Urbanization Models Examined.

FORECASTING; URBANIZATION; CITIES & towns; DEVELOPING countries; ECONOMIC development; UNITED Nations

This article focuses on the urbanization model employed by the United Nations (UN). Urbanization, which refers to the transition from a rural economy to a more productive urban economy on a national scale, has been the benchmark used by the UN in determining and forecasting growth in developing countries. According to economist Philippe Bocquier, the current UN urbanization model overestimates the growth potential of cities and towns by roughly a billion people, and, as a result, overstates the long term economic growth prospects for many of the world's developing nations. The reason for these miscalculations is that the current urbanization model assumes that economically poorer nations will develop in roughly the same pattern as their Western counterparts.