The Internal and External Impact of Historical Designation on Property Values

Designation of historic properties and historic districts is increasingly used as a means to revive central-city neighborhoods and to promote urban economic development. While preservation activities are thought to generate positive externalities for surrounding neighborhoods, these external effects have been difficult to quantify. Using a database of tax-appraisal records for residential properties in Abilene, Texas, this study demonstrates that there are significant, positive externalities associated with historic designation. We perform simple cost-benefit calculations and find that the internal and external benefits more than outweigh the (nonzero) costs associated with historical designation. Moreover, from the city of Abilene's perspective the property-tax incentives provided to historic reinvestment are outweighed by the added property-tax revenue created by the increased value.     

Year-Round School Schedules and Residential Property Values

Debate concerning the advantages and disadvantages of year-round schedules surrounds quality of education and cost. The purpose of this article is to estimate the impact of different schedules on residential property values after controlling for school expenditures, quality of education, and neighborhood socioeconomic conditions. Furthermore, we explore the possibility that different size houses, based on the number of bedrooms, may experience a differential price impact to a year-round schedule. We find evidence that year-round schools may be more of a nuisance for nonparents than for families with children for the Clark County School District which includes Las Vegas, Nevada.     

The Impact of Small Brownfields and Greenspaces on Residential Property Values

Using a hedonic pricing model, this paper investigates the responsiveness of residential property values in a well-defined inner-city neighborhood of Kenosha, Wisconsin, to the presence of two small former industrial sites contaminated by various environmental pollutants, or brownfields, and a local neighborhood park, or greenspace. Using readily available data on sales and assessments for residential property in close proximity to the brownfields and the greenspace, we estimate well-behaved and statistically significant property value gradients with respect to the park, the environmental amenity, and the brownfields, the environmental disamenities. These functions are then used to estimate the possible impact that brownfield remediation may have on total property value. We estimate that remediation and redevelopment of the brownfields into greenspaces would increase property values for the 890 neighborhood residences between $2.40 and $7.01 million. These results suggest that small brownfields have a measurable impact on property values and that readily accessible data can be used to help local policymakers make decisions on remediation issues.     

Land Values, Land Use, and the First Chicago Zoning Ordinance

This article examines whether the pattern of urban land use should have been regulated by local government in the 1920s, the decade in which many cities adopted their first zoning ordinances. The study is based on the assumption that land values are influenced by the mix of land use on the block. Conditions for land-value maximization are derived, and the circumstances under which land-use zoning can increase land values are discussed. Empirical land-value and land-use functions are estimated for Chicago in 1921, two years before the first Chicago zoning ordinance was adopted. The empirical results for land values imply that the land-use zoning system adopted in 1923 could not have brought about a general increase in land values. The empirical results for land use document the regularities in the use of land prior to the introduction of zoning.     

地方财政支出对房地产价值的影响——基于我国35个大中城市的实证研究

运用普通最小二乘法,对我国35个大中城市的数据资料进行多元回归,分析地方财政支出对房地产价值的影响,其结论是地方财政支出和房地产价值存在高度正相关关系,城市持续高水平的财政支出,经过一段时间的积累,必定通过房地产价值的增加体现出来.由此引出了对我国房地产税进行改革的启示.     

The Influence of Riparian Protection Measures on Residential Property Values: The Case of the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds

The Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds encourages residential property owners to plant riparian buffers in an effort to reduce stream temperature and thus improve fish habitat. This study estimates the change in the value of streamside residential properties in response to planting a treed riparian buffer. A hedonic pricing analysis suggests that treed riparian buffers reduce the market value of stream-front residential property in the study area.     

租金激励、行动团体与土地产权演化

本文认为租金是推动土地产权制度变迁的根本动力,正是由于各种租金的存在,使地方政府成为了初级行动团体。本文在对传统的土地产权特征作初步分析的基础上,指出传统土地产权就蕴含了改革自身的矛盾。在改革的过程中,租金又分化为试点租金、双轨租金和漏洞租金,分别给不同的相关主体以不同强度的激励,导致多种合力共同促使土地产权制度的演化。     

Spillover Effects of Foreclosures on Neighborhood Property Values

Previous studies have shown that foreclosure often results in vandalism, disinvestment and other negative spillover effects in the neighborhood. This paper extends these views into a formal theoretical model through pricing based on comparables. We project that the spillover effect of a foreclosure on neighborhood property values depends on two factors: the discount of foreclosure sale and the weight placed on the foreclosed property as a comparable in the valuation. The former is related to housing cycle and the latter varies by time of foreclosure and its distance from the subject property. Empirical results based on a 2006 sample show that this effect is significant within a radius of 0.9 km (roughly 10 blocks) and within 5 years from its liquidation. The most severe impact is an 8.7% discount on neighborhood property values, which gradually drops to anywhere between −1.2 to −1.7% for foreclosures liquidated within the past 5 years. These spillover effects vary slightly when the sample selection bias is taken into account. Based on an alternative sample of purchase transactions in 2003, the estimated spillover effects in booming years are reduced by half, confirming on the important role played by housing cycles.

Consistency,Value Relevance and Sufficiency of Book for Market Values in Five Japanese Conglomerates Over the Period 1950–2004

Market and accounting data for five Japanese conglomerates, Toyota, Fuji, Sony, Itochu and Sumitomo, are analysed over the period 1950 to 2004. Annual market value is regressed on three accounting and six macroeconomic variables, using a general‐to‐specific approach to construct simple error correction models for each of the five firms. The results show that in four of the five firms there is evidence of a long‐run relationship between market value and the net book value of assets, which can be interpreted, with increasing degrees of strength, as book values being either consistent with, value relevant for, or sufficient for market value.     

What determines early exercise of employee stock options in Australia?

Employee stock options (ESOs) are a popular way of remunerating employees. We analyse factors at the firm and option level affecting the employee's decision to exercise ESOs before they mature. Exercises over the period 1998–2004 are analysed and the key factor influencing early exercise is found to be dividends. Exercises frequently occur well before maturity, but in most cases little time value is sacrificed. Our findings have implications for the ‘fair’ valuation of ESOs in companies’ financial statements, as required by the relevant Australian accounting standard, AASB 2.     

Optimal exercise of executive stock options and implications for firm cost

This paper conducts a comprehensive study of the optimal exercise policy for an executive stock option and its implications for option cost, average life, and alternative valuation concepts. The paper is the first to provide analytical results for an executive with general concave utility. Wealthier or less risk-averse executives exercise later and create greater option cost. However, option cost can decline with volatility. We show when there exists a single exercise boundary, yet demonstrate the possibility of a split continuation region. We also show that, for constant relative risk averse utility, the option value does not converge to the Black and Scholes value as the correlation between the stock and the market portfolio converges to one. We compare our model's option cost with the modified Black and Scholes approximation typically used in practice and show that the approximation error can be large or small, positive or negative, depending on firm characteristics.     

Two-Rate Property Tax Effects on Land Development

Economists have long understood that the conventional property tax causes the housing stock to be smaller than it would be in the presence of a nondistortionary tax such as a land or site value tax. This article brings together the results from models of housing development timing and structural density with the results of a modern model of a graded property tax in an urban setting. The combination of results is used to investigate the effects of a communitys movement from a property tax to a two-rate tax system where land is taxed at a higher rate than structures. The conditions under which increasing reliance on a land or site value tax will increase housing structural density and speed of development are identified and examined. Policy implications are drawn.     

Transportation Improvements and Land Values in the Antebellum United States: A Hedonic Approach

We offer county-level estimates of the effect of water and rail access on the value of antebellum farms. Employing a hedonic model, we find that in 1850 average farm values in counties with access to a canal or navigable river were $2.68 per acre greater than counties without such access and $1.80 greater with rail access. In 1860 the figures were $3.75 for a canal or river access and $1.35 for rail. With average farm size around 200 acres and per capita national income roughly $150 during the decade, we conclude that on average transportation access yielded substantial economic gains.     

地权稳定与农业生产

本文以《农村土地承包法》在省一级层面的实施作为政策冲击,研究稳定的农村土地承包经营权对农业生产效率等的影响及其作用机制。主要研究结论如下:第一,稳定的农地承包经营权能够增强经营主体对未来的确定性预期,保障各方市场主体的合法权益,活跃土地流转并有效提升农业生产效率;第二,《农村土地承包法》的实施促进了农户转出而非转入土地,农业生产效率提升主要源自稳定产权的直接激励效应以及由此带来的资源配置效率改进,稳定的农地产权能够促进土地有效流转,优化农户农业生产与劳动配置决策;第三,地权稳定性改革有效缓解了因人口流出与区位劣势造成的农业生产效率损失,显著提高了农户的务工收入以及整体收入水平。本文研究结论表明,合理的制度设计能够提升农业生产效率,提高农村土地和劳动力资源的配置效率。清晰的产权设计、合理的预期管理是实现市场化资源配置的必要条件。     

The Property Tax as a Tax on Value: Deadweight Loss

Consider an atomistic developer who decides when and at what density to develop his land, under a property value tax system characterized by three time-invariant tax rates: τ_V, the tax rate on pre-development land value; τ_S, the tax rate on post-development residual site value; and τ_K, the tax rate on structure value. Arnott (2005) identified the subset of property value tax systems that are neutral. This paper investigates the relative efficiency of four idealized, non-neutral property value tax systems [(i) “Canadian' property tax system: τ_V = 0, τ _S = τ_K; (ii) simple property tax system: τ_V = τ _S = τ_K; (iii) residual site value tax system: τ_K = 0,τ _V = τ_S; (iv) two-rate property tax system: τ_V = τ _S > τ_K > 0] under the assumption of a constant rental growth rate. JEL Code: H2     

Property Company Stock Price and Net Asset Value: A Mean Reversion Perspective

This study investigates the relationship between property company stock prices (P) and their net asset values (NAV) from a mean reversion perspective. In contrast to U.K. evidence, we find that there is absence of a long-term stable relationship between the two series. However, the variance ratio tests and multi-period regressions suggest that both P and NAV series have exhibited transitory components. In addition, there is some evidence of mean reversion behavior of Singapore property stock prices toward the property companies' NAVs over the past 15 years from 1985 to 1999, both at individual company level and in the sector as a whole. The results also reveal that NAV, as a traditional proxy to fundamental value, is significant in capturing the dynamics of the changes in property stock prices. Hence NAV is relevant in property company valuation. However the extent of mean reversion between the property stock prices and NAVs is slow and deviations between the two markets' valuation could therefore be prolonged.     

Real estate transfer taxes and property values: The Philadelphia story

We examine the effect of the 1988 increase in the Philadelphia real estate transfer tax on the sale price of residential property. We find that sales prices fell, as expected. While sampling variability is slightly higher than desirable, the point estimate of the key coefficient indicates a decrease in house price far greater than what would be expected with perfect capital markets. This may be attributed to either capital market imperfections or the news value of the tax increase. The burden of the transfer tax thus rests on the seller.     

大学生劳动价值观调查分析与教育对策

大学生的劳动价值观是否正确不仅影响大学生的成长、成才,同时也影响着我国培养社会主义劳动者和建设者这一教育目标的实现。本文以内蒙古财经大学学生为调查对象进行实证研究,分析大学生劳动价值观的发展现状及存在的问题,并对影响大学生劳动价值观形成的因素进行分析,进而提出加强大学生劳动价值观教育的对策建议。     

Inter-industry wage differentials revisited: Wage volatility and the option value of mobility

Analysis of data from the PSID reveals that idiosyncratic wage volatility varies inversely with inter-industry wage differentials and is positively correlated with both returns to industry tenure and rates of inter-industry mobility. An incomplete markets life cycle model in which inter-industry mobility decisions and wage differentials are endogenously determined in equilibrium is then developed and shown to be capable of rationalizing these features of the data. In the model, the ability of worker to switch industries generates option value that is large enough to offset the standard risk premium that workers demand for exposure to excess wage volatility.