American Journal of Economics and Sociology (AJES)

A Cannan Hits the Mark

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: Edwin Cannan (1861–1935) is best known for his 1904 edition of The Wealth of Nations, which became a standard. His next best-known work is a History of Theories of Production and Distribution, 1893. His book most relevant here is History of Local Rates in England, 1896. He was a professor at the London School of Economics, 1907–26, although a large inherited fortune let him live and rub elbows at Oxford, which he seemed to prefer. His later work was less noteworthy. He criticized both Marshall and J. M. Keynes, but without much impact.

A New Framework for Macroeconomics: Achieving Full Employment by Increasing Capital Turnover

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: Most forms of macroeconomics today, whether Keynesian or monetarist, presuppose that problems of economic instability can be treated as errors in financial management. Neither fiscal nor monetary policy recognizes the existence of systemic faults in the real economy that result in overinvestment in durable capital that turns over slowly, in contrast to forms of capital that interact more frequently with land and labor. Only by removing serious distortions in microeconomic relations can macroeconomic problems be resolved. The current global economic crisis exemplifies the limitations of policies that ignore distortions in the rate of turnover of investment capital.

A Real-Assets Model of Economic Crises: Will China Crash in 2015?

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: Loosely derived from Henry George's theory that land speculation creates boom-bust cycles, a real-assets model of economic crises is developed. In this model, land prices play a central role, and three hypothesized mechanisms are proposed by which swings of land prices affect the entire economy: construction on marginal sites, partial displacement of circulating capital by fixed capital investment, and the over-leveraging of bank assets. The crisis of 2008 is analyzed in these terms along with other examples of sudden economic contractions in U.S. history, recent European experience, and global examples over the past 20 years. Conditions in China in 2014 are examined and shown to indicate a likely recession in that country in 2015 because its banks are over-leveraged with large-scale, under-performing real estate loans. Finally, alternative methods of preventing similar crises in the future are explored.

A Selected Bibliography on Land Rent Taxation

A Simple General Test for Tax Bias

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: The paper infers the biasing effects of taxes from their differential effects on the present values of rival uses for given tracts of land. After-tax wage rates, interest rates, and commodity prices are exogenous, hence not affected by taxes, which are therefore all shifted to land rents and values. The effects are differential among rival uses, hence change their ranking in the eyes of the landowner-manager. Most taxes downgrade the highest use into a lower use, inducing quantum leaps away from higher and better uses into lower and worse uses. The paper uses forestry as an allegory for all land uses. It compares yield taxes, property taxes, income taxes, and site value taxes. It finds that a change from the first three to the site value tax would induce quantum leaps from lower to higher uses of land.

Alfred Russel Wallace’s Campaign to Nationalize Land: How Darwin’s Peer Learned from John Stuart Mill and Became Henry George’s Ally

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: Alfred Russel Wallace rose to fame with Charles Darwin: They independently found the principle of natural selection. Wallace later focused on reforming Great Britain's land tenure system, under which a few owners had come to control most of the land, while most citizens had little or none of their own. In Land Nationalization (1882) Wallace proposed for the state to acquire all land, with limited compensation. The state would then lease it by auction, but to actual users only. Wallace saw his kinship with Henry George, and opened doors to help George tour Britain as a speaker. For years their ideas were linked by friend and foe, and together had great impact on British politics.

Comment: Stabile on George and Clark

Economic Aspects of Water Resource Policy

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: This article is based on a paper delivered at a colloquium on “The Social Sciences in Water Resources Research” at Pennsylvania State University on June 4, 1968.

Going My Way? Wending a Way Through the Stumbling Blocks Between Georgism and Catholicism

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: This essay surveys the issues between Georgists and Roman Catholics in three classes: issues that are not peculiarly Roman Catholic (RC) but play out across faiths and denominations, issues that are peculiarly RC, and points of similarity and agreement. Addressed in this fashion are the tensions that arise between the social gospel and individual salvation, between specifics and glittering generalities, between noblesse oblige and governmental reform, between the doctrine of original sin and tabula rasa, between the rich and the poor, between the dignity of labor and the honor of predation, between democracy and authority, between the regulatory emphasis rooted in the philosophy of Aquinas and free markets, and between plain talk and gobbledegook.

Land Rent, Taxation and Public Policy: Taxation and the Functions of Urban Land Rent

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: Based on a paper delivered at the 15th annual meeting of the Regional Science Association, Cambridge, Mass., November 9, 1968. Portions of die study appear in Papers of the Regional Science Association; thanks are due the editor for permission to reprint. This article continues the discussion in my previous paper: “Land Rent, Taxation, and Public Policy: The Sources, Nature and Functions of Urban Land Rent,”Am, J. Econ. Sociol., 31 (July, 1972).

Land Rent, Taxation, and Public Policy: The Sources, Nature and Functions of Urban Land Rent

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: Based on a paper delivered at the 15th annual meeting of the Regional Science Association, Cambridge, Mass., November 9, 1968. Portions of the study appeared in Papers of the Regional Science Association; thanks ace due the editor for permission to reprint.

Nature, Economy, and Equity: Sacred Water, Profane Markets (Chapter 1: The Sacred Gifts of Nature)

Numerous conflicts over natural resources can be overcome by restoring reciprocity between public and private sectors of the economy. Chapter 1 reviews two competing forms of environmentalism: one that accommodates business interests by giving public resources to them, and one that sacralizes the bond between society and nature by protecting both environmental quality and social equity.

Nature, Economy, and Equity: Sacred Water, Profane Markets (Chapter 2: The Status Quo: How Water Is Used and Abused Today)

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: Numerous conflicts over natural resources can be overcome by restoring reciprocity between public and private sectors of the economy. Chapter 2 discusses problems around the world that can be traced to mismanagement of natural resources, including land grabs and poverty. It also reveals a natural confluence between environmental, economic, and social concerns.

Nature, Economy, and Equity: Sacred Water, Profane Markets (Chapter 4: Investigating Waste and Inefficiency in California Water Use)

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: Numerous conflicts over natural resources can be overcome by restoring reciprocity between public and private sectors of the economy. Chapter 4 is a case study of how water laws have affected one river in California's Central Valley by preventing efficient water use.

Nature, Economy, and Equity: Sacred Water, Profane Markets (Chapter 5: Water Marketing in California: Past Failure and Potential Success)

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: Numerous conflicts over natural resources can be overcome by restoring reciprocity between public and private sectors of the economy. Chapter 5 shows why “water markets,” the standard panacea offered by most economists, have failed to improve either the efficiency or equity of water allocations in California and why such schemes are likely to fail for other natural resources. The missing element in such plans is a method of creating reciprocity by compensating the public, as the original owners of all natural resources.

Seligman and His Critique from Social Utility

Tax-Induced Slow Turnover of Capital, II

Tax-Induced Slow Turnover of Capital, III

Tax-Induced Slow Turnover of Capital, IV

Tax-Induced Slow Turnover of Capital, V

The Benefits of Farm Programs: Incidence, Shifting, and Dissipation

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: A paper delivered at the annual meetings of the American Farm Economics Association, Stillwater, Oklahoma, August, 1965.

The Partiality of Indexing Capital Gains

The Unwieldy Time-Dimension of Space

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: This paper introduces the concept of “time-indivisibility,” and suggests that it may interfere with optimal allocation of durable resources, and especially permanent resources. Space on the earth's surface is taken as a representative permanent resource. The limitations of leasing and lending as time-dividers are briefly sketched. A simple technique is advanced for analyzing on an annual basis the effects of time-indivisibility, and it is demonstrated that permanent goods do not tend to be allocated in keeping with the equimarginal ideal. The technique is further developed to analyze the effects on allocation of depreciation and appreciation, the latter tending to aggravate and the former to meliorate the diseconomies inherent in time-indivisibility.

What Price Water Marketing?: California’s New Frontier

Abstract supplied by Wiley Publishing: We can multiply the value of output from limited natural water supplies by allocating them to higher uses. To this end we need a market in raw water, but existing markets work badly, for several reasons. Sellers are undermotivated, absent taxes or debt. Free groundwater subverts the pricing of surface water. Loss of elevation, and damage from effluents, and instream uses are not charged for. Obsolete subsidies abound; obsolete entitlements dominate allocation. Some trades extinguish public rights. Rent-seeking distorts allocation. Needed public agencies have been subverted by organized land speculators. Recommendations are given.