David C Lincoln Fellows, 2012–2013

The David C. Lincoln Fellowships in Land Value Taxation (LVT) were established in 1999 to develop academic and professional interest in this topic through support for major research projects. The fellowship program honors David C. Lincoln, former chairman of the Lincoln Foundation and founding chairman of the Lincoln Institute, and his long-standing interest in LVT. The program encourages scholars and practitioners to undertake new work in the basic theory of LVT and its applications. These research projects add to the knowledge and understanding of LVT as a component of contemporary fiscal systems in countries throughout the world. The 2012-2013 DCL fellowships announced here constitute the thirteenth group to be awarded. This program is administered through the Lincoln Institute's Department of Valuation and Taxation.

  • David Albouy
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Michigan
  • Urban Land Value: Measurement and Theory
  • This project estimates land value differences across U.S. metropolitan areas with a large, new database of market values. These differences are explained through local site characteristics, or “amenities,” and are used to estimate production parameters for residential housing, including the income share to land. The project will also estimate the costs and benefits of “regulatory taxes” on land to determine if they reduce land values. Finally, the theory of urban land values is addressed in an urban system of heterogeneous cities.
  • Dr. Michael Bell
  • MEB Associates
  • David Brunori
  • Research Professor, George Washington Institute of Public Policy
  • A Better Tax: Thoughts and Research on Replacing Local Option Sales Tax with a Land Value Tax
  • This study will examine the policy and administrative issues associated with replacing local option sales taxes with a land value or split rate tax system. The study will also include a case study of the local tax system in a demonstration city selected in collaboration with the Lincoln Institute and evaluate the consequences of replacing a local option sales taxes with a land value or split rate tax.
  • Aleksandar Bućić
  • Managing Assistant to Secretary General for Finance, Standing Conference of Serbian Towns and Municipalities
  • Dušan Vasiljević
  • Business Regulation and Economic Governance Team Leader, Cardno Emerging Markets, USAID Business Enabling Project
  • Continuing Property Tax Reform in Serbia: Capturing Land Value through Integration of the Land Use Charge into Property Tax and Taxing Business Properties
  • Serbia is one of the countries in South-East Europe that has done most to tap into the potential of the property tax for improving its public finances and making local governments more accountable. However, many issues remain unresolved–notably the taxation of land and properties owned by legal entities (businesses). The fact that the land development charge, a kind of quasi-property tax, will be abolished by 2014, calls for a long awaited overhaul of the property taxation system. The purpose of this research is to model different land taxation options in the context of reforming the taxation of business properties.
  • Jeffrey P. Cohen
  • Associate Professor of Economics, University of Hartford
  • Replacing the Sales Tax with a Land Tax: Where, What Goods, and Why?
  • One approach for encouraging urban economic activity is to lower distortionary taxes (such as local sales taxes), and raise non-distortionary taxes, such as land taxes. Increasing land taxes, while at the same time eliminating distortionary taxes, is an idea that has been popularized by Henry George (1956) and subsequently advocated by many others. These economists have argued that a land tax accompanied by tax cuts in other areas would encourage economic development, while at the same time extracting land rents from landowners without distorting their decisions. A land tax has the potential to encourage greater efficiency in markets and discourage sprawl. Some cities in certain states currently impose sales taxes at the local level in addition to state sales taxes. This project will assess which goods markets in which states are the best candidates for replacing sales taxes with land value taxes, by estimating elasticities of supply and demand for different goods. It will also examine which sectors are strong candidates for replacing local taxes with land taxes for several cities in Arizona, which levy separate city excise taxes on business, and vary by sector and across every city; and in cities in Pennsylvania, which are authorized to levy a city sales tax. An aim of this study is to provide guidance to state and local policy-makers who may be considering adoption of land value taxation in Arizona and Pennsylvania, as well as in other states.
  • Paavo Monkkonen
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Planning, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
  • The Impact of Land Value Taxation on Urban Development: The Mexicali Experience
  • Taxation affects decisions about property development. Land value taxes are expected to have several advantages over standard property taxes in their impact on urban form, such as promoting more efficient and intensive use of land, limiting land speculation, and facilitating a more compact urban form. The municipality of Mexicali in Baja California, Mexico, began using a land value taxation system in 1989. This project will describe and test hypotheses about the impact of the change in tax policy on urban development in two ways; through interviews of public officials, developers, and landowners, and through analysis of satellite imagery and census GIS data from 1990-2010.
  • Zhou Yang
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Economics and Legal Studies, Robert Morris University
  • The Effects of the Two-Rate Property Tax: What Can We Learn From the Pennsylvania Experience?
  • This project empirically investigates the effects of the two-rate (split-rate) property tax on the capital intensity of land development in Pennsylvania. An effective strategy for data collection is developed as the first attempt to overcome the data limitations in the existing literature. The project will draw on the new dataset and use an improved estimation method, to offer a better picture of the overall effects of the two-rate tax and provide policy suggestions regarding the use of land value taxes to combat urban sprawl.