TY  - BOOK
AU  - Shavell,Steven
TI  - Eminent domain versus government purchase of land given imperfect information about owners’ valuations
SN  - 00222186
AV  - HB73 JOU 
PY  - 2010///
CY  - Chicago
PB  - University of Chicago Press
KW  - Acquisition costs
KW  - Business orders
KW  - Eminent domain
KW  - Government purchases
KW  - Intuition
KW  - Land distribution
KW  - Land ownership
KW  - Landowners
KW  - Social costs
N2  - Governments employ two basic policies for acquiring land: taking it through the exercise of their power of eminent domain, and purchasing it. The social desirability of these policies is compared in a model in which the government’s information about landowners’ valuations is imperfect. Under this assumption, the policy of purchase possesses the market test advantage that the government obtains land from an owner only if its offer exceeds the owner’s valuation. However, the policy suffers from a drawback when the land that the government needs is owned by many parties. In that case, the government’s acquisition will fail if any of the owners refuses to sell. Hence, eminent domain becomes appealing if the number of landowners is large. This conclusion holds regardless of whether the land that the government seeks is a parcel at a fixed location or instead is a contiguous parcel that may be located anywhere in a region
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1086/596115
ER  -