African Cities: Opening Doors to the World

This book by Somik Viney Lall, J. Vernon Henderson, and Anthony J. Venables, explores why economic growth in African cities does not match population growth. While in many other cities around the world, the higher the population, the higher the GDP, most growing African cities experience low GDP growth with high urban population increases. The main argument of the text is that this may be caused by these cities being isolated from the world economically, and that to overcome this, they should start developing their manufacturing sectors and invest in tradable goods production. They need to develop their domestic markets, improve their land infrastructure to benefit connectivity and development, and they need to become connected to the rest of the world through international trade. If these cities do this, they will experience GDP growth, and become more important players in the international economy.