In this Brownbag presentation, Dr Robert Buckley will be presenting on ‘The Housing Affordability Challenge: What Are the Questions?’
Abstract
In the past few years, sixteen developing countries have mounted multi-billion-dollar urban subsidy programs. Unfortunately, as currently structured, very few of these programs will help address the housing challenges faced by cities. They are deeply flawed even if they come with support from leading think tanks such as the McKinsey Global Institute and from foreign advisors and investors. They often repeat the now severely criticized approaches pursued by OECD countries in the early post–World War II years, when a similar moment in urban policy arose. Participants at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Conference Center discussed the proposed approaches as well as why it is perhaps not surprising that few foreign investors take any of the risks inherent in plans to reshape the cities of the developing world.
Biography
Bob Buckley is a senior fellow in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School. Previously, he was an advisor and managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation, and lead economist at the World Bank. Buckley’s work at both the foundation and the World Bank focused largely on issues relating to urbanization in developing countries. He is particularly interested in the policy issues related to slum formation and approaches to dealing with them (see more here).