IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/zewdip/21026.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Welfare effects of property taxation

Author

Listed:
  • Löffler, Max
  • Siegloch, Sebastian

Abstract

We analyze the welfare implications of property taxation. Using a sufficient statistics approach, we show that the tax incidence depends on how housing prices, labor and other types of incomes as well as public services respond to property tax changes. Empirically, we exploit the German institutional setting with 5,200 municipal tax reforms for identification. We find that higher taxes are fully passed on to rental prices after three years. The pass-through is lower when housing supply is inelastic. Combining reduced form estimates with our theoretical framework, we simulate the welfare effects of property taxes and show that they are regressive.

Suggested Citation

  • Löffler, Max & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2021. "Welfare effects of property taxation," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-026, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/232050/1/1751473031.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen J. Redding & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2017. "Quantitative Spatial Economics," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 21-58, September.
    2. Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato & Owen Zidar, 2016. "Who Benefits from State Corporate Tax Cuts? A Local Labor Markets Approach with Heterogeneous Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(9), pages 2582-2624, September.
    3. Clemens Fuest & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2018. "Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages? Micro Evidence from Germany," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 393-418, February.
    4. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon, 2021. "The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(10), pages 2766-2816.
    5. Albert Saiz, 2010. "The Geographic Determinants of Housing Supply," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 125(3), pages 1253-1296.
    6. Dennis Epple & Holger Sieg, 1999. "Estimating Equilibrium Models of Local Jurisdictions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(4), pages 645-681, August.
    7. Moretti, Enrico, 2011. "Local Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 14, pages 1237-1313, Elsevier.
    8. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Stephen J. Redding & Daniel M. Sturm & Nikolaus Wolf, 2015. "The Economics of Density: Evidence From the Berlin Wall," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 2127-2189, November.
    9. Dusansky, Richard & Ingber, Melvin & Karatjas, Nicholas, 1981. "The impact of property taxation on housing values and rents," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 240-255, September.
    10. Stephanie Riegg Cellini & Fernando Ferreira & Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "The Value of School Facility Investments: Evidence from a Dynamic Regression Discontinuity Design," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 125(1), pages 215-261.
    11. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon, 2021. "The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(10), pages 2766-2816.
    12. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    13. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    14. David Albouy & Bryan A. Stuart, 2020. "Urban Population And Amenities: The Neoclassical Model Of Location," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 61(1), pages 127-158, February.
    15. Raj Chetty, 2009. "Sufficient Statistics for Welfare Analysis: A Bridge Between Structural and Reduced-Form Methods," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 451-488, May.
    16. 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.
    17. Fuest, Clemens & Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2015. "Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages?," IZA Discussion Papers 9606, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Richard M. Bird & Enid Slack (ed.), 2004. "International Handbook of Land and Property Taxation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3304.
    19. Ferreira, Fernando, 2010. "You can take it with you: Proposition 13 tax benefits, residential mobility, and willingness to pay for housing amenities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 661-673, October.
    20. Egger, Peter & Koethenbuerger, Marko & Smart, Michael, 2010. "Do fiscal transfers alleviate business tax competition? Evidence from Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(3-4), pages 235-246, April.
    21. Thorsnes, Paul, 1997. "Consistent Estimates of the Elasticity of Substitution between Land and Non-Land Inputs in the Production of Housing," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 98-108, July.
    22. Patrick Bayer & Fernando Ferreira & Robert McMillan, 2007. "A Unified Framework for Measuring Preferences for Schools and Neighborhoods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(4), pages 588-638, August.
    23. Dennis Epple & Brett Gordon & Holger Sieg, 2010. "A New Approach to Estimating the Production Function for Housing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 905-924, June.
    24. Byron Lutz, 2015. "Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Connection between Property Taxes and Residential Capital Investment," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 300-330, February.
    25. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64, pages 416-416.
    26. Schmidheiny, Kurt & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2019. "On Event Studies and Distributed-Lags in Two-Way Fixed Effects Models: Identification, Equivalence, and Generalization," CEPR Discussion Papers 13477, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    27. Henrik J. Kleven, 2021. "Sufficient Statistics Revisited," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 515-538, August.
    28. Stef Proost & Jacques-François Thisse, 2019. "What Can Be Learned from Spatial Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(3), pages 575-643, September.
    29. Patrick Kline & Enrico Moretti, 2014. "People, Places, and Public Policy: Some Simple Welfare Economics of Local Economic Development Programs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 629-662, August.
    30. Charles A. M. de Bartolomé & Stuart S. Rosenthal, 1999. "Property Tax Capitalization in a Model with Tax-Deferred Assets, Standard Deductions, and the Taxation of Nominal Interest," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 85-95, February.
    31. Brülhart, Marius & Danton, Jayson & Parchet, Raphael & Schläpfer, Jörg, 2022. "Who Bears the Burden of Local Taxes?," CEPR Discussion Papers 15826, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    32. Mieszkowski, Peter, 1972. "The property tax: An excise tax or a profits tax?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 73-96, April.
    33. Richard W. England, 2016. "Tax Incidence and Rental Housing: A Survey and Critique of Research," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 69(2), pages 435-460, June.
    34. Emmanuel Saez & Stefanie Stantcheva, 2016. "Generalized Social Marginal Welfare Weights for Optimal Tax Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(1), pages 24-45, January.
    35. Carroll, Robert & Yinger, John, 1994. "Is the Property Tax a Benefit Tax? The Case of Rental Housing," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(2), pages 295-316, June.
    36. Mieszkowski, Peter & Zodrow, George R, 1989. "Taxation and the Tiebout Model: The Differential Effects of Head Taxes, Taxes on Land Rents, and Property Taxes," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 1098-1146, September.
    37. Roback, Jennifer, 1982. "Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1257-1278, December.
    38. Rebecca Diamond, 2016. "The Determinants and Welfare Implications of US Workers' Diverging Location Choices by Skill: 1980-2000," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(3), pages 479-524, March.
    39. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon, 2021. "The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(10), pages 2766-2816.
    40. James M. Poterba, 1984. "Tax Subsidies to Owner-Occupied Housing: An Asset-Market Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 99(4), pages 729-752.
    41. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon, 2021. "The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(10), pages 2766-2816.
    42. Anna Rauch & Caroline-Antonia Hummel, 2016. "How to stop the race to the bottom," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(5), pages 911-933, October.
    43. Brueckner, Jan K., 1981. "Labor mobility and the incidence of the residential property tax," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 173-182, September.
    44. Sandler, Danielle H. & Sandler, Ryan, 2014. "Multiple event studies in public finance and labor economics: A simulation study with applications," Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, IOS Press, issue 1-2, pages 31-57.
    45. Boustan, Leah Platt, 2013. "Local public goods and the demand for high-income municipalities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 71-82.
    46. Wallace E. Oates & William A. Fischel, 2016. "Are Local Property Taxes Regressive, Progressive, or What?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 69(2), pages 415-434, June.
    47. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon, 2021. "The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(10), pages 2766-2816.
    48. Baskaran, Thushyanthan, 2014. "Identifying local tax mimicking with administrative borders and a policy reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 41-51.
    49. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    50. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon, 2021. "The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(10), pages 2766-2816.
    51. Paul Bernd Spahn, 2004. "Land Taxation in Germany," Chapters, in: Richard M. Bird & Enid Slack (ed.), International Handbook of Land and Property Taxation, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    52. Sebastien Bradley, 2017. "Inattention to Deferred Increases in Tax Bases: How Michigan Home Buyers Are Paying for Assessment Limits," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(1), pages 53-66, March.
    53. Bradbury, Katharine L. & Mayer, Christopher J. & Case, Karl E., 2001. "Property tax limits, local fiscal behavior, and property values: evidence from Massachusetts under Proposition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 287-311, May.
    54. Oded Palmon & Baron A. Smith, 1998. "New Evidence on Property Tax Capitalization," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 1099-1128, October.
    55. Carroll, Robert & Yinger, John, 1994. "Is the Property Tax a Benefit Tax? The Case of Rental Housing," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 47(2), pages 295-316, June.
    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. Rainald Borck & Jun Oshiro & Yasuhiro Sato, 2022. "Property tax competition: A quantitative assessment," CEPA Discussion Papers 52, Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. 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).
    3. Blesse, Sebastian & Doerrenberg, Philipp & Rauch, Anna, 2019. "Higher taxes on less elastic goods? Evidence from German municipalities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 165-186.
    4. Blesse, Sebastian & Heinemann, Friedrich & Nover, Justus, 2022. "Bundesländerindex Familienunternehmen: Standortfaktoren innerhalb Deutschlands im Vergleich," Studien, Stiftung Familienunternehmen / Foundation for Family Businesses, number 264906.
    5. Geschwind, Stephan & Roesel, Felix, 2022. "Taxation under direct democracy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 536-554.
    6. Melinda Fremerey & Andreas Lichter & Max Löffler, 2022. "Fiscal and Economic Effects of Local Austerity," CESifo Working Paper Series 9800, CESifo.
    7. 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).
    8. Jörg Paetzold & Markus Tiefenbacher, 2018. "Distributional and revenue effects of a tax shift from labor to property," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(5), pages 1215-1251, October.
    9. Sebastian Siegloch & Nils Wehrhöfer & Tobias Etzel, 2022. "Spillover, Efficiency and Equity Effects of Regional Firm Subsidies," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 210, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.

    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. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Barr, Jason, 2022. "The economics of skyscrapers: A synthesis," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    2. Morgan Ubeda, 2020. "Local Amenities, Commuting Costs and Income Disparities Within Cities," Working Papers halshs-03082448, HAL.
    3. 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.
    4. Nicolas Jannin & Aurélie Sotura, 2019. "This Town Ain't Big Enough? Quantifying Local Public Goods Spillovers," Working Papers halshs-02160251, HAL.
    5. Kristian Behrens & Sergey Kichko & Jacques-Francois Thisse & Sergei Kichko, 2021. "Working from Home: Too Much of a Good Thing?," CESifo Working Paper Series 8831, CESifo.
    6. Tan, Ya & Wang, Zhi & Zhang, Qinghua, 2020. "Land-use regulation and the intensive margin of housing supply," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    7. Nicolas Jannin & Aurélie Sotura, 2019. "This Town Ain't Big Enough? Quantifying Local Public Goods Spillovers," PSE Working Papers halshs-02160251, HAL.
    8. 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).
    9. Pablo D Fajgelbaum & Eduardo Morales & Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato & Owen Zidar, 2019. "State Taxes and Spatial Misallocation," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 86(1), pages 333-376.
    10. Furth, Salim, 2021. "Foundations and Microfoundations: Building Houses on Regulated Land," Working Papers 10752, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    11. Clémence Tricaud, 2021. "Better Alone? Evidence on the Costs of Intermunicipal Cooperation," CESifo Working Paper Series 9000, CESifo.
    12. Paolo Avner & Vincent Viguié & Bramka Arga Jafino & Stephane Hallegatte, 2022. "Flood Protection and Land Value Creation – Not all Resilience Investments Are Created Equal," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 417-449, November.
    13. Clémence Tricaud, 2021. "Better Alone? Evidence on the Costs of Intermunicipal Cooperation," Working Papers hal-03380333, HAL.
    14. Jofre-Monseny, Jordi & Silva, José I. & Vázquez-Grenno, Javier, 2020. "Local labor market effects of public employment," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    15. Albouy, David & Shin, Minchul, 2022. "A statistical learning approach to land valuation: Optimizing the use of external information," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    16. Jedwab, Remi & Loungani, Prakash & Yezer, Anthony, 2021. "Comparing cities in developed and developing countries: Population, land area, building height and crowding," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    17. Rutger-Jan Lange & Coen N. Teulings, 2021. "The option value of vacant land: Don't build when demand for housing is booming," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 21-022/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    18. Odran Bonnet & Guillaume Flamerie de La Chapelle & Alain Trannoy & Etienne Wasmer, 2019. "Secular Trends in Wealth and Heterogeneous Capital: Land is Back... and Should Be Taxed," Working Papers hal-03570837, HAL.
    19. Sevrin Waights, 2019. "The preservation of historic districts—is it worth it?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 433-464.
    20. H. Spencer Banzhaf & Kyle Mangum, 2019. "Capitalization as a Two-Part Tariff: The Role of Zoning," NBER Working Papers 25699, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    property taxation; welfare; tax incidence; local labor markets; rental housing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • R13 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General Equilibrium and Welfare Economic Analysis of Regional Economies
    • 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:zbw:zewdip:21026. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.html .

    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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.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.