I love reading your book reviews! Rare mix of clear and fun. If I might be so bold - would you consider reviewing “Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing (2017)” by Josh Ryan-Collins? The author’s an academic economist at UCL, and the book is a longer version of another one of his “Why you can’t afford a home”. I struggle to recommend both because whilst the content is good (and detailed) IMO the writing is dry and technical, and I sometimes got lost in unfamiliar jargon.
From memory, books has 3 themes:
1. An account of the UK’s history of land management, including the Land Tax you recently wrote an excellent article on, to the ire-provoking and difficult to reform current Planning Permission.
2. A history of the economic ideas around land, how the early classical thinkers separated land from capital, but later ones (intentionally, suspiciously, insistently) conflated the two.
3. Unusually, but fascinatingly, an examination of the role of credit (money creation by private banks) in supercharging land speculation bubbles and recession cycles in the wider economy. The author draws on material from his earlier equally excellent, dry and difficult to follow book “Where does money come from (2011)”. I think it’s similar to the line of argument that Mike Bird takes in the Land Trap about the dangers of financialising land, but IIRC the emphasis is different.
One of the perhaps bolder claims the book makes is that developers are incentivised to do “land banking” (ie sit on land they have permission to develop). I’d love to get your take on this because it’s a polarising point in the UK between one camp which blames Planning Permission and wants it reformed/streamlined, and another camp that points out that many existing sites with permission handed out are not being developed because developers are greedy. If you search the term “land banking UK” you’ll see how intense the debate gets.
Would be happy to help with such a post if you think it’s a good idea! Many thanks for all your work re land taxation and appraisal.
I am going to read this post and the book if I can carefully.
At first glance it appears to contain many similarities to my proposed Adult Resident Citizen Dividend (ARCD) that would pass all national input from natural dividends though the citizenry and then flat tax all money making enterprise (all income, profit, sales) to fund the budget.
I wonder what they think about network rents (i.e from network effects). I think they're most similar to locational rents, but aren't exactly the same.
As a long-time resident of various parts the Western half of the United States, I think it's obvious to most of us that the traditional approach to water needs to be improved. To meet the needs of individual health, home and community beautification, agriculture, industry, recreation and the environment seems to require more than simple price mechanisms can address. Of necessity it falls to the hodgepodge of state governments that share watersheds over large areas and disparate populations and economies to negotiate for all the stakeholders and allocate use within their respective jurisdictions. Needless to say, they can always be expected to screw it up.
I applaud the success of Norway and others in exploiting their natural resources for the good of the community. Indeed, the ability of their government to perform many functions with apparently low levels of corruption seems rather astonishing. The weak point in the model seems to be the ability and interests of the government in determining best allocation of the resource. I'm way out of my depth here. but even when I read Progress and Poverty as a boy, the weakness seemed to be in assessing the most efficient and just land use, who and how would determine that. Any thoughts on ensuring success in a large and diverse polity?
Love that example of the well contractor! I'm going to steal it
I love reading your book reviews! Rare mix of clear and fun. If I might be so bold - would you consider reviewing “Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing (2017)” by Josh Ryan-Collins? The author’s an academic economist at UCL, and the book is a longer version of another one of his “Why you can’t afford a home”. I struggle to recommend both because whilst the content is good (and detailed) IMO the writing is dry and technical, and I sometimes got lost in unfamiliar jargon.
From memory, books has 3 themes:
1. An account of the UK’s history of land management, including the Land Tax you recently wrote an excellent article on, to the ire-provoking and difficult to reform current Planning Permission.
2. A history of the economic ideas around land, how the early classical thinkers separated land from capital, but later ones (intentionally, suspiciously, insistently) conflated the two.
3. Unusually, but fascinatingly, an examination of the role of credit (money creation by private banks) in supercharging land speculation bubbles and recession cycles in the wider economy. The author draws on material from his earlier equally excellent, dry and difficult to follow book “Where does money come from (2011)”. I think it’s similar to the line of argument that Mike Bird takes in the Land Trap about the dangers of financialising land, but IIRC the emphasis is different.
One of the perhaps bolder claims the book makes is that developers are incentivised to do “land banking” (ie sit on land they have permission to develop). I’d love to get your take on this because it’s a polarising point in the UK between one camp which blames Planning Permission and wants it reformed/streamlined, and another camp that points out that many existing sites with permission handed out are not being developed because developers are greedy. If you search the term “land banking UK” you’ll see how intense the debate gets.
Would be happy to help with such a post if you think it’s a good idea! Many thanks for all your work re land taxation and appraisal.
Thanks for the recommendation! I do think that UK-specific analyses are very much relevant given recent events
“is good weather differential or locational?”
Given weather is statistically stable over large areas I would say it’s locational, whereas differential things are more random at smaller scales.
I am going to read this post and the book if I can carefully.
At first glance it appears to contain many similarities to my proposed Adult Resident Citizen Dividend (ARCD) that would pass all national input from natural dividends though the citizenry and then flat tax all money making enterprise (all income, profit, sales) to fund the budget.
I wonder what they think about network rents (i.e from network effects). I think they're most similar to locational rents, but aren't exactly the same.
They are extremely different, not least because in many cases the "renter" did create the network
As a long-time resident of various parts the Western half of the United States, I think it's obvious to most of us that the traditional approach to water needs to be improved. To meet the needs of individual health, home and community beautification, agriculture, industry, recreation and the environment seems to require more than simple price mechanisms can address. Of necessity it falls to the hodgepodge of state governments that share watersheds over large areas and disparate populations and economies to negotiate for all the stakeholders and allocate use within their respective jurisdictions. Needless to say, they can always be expected to screw it up.
I applaud the success of Norway and others in exploiting their natural resources for the good of the community. Indeed, the ability of their government to perform many functions with apparently low levels of corruption seems rather astonishing. The weak point in the model seems to be the ability and interests of the government in determining best allocation of the resource. I'm way out of my depth here. but even when I read Progress and Poverty as a boy, the weakness seemed to be in assessing the most efficient and just land use, who and how would determine that. Any thoughts on ensuring success in a large and diverse polity?
I recommend you read the recommended book :)
Fair enough
Great stuff! Have you considered translating your work into Spanish?
I speak Spanish, but unfortunately not well enough to publish a translation myself. Open to collaborations, however!
Awesome! I'll message you
Oh, Caplan … my eyes always reflexively narrow when I see or hear mention of him.