Coordinating Opposite Approaches to Managing Urban Growth and Curbing Sprawl: A Synthesis

The purchase of development rights to farmland and open space has recently gained in popularity as a growth management tool. A purchase of development rights program pays the landowner for the unearned increment in exchange for strong deed restrictions, limiting the use of the property. On the other hand, land value taxation, a modification of Henry George's Single Tax, would tax land more heavily than improvements, thus encouraging the development of land. While land value taxation and the purchase of development rights appear to be opposing fiscal policies, they could be employed together as part of a regional planning strategy to encourage in-fill development within and near cities and to curb sprawl by retaining farm, forest, and ranch lands.     

Development Rights and the Differential Assessment of Agricultural Land: Fractional Valuation of Farmland is Ineffective for Preserving Open Space and Subsidizes Speculation

Abstract . The relative fiscal efficacy of using differential assessment as a means of preserving agricultural land is examined. A simple model of land use and land rent determination is developed and tested. An implication is that differential assessment merely delays or retards, but does not prevent, the conversion of land to developed uses. Differential assessment is viewed as a tax expenditure, or special tax reduction, that in essence leases development rights, Landowners are also shown to be overcompensated for the development rights implicitly acquired by the public sector. The fee simple purchase of development rights or regulatory control over the use of development rights can be employed to preserve farm land at a lower fiscal cost.     

Land use externalities, open space preservation, and urban sprawl

Parcel data on residential land conversion are used to investigate how land use externalities influence the rate of development and modify policies designed to manage urban growth and preserve open space. Several “smart growth” policies are found to significantly influence land conversion, including a development clustering policy that concentrates development and generates preserved open space. In addition to directly affecting a parcel's hazard rate of conversion, this policy is found to affect neighboring parcels' conversion by generating a positive open space externality that hastens their development. The implication that the clustering policy could generate a more sprawled pattern of development is explored using spatial simulation.     

农村集体土地制度改革与土地征收补偿

党的十八届三中全会审议通过的《中共中央关于全面深化改革若干重大问题的决定》为我国农村集体土地制度的改革指明了方向。我国农村集体土地制度改革有利于建立城乡统一的建设用地市场、健全城乡发展一体化体制和赋予农民更多财产权利,也有利于预防土地腐败,促进社会和谐。在具体政策实施过程中,要做好农村集体土地的确权工作,规范农村集体土地流转,实行城乡土地同价同权,逐步建立城乡统一的土地市场,并要有效地解决征收制度对农村土地市场秩序的威胁,进一步完善土地补偿保障机制。     

Planning Discourse versus Land Discourse: The 2009–12 Reforms in Land‐Use Planning Policy and Land Policy in Israel

Land policy and land‐use planning policy are two types of public policy pertaining to space. In general, land‐use planning policy deals with land‐use allocation and property rights, whereas land policy defines the land regime of a society. These differences have shaped a unique discourse for each of these policy types. The purpose of this article is to examine the differences and similarities between the land discourse and the planning discourse by analyzing two public campaigns conducted in Israel against two proposed reforms: the 2009 reform of the Israel Land Administration and the 2010–12 reform of the Planning and Building Law. The findings reveal substantive differences between the two campaigns, manifested in the nature of the leading players, the types of public activities they chose, and most notably in the discourses and the hierarchy of considerations they addressed. The findings raise profound questions regarding universal trends in spatial policy reforms; their influence on the activities of public coalitions and the discourses they adopted; possible future effects of these trends on the differences between the land discourse and the planning discourse; and the impact of these trends on the ability of groups and individuals elsewhere to influence spatial policies (such as planning and land policies).     

房地产市场中的政府行为外部效应解析

1988年建立的土地有偿使用制度,实现了我国土地产权的市场化,对培育土地市场和促进经济发展发挥了重要作用,但土地产权的界定不够明晰,缺少外部效应内部化的政策机制,引发土地市场的一系列问题.借助新制度经济学的分析框架,从土地产权的角度分析了政府行为对土地市场的影响,并运用特征价格法,对广州市地铁二号线和内环路建设的实例,分析评价了政府行为对土地价值的影响.最后从完善土地产权的角度探讨了政府在土地市场中的角色和作用,指出由于缺乏对政府行为引起的"得益"和"受损"的应对机制,导致政府利益受损和土地市场的不公平与不确定性,需从土地产权角度出发,完善相关政策.     

A policy proposal for natural resource management in the rainforest of Madre de Dios,Peru: The concession system and land tenure reform

Madre de Dios in south-eastern Peru, like other tropical regions, faces important threats that are resulting in a loss of forest resources. The predominant types of land tenure in the rural zones of Madre de Dios are mining, agricultural and forestry concessions of land given by each Ministry to the settlers. Concessionaires fail to act as owners, because concession contracts do not guarantee secure property rights. Short-term non-sustainable land uses are favored over sustained management practices. The way in which people use the natural resources depends upon the allocation of rights over those resources. Considering communal property as a policy proposal: a system of land tenure which does not facilitate legal titling of the lands occupied by settlers and loggers will continue to hinder the possibility of developing sustainable long-term management strategies. In this article, the main proposal for a policy reform is that the land tenure system of concessions currently employed by the Peruvian government must be replaced with the assignment of legal communal land titles to the settlers' communities (not to isolated individuals) who are currently occupying forest lands in the region. The communal land titles would create an incentive for privately motivated group management of the forests, which could help reverse some of the wasteful and indiscriminate uses of land currently government-owned.     

地下空间开发视角下的开发区土地集约利用——以皖江城市带为例

以地下空间开发为视角,用文献资料法、实证法研究了开发区土地集约利用的创新方式。从工程技术和技术经济的角度验证了开发区地下空间开发的可行性。认为开发区地下空间开发的主要障碍因素是产权归属不清、产权定价无据及缺乏规划编制;应从确权、定价、规划、融资、财税等方面着手加快促进开发区地下空间的开发。     

从《中华人民共和国物权法(草案)》谈城乡规划及其管理观念的转变

城乡规划代表公共利益,物权法保护物权人的合法权益;城乡规划及其管理代表一种调整和规范土地及地上建筑物等不动产物权的设立、行使的公共行政权力,物权法赋予了物权人对其不动产相关物权享有直接支配、排他性干涉的权力;在城乡规划及其管理工作方面,如何平衡上述两种权力?本文从城乡规划及其管理的主要环节--编制、实施、监督检查、批后管理四方面做出了阐释.     

Henry George and the Intellectual Foundations of the Open Source Movement

The emergence of a common development platform (either in the form of open source projects or proprietary products) and the corresponding economic communities that emerge to support those platforms is similar in scale and scope to the concept of the city found in Henry George's economics of time and place. A modern counterpart to the 19^th‐century focus on land can be found in the 20^th‐century concern with the establishment of intellectual property rights that fence off a portion of the creative commons in order to construct temporary monopolies. Captured in the open source movement where licenses that specify property rights are adopted in order to provide a great deal of flexibility in terms of how ideas are used and shared, a strong connection can be drawn between this modern movement and the work of Henry George. Building a connection between the two provides greater clarity in terms of understanding how in a modern technology‐based economy, progress can be achieved without poverty.     

Negotiation of property rights in urban land in İstanbul

This article looks into the evolution of property rights in two farm estates in the city of ?stanbul between 1874 and 2000. In the 1970s, these farm estates developed into urban districts which were designated ‘illegal’ because their development did not conform to urban planning and/or property legislation. The research examines changes in the laws defining property rights over time, the transfers of property in the two farm estates, and the conflicts among the various actors over property rights or ownership. The findings demonstrate how property is established as the outcome of struggles and conflicts among actors, notably between those excluded from and those included in property ownership and between private and public interests in the definition of property rights. These conflicts are intensified by the high revenues obtained from urban land transactions. The findings also show that confrontations take place within the context of the property and urban planning laws while these laws are themselves negotiated during this process, eventually leading to changes in the laws when wide acceptance of local formulations force the state to seek a compromise. The study is also demonstrative of the variety of attitudes different state bodies adopt towards property relations in these districts. Cet article examine l’évolution des droits de propriété dans deux domaines agricoles de la ville d’?stanbul entre 1874 et 2000. Dans les années 1970, ces terrains ont été aménagés en quartiers urbains qualifiés d’‘illégaux’, leur aménagement ne respectant pas le plan d’urbanisme et/ou la législation sur la propriété. L’article s’intéresse aux changements apportés à la législation définissant les droits de propriété, aux transferts de biens dans les deux domaines agricoles et aux conflits entre les différents acteurs quant aux droits afférents aux biens immobiliers ou à la propriété. Ces recherches montrent comment la propriété s’établit au terme de luttes et conflits entre les acteurs (notamment ceux qui sont exclus et inclus dans la propriété), ainsi qu’entre les intérêts privés et publics dans la définition des droits. Ces litiges sont alimentés par les revenus importants tirés des transactions sur les terrains urbains. Selon les résultats, les affrontements ont lieu dans le cadre des législations sur la propriété et l’urbanisme alors que ces lois sont elles–mêmes en cours de négociation; cette situation aboutit à des amendements lorsqu’une large acceptation des formulations locales oblige l’État à chercher un compromis. Ceci démontre aussi la diversité des attitudes qu’adoptent les différents organes de l’État à l’égard des relations liées aux biens immobiliers dans ces quartiers.     

频繁调控与失效中的旧城土地制度反思

旧城更新中,政府对土地进行了频繁的调控,与此同时地价、房价持续飙升,呈现调控与失效相伴的局面.基于此,论文从城市土地产权制度的变迁历程、政府干预下的土地交易市场、城市土地产权制度及其制度变迁路径依赖与体制锁定等视角进行了反思,认为问题滋生的原因是多方面的,其中土地产权制度的变迁是滋生问题的历史根源,它模糊了权属关系,积聚了历史病疾,而计划与市场的交织演绎出了双轨配置制度下的土地交易困境.地方政府的绝对垄断扭曲了土地竞争市场,而其根源在于:城市土地产权制度本身的残缺,即旧城土地资源的法律产权和事实上的产权的不一致,导致了市场交易主体对交易客体的权责不统一,而政府调控所制定的一系列的"制度",因其制度本身的利益短视与部门本位,削弱了作为"制度束"的调控威力,加剧了调控"组合拳"的失效.因此,解决问题的关键在于城市土地制度的创新,即基于明晰旧城土地产权关系的前提下,政府退出非公共利益的土地交易市场,实现政府角色的转换──"划桨"与"掌舵"的分离,以此确保旧城更新中房地产的健康发展.     

The State as Both Regulator and Player: The Politics of Transfer of Development Rights in China

The conventional argument that the introduction of transfer of development rights (TDR) shifts the power of land use regulation from the state to the market is increasingly under challenge. In China, the state's grip on land is reinforced through TDR, in which the state is both regulator and player. This state-dominated form of TDR affects China in three ways. First, competing aspirations of different scales of government complicate how TDR is implemented. Although the central state promotes TDR to maintain a national balance of arable land, some local states instrumentalize it to expand their landed basis of accumulation. Secondly, TDR tends to benefit the state but not its people. It may increase the fiscal income of the sending government and lessen the land shortage of the receiving government, but sometimes at the expense of the interests of land users without land ownership. Thirdly, given the state's deep involvement in TDR programs, the key for China's TDR to protect arable land lies not so much in clear property rights or a fully fledged market as in effective checks and balances regarding the state's powers over TDR. These three observations attest to the embeddedness of TDR in the local political economy.     

Land Taxes in Agriculture

A bstract Farmland , which occupies two thirds of America's privately owned territory, provides more than food and fiber. Agricultural uses of land preserve open space, filter and store water, supfwrt wildlife, conserve rural resources, enlarge life style opportunities for an urban society. One instrument for preserving agricultural land from urban developmental pressures is the preferential assessment for real property tax, essentially a two rate tax favoring farming as a land use. Preferential assessment, administered typically at small, nonrollback differentials, has not deterred intensive land use changes. Indeed, it may have had the opposite effect. Changes in the tax on land and buildings are recommended as improvements in the preferential assessment of agricultural land.     

Informal Property Rights as Relational and Functional: Unravelling the Relational Contract in China's Informal Housing Market

In the face of state-led land grabs, enterprising Chinese peasants have started a revolution in the ambiguous and insecure rural tenure system by developing an extralegal property system known as the small property right (SPR). Using the SPR, peasants are able to capitalize on their property through the sale of houses built on collectively owned land. Little is known, however, about the specific process behind the development of the SPR by the peasants, or how this extralegal property system functions in terms of securing the use and transfer of property without the backing of law. This article aims to clarify the situation through the lenses of the Endogenous Nature of Institutions and Relational Contract Theory, aiming to understand the socially constructed, endogenous and relational nature of the property rights that make SPR functional. Based on an ethnographic investigation of Beijing's largest SPR housing settlement, we show how enterprising peasants develop long-term relational contracts with urban households for the provision of housing services, secured on the basis of the common interests and symbiosis of the two parties and a reputation system that serves to deter defaults. The discretionary treatment of SPR housing by local states serves as a further motivation for the village and the informal homeowners to preserve a stable property arrangement, with such a specific institutional setting being an exemplar of China's pragmatic state entrepreneurialism.     

Propertyless in Peru,Even with a Government Land Title

This article investigates the ability and process of government land titling as a method to achieve secure property rights institutions. Specifically, we analyze the impact of government land titling in rural Peru. Our findings suggest that land titling does not achieve the positive benefits associated with secure property, such as access to credit. We also find that individuals prefer private enforcement methods of securing property to public means. This suggests that government land titling is not always a channel through which countries can achieve secure property rights institutions.     

Urban Development under Ambiguous Property Rights: A Case of China’s Transition Economy

Property rights play a key role in maintaining sustainable growth and in achieving efficient development. China’s economic reforms have stimulated urban physical development through the commodification and marketization of land‐use rights and building construction. Property rights over urban land have been decentralized, but the gradualist reform of state assets has not assigned and delineated property rights clearly between the principal and agents. Within a short space of time, Shanghai, a city in a transition economy, is facing a great property glut for the first time in its history. It is the two‐tier incentive structure that has created the dynamics of Shanghai’s urban physical development since 1980. The marketization of buildings makes property development a viable business. Capitalization on valued properties in the open domain motivates key actors in the development process to initiate redevelopment projects. Rapidly rising price benchmarks established by the booming property market escalate the urge to transform rents in the unsecured public domain to physical assets that are protected by the socialist use right. Les droits de propriété jouent un rôle essentiel dans la réussite d’une expansion durable et d’un aménagement efficace. En Chine, les réformes économiques ont stimulé un urbanisme construit, via une banalisation et une marchandisation des droits d’utilisation du sol et de la construction de bûtiments. Les droits de propriété sur les terrains urbains ont été décentralisés; cependant, la réforme gradualiste des biens de l’État n’a ni attribué ni délimité clairement les droits de propriété entre commettant et mandataires. En un court laps de temps, Shanghai, ville en économie de transition, se trouve confrontée à une surabondance de biens immobiliers pour la première fois de son histoire. C’est une structure incitative à deux niveaux qui a généré la dynamique de l’urbanisme construit de Shanghai depuis 1980. La marchandisation des immeubles fait de la promotion immobilière une activité lucrative. La capitalisation sur des propriétés valorisées dans un marché libre motive les acteurs‐clés du processus de développement à lancer des projets de réaménagement. Les prix de référence en croissance rapide, instaurés par le marché immobilier florissant, intensifient la tendance à transformer les loyers sans garantie du domaine public en biens construits protégés par le droit d’usage socialiste.     

A Property Rights Paradox: George and Rothbard on the Conservation of Environmental Resources

A bstract . Murray N. Rothbard is recognized as one of the most articulate modern critics of Henry George's land value tax. A leading libertarian thinker, Rothbard condemns George's recommendation that government act to affect private transactions in land, arguing that such interventions infringe on previously defined private property rights. However, Rothbard's social system has no explicit mechanism for accommodating the emergence of tradeable property rights to newly recognized environmental resources. In effect, Rothbard calls for controls on such resources—no trading. Henry George, on the other hand, provides for the evolution of new property rights and their emergence into private markets. The paradox here is that George's solution to the property rights question might accommodate the social yearnings of one of his most severe critics, Murray N. Rothbard.     

浙江宅基地和农房产权制度调查研究

基于2009-2010年组织的浙江10个县(市、区)农户和官员问卷调研,描述浙江宅基地与农房产权管理现状,论述各地宅基地与农房产权制度改革实践探索情况,并分析宅基地与农房产权制度改革需求和方向。调查分析表明,当前各地宅基地与产权管理现状差异较大,农户和官员对宅基地与产权制度改革需求较大。建议采取有力措施,推动宅基地与农房产权制度改革,保障农民的财产权益,提高农民的财产性收入。     

Real Estate as Institutional Fact: Towards A Philosophy of Everyday Objects

A bstract . Rigorous tools which are well known to philosophers can be put to use in the analyses of many concepts pertaining to social reality. This paper attempts to apply the distinction between brute and institutional facts advanced by John Searle to the analysis of property rights over land. It might be commonplace to suggest that all rights are entities whose existence is an institutional fact, i.e., it is the result of human conventions. In the case of property rights, it is not merely at this level that institutional reality confronts us. The object over which the property right falls, a land parcel, is itself an entity whose existence is an institutional fact. This doubly institutional character of property rights makes it easier to see that property rights over land have many important differences with other sorts of property rights. Of course, some of these differences have been pointed out before, say, by appealing to the seminal distinction between movables and immovables, but never with the rigor or the justification that I attempt here. As a result of taking seriously the nature of the object over which the right falls, we can see that property rights over land have more in common with other sorts of relationships, such as political conceptions of sovereignty, than with other forms of property rights. Real estate is just one of a myriad of social objects that we encounter every day. The ontology developed here is but one example of how philosophical analysis of everyday objects enriches our understanding of the social world, and offers us tools for clearer, practical treatment of these objects.