Urban Latin America has changed dramatically over the latter half of the twentieth century. From 1950 to 1980 Latin American cities showcased high rates of migrant absorption, overurbanization, and national state domination of local politics and decision-making. Urban growth concentrated in a few cities, reinforcing conditions of primacy and growing demands for urban servicing to meet the needs of an industrial economy primed for national economic growth. By 1990, decentralization policies devolved political decision-making to smaller jurisdictions, giving local authorities more sway in urban servicing and policy-making but also increasing municipal pressures to generate public sector revenues to finance local urban development. Since 2000, economic globalization has opened consumer and investment markets to make cities sites for real estate development and high-end services, with these transformations occurring alongside a shrinking industrial economy and rising un- and underemployment. Today, Latin America's largest cities are modern and economically dynamic metropolises with architecturally iconic high-rises and gated communities that could rival those seen in any major city of North America or Europe. Even so, they host a range of social problems associated with income inequality, structural unemployment, persistent housing informality, and violence, all of which hold the potential to negatively affect urban quality of life.