The Political Economy of Urban Land Reform in Hawaii

Sumner La Croix, James Mak () and Louis Rose
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James Mak: Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa

No 199506, Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics

Abstract: In the mid 1960s there were about 22,000 single-family leasehold homes in Honolulu. Dissatisfaction with leasehold led to reform legislation in 1967, allowing lessees to buy leased land. By 1991 less than 5000 lessees remained. This paper examines why landowners elected to lease rather than sell land and attributes the rise of leasehold to legal constraints on land sales by large estates, duties of estate trustees and the federal tax code. Idelogical forces initiated land reform in 1967, but rent-seeking forces captured the process in the mid 1970s. It is concluded that Hawaii's experiment with leasehold was a failure due to the difficulties associated with specifying and enforcing long-term contracts in residential land.

Pages: 18 pages
Date: 1995
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/88-98/WP_95-6.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: The Political Economy of Urban Land Reform in Hawaii (1995)
Working Paper: The Political Economy of Urban Land Reform in Hawaii (1993)
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