prior to the pandemic, the Dominican Republic (DR) experienced high economic growth rates, which were accompanied by an expansion of the middle class and a significant reduction of poverty rate. During the same period, the country became predominantly urban, and its territories evolved from rural and agricultural spaces to large metropolitan areas, consolidating tourism poles in coastal areas and suburban spaces where manufacturing emerged, fueled by the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZ). In 2020, it is estimated that 82.5 percent of the Dominican Republic's population lives in urban areas; and by 2050 this number will go up to 92 percent.While the economic and territorial transformation of the country has generated opportunities for its population, it has also created a number of challenges which require to be tackled. Such as providing quality basic services, assuring safe and affordable housing solutions to the fast-growing population, assuring firms count with the right enabling environment in the places where they locate and, more recently, supporting the Coronavirus (COVID-19) recovery efforts to build a better future for the country. The government of the Dominican Republic has recognized the opportunities that come with better leveraging its territory and tackling current development challenges; and is pushing to advance an ambitious territorial development reform. This DR's Urbanization and territorial development review aims to inform and contribute to the Government's effort by (i) providing evidence of the main territorial challenges currently being faced by the country with a specific focus on urban areas and lagging regions; (ii) review the current (and proposed reforms to the) regulatory framework for territorial planning and local government finance; and (iii) inform policy decisions at the national, regional, and local levels for ways ahead to address the territories challenges and embrace its opportunities, and to implement the proposed reforms.

Urbanization.

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Cities dramatically vary in their sectoral composition across the world, possibly lending credence to the theory that some cities are production cities with high employment shares of urban tradables while others are consumption cities with high employment shares of urban non-tradables. A model of structural change highlights three paths leading to the rise of consumption cities: resource rents from exporting fuels and mining products, agricultural exports, and premature deindustrialization. These findings appear to be corroborated using both country- and city-level data. Compared to cities in industrialized countries, cities of similar sizes in resource-rich and deindustrializing countries have lower shares of employment in manufacturing, tradable services, and the formal sector, and higher shares of employment in non-tradables and the informal sector. Results on the construction of "vanitous" tall buildings provide additional evidence on the relationship between resource exports and consumption cities. Finally, the evidence suggests that having mostly consumption cities might have economic implications for a country.

Urbanization.

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Provides new insights on urbanisation by applying for the first time two new definitions of human settlements to the entire globe: the Degree of Urbanisation and the Functional Urban Area. Based on the definitions, the report presents new evidence of recent and future urbanisation trends and sheds light on the evolution of metropolitan areas around the globe. It examines whether and why quality of life differs between cities and other types of settlements. It analyses the relationship between economic development and the metropolitan system in countries around the world. Finally, it presents new evidence on the changing shape of cities and its impact on sustainability. The report demonstrates how globally consistent definitions of cities and metropolitan areas can contribute to more effective policy design.

Urbanisation. --- Urbanization