Chen, Daniel L. and Yeh, Susan (2016) Government Expropriation Increases Economic Growth and Racial Inequality: Evidence from Eminent Domain. TSE Working Paper, n. 16-693

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Abstract

Is it justified for states to appropriate private property rights? If so, should governments expropriate or regulate?We test three conventional views: insecure property rights cause underinvestment, moral hazard cause overinvestment, or public use cause economic growth.We embed these mechanisms in a model and measure them using the random assignment of U.S. federal court judges setting geographicallylocal precedent. For a half-century, racial minority Democrats were more likely to strike down government appropriations while Republican former federal prosecutors were more likely to uphold them. We find that pro-government physical takings precedent stimulated subsequent takings, expropriation of larger parcels, highway construction, and growth in construction, transportation, and government sectors as well as agriculture, retail, and financial sectors, overall economic growth, and property values. However, racial minorities were increasingly displaced, unemployed, and living in public housing, and the service sector declined. Pro-government regulatory takings precedent also spurred economic growth and property values, but did not increase displacement or racial inequality.

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Language: English
Date: September 2016
Uncontrolled Keywords: Property rights, displacement, regulation, takings
JEL Classification: K11 - Property Law
R38 - Government Policies; Regulatory Policies
R52 - Land Use and Other Regulations
Subjects: B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE
Divisions: TSE-R (Toulouse)
Institution: Université Toulouse Capitole
Site: UT1
Date Deposited: 14 Sep 2016 08:26
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2021 13:36
OAI Identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:30795
URI: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/22360
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