{"author":{"id":"121693767","location":"Assistant professor in the Graduate Program in City and Regional Planning at Memphis State University.","name":"Steven C. Bourassa","seoDescription":"","slug":"steven-c-bourassa"},"authorSources":[{"id":"121693768","lede":"\"Incentive and liquidity effects of Pittsburgh's land value tax system are hypothesized to encourage new housing development. To test this hypothesis, an econometric model is estimated using building permit data for the dependent variable and tax rates and other determinants of new housing demand and supply for the independent variables. For the case of new housing, it is shown that the incentive effect is significant but the liquidity effect is not. The incentive effect is found to encourage increases in the number of new units constructed in Pittsburgh rather than increases in the average cost of new units.\"","link":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2257.1987.tb00087.x","slug":"land-value-taxation-and-new-housing-development-in-pittsburgh","kind":"Academic Paper","title":"Land Value Taxation and New Housing Development in Pittsburgh","year":"1987-01-01","researchers":[{"id":"121693767","location":"Assistant professor in the Graduate Program in City and Regional Planning at Memphis State University.","name":"Steven C. Bourassa","seoDescription":"","slug":"steven-c-bourassa"}]}],"sourceIds":["121693768"],"authorSourcesInsights":[{"id":"121693771","lede":"“For the case of new housing, it is shown that the incentive effect is significant but the liquidity effect is not. The incentive effect is found to encourage increases in the number of new units constructed in Pittsburgh rather than increases in the average cost of new units.”","slug":"land-value-tax-in-pittsburgh-did-not-increase-housing-costs-instead-the-incentive","title":"Land value tax in Pittsburgh did not increase housing costs. Instead, the incentive effect trumped the liquidity effect, and increased the number of new housing units.","showTitleAsQuote":false,"epistemicStatus":"empirical","reports":[{"id":"74233750","title":"Land Value Tax","slug":"land-value-tax"}],"tags":[{"slug":"urban-development","name":"Urban Development","id":"99017961","lede":"","ledeExcerpt":"","featured":null},{"slug":"housing","name":"Housing","id":"121669963","lede":"

The (un)affordability of housing is of central concern to modern economics. Some recent research even argues that the majority of rising inequality over the past few decades is driven entirely by rising housing prices.

\n\n

There are generally two main approaches towards reducing housing prices. The first is to increase housing supply, such as by repealing restrictive zoning laws, increasing competition and lowering prices. The second is to provide public housing, where the government owns and operates residential units, usually offering below-market-rate housing.

\n","ledeExcerpt":"The (un)affordability of housing is of central concern to modern economics. Some recent research even argues that the majority of rising inequality over the past few decades is driven entirely by rising housing prices.\n\nThere are generally two main approaches towards reducing housing prices. The first is to increase housing supply, such as by repealing restrictive zoning laws, increasing competition and lowering prices. The second is to provide public housing, where the government owns and operates residential units, usually offering below-market-rate housing.","featured":true},{"slug":"growth","name":"Growth","id":"23932836","lede":"

We define growth as the expansion of wealth in society; growth is about generating a "a bigger pie".

\n\n

Amidst debates over the merits of continued growth, we begin with the idea that all else equal, a society with growth, with more wealth, is preferable to one with less. Without growth, society becomes a zero-sum distributional game: anyone's gain is another's loss. Growth (all else equal) enables shared prosperity.

\n\n

But there is broad agreement that current measures of growth, such as GDP, are inadequate to the task of providing a suitable proxy to guide further growth. Whether devising improved measures that account for missing elements such as sustainability, equity, leisure time, or digital value, or constructing altogether new proxies (OECD's Better Life Index, for example), the conversation about how best to measure, and thus drive, equitable, regenerative, socially desirable growth is a rich field of debate.

\n","ledeExcerpt":"We define growth as the expansion of wealth in society; growth is about generating a \"a bigger pie\".\n\nAmidst debates over the merits of continued growth, we begin with the idea that *all else equal*, a society with growth, with more wealth, is preferable to one with less. Without growth, society becomes a zero-sum distributional game: anyone's gain is another's loss. Growth (all else equal) enables shared prosperity.\n\nBut there is broad agreement that current measures of growth, such as GDP, are inadequate to the task of providing a suitable proxy to guide further growth. Whether devising revised measures, such as Tyler Cowen's notion of wealth plus\" (GDP, plus measures of leisure time, household production, and environmental considerations), or constructing altogether new proxies (OECD's 'Better Life Index), the conversation about how best to measure, and thus drive, equitable, regenerative, socially desirable growth is a rich field of debate.","featured":true}],"sources":[{"id":"121693768","lede":"\"Incentive and liquidity effects of Pittsburgh's land value tax system are hypothesized to encourage new housing development. To test this hypothesis, an econometric model is estimated using building permit data for the dependent variable and tax rates and other determinants of new housing demand and supply for the independent variables. For the case of new housing, it is shown that the incentive effect is significant but the liquidity effect is not. The incentive effect is found to encourage increases in the number of new units constructed in Pittsburgh rather than increases in the average cost of new units.\"","link":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2257.1987.tb00087.x","slug":"land-value-taxation-and-new-housing-development-in-pittsburgh","kind":"Academic Paper","title":"Land Value Taxation and New Housing Development in Pittsburgh","year":"1987-01-01","researchers":[{"id":"121693767","location":"Assistant professor in the Graduate Program in City and Regional Planning at Memphis State University.","name":"Steven C. Bourassa","seoDescription":"","slug":"steven-c-bourassa"}]}]}]}