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Office Space Supply Restrictions in Britain: The Political Economy of Market Revenge

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  • Cheshire, Paul
  • Hilber, Christian A. L.

Abstract

Office space in Britain is the most expensive in the world and regulatory constraints are the obvious explanation. We estimate the ‘regulatory tax’ for 14 British office locations from 1961 to 2005. These are orders of magnitude greater than estimates for Manhattan condominiums or office space in continental Europe. Exploiting the panel data, we provide strong support for our hypothesis that the regulatory tax varies according to whether an area is controlled by business interests or residents. Our results imply that the cost of the 1990 change converting commercial property taxes from a local to a national basis – transparently removing any fiscal incentive to permit local development – exceeded any plausible rise in local property taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheshire, Paul & Hilber, Christian A. L., 2007. "Office Space Supply Restrictions in Britain: The Political Economy of Market Revenge," MPRA Paper 5435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:5435
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. 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.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Land use regulation; regulatory costs; business taxation; office markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • R52 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Land Use and Other Regulations

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