ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Land Is Not Soap

Or Why the Usual Demand–Supply Curves Do Not Apply to Land

The intersecting curves of demand and supply on a graph of price against quantity are widely used to understand the market for every kind of commodity. The argument here is that it is incorrect to use these curves when trying to understand or explain the market for land.

Reviewing a slide presentation prepared by an economist, now ex-World Bank, my comment on one of his slides (Figure 1, p 34) was of a rudeness possible only within an unshakeable friendship: “This is a horribly misleading slide. Too beloved of economists. It applies to soap. It cannot apply to land. Please think it through, carefully.”

 

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Updated On : 18th Jan, 2019
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