Researchers Investigate Land and Tax Policies (Land Lines Article)

Publication Date: March 1997

Inventory ID LLA970302; English

Article

The Lincoln Institute awards research contracts to encourage and support investigations that contribute to the body of knowledge about land and land-related tax policies. A number of recently funded projects are listed below, representing the kinds of work being undertaken in each of the Institute's three program areas.

LAND VALUES, PROPERTY RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP PROGRAM
We study how the actions of stakeholders in both private and public sectors produce land values and distribute rights to land. We are also interested in how to develop methods to measure land value. This program area touches upon the larger issues of property rights, the operations of formal and informal land markets in creating and distributing land value, and methods for both recovering the costs of public investment in land and distributing the wealth gained from land.

Land Into Cities
H. James Brown, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
To use survey data to address urban expansion and development patterns based on the actions of land owners in the Boston metropolitan area.

Land and Property Markets
Stephen K. Mayo, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
To research land and property markets in the United States and the interactions of those markets within the broader economy.

Public Development of Publicly Owned Lands
Lynne Sagalyn, Columbia University, Graduate School of Business
To examine strategies adopted by cities to use public lands, including the trade-offs involved, structural factors, risks, and accountability.

Informal Land and Housing Markets
Omar Razzaz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
To study informal land and housing markets with an emphasis on developing countries in order to determine the gaps in the current body of research.

Formal and Informal Mechanisms in Housing Production
in Developing Countries
Ayse Pamuk, University of Virginia, School of Architecture
To study the importance of private arrangements made in informal land markets, using Trinidad and Tobago to assess the consequences of a restrictive regulatory environment.

Land Policy and the National Economy in Japan
Koichi Mera, University of Southern California,
School of Urban and Regional Planning
To study the effects of market fundamentals and speculative behavior of land values, and to isolate the effect of government intervention in the market.

Urban Land Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean
Martim Smolka, et al., Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
To compare and analyze the state of the art of urban land markets in twelve Latin American countries.

Land Affected by Residential Housing Markets
Erminia Maricato, University of Sao Paulo,
Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning
To examine the low-income housing crisis in Brazil and, in particular, the role of land in developers' decisions to build high-income vs low-income housing.

TAXATION OF LAND AND BUILDINGS PROGRAM
We are interested in the special nature of taxes on real property, particularly those based on market value. We address the economic effects of such taxes, including their legal structure and interpretation with regard to valuation. We are also interested in political aspects of implementing property taxes as instruments of fiscal decentralization. Research in this program area provides practical assistance to policymakers dealing with existing tax systems, and also explores current tax reform efforts around this country and overseas.

Property Tax Appraisals and the Reuse of Inner-City Properties
Emil Malizia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Department of City and Regional Planning
To document the discrepancy between market value and assessed value for a sample of commercial properties in North Carolina; to explain how appraisal methods may lead to overvaluation; and to explore ways to modify appraisal methods to eliminate this impediment to the reuse of inner-city commercial properties.

The Two-Rate Tax: The Amsterdam New York Experience
Donald Reeb, University of Albany, Department of Economics
To study the introduction and repeal of a two-rate property tax on land and buildings in Amsterdam, New York.

Land Taxation: Implications for Local Revenue and Development Gains
Nathaniel Lichfield, University of London, and Owen Connellan,
University of Glamorgan, Centre of Research in the Built Environment
To study the ways in which land taxation has been used to recover value increases due to public development.

Legal Study of Value Capture in Colombia
Maria Clara Verjarano, National Planning Department, Colombia
To report on valorization in Colombia, including a description of developments since 1979, an evaluation of current functioning, and prospects for future changes and reform.

Property Tax Study in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic
Gary Cornia and Phil J. Bryson, Brigham Young University, Marriott School of Management
To study property tax systems in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, comparing the countries' evolution during economic transition.

International Survey on Property Taxation in Transition Economies
Joan Youngman and Jane Malme, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
To compile comparative case studies on the development of property taxation in transition economies, including problems encountered in developing tax policies, laws, administrative arrangements, and valuation methods.

LAND USE AND REGULATION PROGRAM
We focus on the process, plans and policies that affect the development of land, especially in urban "fringe" areas most at risk from changing land uses. We also investigate issues around the reuse of vacant and underutilized land and the preservation of land. While we are interested in the economically efficient use of land, we take a more comprehensive perspective for evaluating land use and its regulation. We seek to understand how the development, reuse and preservation of land affect other public values and goals, such as access to land, the character of society and the quality of life.

Regulatory Barriers to Reuse of Urban Brownfields
George W. Liebmann, Law Office of George W. Liebmann, Baltimore, Maryland
To propose a model ordinance to remove barriers to reuse urban land so greenfield development is not the path of least resistance for residential and commercial developers.

Growth and Spread of Vacant and Underutilized Land, and Land Value Depression
Alex Anas, Department of Economics, and Barry Lentnek, Jean-Claude Thill and
Elizabeth Kent, Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo
To study vacant and underutilized land within old rust-belt cities.

Vacant Land in Latin American Cities: The Case of Buenos Aires
Nora Clichevsky, National Council of Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina
To study informal land markets and regulation in Latin America and examine the steps government can take to manage informal markets in legal, territorial-environmental, and economic terms.

Comparative Analysis of Vacant Land in Urban Areas in Western Europe
Barry Wood and Patsy Healy, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Department of Town and Country Planning
To analyze the extent of vacant land, its likely causes and possible remedies in the Netherlands, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Public Policy and 'Sprawl': Implications of Existing Development Patterns
Patricia Burgess and Thomas Bier, Cleveland State University, College of Urban Affairs
To study the policy implications of sprawl development adjacent to Cleveland.

Growth Patterns in Florida, Texas, and California
Benjamin Chinitz, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Florida Atlantic University
To investigate three fast-growing states to understand the forces that account for their wide variations in growth patterns.

State Growth Management
Patricia E. Salkin, Albany Law School, Government Law Center
To examine growth management initiatives in those states without state-level policies.

Limitations on Development Impact Exactions as a Means to Limit Social Policymaking
James E. Holloway and Donald C. Guy, East Carolina University, School of Business
To analyze the U.S. Supreme Court's takings jurisprudence and evaluate the effect of development exactions on land use policymaking.

European Sustainable Communities: An Exploratory Study
Timothy Beatley, University of Virginia, School of Architecture
To produce local and regional case studies on sustainable initiatives in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Rent and Sustainable Development
Fred Harrison, Centre for Incentive Taxation, Ltd., and Galina Titova,
Russian Academy of Sciences, Centre for Ecological Security
To investigate implications for sustainability of increased reliance on land tax, using Russia as a case study.

Environmental Conflicts Linked to Land Use Changes
Francisco Sabatini, Catholic University of Chile, Institute of Urban Studies
To discuss environmental conflicts stemming from the distribution of positive and negative externalities produced by new land uses in the Santiago metropolitan area, with comparisons to the U.S. and Canada.

Costs and Benefits of Metropolitan Employment Deconcentration
Wim Wiewel, Great Cities Institute, and Joe Persky,
Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
To conduct an overview of employment and firm location decisions within metropolitan areas along with a cost-benefit analysis; to review the relative effectiveness of various policies aimed at reducing deconcentration.

Impact of Housing-Related Tax Expenditures on Residential Land Use within the Metropolitan Area
Joseph Gyourko, University of Pennsylvania, Real Estate Department, The Wharton School,
and Richard Voith, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
To study how federal tax policy related to housing has influenced the nature of urban form in general and residential land use intensity in the Philadelphia metropolitan area in particular.

Politics of Megaprojects
Alan Altshuler and David Luberoff, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government
To examine the place of large-scale transportation (and, secondarily other public infrastructure) investment in urban land use and development politics, including analysis of the Boston Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel.

Consensual Approaches to Land Use Decisionmaking
Lawrence Susskind, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and Marshall Kaplan, University of Colorado at Denver
To develop an evaluative framework around mediation and other forms of consensus building and dispute handling in land use cases.

Click for more information about the Institute's research proposal process, or email your inquiry to help@lincolninst.edu.