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The economic activity that drives growth in developing countries is
heavily concentrated in cities. Catchphrases such as "metropolitan
areas are the engines that pull the national economy" turn out to
be fairly accurate. But the same advantages of metropolitan areas
that draw investment also draw migrants who need jobs and housing,
lead to demands for better infrastructure and social services, and
result in increased congestion, environmental harm, and social
problems.
The challenges for metropolitan public finance are to capture a
share of the economic growth to adequately finance new and growing
expenditures and to organize governance so that services can be
delivered in a cost-effective way, giving the local population a
voice in fiscal decision making. At the same time, care must be
taken to avoid overregulation and overtaxation, which will hamper
the now quite mobile economic engine of private investment and
entrepreneurial initiative.
Metropolitan planning has become a reality in most large urban
areas, even though the planning agencies are often ineffective in
moving things forward and in linking their plans with the fiscal
and financial realities of metropolitan government. A growing
number of success stories in metropolitan finance and management,
together with accumulated experience and proper efforts and
support, could be extended to a broader array of forward-looking
programs to address the growing public service needs of
metropolitan-area populations. Nevertheless, sweeping
metropolitan-area fiscal reforms have been few and far between; the
urban policy reform agenda is still a long one; and there is a
reasonable prospect that closing the gaps between what we know how
to do and what is actually being done will continue to be difficult
and slow.
This book identifies the most important issues in metropolitan
governance and finance in developing countries, describes the
practice, explores the gap between practice and what theory
suggests should be done, and lays out the reform paths that might
be considered. Part of the solution will rest in rethinking
expenditure assignments and instruments of finance. The "right"
approach also will depend on the flexibility of political leaders
to relinquish some control in order to find a better solution to
the metropolitan finance problem.
The achievements and legacy of the Wolfensohn Center for
Development at Brookings The Imperative of Development highlights
the research and policy analysis produced by the Wolfensohn Center
for Development at Brookings. The Center, which operated from 2006
to 2011, was the first home at Brookings for research on
international development. It sought to help identify effective
solutions to key development challenges in order to create a more
prosperous and stable world. Founded by James and Elaine
Wolfensohn, the Center's mission was to "to create knowledge that
leads to action with real, scaled-up, and lasting development
impact." This volume reviews the Center's achievements and lasting
legacy, combining highlights of its most important research with
new essays that examine the context and impact of that research.
Six primary research streams of the Wolfensohn Center's work are
highlighted in The Imperative of Development: the shifting
structure of the world economy in the twenty-first century; the
challenge of scaling up the impact of development interventions;
the effectiveness of development assistance; how to promote
economic and social inclusion for Middle Eastern youth; the case
for investing in early child development; and the need for global
governance reform. In each chapter, a scholar associated with the
particular research topic provides an overview of the issue and its
broader context, then describes the Center's work on the topic and
the subsequent influence and impact of these efforts. The
Imperative of Development chronicles the growth and expansion of
the first center for development research in Brookings's 100-year
history and traces how the seeds of this initiative continue to
bear fruit.
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