What Role for Property Tax?
The property tax continues to be among the most recommended choices for enhancing sub-national government tax autonomy in developed, developing and transitional countries, and in fact is one of the most important sources of sub-national revenue in many countries. From October 16-17, 2006 the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University held a conference in Atlanta on the topic of “Making the Property Tax Work in Developing and Transitional Countries.” At that conference, a number of authors contributed papers that tried to explain why, despite the enormous amounts of time and resources invested in property tax overhauls and reforms in many of these countries, there have been very few successes. The papers from this conference are forthcoming in LILP volume.
An important outcome of the 2006 Conference was the realization that more research is needed on several issues regarding property taxation which are of critical importance for deciding what form of property tax should be used. As a result, we held a second conference on “What Role for Property Taxes?”
Reforming The Property Tax in Developing Countries: A New Approach (Roy Bahl and Sally Wallace)
Paper / Presentation / Discussant Comments (Gary Cornia)
Rental Value versus Capital Value: Alternative Bases for the Property Tax (Micheal Bell and William McCluskey)
Paper / Presentation / Discussant Comments (Oliver Oldman)
In Search of an Optimal Revaluation Policy: Benefits and Pitfalls (Alan Dornfest)
Paper / Presentation / Discussant Comments (Riel Franzsen)
Measuring Behavioral Responses to the Property Tax (Bill Fox and John Deskins)
Paper / Presentation / Discussant Comments (David Sjoquist)
The Political-Economy of Property Taxation and Land Taxation (Benoy Jacob and Michael Pagano)
Paper / Presentation / Discussant Comments (Daphne Kenyon)
The Assignment of the Property Tax: Should Developing Countries Follow the Conventional Wisdom? (Jorge Martinez and Mark Rider)
Paper / Presentation / Discussant Comments (Andrew Reschovsky)
The Efficiency Costs of Local Property Tax (Athiphat Muthitacharoen and George Zodrow)
Paper / Presentation / Discussant Comments (Jim Alm)
Taxing Property Transactions versus Taxing Property Ownership (Terri Sexton)
Paper / Presentation / Discussant Comments (Robert Ebel)
Fairness and Market Value Property Taxation (Steven Sheffrin)
Paper / Presentation / Discussant Comments (Kurt Zorn)
