Yes, large cities make humans more productive! It's not necessarily intuitive but more interactions leads to more innovations. (Shameless Plug) You can read a

Yes, large cities make humans more productive! It's not necessarily intuitive but more interactions leads to more innovations. (Shameless Plug) You can read a bit more about the research in the TED talk here: http://santafe.edu/research/cities-scaling-and-sustainability/ http://santafe.edu/research/cities-scaling-and-sustainabilit... Our research group (started by Geoffrey West & Luis Bettencourt) is also trying to understand (and help address) the issues of growing cities in the developing world, where the biggest issue are slums: http://santafe.edu/research/informal-settlements/ http://santafe.edu/research/informal-settlements/