Society: The Growth Lesson America Could Take from China

... cities make us smarter, richer and more productive. Avent sums up some of the (voluminous) evidence: Economist Masayuki Morikawa finds that productivity rises between 10 and 20% when density doubles. Morris Davis, Jonas Fisher and Toni Whited estimate that a doubling of density may increase productivity by between 17 and 28%. Their work suggests that more than 30% of real wage growth over the past 35 years is attributable to changes in density.

For more, see The Growth Lesson America Could Take from China by Ezra Klein, March 13, 2012 at Ezra Klein.