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Land (economics)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Economics

   In economics, land comprises all naturally occurring resources whose
   supply is inherently fixed (i.e., does not respond to changes in
   price), such as geographical locations (excluding infrastructural
   improvements and "natural capital", which can be degraded by human
   actions), mineral deposits, and even geostationary orbit locations and
   portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. In classical economics it is
   considered one of three factors of production, the other two being
   capital and labor; income derived from ownership or control of natural
   resources is often referred to as rent.

   Land in the economic sense of the term is not produced by human labor,
   but only by the forces of nature (or God, in theistic views). Georgists
   hold that this implies a perfectly inelastic supply curve (i.e., zero
   elasticity), suggesting that a land value tax that recovers the rent of
   land for public purposes would not affect the opportunity cost of using
   land, but would instead only decrease the value of owning it. This view
   is supported by evidence that although land can come on and off the
   market, market inventories of land show if anything an inverse
   relationship to price (i.e., negative elasticity). And although land
   (especially in the form of, e.g., mineral deposits) must first be
   discovered in order to have value or be put to use, it is generally
   conceded that the fruits of scientific discoveries, whether of natural
   laws or of mineral deposits, cannot rightly be monopolized for purposes
   of private economic rent capture.

   Land, particularly geographic locations and mineral desposits, has
   historically been the cause of much conflict and dispute; land reform
   programmes, which are designed to redistribute possession and/or use of
   geographic land, are often the cause of much controversy, and conflicts
   over the economic rent of mineral deposits have contributed to many
   civil wars, particularly in Africa.

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