Paul Romer

Paul Romer is named FP top 100 Global Thinkers for “dreaming big about how to reinvent cities.”

Reformers tend to assume that progress requires higher levels of government that embrace more people and more nations.

Excerpt: “Mr Romer’s enthusiasm is undimmed.

Here at Charter Cities, we’ve received several requests for comment on recent press reports of an agreement with investors to develop the Honduran Special Development Regions (known as REDs, following the Spanish acronym).

“Romer’s biggest idea is the importance of “rules.”

Excerpt: “Romer, in a series of papers in the 1980s, fundamentally changed the way economists think about the role of technology in economic growth.

At the December 2011 gathering of ZURICH.MINDS, Paul presented a framework for thinking about human progress.

The Glass House Conversations invited Greg Lindsay to host a conversation about new cities.

Excerpt: “In the last 10,000 years, humans built cities to house 3 billion people.

Back in 2009, Paul Romer unveiled the idea for a “charter city” - a new kind of city with rules that favor democracy and trade.

Excerpt: “Rather than push for reform within a political system, he suggests starting afresh from the outside.

Excerpt: “You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game,” he said, flashing a photo of a soccer game on a screen.

The government in Honduras is convinced that a charter city could be the safe playing field, with new rules, where Hondurans of all backgrounds can come together and put their skills to work with the financial resources, expertise, and technology available

According to the New York Times, the new mayor of New Orleans, who campaigned on a promise to reform the city’s police department, recently asked the federal Department of Justice to intervene.

The New York Times recently ran a story about New Dehli’s new Metro subway system.

In an article on charter cities in The Atlantic, Sebastian Mallaby has a good summary of how the Hanseatic League of cities emerged in the Middle Ages from what was arguably the first charter city.

Excerpt: “Castro goes to the prime minister of Canada and says, ‘Look, the Yankees have a terrible PR problem.

Excerpt: The name ‘charter cities,’ Paul explains, comes from the historical example of the colony of Pennsylvania, which was founded under a charter drafted by William Penn.

Life on the road is full of surprises.

When I visited Jamaica in the Fall of 2009, here is how a knowledgeable observer described the political reality facing the government: Desperately needed policy steps—steps that any objective observer would recognize as being good for the country—would c…

The pressing need in Haiti is for food, water, and medical care, plus assistance in re-establishing basic services like policing, power, sanitation, and telecommunications.

We would like to believe that democracy will lead to steady improvement in the rules that a society follows.

According to Transparency International’s corruption index, corruption is “sticky.”

Most economists think that they are building cranes that suspend important theoretical structures from a base that is firmly grounded in first principles.

At a recent talk in London, Chris Blattman asked if a charter city could fail in the same way that public housing failed in Chicago.

Bob Haywood is the former head of the World Economic Processing Zones Association and the current executive director of the One Earth Future foundation.

A friend wrote in to ask, “Can more than a handful of charter cities succeed?”

This article in the New York Times summarizes new research on the effects that early human populations had on on the oceans.

Excerpt: “OK, it’s one year too late to be part of the 1960s (although a ragged version from 1967 is available on the outtakes DVD from the Monterey Pop festival.)

Here’s a common objection to the logic behind the proposal for building charter cities in poor host countries: If investment in urban infrastructure can really generate win-win benefits for investors and residents of poor countries, why isn’t it happening…

For each of us, other people truly are (to borrow a phrase from Julian Simon) the ultimate resource.

The distinction between objects and ideas is arguably the most important in economics.

As you’d expect from the name, a charter city is a city governed by a charter.

Several people have asked me for a link to the site with the high resolution NASA photo of the world at night.

How can a struggling country break out of poverty if it’s trapped in a system of bad rules?

Technologies rearrange materials with ingenious recipes and formulas.

Excerpt: “The hero of the second half of Mr Warsh’s book is Paul Romer, of Stanford University, who took up the challenge ducked by Mr Solow.

Excerpt: “How do you weigh the economic benefit of the thoughts in Bill Gates' head?

Excerpt: “Ideas are different.