Land taxation

Affordable housing provision through implicit land taxation

The key issue in this paper is the appropriateness and equity of land-use planning mechanisms, and any associated cross-subsidization, as a means of enhancing the supply of affordable housing. The paper will examine the principles of ‘affordable housing through planning’ in England and it will comment on ‘inclusionary zoning’ as a means to promote affordable housing in the USA. The ways in whic...

Towards a Truthful Land Taxation Mechanism in Brazil

This paper shows that the asymmetric information present in the relationship between the government and agricultural producers has led to persistent problems in the application of land taxes (Imposto Territorial Rural – ITR) in Brazil. The main result is that, when the asymmetric information is taken into account, some use of output taxes in the optimal tax scheme may be more desirable than a p...

Guns, Latrines, and Land Reform: Dynamic Pigouvian Taxation

Dynamically and statically optimal Pigouvian subsidies on durables will differ in a growing economy. For durables with positive externalities, such as sanitation, statically optimal subsidies will typically grow. However, in a dynamic game, governments can most cheaply induce optimal purchasing time by committing to eventually reduce subsidies. If governments cannot commit, there may be multipl...

Taxation , Free Markets , and the Use of Agricultural Land

The Impact of Urban Land Taxation: The Pittsburgh Experience

In 1979-80, the city of Pittsburgh restructured its property tax system by raising the rate on land to more than five times the rate on structures. This paper explores the impact of this tax reform on the economic development of the city. Following some background on the theory of land taxation and Pittsburgh's historical setting, the paper presents an empirical analysis of the impact of the ta...