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 133 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.

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