How land policy shapes economic outcomes in China, US, UK, and India

How to improve land and capture its value is central to growth and development policy even in the 21st century

It is two centuries, a year, a month, and a week since David Ricardo died. Ricardo was many things: A financier, an abolitionist, a liberal politician. He is remembered, however, as the founder of modern economics. He developed many of the essential principles that underlie economic theory, from the law of diminishing marginal returns, to comparative advantages in trade, to the functional equivalence between different ways of raising money.

But if I were to paraphrase Ricardian principles today, it would be this: When wealth grows, money is spent, or technology improves, the benefits flow to those who