Ferre, CelineFerreira, Francisco H.G.Lanjouw, Peter2012-03-192012-03-192010-12-01https://hdl.handle.net/10986/3992This paper provides evidence from eight developing countries of an inverse relationship between poverty and city size. Poverty is both more widespread and deeper in very small and small towns than in large or very large cities. This basic pattern is generally robust to choice of poverty line. The paper shows, further, that for all eight countries, a majority of the urban poor live in medium, small, or very small towns. Moreover, it is shown that the greater incidence and severity of consumption poverty in smaller towns is generally compounded by similarly greater deprivation in terms of access to basic infrastructure services, such as electricity, heating gas, sewerage, and solid waste disposal. The authors illustrate for one country -- Morocco -- that inequality within large cities is not driven by a severe dichotomy between slum dwellers and others. The notion of a single cleavage between slum residents and well-to-do burghers as the driver of urban inequality in the developing world thus appears to be unsubstantiated -- at least in this case. Robustness checks are performed to assess whether the findings in the paper are driven by price variation across city-size categories, by the reliance on an income-based concept of well-being, and by the application of small-area estimation techniques for estimating poverty rates at the town and city level.CC BY 3.0 IGOACCESS TO ELECTRICITYACCESS TO SERVICESALLOCATION OF RESOURCESBASIC INFRASTRUCTURECHILD MORTALITYCITIESCITY SIZECITY SIZESCOEFFICIENTSCONSUMPTION EXPENDITURECONSUMPTION EXPENDITURESCONSUMPTION POVERTYCOST OF FOODDIFFERENTIALSDIMENSIONS OF POVERTYDISTRICTDISTRICTSECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTEQUITABLE GROWTHESTIMATES OF POVERTYEXPENDITUREEXPENDITURE DATAEXTREME POVERTYFAMILY PLANNINGFARMERSFOOD CONSUMERSFOOD ITEMSGARBAGE COLLECTIONGLOBAL POVERTYHOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTIONHOUSEHOLD INCOMEHOUSEHOLD SURVEYHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSHOUSINGHUMAN DEVELOPMENTINCIDENCE OF POVERTYINCOMEINCOME POVERTYINDUSTRIALIZATIONINEQUALITYINFANT MORTALITYINFANT MORTALITY RATESLARGE CITIESLARGER TOWNSLIVING STANDARDSLOCAL PUBLIC GOODSMALNUTRITIONMETROPOLITAN AREAMETROPOLITAN AREASNATIONAL POVERTYNATIONAL POVERTY LINESPER CAPITA CONSUMPTIONPER CAPITA EXPENDITURESPOLICY ANALYSTSPOORPOOR COMMUNITIESPOOR LIVINGPOOR PEOPLEPOOR PERSONPOVERTY ANALYSISPOVERTY ASSESSMENTPOVERTY ASSESSMENTSPOVERTY ESTIMATESPOVERTY INCIDENCEPOVERTY INDICATORSPOVERTY LINEPOVERTY LINESPOVERTY MAPPOVERTY MAPPINGPOVERTY MAPPING METHODOLOGYPOVERTY MAPSPOVERTY MEASUREMENTPOVERTY MEASURESPOVERTY PROFILEPOVERTY RATEPOVERTY RATESPOVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIESPROVINCESPUBLIC DOMAINREGIONAL COVERAGEREGIONAL PRICEREGIONAL PRICE INDEXRURALRURAL AREASRURAL PHENOMENONRURAL POPULATIONRURAL POVERTYRURAL POVERTY REDUCTIONSANITATIONSEWERAGESLUM AREASSLUM DWELLERSSLUM RESIDENTSSMALL TOWNSMALL TOWNSSMALLER TOWNSSOLID WASTESOLID WASTE DISPOSALSPATIAL CORRELATIONSUB-NATIONALSUB-NATIONAL UNITSTOWNUNEMPLOYMENTURBAN AREASURBAN GROWTHURBAN POORURBAN POPULATIONURBAN POVERTYURBAN POVERTY REDUCTIONURBAN SLUMSURBANIZATIONVIOLENT CRIMEWELFARE INDICATORWELFARE MONITORINGWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-5508