Institutions and Growth Models: Experiences from Asia and their Global Implications

The Institute organized a dialogue session with Professor Romer to discuss the idea behind Charter Cities; the role of institutions and rules in economic development; how his learnings from Asia have influenced his Charter Cities concept, and, in turn, what kind of changes in institutions are needed in Asian countries to succeed in the next stage of their development.

Professor Paul Romer, a leading US economist and primary developer of what is called “New Growth Theory”.

In addition to his position at the Stern School of Business, Professor Romer is also the president and founder of Charter Cities, a non-profit research organisation focused on the interplay of rules, urbanization and development.

The innovative and sometimes controversial idea of Charter Cities, which is inspired by the success of Hong Kong and of Special Development Zones in the Chinese mainland, is moving closer to realisation in Central America where key legislative steps have been taken in Honduras to get special development regions off the ground. For his work on Charter Cities, Professor Romer was chosen as Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2010.