Governance and the City: An Empirical Exploration Into Global Determinants of Urban Performance"The authors contribute to the field of urban governance and globalization through an empirically-based exploration of determinants of the performance of cities. They construct a preliminary worldwide database for cities, containing variables and indicators of globalization (at the country and city level), city governance, city performance (access and quality of infrastructure service delivery), as well as other relevant city characteristics. This city database, encompassing hundreds of cities worldwide, integrates existing data with new data gathered for this research. The findings suggest that good governance and globalization (at both the country and city level) do matter for city-level performance in terms of access and quality of delivery of infrastructure services. The authors also find that globalization and good city governance are significantly related with each other. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that there are complex interactions between technology choices, governance, and city performance, as well as evidence of a nonlinear (U-shaped) relationship between city size and performance, challenging the view that very large cities necessarily exhibit lower performance and pointing instead to potential agglomeration economies. The framework also suggests a way of bridging two seemingly competing strands of the literature, namely viewing the city as a place or as an outcome. The authors conclude by pointing to the need for expanding the database and the econometric framework, and suggest research directions and policy implications emerging from this initial investigation on governance and the city. "--World Bank web site. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Access to Cell Access to Electricity Access to Internet Access to Sewerage Access to Telephones Access to Water average Bribery in Utility Business Dummy capital Capture Control Capture Corruption Capture Sources Cell Phones citizens City Differential city globalization City Governance city level City Local City city performance City Population coefficient Control of Corruption Corruption Bribery Corruption Full City country level Croatia dataset definition dependent variables determinants of city Doel and Hubbard Doha Round econometric empirical Foreign Policy Magazine Full City Sample full sample GaWC Global City global opportunities globalization and governance Globalization Index Governance and Globalization governance indicators Governance Local City indicates significance Internet in schools Latvia Lithuania Low Bribery measures performance of cities Policy quadrant Quality of Electricity Quality of Infrastructure R-square Romania September 2005 Slovenia synthesis Table telephone lines United Kingdom urban governance Utility State Capture value between 0.7 World Bank Zambia