Completing the Urbanization Project

Ten thousand years ago, humans started what some call the urbanization project, bringing people into close proximity in thriving cities. Today, half the world’s population lives in urban areas. This century, another three to five billion people will become urban residents. The question we now face is not if the world will urbanize, but how. Paul Romer will describe the forces at work and elucidate the unresolved question: Will the coming wave of urban residents be accommodated by expanding existing cities, or instead, will entirely new cities be built?