I greatly enjoyed the book and this book review aptly captures what is so impressive about her book. Daryl gave a book talk at USC yesterday where she discussed her life and her thinking with my colleague and good friend Richard Green. A YouTube Video will be posted soon.
I just finished the book, and this review is spot on!
In the intro she teased "The book concludes with an example of a policy change ... that would make the economy a more fair, prosperous, and better game to play." I immediately thought, please be a land value tax!
Good review, thank you. I'm a bit confused by this line:
> Every time a tourist booked an Airbnb that could have been rented out to someone needing a permanent home, the value of my home’s land went up.
What increases the value of the land is increasing demand for it, and a tourist booking an airbnb doesn't increase demand. Arguably it reduces it, because someone who's living there might work there and thus grow the city, but a tourist doesn't make other people want to come to the city.
Tourists may spend much more money in the surrounding area than a local typically would, both in terms of splurging since they’re traveling and also just in paying more for accommodations than one would pay on rent, so there’s two sides to that coin.
Isn't the tourist booking the place increased demand in and of itself? (Or alternatively, decreasing supply for permanent residents by a home switching from a primary residence to travel lodging.)
The tourist becoming *interested* in going to that location is what increases demand. Their act of booking an airbnb doesn't change the demand.
Compare: "Letting a man buying a banana instead of letting a women buy a banana increases the demand for bananas". No, the demand already existed either way.
Thank you for this lovely and thoughtful review!
I greatly enjoyed the book and this book review aptly captures what is so impressive about her book. Daryl gave a book talk at USC yesterday where she discussed her life and her thinking with my colleague and good friend Richard Green. A YouTube Video will be posted soon.
I just finished the book, and this review is spot on!
In the intro she teased "The book concludes with an example of a policy change ... that would make the economy a more fair, prosperous, and better game to play." I immediately thought, please be a land value tax!
Good review, thank you. I'm a bit confused by this line:
> Every time a tourist booked an Airbnb that could have been rented out to someone needing a permanent home, the value of my home’s land went up.
What increases the value of the land is increasing demand for it, and a tourist booking an airbnb doesn't increase demand. Arguably it reduces it, because someone who's living there might work there and thus grow the city, but a tourist doesn't make other people want to come to the city.
Tourists may spend much more money in the surrounding area than a local typically would, both in terms of splurging since they’re traveling and also just in paying more for accommodations than one would pay on rent, so there’s two sides to that coin.
Isn't the tourist booking the place increased demand in and of itself? (Or alternatively, decreasing supply for permanent residents by a home switching from a primary residence to travel lodging.)
The tourist becoming *interested* in going to that location is what increases demand. Their act of booking an airbnb doesn't change the demand.
Compare: "Letting a man buying a banana instead of letting a women buy a banana increases the demand for bananas". No, the demand already existed either way.