IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_10812.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax Streams, Land Rents and Urban Land Allocation

Author

Listed:
  • Yugang Tang
  • Zhihao Su
  • Yilin Hou
  • Zhendong Yin

Abstract

This paper examines the fiscal motives behind municipal governments' decisions to allocate commercial and residential land when two categories of land use are subject to different fiscal revenue alternatives: business-related tax and/or land rent. We use urban parcel-level land transfers during China’s peak period of urbanization, match commercial parcels with residential parcels, and find significant price discounts on commercial parcels relative to adjacent residential parcels. The observed discounts arise from the future tax flows from commercial use, i.e., expected taxes from developed commercial land reduce its transfer price. We conduct a structural estimation to examine the implications on land use structure of future taxes lowering land transfer prices. Results show that while prospective taxes increase commercial land supply, a significant portion of the favorable treatment impact is mitigated by market price responses, suggesting that the land market counters commercial land favoritism when local revenues include both business-related taxes and land value-based charges. The results have implications for the design of urban public revenue systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Yugang Tang & Zhihao Su & Yilin Hou & Zhendong Yin, 2023. "Tax Streams, Land Rents and Urban Land Allocation," CESifo Working Paper Series 10812, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10812
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10812.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Han, Li & Kung, James Kai-Sing, 2015. "Fiscal incentives and policy choices of local governments: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 89-104.
    2. Drucker, Joshua & Funderburg, Richard & Merriman, David & Weber, Rachel, 2020. "Do local governments use business tax incentives to compensate for high business property taxes?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Paul C. Cheshire & Christian A. L. Hilber, 2008. "Office Space Supply Restrictions in Britain: The Political Economy of Market Revenge," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 185-221, June.
    4. Daria Burnes & David Neumark & Michelle J. White, 2014. "Fiscal Zoning and Sales Taxes: Do Higher Sales Taxes Lead to More Retailing and Less Manufacturing?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 67(1), pages 7-50, March.
    5. John M. Quigley & Steven Raphael, 2005. "Regulation and the High Cost of Housing in California," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 323-328, May.
    6. Henderson, J. Vernon & Su, Dongling & Zhang, Qinghua & Zheng, Siqi, 2022. "Political manipulation of urban land markets: Evidence from China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    7. Ting Chen & James Kai-sing Kung, 2019. "Busting the “Princelings”: The Campaign Against Corruption in China’s Primary Land Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(1), pages 185-226.
    8. Fu, Shihe & Xu, Xiaocong & Zhang, Junfu, 2021. "Land conversion across cities in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    9. Richard J. Arnott & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1979. "Aggregate Land Rents, Expenditure on Public Goods, and Optimal City Size," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(4), pages 471-500.
    10. Weingast, Barry R., 2009. "Second generation fiscal federalism: The implications of fiscal incentives," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 279-293, May.
    11. Ting Chen & Li Han & James Kung & Jiaxin Xie, 2023. "Trading Favours through the Revolving Door: Evidence from China’s Primary Land Market," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(649), pages 70-97.
    12. Benoy Jacob & Daniel McMillen, 2015. "Border Effects in Suburban Land Use," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 68(3S), pages 855-874, September.
    13. Chen, Ting & Kung, J.K.-S., 2016. "Do land revenue windfalls create a political resource curse? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 86-106.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Fugang Gao & Huub Ploegmakers & Erwin van der Krabben & Xiaoping Shi, 2022. "Impacts of the political incentive for environmental protection on industrial land supply: Evidence from the cadre evaluation system reform in China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(4), pages 1001-1025, August.
    2. Ding, Haoyuan & Ni, Bei & Xue, Chang & Zhang, Xiaoyu, 2022. "Land holdings and outward foreign direct investment: Evidence from China," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Shawn Xiaoguang Chen & Yudan Cheng & Liutang Gong & Wenjia Tian, 2023. "A Big Push of Panda from the Ground: Land Subsidy and Structural Transformation in China," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 23-09, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    4. Christian A. L. Hilber, 2019. "Immobilienpreise und Immobilienzyklen und die Rolle von Angebotsbeschränkungen [The impact of local supply constraints on house prices and price dynamics]," Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie (German Journal of Real Estate Research), Springer;Gesellschaft für Immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung e. V., vol. 5(1), pages 37-65, November.
    5. Jia, Junxue & Ding, Siying & Liu, Yongzheng, 2020. "Decentralization, incentives, and local tax enforcement," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Wang, Jian & Wu, Qun & Yan, Siqi & Guo, Guancheng & Peng, Shangui, 2020. "China’s local governments breaking the land use planning quota: A strategic interaction perspective," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    8. Tian, Zhihua & Hu, An & Chen, Yang & Shao, Shuai, 2023. "Local officials’ tenure and CO2 emissions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    9. Christian A. L. Hilber, 2017. "The Economic Implications of House Price Capitalization: A Synthesis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(2), pages 301-339, April.
    10. Lu, Shenghua & Wang, Hui, 2023. "How revolving-door recruitment makes firms stand out in land market: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Huub Ploegmakers & Pascal Beckers & Erwin Van der Krabben, 2018. "The impact of planning intervention on business development: Evidence from the Netherlands," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(14), pages 3252-3273, November.
    12. Cheng, Yudan & Jia, Shanghui & Meng, Huan, 2022. "Fiscal policy choices of local governments in China: Land finance or local government debt?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 294-308.
    13. Chang Liu & Wei Xiong, 2018. "China's Real Estate Market," NBER Working Papers 25297, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2013. "On the origins of land use regulations: Theory and evidence from US metro areas," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 29-43.
    15. Mengting Ruan & Xiaolu Zhao, 2022. "Fiscal Pressure, Policy Choices and Regional Economic Disparity: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-13, September.
    16. Paul C. Cheshire & Christian A. L. Hilber & Ioannis Kaplanis, 2015. "Land use regulation and productivity—land matters: evidence from a UK supermarket chain," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 43-73.
    17. Wang, Jiaxin & Huang, Xiang & Gu, Qiankun & Song, Zilong & Sun, Ruiyi, 2023. "How does fintech affect bank risk? A perspective based on financialized transfer of government implicit debt risk," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    18. Christian A. L. Hilber & Wouter Vermeulen, 2016. "The Impact of Supply Constraints on House Prices in England," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(591), pages 358-405, March.
    19. Paul Charles Cheshire & Katerina Kaimakamis, 2022. "Offices scarce but housing scarcer: Estimating the premium for London office conversions," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(3), pages 743-766, September.
    20. Pi‐Han Tsai & Chien‐Yu Huang & Tsun‐Feng Chiang, 2020. "Fiscal Expenditure And Industrial Land Price In China: Theory And Evidence," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(4), pages 593-606, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fiscal incentives; land transfer; spatial matching; land use;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets
    • R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_10812. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.