Economist Paul Romer has worked up an idea he calls “charter cities” and put up a web site about it. Also described in this interview. Something like an economic free-trade zone raised to the full-blown status of a city. The main distinction is an express intent to import workers from underdeveloped parts of the world, and this based on the theory that what they need is a modern physical and social infrastructure. As he puts it, in an optimistic present tense,”Charter cities let people move to a place with rules that provide security, economic opportunity, and improved quality of life.”
I have at least two questions off the bat. Read the rest of this entry »