Monday 7 March 2011

The winning essay for the essay prize competition on "Financial policies" by Johannes Schmidt

Paul Romer’s Charter Cities – A well grounded concept?
By Johannes Schmidt*

This essay deals with Paul Romer’s concept of charter cities. First the concept is introduced and later, on a closer scrutiny, it is evaluated.
The concept of cities which are governed by their own charter document instead of a state is not new. In fact it is frequently employed nowadays and furthermore already used as far back in time as the late 12th century. The most repeatedly mentioned example of one of the first cities that received a charter is Lübeck, which was later to become the heart of the Hanseatic League.