ABSTRACT
Will the megacities of Latin America be sustainable and equitable three decades from now? This chapter throws a spotlight on the most critical challenges megacities of the region are facing in their development and offers conceptual elements that can help overcome them through public policy interventions. To address these issues, the chapter explores four fundamental dimensions of Latin America’s megacities. First, it presents a comparative framework on urbanization among continents, which highlights the specificities of the cities in this region. Second, it discusses the benefits and costs of urbanization from a conceptual standpoint. It is based on the idea that the larger size of a city is associated with higher agglomeration gains, but also with higher urban and congestion costs. In this way, the net aggregate effect on well-being in the region’s megacities depends on the city’s accessibility, which reflects the balance between agglomeration gains and costs. The chapter also explores one fundamental dimension of megacities sustainability: infrastructure. It stresses the relevance of infrastructure finance to overcome this pressing problem of all megacities in Latin America while presenting several alternatives for accomplishing such goal in the context of appropriate planning governance.
