LAND ECONOMICS
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of dwellers in cities are tenants? What proportion are owners?
In what-age group do tenants and owners fall? Do we find, as in
the case of farms, an increasing proportion of ownership as age
increases? These are some of the subjects which are calling for
investigation by land economists.
Private ownership of land is in general the strongest induce-
ment to rapid development and efficient use. But sometimes the
inducement is so strong that private owners exploit natural
resources to the detriment of the public interest. Then it becomes
economically and socially desirable to extend the sphere of public
ownership or to curtail the “Intensivity” of private rights without
establishing full public property. This has been the general ten-
dency in late years. By way of illustration, economists find that
the timber of the United States is being cut four or five times as
fast as it is being shown. Forest land in the United States is
largely privately owned. Since it is being exploited under private
ownership in this country, the weight of scientific opinion has
been thrown in the direction of extending public ownership of
forest land. For similar reasons a considerable area of land
used or useful for highways, water power sites, parks, etc., has
passed from private to public ownership. Public ownership is
regarded as most conducive to the conservation of natural
resources.
Where the public need is not overwhelming, and where the
effects of the misuse of privately owned land are limited to a
relatively few individuals, the prevailing opinion is in favor of
public regulation of private rights. This social side of private
property also has developed rapidly in recent years, particularly
in the centers of population. Most economists will be inclined to
support properly-drawn city planning and zoning laws, in so far
as they aim to stabilize land values and to economize the use of
land. An instance of the relation between ownership and the
regulated use of land is found in the increasingly perplexing traffic
problems of the largest cities. The economist points out that
adequate relief for traffic congestion represents a variety of very
complex problems. Building subways and three-deck streets may
simply attract more people and induce the construction of build-
ings of a kind to promote congestion, and thus make the problem
worse than it was before. Tt is also found that it is not enough
simply to restrain land owners from building skyscrapers.