Urban bias
Jones, G. A.
& Corbridge, S.
(2024).
Urban bias.
In
Dauncey, E., Desai, V. & Potter, R. B.
(Eds.),
The Companion to Development Studies
(pp. 439 - 443).
Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429282348-88
& Corbridge, S.
(2024).
Urban bias.
In
Dauncey, E., Desai, V. & Potter, R. B.
(Eds.),
The Companion to Development Studies
(pp. 439 - 443).
Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429282348-88
Most of the world's poor continue to reside in rural areas. Yet, it is often claimed that governments and international development organizations have persistently allocated scarce resources to cities and towns. In a powerful critique of such allocations, Michael Lipton proposed that development exhibited an urban bias. As set out in his book, Why Poor People Stay Poor: A Study of Urban Bias in World Development (1977), Lipton claimed that this bias in favour of cities was both inefficient and inequitable. This chapter examines Lipton's urban bias thesis (UBT), how it has changed with time, its influence on international development thinking, and the criticisms levelled at the original and later iterations.