Figures, tables and boxes xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Abbreviations xv
Glossary xvii
Foreword
by John Muellbauer xxiii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 What is land? 3
1.2 What is the value of land? 6
1.3 Landownership and economic rent 10
1.4 Summary of chapters 13
2. Landowner ship and property 15
2.1 Introduction 15
2.2 Landownership: origins of the theory and forms 16
2.3 Landownership as freedom: secure title and economic growth 20
2.4 Landownership as theft: power and economic rent 22
2.5 Hypothesis: property is liberty, property is theft 25
2.6 Responses to the ownership paradox 29
2.7 Conclusion 35
3. The missing factor: land in production and distribution 37
3.1 Introduction 37
3.2 Classical political economy: land and economic rent 39
3.3 Land tax or separation as a solution to the problem of economic rent 45
3.4 Neoclassical economics and the conflation of land with capital 48
3.5 Problems with the neoclassical account: fundamental differences between land and capital 51
3.6 Political reasons for the disappearance of land from economic theory 57
3.7 Land and socialism 59
3.8 Consequences of the conflation of land and capital today 62
3.9 Conclusion 64
4. Land for housing: land economics in the modern era 66
4.1 Introduction 66
4.2 The Industrial Revolution and the growth of cities 68
4.3 1900-1970: world wars and the golden age of capitalism 74
4.4 1970 onwards: the emergence of 'residential capitalism' 86
4.5 The new political economy of housing 91
4.6 Conclusion 106
5. The financialisation of land and housing 109
5.1 Introduction 109
5.2 House and land prices, income and bank credit 112
5.3 Mortgage finance, the 'lifecycle' model and the role of collateral 124
5.4 The history of mortgage and real estate finance in the UK 128
5.5 Macroeconomic effects of the liberalisation of mortgage credit 142
5.6 The property-credit nexus and financial fragility 150
5.7 Conclusion 158
6. Land, wealth and inequality 161
6.1 Introduction 161
6.2 Trends in economic inequality 162
6.3 Traditional explanations for increasing inequality 165
6.4 The role of land and economic rent in increasing inequality 169
6.5 Why inequality matters 185
6.6 Conclusion 187
7. Putting land back into economics and policy 189
7.1 Introduction 189
7.2 Ownership 193
7.3 Tax reform 199
7.4 Financial reform 205
7.5 Reforms to tenure 212
7.6 Planning reform 215
7.7 Changes to economics and national accounting 217
7.8 Conclusion 221
Bibliography 225
Index 245