Competition, land prices and city size

City size and the Henry George theorem under monopolistic competition

We analyze the equilibrium and the optimal resource allocations in a monocentric city under monopolistic competition. Unlike the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) case, where the equilibrium markups are independent of city size, we present a variable elasticity of substitution (VES) case where the equilibrium markups fall with city size. We then show that, due to excess entry triggered ...

Housing, Land Prices, and Growth

We consider the effects of land for housing on the growth process within an overlapping generations model. Our original interest was to enquire whether the introduction of land into a growth model might account for a “virtuous” circle in which saving-up for land (or housing) generates growth and higher land prices, generating further increases in saving, and so on. Such an account is sometimes ...

Part Iv: Modelling Land Prices and Land-use Transitions

Factors affecting agricultural land prices

n the twenty years that preceded 1920 I there was a 245 percent increase in the average per-acre price of farmland (including improvements) before land values fell sharply. Today’s escalation in land values-364 percent between 1957 and 1977-prompts some pointed questions: Have land prices reached their peak? If not, when will they plateau, if ever? Will they then decline and, if so, will the de...

Increasing Returns, Imperfect Competition and Factor Prices

We show how, in general equilibrium models featuring increasing returns, imperfect competition and endogenous markups, changes in the scale of economic activity affect income distribution across factors. Whenever Þnal goods are gross-substitutes (grosscomplements), a scale expansion raises (lowers) the relative reward of the scarce factor or the factor used intensively in the sector characteriz...