Property tax reform and urban sprawl—Evidence from provincial data in China

Property tax reform and urban sprawl have become the policy concern of national prominence in my country. It is very urgent to study the effect of property tax reform on the urban spawl not only to design and improve property tax reform but also to imply decision on the Third Plenary Session of the 18^th CPC Central Committee. Using the provincial data from 2001 to 2011 in china, this paper tests the influence of the property tax rate on turban sprawl from the current three main ideas of property tax reform. The result shows the increasing property tax can help curb urban sprawl. Moreover, the negative effect of property tax in scheme 2 is most obvious. If extending the taxation scope to commodity house, the same effect will also be achieved.