IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/prodev/v10y2010i1p1-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The continuing debate about urban bias

Author

Listed:
  • Gareth A. Jones

    (Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science)

  • Stuart Corbridge

    (Development Studies Institute (DESTIN), London School of Economics and Political Science)

Abstract

This article reviews the current state of the debate around the concept of ‘urban bias’. It first reviews Michael Lipton’s original formulation of an Urban Bias Thesis (UBT), and the initial debates that took shape in regard to his work and the work of Elliott Berg and Robert Bates. The main body of the article, however, considers a recent reworking of the UBT by Robert Eastwood and Michael Lipton, and four sets of objections that can be raised against it. Central to these objections are new accounts of the importance of mobility in constructing rural-urban livelihoods and claims emanating from the ‘new economic geography’ about the economic advantages of towns and cities. The article concludes with a short review of the implication of the continuing debate on ‘urban bias’ for public policy and Poverty Reduction Strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Gareth A. Jones & Stuart Corbridge, 2010. "The continuing debate about urban bias," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:10:y:2010:i:1:p:1-18
    DOI: 10.1177/146499340901000101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/146499340901000101
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/146499340901000101?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert M. Buckley, 1996. "Housing Finance in Developing Countries," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-37660-1, December.
    2. Anthony J. Venables, 2005. "Spatial disparities in developing countries: cities, regions, and international trade," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 3-21, January.
    3. Commission on Growth and Development, 2008. "The Growth Report : Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6507.
    4. Samuel Munzele Maimbo & Dilip Ratha, 2005. "Remittances: Development Impact and Future Prospects," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7339.
    5. Dercon, Stefan & Hoddinott, John, 2005. "Livelihoods, growth, and links to market towns in 15 Ethiopian villages," FCND discussion papers 194, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Arnott, Richard J & Gersovitz, Mark, 1986. "Social Welfare Underpinnings of Urban Bias and Unemployment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(382), pages 413-424, June.
    7. Caroline Ashley & Simon Maxwell, 2001. "Rethinking Rural Development," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 19(4), pages 395-425, December.
    8. Ellis, Frank, 2000. "Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198296966.
    9. Ravallion, Martin, 2002. "On the urbanization of poverty," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 435-442, August.
    10. Henderson, Vernon, 2003. "The Urbanization Process and Economic Growth: The So-What Question," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 47-71, March.
    11. Overman, Henry G. & Venables, Anthony J., 2005. "Cities in the developing world," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19887, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    13. Braverman, Avishay & Kanbur, Ravi, 1987. "Urban bias and the political economy of agricultural reform," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 15(9), pages 1179-1187, September.
    14. Rachel Marcus & John Wilkinson & Jenni Marshali, 2002. "Poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs)-fulfilling their potential for children in poverty?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(8), pages 1117-1128.
    15. Frank Ellis, 2000. "The Determinants of Rural Livelihood Diversification in Developing Countries," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 289-302, May.
    16. Bryceson, Deborah Fahy, 2002. "The Scramble in Africa: Reorienting Rural Livelihoods," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 725-739, May.
    17. Vernon Henderson, 2002. "Urbanization in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 17(1), pages 89-112.
    18. An Ansoms & Stefaan Marysse, 2005. "The Evolution and Characteristics of Poverty and Inequality in Rwanda," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Stefaan Marysse & Filip Reyntjens (ed.), The Political Economy of the Great Lakes Region in Africa, chapter 3, pages 71-100, Palgrave Macmillan.
    19. Majumdar, Sumon & Mani, Anandi & Mukand, Sharun W., 2004. "Politics, information and the urban bias," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 137-165, October.
    20. Richardson, Harry W, 1987. "The Costs of Urbanization: A Four-Country Comparison," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 561-580, April.
    21. Suryanarayana, M. H., 1995. "PDS: beyond implicit subsidy and urban bias -- the Indian experience," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 259-278, August.
    22. Christopher Barrett, 1996. "Urban bias in price risk: The geography of food price distributions in low‐income economies," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 830-849.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Henry Overman & Anthony J. Venables, 2005. "Cities in the Developing World," CEP Discussion Papers dp0695, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Joshua J. Ramisch, 2016. "“Never at ease”: cellphones, multilocational households, and the metabolic rift in western Kenya," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 979-995, December.
    3. Gilles Duranton, 2007. "From cities to productivity and growth in developing countries," Working Papers tecipa-306, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    4. Wiggins, S., 2016. "IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 1 - Agricultural and rural development reconsidered: a guide to issues and debates," IFAD Research Series 280035, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    5. Diao, Xinshen & Magalhaes, Eduardo & Silver, Jed, 2019. "Cities and rural transformation: A spatial analysis of rural livelihoods in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 141-157.
    6. Frick, Susanne A. & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2018. "Change in urban concentration and economic growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 156-170.
    7. Estrin, Saul & Nielsen, Bo B. & Nielsen, Sabina, 2017. "Emerging Market Multinational Companies and Internationalization: The Role of Home Country Urbanization," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 326-339.
    8. Ana Moreno-Monroy, 2012. "Critical Commentary. Informality in Space: Understanding Agglomeration Economies during Economic Development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(10), pages 2019-2030, August.
    9. Fischer, Klara, 2016. "Why new crop technology is not scale-neutral—A critique of the expectations for a crop-based African Green Revolution," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1185-1194.
    10. Barrett, Christopher B. & Swallow, Brent M., 2006. "Fractal poverty traps," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Chul-In Lee, 2015. "Agglomeration, search frictions and growth of cities in developing economies," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 55(2), pages 421-451, December.
    12. Fred Mawunyo Dzanku, 2020. "Poverty Reduction And Economic Livelihood Mobility In Rural Sub‐Saharan Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 636-683, July.
    13. Debelo Bedada Yadeta & Fetene Bogale Hunegnaw, 2022. "Effect of International Remittance on Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 383-402, June.
    14. repec:zbw:iamodp:109518 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Frederick van der Ploeg & Steven Poelhekke, 2008. "Globalization and the rise of mega-cities in the developing world," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 477-501.
    16. Nguyen, Quang & Kim, Doo-Chul, 2020. "Reconsidering rural land use and livelihood transition under the pressure of urbanization in Vietnam: A case study of Hanoi," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    17. Mausumi Mahapatro & Deborah Johnston, 2020. "Imperfection Measures and the Production of Poverty: A Case Study of the Use of the Asset Index in Bangladesh," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 513-531, November.
    18. Headey, Derek & Bezemer, Dirk & Hazell, Peter B., 2008. "Agricultural exit problems: Causes and consequences," IFPRI discussion papers 802, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Shifa, Abdulaziz B., 2011. "Poor rural land property rights as a manifestation of urban bias," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 116002, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Bezu, Sosina & Holden, Stein, 2014. "Are Rural Youth in Ethiopia Abandoning Agriculture?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 259-272.
    21. Jose Manuel Diaz-Sarachaga, 2020. "Combining Participatory Processes and Sustainable Development Goals to Revitalize a Rural Area in Cantabria (Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-28, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:10:y:2010:i:1:p:1-18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.