The global urban population is forecast to increase from 4.22bn in 2018 to 6.68bn in 2050, with 95% of this increase occurring in countries of the global south. There is good reason for optimism. Historically, GDP per capita and urbanization have increased together. Countries that experienced an acceleration of economic growth, such as China after 1980, also experienced accelerated urbanization (Pritchett, 2014). Cities have historically been drivers of industrialization and economic growth. There are well-established theoretical and empirical reasons to link urbanization to explain these economic benefits – the agglomeration benefits of density. Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa more generally is urbanizing when strikingly poorer than other developing regions and in South Asia there is a relatively slow rate of urbanization. This research explores possible reasons to explain the puzzle of rapid urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa and slow urbanization in South Asia. Join our seminar today at PM EAT and listen to Prof Matthew McCartney speak on the topic The Urban Lion Roars: Kenya and the Economic Puzzle of Contemporary Urbanization. Prof McCartney is a development economist by background with a teaching and research specialization in the economic development of India and Pakistan after 1947. He spent twenty years as an academic at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), University of London (2000-2011) and the University of Oxford (2011-21). He has been a visiting Professor at Universities in China, Pakistan, India, Japan, South Korea, Poland, and Belgium. 🔗 lnkd.in/eVx_ZJ2N The seminar is free, and we look forward to your participation.  Institute for Development Studies.