IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/regeco/v61y2016icp73-85.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Further empirical evidence on residential property taxation and the occurrence of urban sprawl

Author

Listed:
  • Wassmer, Robert W.

Abstract

Economic theory indicates that as the effective rate of taxation on residential property rises, a negative influence on capital intensity could occur through less multi-story structures built (an Improvement Effect). Alternatively, a positive influence on capital intensity could occur through housing consumers switching to smaller houses built on smaller lots (a Dwelling Size Effect). An empirical assessment of this issue is therefore necessary; however, methodological concerns in earlier empirical analyses cast doubt on the reliability of findings. Panel data, fixed effects, regression results indicate that a higher rate of effective residential property taxation increases the amount of land used for a given population (greater sprawl).

Suggested Citation

  • Wassmer, Robert W., 2016. "Further empirical evidence on residential property taxation and the occurrence of urban sprawl," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 73-85.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:61:y:2016:i:c:p:73-85
    DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2016.09.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046216300801
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2016.09.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glaeser, Edward L. & Kahn, Matthew E., 2010. "The greenness of cities: Carbon dioxide emissions and urban development," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 404-418, May.
    2. Song, Yan & Zenou, Yves, 2006. "Property tax and urban sprawl: Theory and implications for US cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 519-534, November.
    3. Albert Saiz, 2010. "The Geographic Determinants of Housing Supply," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(3), pages 1253-1296.
    4. Richard Arnott, 2005. "Neutral Property Taxation," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 7(1), pages 27-50, February.
    5. Robert W. Wassmer, 2006. "The Influence of Local Urban Containment Policies and Statewide Growth Management on the Size of United States Urban Areas," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 25-65, February.
    6. Brueckner, Jan K & Kim, Hyun-A, 2003. "Urban Sprawl and the Property Tax," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(1), pages 5-23, January.
    7. Wassmer, Robert W., 1993. "Property Taxation, Property Base, and Property Value: An Empirical Test of the 'New View'," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 46(2), pages 135-59, June.
    8. George R. Zodrow, 2019. "The Property Tax as a Capital Tax: A Room with Three Views," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 15, pages 461-487, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Brueckner, Jan K & Fansler, David A, 1983. "The Economics of Urban Sprawl: Theory and Evidence on the Spatial Sizes of Cities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(3), pages 479-482, August.
    10. Wassmer, Robert W., 1993. "Property Taxation, Property Base, and Property Value: An Empirical Test of the 'New View'," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 46(2), pages 135-159, June.
    11. Yan Song & Yves Zenou, 2009. "How Do Differences In Property Taxes Within Cities Affect Urban Sprawl?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5), pages 801-831, December.
    12. Sullivan, Arthur M., 1985. "The general-equilibrium effects of the residential property tax: Incidence and excess burden," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 235-250, September.
    13. A. Colin Cameron & Pravin K. Trivedi, 2010. "Microeconometrics Using Stata, Revised Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, number musr, March.
    14. Sullivan, Arthur M., 1984. "The general equilibrium effects of the industrial property tax: Incidence and excess burden," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 547-563, November.
    15. Zodrow, George R., 2001. "The Property Tax as a Capital Tax: A Room with Three Views," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 54(n. 1), pages 139-56, March.
    16. Robert W. Wassmer, 2002. "Fiscalisation of Land Use, Urban Growth Boundaries and Non-central Retail Sprawl in the Western United States," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(8), pages 1307-1327, July.
    17. Marin V. Geshkov & Joseph S. DeSalvo, 2012. "The Effect Of Land-Use Controls On The Spatial Size Of U.S. Urbanized Areas," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 648-675, October.
    18. McGrath, Daniel T., 2005. "More evidence on the spatial scale of cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 1-10, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tomomi Miyazaki & Motohiro Sato, 2019. "Property Tax Reform and Land Use: Evidence from Japan," Working Papers 181905, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    2. Chich-Ping Hu & Tai-Shan Hu & Peilei Fan & Hai-Ping Lin, 2020. "The Urban Blight Costs in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. McMillan, Melville L., 2018. "“Causes of Sprawl”: A (Further) Public Finance Extension," Working Papers 2018-4, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    4. MIYAZAKI Tomomi & SATO Motohiro, 2018. "Property Tax and Land Use: Evidence from the 1990s reforms in Japan," Discussion papers 18072, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    5. Miyazaki, Tomomi & Sato, Motohiro, 2022. "Property tax and farmland use in urban areas: Evidence from the reform in the early 1990s in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    6. Taranu, Victoria & Verbeeck, Griet, 2022. "Property tax as a policy against urban sprawl," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    7. Moroni, Stefano & Minola, Luca, 2019. "Unnatural sprawl: Reconsidering public responsibility for suburban development in Italy, and the desirability and possibility of changing the rules of the game," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 104-112.
    8. Joachim Zietz & Heiko Kirchhain, 2023. "Determinants of Urban land development: A panel study for U.S. metropolitan areas," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(6), pages 1486-1501, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joachim Zietz & Heiko Kirchhain, 2023. "Determinants of Urban land development: A panel study for U.S. metropolitan areas," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(6), pages 1486-1501, July.
    2. David Albouy & Andrew Hanson, 2014. "Are Houses Too Big or In the Wrong Place? Tax Benefits to Housing and Inefficiencies in Location and Consumption," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 63-96.
    3. Langer, Sebastian & Korzhenevych, Artem, 2018. "The effect of industrial and commercial land consumption on municipal tax revenue: Evidence from Bavaria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 279-287.
    4. Yan Song & Yves Zenou, 2009. "How Do Differences In Property Taxes Within Cities Affect Urban Sprawl?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5), pages 801-831, December.
    5. Langer, Sebastian & Korzhenevych, Artem, 2017. "The effect of land consumption on municipal tax revenue: Evidence from Bavaria," CEPIE Working Papers 18/17, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    6. Miguel Gómez-Antonio & Miriam Hortas-Rico & Linna Li, 2016. "The Causes of Urban Sprawl in Spanish Urban Areas: A Spatial Approach," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 219-247, June.
    7. George R. Zodrow, 2007. "The Property Tax Incidence Debate and the Mix of State and Local Finance of Local Public Expenditures," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 53(4), pages 495-521, December.
    8. Athiphat Muthitacharoen & George R. Zodrow, 2012. "Revisiting the Excise Tax Effects of the Property Tax: Working Paper 2012-05," Working Papers 42926, Congressional Budget Office.
    9. David Albouy & Andrew Hanson, 2014. "Tax Benefits to Housing and Inefficiencies in Location and Consumption," NBER Working Papers 19815, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. George R. Zodrow, 2019. "Intrajurisdictional Capitalization and the Incidence of the Property Tax," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 16, pages 489-522, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Ehrlich, Maximilian V. & Hilber, Christian A.L. & Schöni, Olivier, 2018. "Institutional settings and urban sprawl: Evidence from Europe," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 4-18.
    12. Kurt Paulsen, 2014. "Geography, policy or market? New evidence on the measurement and causes of sprawl (and infill) in US metropolitan regions," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(12), pages 2629-2645, September.
    13. De Tong & Jun Chu & Qing Han & Xuan Liu, 2022. "How Land Finance Drives Urban Expansion under Fiscal Pressure: Evidence from Chinese Cities," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, February.
    14. Miriam Hortas-Rico, 2014. "Urban sprawl and municipal budgets in Spain: A dynamic panel data analysis," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(4), pages 843-864, November.
    15. Joseph DeSalvo & Qing Su, 2013. "An Empirical Analysis of Determinants of Multi-Dimensional Urban Sprawl," Working Papers 1813, University of South Florida, Department of Economics.
    16. Kurt Paulsen, 2013. "The Effects of Growth Management on the Spatial Extent of Urban Development, Revisited," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(2), pages 193-210.
    17. Brueckner, Jan K. & Sridhar, Kala Seetharam, 2012. "Measuring welfare gains from relaxation of land-use restrictions: The case of India's building-height limits," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 1061-1067.
    18. Miyazaki, Tomomi & Sato, Motohiro, 2022. "Property tax and farmland use in urban areas: Evidence from the reform in the early 1990s in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    19. Ermini, Barbara & Santolini, Raffaella, 2015. "Differentiated property tax and urban sprawl in Italian urbanized areas," MPRA Paper 65460, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Georges A Tanguay & Ian Gingras, 2012. "Gas Price Variations and Urban Sprawl: An Empirical Analysis of the Twelve Largest Canadian Metropolitan Areas," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(7), pages 1728-1743, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • R51 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Finance in Urban and Rural Economies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:61:y:2016:i:c:p:73-85. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/regec .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.