Cities as Engines for Economic Growth

The monthly Webinar Series on “Cities as Engines of Economic Growth” provides a forum for leading experts, policy makers and the private sector to discuss timely topics on city competitiveness. The first event in this series will be delivered by Professor Stanley Nollen from the Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business. He will discuss the main findings from his paper on “Improving City Competitiveness: City Management and the Business Climate” which was prepared as part of this initiative.

Professor Nollen will apply a business perspective to the question of how to make cities competitive. What do cities need to become globally competitive? What can city leaders do to generate sustainable economic growth through the channel of attracting private investment, especially foreign businesses? Research show that cities need one or more of the following features in their location to be competitive: (1) attractive factor conditions, especially for labor; (2) large or growing and well-functioning product markets; and (3) conducive investment climate. Cities within the same country vary significantly on their competitiveness, suggesting there is scope for local city leaders to make a difference. While one city cannot and need not achieve top ranks on all dimensions of city competiveness, the most frequently occurring features of most competitive cities are good human capital, well-functioning markets and institutions, good infrastructure, and good government.