Three Essays On Taxation And Land Use Change

Abstract: This dissertation explores the interaction of tax and land use policies in the U.S. The first essay, Exclusionary Fiscal Zoning and Residential Housing Density, explores the hypotheses that local generation of tax revenue encourages local governments to enact zoning policies that reduce the efficiency of land markets. The theoretical model predicts that heavy reliance on local income tax revenue by local governments will encourage strict large-lot fiscal zoning restrictions. Empirical results support the theoretical hypothesis for tax districts in Delaware County, Ohio. The second essay, The Effect of Use-Value Assessment on Land Use Change in Rural and Suburban Areas, explores the effects of preferential property tax treatment for agricultural uses. A survival model is employed to explain the timing of farmland conversion to urban uses. Preferential tax assessment is found to be effective at slowing farmland conversion in a rural Ohio township, but ineffective in a suburban township closer to Columbus, Ohio. The third essay, The Capitalization of Property Taxes into the Prices of High and Low-Value Homes, employs a hedonic model to test the impact of local property taxes and large-lot zoning on housing values. The empirical results show mixed evidence to support the hypothesis that property taxes have a more negative impact on high-value homes as compared to low-value homes. The results also show a price premium on homes with small lots. This premium may be explained by a zoning induced shortage of small-lot homes.