Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wtssw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-17T00:30:41.918Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A theory of the optimal amount of public ownership of land

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Bertrand Crettez ,
Claire Loupias  and
Philippe Michel
Bertrand Crettez
Affiliation:
C.R.E.S.E., Université de Franche-Comté, et C.E.M.E, Université de Paris I
Claire Loupias
Affiliation:
Université de la Rochelle et C.E.B.I., Université de Paris I
Philippe Michel
Affiliation:
I.U.F, GREQAMUniversité de la Méditerranée II
Get access

Summary

A major issue in reforming previously planned economies is the creation of assets markets. In this paper, it is argued that the mere characteristics of the assets to be privatized matter. Indeed, private ownership of land diverts resources from more productive activities. This suggests that for a given economy, there exists an optimal rate of public ownership of land. It is the purpose of this paper to provide a theory of such rate. We make use of a two-sectors overlapping generations model economy with land and capital. We find a version of the second welfare theorem: the command optimum can be decentralized using one and only one instrument, i.e. the rate of land publicly held. We call such a rate the optimal rate of public ownership of land.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article envisage plus particulièrement le cas des terres. Les considérations précédentes suggèrent l'existence d'un montant optimal de propriété publique des terres. Nous proposons une théorie de ce taux pour une économie simplifiée. A cette fin, nous utilisons un modèles à générations imbriquées d'agents avec deux secteurs et trois facteurs de production (le capital, le travail et la terre). Nous démontrons une version du second théorème de l'économie du bien-être : l'optimum de premier rang peut —parfois— être décentralisé à l'aide d'un unique instrument : la proportion des terres détenues par la puissance publique. Nous appelons la proportion en question le montant optimal de propriété publique des terres.

Keywords

D90H82041Q15D90H82041Q15
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , 1997 , pp. 209 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1997 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

(*)

We would like to thank two anonymous referees for very helpful comments on a previous version of this paper. We are also grateful to J. Blot, and J.P. Vidal for stimulating discussions and remarks on the topic of this paper. Of course, we alone are responsible for any remaining shortcomings.

References

REFERENCES

Allais, M. [1947], Economie et Intèrêt, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale.Google Scholar
Blanchard, O., Dornbusch, R. Krugman, P. Layard, R. and Summers, L. [1991], Reform in Eastern Europe, Cambridge, M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Calvo, G. and Frenkel, J. [1991], From centrally planned to market economie: The road from CPE to PCPE, IMF Staff Papers, 38(2), pp. 269–299.Google Scholar
Checci, D. [1993], Creation of financial markets in (reviouly) centrally planned economies, in Lombardini, S. and Padoan, P.C. Europe between East and South, Dordrecht, Kluwer.Google Scholar
Diamond, P. [1965], National debt in a neoclassical growth model, American Economic Review, 55(5), pp. 1126–1150.Google Scholar
Dusansky, R. and Wilson, P. [1993], The demand for housing: theoritical considerations, Journal of Economic Theory, 61(1), pp. 120–138.Google Scholar
Grosfeld, I. [1990], Prospects for privatization in Poland, European Economy, 43(1), pp. 149–159.Google Scholar
Homburg, S. [1991], Efficient Economic Growth, Microeconomic Studies, Berlin, Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Malinvaud, E. [1987], The overlapping generations model in 1947, Journal of Economic Literature, 25(1), pp. 103–105.Google Scholar
Michel, P. [1990], Some clarifications on the transversality conditions, Econometrica, 58(3), pp. 705–723.Google Scholar
Rebelo, S. [1991], Long-run policy analysis and long-run growth, Journal of Political Economy, 9(3), pp. 500–521.Google Scholar
Rhee, C. [1991], Dynamic inefficiency in an economy with land, Review of Economic Studies, 58(4), pp.791–797.Google Scholar
Roland, G. and Verdier, T. [1991], Privatization in eastern Europe: irreversibility and critically mass effects, W.P. 91–21, C.E.R.A.S., Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. Google Scholar
Uhlig, H. [1993], Transition and financial collapse, W.P. 40, C.E.S, University of Munich.Google Scholar