Economic essays

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Land economics / Richard T. Ely

Collection:: Economics Books

LAND ECONOMICS 127 the undue expansion of the urban area which is responsible for enormous waste and in many cases the losses of the savings of a life time. We need not dwell further upon the importance of the topics which we take up in land economics. The question can be asked, whether, so far, any valuable results are being obtained either in theory or in practice. It is believed that the discussion that has been begun is going to lead to correc- tion and amplification of economic theory, although we have barely made a beginning. An effort has been made to get away from the old dogmatic treatment of the rent of land by approaching the subject from the point of view of cost and income in land utilization. We find that land which is utilized yields an income. That is one side of the ledger, but what about the cost element—that is the other side. We have also taken over from public utility economics the idea of historical cost. When this method is pursued, it is difficult to find any peculiar or special surplus. Such statistical inquiries as have been made indicate rather a relatively low income on the investment in land; but we need a great deal more research than we have at the present time. The more recent theory of land income holds that land yields an income substantially of the same character as other forms of income. According to the older theory of land income or rent, it was a peculiar type of income, a differential, unearned surplus, arising from the superiority of some land over other land. Instead of a single margin from which rents are measured, we now find many margins. Moreover, these margins do not have the same significance in fixing rent, for the newer theory tends to regard land income as determined by about the same forces and con- siderations that affect the income from any other economic good. Thus the income from land depends upon the prices that will be paid for the products and services of land, and these prices in turn are affected by the innumerable factors determining prices in general. The income from land is not entirely a monetary return, although it is commonly so reckoned in most transactions involv- ing the transfer of landed property. When considered from the point of view of consumption as distinguished from production, a considerable part of land income is in the form of amenities or psychic income. By amenities are meant beautiful scenery, a

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