{"id":49294,"date":"2011-11-02T08:09:53","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T12:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=49294"},"modified":"2011-11-04T11:13:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T15:13:24","slug":"the-economics-of-eminent-domain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/11\/the-economics-of-eminent-domain\/","title":{"rendered":"The Economics of Eminent Domain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>Two words that can strike terror in a homeowner\u2019s heart also describe the research of economist Thomas J. Miceli: Eminent domain.<\/p>\n

Miceli, a professor of economics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, says eminent domain, a subject that can join conservatives and liberals in a passionate defense of private property, can be seen in another light. In his recently published book The Economic Theory of Eminent Domain <\/em>(Cambridge University Press), he describes how many economists view the subject.<\/p>\n

Taking private property for public use is justified when a more valuable use of the land will result, he says. Eminent domain solves what economists call \u201cthe holdout problem,\u201d which they view as a kind of market failure that prevents maximizing the value of the land.<\/p>\n

The controversial Kelo decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 upholding the city of New London\u2019s eminent domain claim to the property of Susette Kelo and others in the Fort Trumbull area, was \u201cthe right decision for the wrong reason,\u201d Miceli says.<\/p>\n

His case is neither emotional, nor political, nor personal.<\/p>\n

While the court decision was argued on political grounds and raised great controversy because the resulting development would have been private, the economic grounds were compelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key point is, it doesn\u2019t matter whether the large project is truly public or private,\u201d he says. Even a private development that would offer a beneficial higher use of the land can justify the government\u2019s taking of land by eminent domain.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London that was the subject of a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision on eminent domain is now overgrown. (Creative Commons image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The New London case caused states around the country to pass more restrictive eminent domain laws to prevent similar takings. In New London, the land taking was intended to benefit a private development of waterfront apartments and shops meant to serve Pfizer employees and generate jobs and tax revenues for the city. But the recession hit, and Pfizer closed its New London facility. Meanwhile the city had taken the land, razed houses, and moved homeowners. Now it owns a vacant field and empty sidewalks.<\/p>\n

But the decision to take the land under eminent domain was based on an assessment, valid when it was made, that development was the most valuable use, Miceli points out.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t evaluate these things in hindsight,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Still, he adds, \u201c\u201cI worry a lot about the quantitative measures of welfare.\u201d In other words, what is the threshold of the greater good.<\/p>\n

Miceli has visited the vacant land \u2013 his grandfather, Giuseppe Miceli, owned a house a mile or so away, and he spent summers in New London as a child. Family lore has it that his grandfather, a gardener at Connecticut College, was instrumental in setting up the college\u2019s famous arboretum.<\/p>\n

He is not unsympathetic to the homeowners who held out in the New London case.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an economist, I don\u2019t question their motives \u2013 it\u2019s private property, and they have a right not to sell.\u201d But the economic theory is clear: Holdouts are in the way of the market.<\/p>\n

Miceli became interested in the subject of eminent domain as an undergraduate at Wesleyan when he took a course on the economics of the law. After earning a Ph.D. at Brown, he came to UConn in 1987 as an assistant professor and began doing research and publishing papers on eminent domain and related topics in urban economics.<\/p>\n

His latest book brings together ideas and economics research on eminent domain over the past 20 years. Economists can contribute insights to the debate, which usually centers on political grounds, he says. Their role is to ask a fundamental question.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is, when can government take private property without the owners\u2019 consent? Under what conditions? And what should be the compensation?\u201d<\/p>\n

Eminent domain cases bring together strange bedfellows, he says, citing conservative support for stricter state regulation of eminent domain in light of the Kelo decision. His book offers a view of the problem from a different perspective.<\/p>\n

Says Miceli, \u201cI hope someone who reads this book won\u2019t be able to tell my political views.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two words that can strike terror in a homeowner\u2019s heart also describe the research of economist Thomas J. Miceli: Eminent domain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-49294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-01 06:44:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49294"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49649,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49294\/revisions\/49649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/49068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49294"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=49294"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=49294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}