Land is back – it should be taxed, it can be taxed!

Press Op-Ed
MARCH 21, 2021
A VoxEU article written by Alain Trannoy (EHESS) and co-authors about the optimal taxation of land (only in English).

"Housing wealth is now between two and four times as large as GDP in many Western economies. This column reintroduces land and housing structures to the theory of optimal taxation, and finds that first-best taxation is achieved through a property tax on land and requires no tax on capital. Even absent land taxes, one can tax land indirectly and reach a Ramsey second best still with no tax on capital and positive housing rent taxes in the steady state."

►Read the full Vox EU article online 

Scientific reference 

► Bonnet , O, G Chapelle, A Trannoy and É Wasmer (2021), “Land is back, it should be taxed, it can be taxed”, European Economic Review.

Contact 

► Alain Trannoy, Directeur d'études à l'EHESS 

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