Recovery of the urban income: a pending ethical task

Authors

  • Mario Torres Jofré Universidad de Chile

Abstract

This paper attempts to contribute to the current discussion and proposals on the need to recover the rents generated by the urban development process. It contrasts the economic, taxation and moral visions on land, with the aim of supporting the need to recover urban land rent. As a way of locating the problematic, it explains the existence of a highly complex and imperfect land market, which requires urgent regulation. Along this, it explains how, the benefits provided by taxation norms - given as a set of exemptions -, favour the accumulation of land rent in the hands of landowners, stimulating speculation, contributing to the exclusion and inequity in access to urban goods and services. Finally, considering the ethical category of common good, urges legislating to re-establish the social role of land, in the aim of resolving the outstanding ethical dilemma the making of the city.

Author Biography

Mario Torres Jofré, Universidad de Chile

Académico Instituto de la Vivienda, Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, U. de Chile.