Harberger Tax

{{Short description|Property taxation model}}

The Harberger Tax, also known as Common Ownership Self-assessed Tax (COST), is a type of property tax that aims to improve societal welfare by optimising for both investment and allocative efficiency of private property. It proposes a new kind of "partial ownership", halfway between private ownership and common ownership.{{Cite journal |last1=Posner |first1=Eric A. |last2=Weyl |first2=E. Glen |title=Property Is Only Another Name for Monopoly |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/jla/lax001 |journal=Journal of Legal Analysis |publication-date=10 April 2017 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=51–123|doi=10.1093/jla/lax001 |doi-access=free }} The tax is implemented by two mechanisms:

• Owners periodically self-assess their property and pay tax on its value.
• Others are able to purchase the property from the owner at the taxed price at any time, forcing a sale.

First proposed by American economist Arnold Harberger,{{Cite journal |last=Harberger |first=Arnold C. |last2=Matus Romo |first2=Carlos |date=1965 |title=Issues for tax reform for Latin America |url=https://www.econbiz.de/Record/issues-for-tax-reform-for-latin-america-harberger-arnold/10002651630 |journal=Joint Tax Program of the Organization of American States, eds, Fiscal Policy for Economic Growth in Latin America |series= |pages=116–121}} it was further popularised in Glen Weyl and Eric Posner's book Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society.{{Cite web |date=2018-03-07 |title=Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society |url=https://paw.princeton.edu/new-books/radical-markets-uprooting-capitalism-and-democracy-just-society |access-date=2022-10-16 |website=Princeton Alumni Weekly |language=en}}