Should Urban Migration be Encouraged?

Contributed by Robert Moore

With developing world seeing rapid migration to urban areas, the wisdom behind the notion that urban migration is good is being challenged. Jonathan Glennie at Poverty Matters blogs one of the Growth Week panels on industrial development and poverty (and afterwards thanks God that economists don’t rule the world).  He especially objects to one conclusion, that: “The marginal farmer in India is helped to stay in agriculture, when this is exactly the person that needs to be encouraged to move to an urban area.”  This is a good article to read for both getting the view of a panel of distinguished academics and that of the skeptical observer.

Read Glennie’s full article here.