Cities are the engines of creativity and innovation, so the urban system is the backbone of economic and social development. There is currently little understanding of the way globalization affects the fortunes of countries through its impact on the fortune of cities. The aim of this research topic is to contribute to filling this gap by devoting specific attention to the differential impact of cultural diversity and immigration on the economic life of global and local cities.

Both the popular press and the wider social sciences used to think of cities as being in decline. In advanced countries, the tendency was to see cities as having lost much of their relevance in a new era of cheap transport and electronic communication. Urban social problems were often highlighted as a consequence both of cities’ inherent flaws and of the economic decline overtaking many of them. However, in the last ten years there has been a radical shift in attitudes, with a widespread revaluation of the advantages offered by cities for both production and consumption. In many ways, these new perceptions about cities seem to rejoin the long held views of economists about the advantages of cities, particularly in the realm of production. While many studies have confirmed the productivity advantages of cities and urban clusters with a high density of firms and workers, the ability of researchers to influence urban policies has been hindered by the fact that they have been struggling with the identification the exact sources of the productivity advantages of cities, despite their progress at quantifying them.