As developing countries rapidly urbanize, the number of people living in 'slums'-neighbourhoods lacking property rights and basic services-continues to increase. Whether slum residents will ultimately share in the benefits of the cities they help build or will remain trapped in poverty is not...

Social mobility is the hope of economic development and the mantra of a good society. There are disagreements about what constitutes social mobility, but there is broad agreement that people should have roughly equal chances of success regardless of their economic status at birth. Concerns about...