TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Fernandez Milan, Blanca
A1  - Schwerhoff, Gregor
A1  - Jakob, Michael
A1  - Hahnen, Maren
A1  - Creutzig, Felix
T1  - Can land taxes foster sustainable development?
T2  - Land use policy : the international journal covering all aspects of land use
N2  - Economists argue that land rent taxation is an ideal form of taxation as it causes no deadweight losses. Nevertheless, pure land rent taxation is rarely applied. This paper revisits the case of land taxation for developing countries. We first provide an up-to-date review on land taxation in development countries, including feasibility and implementation challenges. We then simulate land tax reforms for Rwanda, Peru, Nicaragua and Indonesia, based on household surveys. We find that (i) land taxes provide a substantial untapped potential for tax revenues at minimal deadweight losses; that (ii) linear land value taxes tend to put a high relative burden on poor households as land ownership is pervasive; (iii) non-linear tax schemes could avoid adverse effects on the poor; and that (iv) with technological advances, administrative costs of land taxes have reduced substantially and are outweighed by tax revenues and co-benefits of formalized land tenure. Enforcement and compliance remain, however, a key challenge.
KW  - Fiscal policy
KW  - Public economics
KW  - Optimal taxes
KW  - Tax incidence
KW  - Land use
Y1  - 2018
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/51276
SN  - 0264-8377
SN  - 1873-5754
VL  - 78
SP  - 338
EP  - 352
PB  - Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd.
CY  - Oxford
ER  -