The 10th Urbanization and Development Conference will bring together academics and development practitioners to present and discuss questions relating to jobs, firms, and growth in cities.
THE CALL FOR PAPERS IS NOW CLOSED.
SEE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRE-REGISTRATION BELOW.
Pre-Registration (deadline: March 16, 2026)
The two-day event will take place in Washington, DC. Day 1 (March 30) will take place in the World Bank MC Building and Day 2 (March 31) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center.
If you are interested in attending the conference, please fill out this form by March 16, 2026.
Kindly note that your attendance is not confirmed until you receive an email from the Conference Organizing Committee. Please do not make any booking arrangements before you receive an email from us confirming that you are registered.
- Overview
- Agenda
- Venues
- Full Sponsor List
- Call for Papers
- Related
This year’s Urbanization and Development Conference will explore how cities shape the creation and transformation of jobs and firms in developing economies. As technological change, demographic transitions, and structural shifts redefine the future of work, the conference invites research that deepens our understanding of how urban economies can drive economic growth and job creation.
The discussions will center on three interlinked themes:
- Structural transformation: how tradable and non-tradable sectors evolve within urban economies, including the role of the informal sector in employment generation, resilience, and structural change. The conference will also explore the role of secondary cities and urban-rural linkages for economic transformation.
- Urban labor markets and the changing nature of work: how demographics, infrastructure, technology and policy influence labor force participation, job creation, and the rise of green employment.
- Firms, productivity, and urban economic growth: how urban form, spatial dynamics, and agglomeration economies shape firm performance, productivity and wages.
Confirmed Keynote Speakers
- Gilles Duranton, Dean's Chair in Real Estate Professor (Wharton, University of Pennsylvania)
- Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics (Harvard University)
- Douglas Gollin, Jason P. and Chloe Epstein Professor of Economics (Tufts University)
- Namrata Kala, Digital Equipment Corp. Associate Professor of Management (MIT)
There are no associated conference fees and food will be provided.
There is no funding available for conference participants or presenters except presenters for the Young Urban Economist Workshop.
The World Bank and its partners will not be able to sponsor visas for this conference.
Conference Organizers
| The World Bank | George Washington University |
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| Johns Hopkins University | International Growth Centre (IGC) |
| Other | |
| Daniel Agness (UMD) |
The policy-research conference is hosted by the World Bank (Development Research Group and Urban, Disaster Risk, Resilience, and Land), George Washington University (Elliott School of International Affairs and Institute for International Economic Policy), the International Growth Centre (Cities that Work and Cities Research Program), and Johns Hopkins University (School of Advanced International Studies and School of Government and Policy).
Inquiries
For inquires related to the call for papers, contact: citiesthatwork@theigc.org
For inquiries related to conference attendance and registration:
urbanizationconference@worldbank.org
Note that this agenda is preliminary and subject to change. Last updated: 19 February 2026
DAY 1 (March 30, 2026) | The World Bank
8:30 am - 9:00 am |
Registration and coffee (MC Front Lobby) |
9:00 am - 9:15 am
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WELCOMING REMARKS Indermit Gill, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, The World Bank |
9:15am - 10:00am |
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Cities and Development Chair and Moderator Ming Zhang, Global Director for Cities, Subnational Finance, Disaster Management and Tourism, The World Bank Speaker Gilles Duranton, Dean's Chair in Real Estate Professor, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania Discussant Forhad Shilpi, Senior Economist, Development Research Group, The World Bank |
10:00am - 10:30 am |
Coffee break |
10:30am - 12:00pm |
KEYNOTE PANEL 1: Structural Transformation Chair and Moderator Roberta Gatti, Chief Economist, Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan, The World Bank Keynote Panelists Louise Fox, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution |
12:00pm - 1:00pm |
Lunch break |
1:00pm - 2:30pm |
KEYNOTE PANEL 2: Jobs in Cities Chair and Moderator Franziska Ohnsorge, Chief Economist for South Asia, The World Bank Keynote Panelists Gilles Duranton, Professor and Dean Chair in Real Estate, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania |
2:30pm - 3:00pm |
Coffee break |
POLICY SESSIONS |
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3:00pm - 4:30pm
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INTERACTIVE POLICY SESSION 1: Place-Based Policies Chairs Arti Grover, Principal Economist, International Finance Corporation Panelists |
3:00pm - 4:30pm
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INTERACTIVE POLICY SESSION 2: Urban Labor Markets Chairs Paul Court, Chief Economist, City of Cape Town Panelists |
3:00pm - 4:30pm
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INTERACTIVE POLICY SESSION 3: Transportation Chairs Stephane Straub, Chief Economist for Infrastructure, The World Bank Panelists |
5:00pm - 8:00pm |
Cocktail reception (George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs, City View Room (7th floor), 1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC) |
DAY 2 (March 31, 2026) | Hopkins Bloomberg Center
| 8:00 am - 8:30 am | Registration and coffee Latecomers registration |
| PARALLEL RESEARCH SESSIONS 1 Note: The following sessions will run in parallel from 8:30am - 10:30am |
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8:30 am - 10:30 am |
RESEARCH SESSION 1A: Young Urban Economist Workshop Room 820 CHAIR Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Harvard University and IGC Cities Research Programme Co-Director (M) PAPERS (18 minutes without interruption + 10 minutes Q&A per paper) Paper YUE 1: Ignacio Banares-Sanchez (LSE) - “Trading Trash on Tricycles” Paper YUE 2: Caterina Soto-Vieira (LSE) - “Home Production in the City” Paper YUE 3: Jordan Mosqueda Juarez (UC San Diego) - “Equilibrium Commuting Costs: The Role of Private and Public Transit” Paper YUE 4: Shreya Sarkar (UC Berkeley) - “Worker-Owned Capital and Productivity: Experimental Evidence from a Large Platform Firm in India” |
8:30 am - 10:30 am |
RESEARCH SESSION 1B: Urbanization and Urban Governance Room 1020 Paper 1B.1: Idaliya Grigoryeva (UC San Diego) - “Agricultural Productivity, Structural Transformation, & Urbanization: Evidence from Indonesia’s Transmigration Program” Paper 1B.2: Doug Gollin (Tufts) - Making Non-Tradables Tradable: Human Mobility and the Spatial Reach of African Cities Paper 1B.3: Saani Rawat (University of Cincinnati) - “Does Urban Local Governance Matter? Evidence from India” Paper 1B.4: Stéphane Straub (World Bank) - “Incentives and the City: Towards a Theory of Urban Governance” |
8:30 am - 10:30 am |
RESEARCH SESSION 1C: Inequality Room 1024 Paper 1C.1: Yuhei Miyauchi (Boston University) - “The Spatial Distribution of Income in Cities: New Global Evidence and Theory” Paper 1C.2: Shreya Dutt (Boston University) - “Legal Segregation, Ethno-Religious Boundaries, and Urban Inequality in India’s Disturbed Areas Act” Paper 1C.3: Sarthak Joshi (University of Edinburgh) - “Spatial Shocks and Gender Employment Gaps” Paper 1C.4: Harrison Mitchell (UC San Diego) - “The Curse of Connectivity: Evidence from Indonesia's Village Resettlement Program” |
| 10:30 am - 11:00 am | Coffee break |
| PARALLEL RESEARCH SESSIONS 2 Note: The following four sessions will run in parallel from 11:00am - 12:30pm |
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11:00 am - 12:30 pm |
RESEARCH SESSION 2A: Housing Room 1020 Paper 2A.1: Alice Duhaut (World Bank) - “Long-Term Effects of Settlement Upgrading: Evidence from Kenya” Paper 2A.2: Alishuba Philip (University of Zurich) - “Slum Redevelopments and Evictions in a Developing Megacity” Paper 2A.3: Geetika Nagpal (World Bank) - “The cost of gender on rent for single women in South Asia” |
11:00 am - 12:30 pm |
RESEARCH SESSION 2B: Land Use Room 1024 Paper 2B.1: Jeanne Sorin (University of Chicago)- “Public Roads on Private Lands: Land Costs and Optimal Road Improvements in Urban Uganda” Paper 2B.2: Jiakai Zhang (New Mexico Tech) - “How Does Land Use Policy Affect Local Labor and Housing Markets?” Paper 2B.3: Lucy Hackett (UC Berkeley) - “Land subsidence: Environmental risk in housing markets in Mexico City” |
11:00 am - 12:30 pm |
RESEARCH SESSION 2C: Firms Room 820 Paper 2C.1: Francesco Loiacono (EBRD) - “Innovation Zones, Technological Upgrading, and Firm Productivity” Paper 2C.2: Miguel Talamas (IDB) - “Agglomeration, Informality, and Firm Dynamics” Paper 2C.3: Namrata Kala (MIT) - “Firm Presence, Pollution, and Agglomeration: Evidence from a Randomized Environmental Place-Based Policy” |
11:00 am - 12:30 pm |
RESEARCH SESSION 2D: Migration and Forced Displacement Room 432 Paper 2D.1: Ayah Bohsali (Pompeu Fabra) - “Conflict, Forced Displacement and Growth: Evidence from Uganda” Paper 2D.2: Soraya Goga (World Bank) - “Jobs on a Broken Road” Paper 2D.3: Marlon Seror (UQAM) - “Floating population: migration with(out) family and Chinese economic development” |
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm |
Lunch break |
| PARALLEL RESEARCH SESSIONS 3 Note: The following three sessions will run in parallel from 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm |
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1:30 pm - 3:30 pm |
RESEARCH SESSION 3A: Spatial Allocation of Production Room 820 Paper 3A.1: Cong Peng (Peking University) - “The Urban Hierarchy in Africa: Competition and Complementarity” Paper 3A.2: Sam Asher (Imperial College London) - “Rural Spillovers of Urban Growth” Paper 3A.3: Luis Baldomero-Quintana (William & Mary) - “The Geography of Commodity Booms” Paper 3A.4: Mark Roberts (World Bank) - “Urban gains and costs in Sub-Saharan Africa” |
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm |
RESEARCH SESSION 3B: Transportation Room 1020 Paper 3B.1: Daniel Da Mata (FGV EESP) - “Free Public Transport: More Jobs without Environmental Damage?” Paper 3B.2: Sarmistha Pal (University of Surrey) - “Better Transport Safer Streets? Lessons from A Dynamic Analysis of São Paulo, Brazil” Paper 3B.3: Luis Quintero (JHU) - “The Quito Metro and Local Economic Activity: Evidence from Administrative Microdata” Paper 3B.4: Akhila Kovvuri (Stanford) - “Moving Opportunity Closer: How Public Transit Transforms Firm Composition and Employment” |
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm |
RESEARCH SESSION 3C: Urban Labor Markets Room 1024 Paper 3C.1: Florian Grosset-Touba (IP Paris) - “Complementarities in Labor Supply: How Joint Commuting Shapes Work Decisions” Paper 3C.2: Frazana Afridi (ISI Delhi) - “Informing the Job Search: A Field Experiment in an Urban Labor Market” Paper 3C.3: Jorge Eduardo Perez Perez (Banco de México) - “Matching and Local Labor Market Size in Mexico” Paper 3C.4: Ivette Contreras (World Bank) - “Beyond Wages: What Matters Most in Job Choice for Women in El Salvador” |
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm |
Coffee break |
| PLENARY SESSION | |
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
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Plenary Session: Infrastructure Development in Cities Chair and Moderator Filipe Campante, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins University Presenters Matthew Turner, Professor of Economics, Brown University Panelists |
| 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm | Reception |
About the Venues
March 30: Day 1 of the conference will be held at the World Bank's Headquarters, located at 1818 H Street, NW, Washington DC 20433, USA.
March 31: Day 2 of the conference will be held at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center, located at 555 Pennyslvania Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20001, USA. Access detailed directions to the Bloomberg Center.
World Bank Main Entrance
Please do not use the visitor’s entrance on 18th street but the main entrance at 1818 H street near the intersection of H street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Elliott School of International Affairs
The cocktail reception will take place on the first day of the conference (March 30) from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Elliott School of International Affairs, 1957 E Street at the intersection of E and 19th Streets (City View Room, 7th Floor) - GWU (George Washington University). The image below will show you how to get from the World Bank MC building to 1957 E Street.
The 10th Urbanization and Development Conference is the product of the collaborative efforts of multiple institutions to bring together world-class academics, policy makers, and development practitioners to address the urgent challenges confronting cities.
Principal Sponsors
Additional Sponsors
The organizers invite paper submissions from scholars and practitioners exploring how urbanization drives and is driven by economic transformation.
Key themes and areas of interest
All papers related to cities in developing economies will be considered, however key areas of interest include:
1. Structural transformation
- Dynamics of structural change across and within urban economies.
- Urban–rural linkages in job creation, including the role of secondary cities and rural diversification.
- The evolution of tradable vs. non-tradable sectors, and formal vs. informal employment.
2. Urban labor markets and the changing nature of work
- Labor force participation, with a focus on gender and youth.
- Future demand for jobs and demographic change.
- How technological change, automation, and AI are reshaping urban labor markets.
- Public vs. private employment creation, including urban public works programs.
- The rise of green jobs and environmentally sustainable economic transitions.
3. Firms, productivity, and urban economic growth
- Urban firm productivity and agglomeration economies.
- Spatial distribution of firms and workers, including the urban wage premium and productivity gaps.
- The role of urban form, mobility, and spatial mismatch in shaping firm and worker outcomes, and effective density more generally.
Papers should focus on developing countries or provide insights from historical progress in developed countries. While the conference focuses on economics research, papers from other social science fields with a strong quantitative background or mixed methods approach will also be considered.
Young Urban Economist Workshop
As part of the call for papers, a small group of young scholars will be chosen to participate in the Young Urban Economist Workshop and will receive feedback on their papers from senior faculty. These scholars will be eligible to receive funding for travel and accommodation. There is no specific application process for this—young researchers should use the standard application form.
Deadline and additional information
The call for papers is now closed.
The deadline for paper submissions was 8 December, 2025 (at 23:59 GMT). Acceptance of submitted papers for presentation at the conference will be communicated by January 9, 2026. For more details on the submissions process, visit the IGC website.
Please note: There is no funding available for conference presenters, except for researchers selected for the Young Urban Economist Workshop. The World Bank and its partners will not be able to sponsor visas for this conference.
For inquires related to the call for papers, contact: citiesthatwork@theigc.org
Paper Selection Committee
Daniel Agness (University of Maryland, College Park), Nathaniel Baum-Snow (Rotman School of Management. University of Toronto), Filipe Campante (Johns Hopkins University, SAIS and Carey Business School), Alice Duhaut (World Bank, Development Impact), Remi Jedwab (George WQashington University), Oluchi Mbonu (World Bank, Development Research Group), Alejandro Molnar (World Bank, Development Research Group), Geetika Nagpal (World Bank, Development Impact), Harris Selod (World Bank, Development Research Group), and Forhad Shilpi (World Bank, Development Research Group).
Organizers
World Bank Development Research Group
International Growth Centre - Cities that Work Initiative
George Washington University (Institute for International Economic Policy)
Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy
Past Editions of the Conference
9th Urbanization and Development Conference, 11-12 June 2025
Note that past editions of the conference were titled "Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference."
8th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference, 7-8 March 2024
7th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference, 30 January 2023
6th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference, 9 September 2019
5th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference, 7 September 2018
4th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference, 8 September 2017
3rd Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference, 1 February 2016
2nd Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference, 12 November 2014
1st Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference, 13 May 2013