Edward Glaeser: belief

Transcript context

…What is city success correlated with institutionally in Latin America? I have rarely seen things that are good quantitative studies. I can tell you things that I’ve certainly seen in Monterrey. The Medellín story is amazing. If you think about Medellín going from the city of Pablo Escobar to today, a lot of it often has to do with relatively pragmatic business leaders who wanted a safe and competent public sector that could enable their business growth. I think that’s a lot of the Monterrey story. Monterrey also has a very empowered university that’s highly competitive as well, that I think partially a force for good. There’s a story that I’ve heard that I’ve never been able to independently confirm, but the role of the business community coming together to fight crime in Monterrey, to fight the gangs, which if true, is an amazing tale. The business community played a role in terms of crime fighting in Colombia as well. Do you hold out any hope for charter cities like Próspera in Honduras? Can that work, or is it futile?…

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