This is an episode from VoxDev's new podcast series, Ideas in Development. This series has a separate podcast feed, where you can find every episode of Oliver Hanney and Kurtis Lockhart's conversations on cities.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjXmiaMPabQ
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-perfect-city/id1866874059?i=1000767322240
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3MfSc3AWT6lT5jG9kvXW4B?si=371569bc3d374d72
Audioboom: https://audioboom.com/posts/8902311-the-perfect-city
Substack: https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/p/the-perfect-city

What does a perfect city look like in a low- or middle-income country – and how do you get there?

In the closing episode of the Ideas in Development cities series, Ed Glaeser joins Kurtis Lockhart and Oliver Hanney for a wide-ranging conversation on what makes cities work. He sets out the three foundations every city needs (safety, mobility, education), why infrastructure without the right incentives and institutions fails, what 19th-century New York's cholera outbreaks teach Lusaka about water, why “bus good, train bad” still holds, and what the medieval European city has to offer sub-Saharan Africa's fastest-growing urban regions.

We also discuss the political art of being a great mayor, why "capacity eats policy as a light afternoon snack", and his three priorities for African cities over the next decade.

S7 Ep26: Ed Glaeser on the perfect city and the demons of density

VoxDev Development Economics

S7 Ep26: Ed Glaeser on the perfect city and the demons of density