City-size Tax, Henry George and Urban Scaling

City-size Tax, Henry George and Urban Scaling | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article City-size Tax, Henry George and Urban Scaling Christopher Webster, Chen Chen, Xiaohu Zhang, Kwong Wing Chau, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6916007/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The thought experiment in this study focuses on unearned urban public goods benefits, derived from city agglomeration economies, created and consumed by the many without price, and capitalised in the land market. We show that these rise with city size by a regular scale-free power law, with an exponent found commonly for other measures of social product. Our models reveal the rate at which unearned social surplus, captured in land value, rises with number of city inhabitants. This gives a city-size adjusted mean social surplus indicator, which we suggest could become the base for a land-value tax calibrated on expected differences in ‘windfall’ agglomeration benefits across a country’s city size gradient. The idea opens new lines of enquiry in the long-standing search for a so-called Georgist tax – a non-distortionary alternative to income, profits, property and other kinds of taxation. A city-size Georgist tax could help address many of the most pressing, ubiquitous and intransigent urban ills such as housing unaffordability, property bubbles and crashes, regional disparities, imbalanced primate city systems and over-stretched urban public services. Social science/Economics Social science/Geography Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterial.pdf Supplementary Figures, Tables and Notes Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6916007","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":499680469,"identity":"dc1e55ad-9248-4bf7-a5cb-24d08f03fad7","order_by":0,"name":"Christopher 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