IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v70y2011i1p4-29.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Political Economy of Property Tax Reform: Hawaii's Experiment with Split‐Rate Property Taxation

Author

Listed:
  • Sally Kwak
  • James Mak

Abstract

Economic theory suggests that switching from a general property tax to a split-rate tax increases land use efficiency and stimulates urban core development while preserving the environment and reducing urban sprawl. Under split‐rate property taxation, land is typically taxed at a significantly higher rate than improvements. Beginning in 1965 Hawaii experimented with a statewide split‐rate property tax system to encourage economic growth and effect land reform. The experiment was ended in 1977. Following the transfer of property taxing powers to the counties in 1978, some counties brought back the split‐rate property tax at times. Since 2006, Kauai County has adopted the unusual practice of taxing improvements at a higher rate than land for most property classes. This article chronicles and explains the rationale behind Hawaii's state and county experiments with split‐rate property taxation.

Suggested Citation

  • Sally Kwak & James Mak, 2011. "Political Economy of Property Tax Reform: Hawaii's Experiment with Split‐Rate Property Taxation," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 4-29, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:70:y:2011:i:1:p:4-29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2010.00761.x
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wallace E. Oates & Robert M. Schwab & Wallace E. Oates & Robert M. Schwab, 2004. "The Impact of Urban Land Taxation: The Pittsburgh Experience," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 16, pages 273-293, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. England, Richard W. & Zhao, Min Qiang, 2005. "Assessing the Distributive Impact of a Revenue–Neutral Shift From a Uniform Property Tax to a Two-Rate Property Tax With a Uniform Credit," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 58(2), pages 247-260, June.
    3. Unknown, 1967. "Index," 1967 Conference, August 21-30, 1967, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 209796, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Fry, Maxwell J & Mak, James, 1984. "Is Land Leasing a Solution to Unaffordable Housing? An Answer from Fee Simple versus Leasehold Property Price Differentials in Hawaii," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(4), pages 529-549, October.
    5. Bowman, John H. & Bell, Michael E., 2008. "Distributional Consequences of Converting the Property Tax to a Land Value Tax: Replication and Extension of England and Zhao," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 61(4), pages 593-607, December.
    6. Oates, Wallace E. & Schwab, Robert M., 1997. "The Impact of Urban Land Taxation: The Pittsburgh Experience," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 50(1), pages 1-21, March.
    7. Richard W. England, 2003. "State and Local Impacts of a Revenue-Neutral Shift from a Uniform Property to a Land Value Tax: Results of a Simulation Study," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 79(1), pages 38-43.
    8. James Mak, 2006. "Taxation of Travel and Tourism," Chapters, in: Larry Dwyer & Peter Forsyth (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Tourism, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Richard L. Pollock & Donald C. Shoup, 1977. "The Effect of Shifting the Property Tax Base from Improvement Value to Land Value: An Empirical Estimate," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 53(1), pages 67-77.
    10. Larry Dwyer & Peter Forsyth (ed.), 2006. "International Handbook on the Economics of Tourism," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2827.
    11. Jeffrey P. Cohen & Cletus C. Coughlin, 2005. "An introduction to two-rate taxation of land and buildings," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 87(May), pages 359-374.
    12. Plassmann, Florenz & Tideman, T. Nicolaus, 2000. "A Markov Chain Monte Carlo Analysis of the Effect of Two-Rate Property Taxes on Construction," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 216-247, March.
    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. Néstor Garza, 2019. "Spatial and Dynamic Features of Land Value Capture: A Case Study from Bogotá, Colombia," Public Finance Review, , vol. 47(3), pages 603-622, May.

    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. Yang, Zhou, 2018. "Differential effects of land value taxation," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 33-39.
    2. Murray, Cameron & Hermans, Jesse Benjamin, 2019. "Land value is a progressive and efficient property tax base: Evidence from Victoria," OSF Preprints mxg3j, Center for Open Science.
    3. Plummer, Elizabeth, 2010. "Evidence on the Distributional Effects of a Land Value Tax on Residential Households," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(1), pages 63-92, March.
    4. Jeffrey I. Chapman & Robert J. Johnston & Timothy J. Tyrrell, 2009. "Implications of a Land Value Tax with Error in Assessed Values," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(4), pages 576-586.
    5. Joshua M. Duke & TianHang Gao, 2023. "Land Value Taxation: A Spatially Explicit Economic Experiment with Endogenous Institutions," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 673-694, November.
    6. Taranu, Victoria & Verbeeck, Griet, 2022. "Property tax as a policy against urban sprawl," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    7. John Deskins & William Fox, 2008. "Measuring Behavioral Responses to the Property Tax," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0816, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    8. Grazi, Fabio & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2008. "Spatial organization, transport, and climate change: Comparing instruments of spatial planning and policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 630-639, November.
    9. Rafael Barbosa & Simon Skipka, 2019. "Tax Housing or Land? Distributional Effects of Property Taxation in Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 8039, CESifo.
    10. Sung-Hoon Kang & Bong-Joon Kim, 2022. "Designing a Valuation System for Property Tax: The Case of Zanzibar, Tanzania," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-12, June.
    11. Seong-Hoon Cho & Seung Gyu Kim & Dayton M. Lambert & Roland K. Roberts, 2013. "Impact of a Two-Rate Property Tax on Residential Densities," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 95(3), pages 685-704.
    12. Miklós Antal & Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh, 2014. "Macroeconomics, Financial Crisis and the Environment: Strategies for a Sustainability Transition. WWWforEurope Policy Paper No. 10," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47013.
    13. McMillen, Daniel & Singh, Ruchi, 2022. "Land value estimation using teardowns," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    14. Banzhaf, H. Spencer & Lavery, Nathan, 2010. "Can the land tax help curb urban sprawl? Evidence from growth patterns in Pennsylvania," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 169-179, March.
    15. Miklós Antal & Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh, 2014. "Macroeconomics, Financial Crisis and the Environment. Strategies for a Sustainability Transition," WIFO Working Papers 464, WIFO.
    16. Bonnet, Odran & Chapelle, Guillaume & Trannoy, Alain & Wasmer, Etienne, 2021. "Land is back, it should be taxed, it can be taxed," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    17. Larson, William D. & Shui, Jessica, 2022. "Land valuation using public records and kriging: Implications for land versus property taxation in cities," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    18. 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.
    19. Awasthi, Rajul & Nagarajan, Mohan & Deininger, Klaus W., 2021. "Property taxation in India: Issues impacting revenue performance and suggestions for reform," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    20. John M. Quigley & Aaron M. Swoboda, 2010. "Land use regulation with durable capital," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(1), pages 9-26, January.

    More about this item

    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:bla:ajecsc:v:70:y:2011:i:1:p:4-29. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    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.