The Local Politics of Property Taxation: Do Parties Matter? The Case of Property Tax Rates Across the Urban Areas of Paris and London, 2002–2016

The local choice of residential property tax rates has been analysed in the existing literature mainly through two lenses: strategic interaction among local governments through tax or yardstick competition and the median-voter perspective which highlights the antagonistic interests of tenants and homeowners. Adding to this literature, the following paper asks to what extend political parties shape local property tax rates. Property taxes are a central source of own revenue for local governments across the OECD. Hence this policy field represents a litmus test for evaluating whether parties play a role in local fiscal politics. The paper analyses effective property tax rates across local governments composing the urban areas of Paris and London between 2002 and 2016.