Dwyer (1980): A History of the Theory of Land Value Taxation

Overview

"A History of the Theory of Land-Value Taxation" is Terence Michael Dwyer's PhD dissertation, presented to Harvard University's Department of Economics in May 1980 (copyright 1981) under advisor Richard A. Musgrave.[1] The thesis surveys the theory of land value taxation from John Locke to the late 1970s, examining the classical claim that rent is "uniquely a costless income" and the arguments that a tax on land rent cannot be shifted onto tenants. Its stated core contribution goes further: the dissertation's own abstract argues "not only can land values be taxed without excess burden but they must be taxed if market failure and economic inefficiency are to be avoided."[1]

That claim — that land value taxation is not merely neutral (imposing no deadweight loss) but actively welfare-improving, correcting distortions left uncorrected by capital-market imperfections — is what Mason Gaffney and Fred Harrison's postscript to The Corruption of Economics credits Dwyer with terming "superneutrality."[2] Dwyer later built on this dissertation's Australasian appendices in his applied study The Taxable Capacity of Australian Land and Resources (2003).[1][3] The 1980 dissertation appears not to have been published as a standalone monograph; it remains most accessible as a scanned PDF hosted by the Georgist archive Cooperative Individualism.

See Also

• Dwyer — The Taxable Capacity of Australian Land and Resources — Dwyer's later applied revenue-capacity study
• The Corruption of Economics — the book whose postscript attributes "superneutrality" to this dissertation
• Land Value Tax — the policy this dissertation's theory concerns
• Deadweight Loss — the "excess burden" concept Dwyer argues land taxation avoids and other taxes do not

Sources

1. Terence Michael Dwyer, "A History of the Theory of Land-Value Taxation," PhD dissertation, Department of Economics, Harvard University, presented May 1980 (copyright 1981). PDF (Cooperative Individualism archive) — used for title, date, advisor, and the abstract's statement of the thesis's core argument (title page and abstract examined directly).
2. Mason Gaffney & Fred Harrison, The Corruption of Economics (1994; 2022 postscript by Kris Feder). Book page — used for the attribution of the term "superneutrality" to this dissertation; the term itself was not independently located at a specific page in the scanned dissertation text or in the postscript this session, so this attribution rests on Gaffney & Harrison's characterization and is treated as unverified beyond the abstract's own wording. A future editor should add the page locator where "superneutrality" is coined/defined.
3. Dwyer — The Taxable Capacity of Australian Land and Resources — existing wiki page corroborating the superneutrality attribution and the dissertation's role in Dwyer's later work.