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Will urbanization raise social mobility in the South, replicating the economic history of the West?

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  • Emily Rains
  • Anirudh Krishna

Abstract

As developing countries rapidly urbanize, the number of people living in 'slums'—neighbourhoods lacking property rights and basic services—continues to increase. Whether slum residents will ultimately share in the benefits of the cities they help build or will remain trapped in poverty is not well understood. We review empirical evidence on the potential for social mobility in today's urban slums in order to assess prospects for upward mobility in cities of the Global South.

Suggested Citation

  • Emily Rains & Anirudh Krishna, 2019. "Will urbanization raise social mobility in the South, replicating the economic history of the West?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-102, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-102
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Informality; Slums; Social mobility; Urbanization; Volatility;
    All these keywords.

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