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In the debate entitled “Cities”, Paul James and Chetan Vaidya take opposite sides regarding the issue of city growth impact on the economy of the country. James defends urbanization while Vaidya argues that better urban management along with skilled governance and efficient service provision is needed. Evaluating the matter from the economic point of view, it is evident that urbanization has a variety of adverse effects including negative externality, overinvestment in infrastructures, and the growth of unemployment and underemployment.
The proponent of circumspect urbanization, Paul James, argues that well-organized cities are what humanity needs to improve the quality of life on the planet (Roberts, James, & Vaidya, 2011, para. 18). James claims that the major issues related to urbanization are sprawling and bloating and if the government finds ways to end up with the two problems, big cities will promote the growth of the national economy and will become good places for living. According to James, “living in compact, well-planned, walkable and integrated cities is part of the solution to the issue of global sustainability” (Roberts, James, & Vaidya, 2011, para. 17).
Vaidya criticizes modern urbanization by stating that more effective governance, fund allocation, and resource distribution are needed. According to Vaidya, “empowering city governments functionally and financially, coupled with high levels of accountability and transparency, is crucial for the sustainable growth of all cities” (Roberts, James, & Vaidya, 2011, para. 25). Vaidya defends a position that city planners must pay more attention to implementing innovative approaches and managing resource constraints in order to respond to current and future problems connected with urbanization (Roberts, James, & Vaidya, 2011, para. 26).
He identifies a number of problems associated with urbanization such as inefficient transportation infrastructure, problems with a water supply and waste removal, and mismanagement of social and economic life in big cities.
From the economic point of view, it is known that urbanization increases productivity and facilitates economic growth. However, oversized cities are not efficient for a number of reasons. First, urbanization blocks the development and economic growth of the country. This harmful impact of urbanization is connected with negative externality, high inflation, and high housing prices due to overpopulation. In addition, congestion cost due to traffic jams in big cities results in the growth of wages because of longer commuting time. Further, environmental pollution associated with the overuse of resources and wrecking activities is another destructive outcome of urbanization. Finally, high pressure and competition in cities induce social conflict, which inflicts increased criminal activity (Todaro & Smith, 2009).
Other negative outcomes of urbanization are overinvestment in infrastructures and the growth of unemployment and underemployment (Todaro & Smith, 2009). In this vein, since the funding of infrastructures in big cities becomes a top priority, the production suffers due to the dis-economic scale. Additionally, the growing unemployment and underemployment in big cities cause the outburst of social conflict. This bad development occurs because of a large supply of job seekers who have to engage in the informal sector (Todaro & Smith, 2009). The big underground economy, for its part, will considerably reduce the total output of the country.
In conclusion, despite the fact that urbanization can promote growth, there exists a serious threat of misbalance. The country should choose an optimum scale of city size according to the locally available resources and situation. Unlimited city sprawl is not the best choice on the ground of negative externality, overinvestment in infrastructures, and the growth of unemployment and underemployment to mention just a few negative factors.
References
Roberts, A., James, P., & Vaidya, C. (2011). Cities. The Economist. Web.
Todaro, M., & Smith, S. (2009). Economic development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
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