Impact of Economic Globalization on Urbanization

This article analyzes the impact of economic globalization on urbanization since July 1991, with special reference to comparisons of Indian and select global experiences. India’s degree of globalization, measured by internationalization of trade and capital, is shown to be low at global levels. Patterns of urbanization in the post-globalization period show higher growth and concentration of population in bigger class-size cities. Urban economic growth is increasingly contributed by service sectors, declining share of manufacturing sector and higher labour productivity. These experiences of India coincide with experiences in countries such as China, G7 and Korea. Overall growth implications of these comparative analyses imply a need for continuing with economic globalization and for a national approach for development of large cities in India. Interestingly, sources of urban economic growth in India are distinguishable by both formal and informal sectors with varying labour productivity. Distributive implications of changing composition and growth of urban labour market across countries are essential to compare the growth-cum-equity implications of globalization on urbanization between India and other countries. This is identified as a topic of future research in Indian urban economics.