For more than a century, big cities have been celebrated as engines of growth, magnets for talent, and crucibles of innovation. Economists have long argued that crowding people together boosts productivity through “agglomeration,” making everything from public services to new ideas more efficient. In this episode, we explore a provocative challenge to that logic, examining research that suggests America’s largest cities may have contributed far less to economic output than commonly assumed. As critics debate whether innovation really depends on megacities, the story asks a deeper question: if the economic case is weaker than advertised, why do people keep flocking to dense, expensive, and often maddening urban centers? The answer, it turns out, may lie as much in human desire and culture as in growth statistics.

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/01/16/are-big-cities-overrated