EconLog
by Bryan Caplan
Posted in
Commentary "Economist Henry George famously advocated a 100% (or near 100%) 'Single Tax' on the unimproved value of land. Many modern tax economists, most notably Joseph Stiglitz, conclude that George's logic was sound: Since the unimproved value of land is perfectly inelastic, even an expropriatory tax is non-distortionary. Economists' main objections to Georgism are merely that (a) it is difficult to implement in practice, and (b) politically impossible. My co-author Zachary Gochenour and I have a new working paper arguing that the Single Tax suffers from a much more fundamental flaw." (02/14/12)
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2012/02/a_search-theore.html
Tags: economics, Georgism
A search-theoretic critique of Georgism
by Bryan Caplan
Posted in Commentary
"Economist Henry George famously advocated a 100% (or near 100%) 'Single Tax' on the unimproved value of land. Many modern tax economists, most notably Joseph Stiglitz, conclude that George's logic was sound: Since the unimproved value of land is perfectly inelastic, even an expropriatory tax is non-distortionary. Economists' main objections to Georgism are merely that (a) it is difficult to implement in practice, and (b) politically impossible. My co-author Zachary Gochenour and I have a new working paper arguing that the Single Tax suffers from a much more fundamental flaw." (02/14/12)
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2012/02/a_search-theore.htmlTags: economics, Georgism