About Us

The Charter Cities organization is focused on the interplay of rules, urbanization, and development. Charter cities are special reform zones that allow governments to quickly adopt innovative new systems of rules, rules that can be markedly different from those in the rest of the country. The ideas behind the concept of a charter city have very deep roots. These ideas have been recast in the specific form of a charter city by economist Paul Romer. Romer is Professor of Economics at the NYU Stern School of Business and Non-Resident fellow at the Center for Global Development. With the help of a small staff and a growing collection of volunteers, he maintains this web site and works to promote serious consideration of this idea at the practical level of implementation in specific sites and at the abstract level of academic analysis.

As a 501( c )( 3 ) organization, Charter Cities relies exclusively on philanthropic support. This allows us to maintain an independent advisory role. We do not accept consulting fees or expense reimbursement from the governments with whom we work. Nor will the organization or anyone who works for it have any financial stake in the development of a charter city.

What to do next:

Read more about Paul Romer.
Read more about the concept of a charter city.
Watch a video of a talk that Paul gave at TED.
Read commentary about the concept of a charter city.
Look for answers to Frequently Asked Questions about charter cities.
Contact us.