Instructions
You must write on each of the following questions. You may use up to two (2) blue books. You have been required to bring two (2) blue books to class on exam day without any markings, including your name, on them. The blue books will be collected at the start of the exam period, mixed up, and then redistributed.
Each question has equal weight.
1) What is the Henry George Property Tax Theorem? Demonstrate, derive and prove the effects upon the open city if there is an increase in property tax. Is this consistent with the Henry George Theorem? Is the Henry George Theorem a special case of the open city; why?
2) Discuss the effects upon the closed city if there is a decrease in transportation cost. Use in your discussion the graph of direct effect upon utility from a decrease in transportation cost.
3) The city builds a park in downtown Gainesville. Describe and explain what type of public good the park is. Describe and explain what the effect will be upon property values and population density for an open city, downtown. Will the new park create an equal amount of excitement between the inner city and the suburbs? Why?
4) Say that density is set by zoning action to be less than the market. Demonstrate what the effect will be upon land prices if welfare is unchanging.
5) In the former Soviet Union, rent was effectively zero. Most everyone lived in the same footprint of highrise building. Demonstrate and derive the resulting household welfare surface. Would households be better or worse off in such a setting? Why? Where?
5) Read the excerpt below from a 1996 article from the Gainesville
Sun newspaper pertaining to a subdivision to have been built in 1996
outside of High Springs. High Springs has a population about 3,500 persons
and is located about 15 miles to the Northwest of Gainesville. It is about
ten miles west of I-75 on old SR 441. Evaluate the situation using as many
of the land economics concepts as appropriate. You will be graded on your
ability to focus in on the important issues, and to correctly evaluate
those issues.
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...grand subdivision ... |
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| By Kathy Ciotola, Gainesville Sun - 1996. | |||
| Picture acres of unspoiled meadows, trees and a natural sinkhole. This
may not sound like a subdivision, but it is in the plan for one - a 75-acre
subdivision in High Springs. ...
... a plan that reduced the acreage per lot to between two to four acreas and left the rest of the land as a common area. The plan received a zoning variance last month from Alachua County, which allows developers to build the homes on less than the [normally required] five acres... Many houses will be centered around the edge of the meadows, so people will be able to overlook acres of open land... Each of the 15 homes ... will be at least 2,200 square feet with two-car garages. Prices start at $200,000, including the lot. Property values have increased since Gainesville was named the No. 1 place to live by Money Magazine ... |
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