William Vickrey
Nobel laureate economist (1914–1996) who championed land value taxation and congestion pricing, calling the property tax 'two taxes' that should be split toward land.
Overview
William Vickrey (1914–1996) was a Canadian-American economist awarded the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize (days before his death) for work on incentives under asymmetric information. A lifelong public-finance reformer, he was also an outspoken advocate of land value taxation.
Views on Land
Vickrey argued that the conventional property tax is really two taxes — a good tax on land and a bad tax on buildings — and that the building portion should be reduced or eliminated in favour of taxing land. He considered the land tax close to an ideal revenue source: efficient, hard to evade, and fair. He is often quoted as calling the removal of the building tax and reliance on land "the only tax that is completely neutral."
Broader Contributions
Vickrey pioneered congestion pricing — applying the same logic of charging for scarce, commonly-owned access (road space) that Georgists apply to land. His endorsement gave LVT strong standing in mainstream public economics.
See Also
Sources
- William Vickrey, writings on property and land taxation (collected public-finance essays).