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Land Value Taxation in Vancouver: Rent‐Seeking and the Tax Revolt
Author(s) -
England Christopher
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
american journal of economics and sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1536-7150
pISSN - 0002-9246
DOI - 10.1111/ajes.12218
Subject(s) - economic rent , boom , property tax , economics , property (philosophy) , value (mathematics) , land value , salient , rent seeking , collective action , law and economics , action (physics) , property value , market economy , public economics , political economy , law , tax reform , political science , finance , real estate , politics , natural resource economics , philosophy , physics , epistemology , quantum mechanics , machine learning , environmental engineering , computer science , engineering
At the beginning of the 20 th century, Vancouver obtained international acclaim as a “single‐tax” city. Supporters claimed that land value taxation was responsible for the spectacular growth of the city. Even critics believed that it had produced a building boom and declining rents. Yet, over several decades, the system was scaled back and ultimately ended in 1984. This article argues that the property tax revolt can be understood with Mancur Olson's model of collective action. Property owners are better organized than other parties impacted by housing policy because they have financial resources and a salient economic concern in housing. Thus, the special interests of property owners in higher values and unrestricted use prevailed over the interests of tenants and prospective buyers. While the property tax revolt was often articulated in the progressive language of ability to pay, when confronted with progressive counterarguments, it collapsed into explicit arguments for rent‐seeking.