Mimi Whitefield reports in The Miami Herald about the meeting in Miami of some 600 mayors from Latin America and the Caribbean to discuss how to improve their economies.

Almost three-quarters of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean live and work in cities, which traditionally have been hubs of economic activity, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Despite 433 million people living in the region’s 7,197 cities, a new World Bank study finds that urban areas in Latin America and the Caribbean are near the world average in terms of productivity but still fall behind cities in the United States and Europe. Why, for example, is Chicago more productive than Bogotá when they have similar populations of about eight million?

The study, Raising the Bar for Productive Cities in Latin America and the Caribbean, explores the reasons for such disparities and whether there are fixes that can boost urban productivity and harness it to reignite economic growth in the region. The countries of the region “cannot be productive unless their cities are also productive,” the study says.

Some 600 mayors and council members from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean will gather in Miami this week to discuss the issues raised in the study, which will be presented Tuesday at the Inter-American Conference of Mayors. The three-day conference will be held at the Hilton Miami Downtown Hotel, 1601 Biscayne Blvd.