Disparities of Urban Land Values and Shift in Land Use

Land is a factor of production and a consumer good, at the same time. Along with labour, capital and management, land is treated as one of the basic factors of production. Land can also be treated as a commodity as it fulfills human needs. Land and improvements on land provide direct consumer services. It provides shelter, produces return in the form of rent and is held as a means of saving. The supply of land, its non-depreciation character permits to be kept from use for reaping capital gains. The supply of land has two important phenomena. First, the over-all supply of land resources is limited to the sum total of land resource provided by the earth's surface. Thus the physical supply of land is fixed and inelastic. Second, the economic supply of land concerns, only that portion of physical supply, which man uses It is determined by the particular use land put to use in response to price at a given time and location. The economic supply of land can be increased by intensive use or extensive use of land as in the case of reclamation.