The Political-Economy of Property Taxation and Land Taxation

Abstract

A key motivation for this study is the perceived gap between the theoretical benefits of the property and land tax and its application in practice. The next section summarizes several of the components characterizing this gap. The paper then proceeds by describing some of the elements that make the local tax system complex. This complexity suggests the importance of the local media frame. That is, faced with a highly complex issue, the local media will select and focus on only a few components of these issues. The fourth section of this paper then describes the methodological approach employed in this study to identify the presence and content of the local media frames. Findings from the analysis and the implications thereof are discussed in the paper’s final two sections.Property Taxation, Land Taxation, political economy of property taxation