IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v42y2014i5p662-685.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessment Administration and Performance during the Great Recession

Author

Listed:
  • Geoffrey Propheter

Abstract

This study explores the performance of assessment administration during the Great Recession using a panel of Washington state counties from 2006 to 2011. The housing bust is treated as a productivity shock to the assessment process. Due to rapidly changing environmental conditions and declining assessor resources, assessment performance, as measured by the residential coefficient of dispersion, is predicted to suffer. Only the former condition is found to impact residential assessment uniformity, however. The results suggest that the increased task complexity in an environment of falling home prices gives homeowners experiencing wide swings in market value de facto assessment relief. In order to maintain high levels of performance during poor economic conditions, a number of policy alternatives are proposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Geoffrey Propheter, 2014. "Assessment Administration and Performance during the Great Recession," Public Finance Review, , vol. 42(5), pages 662-685, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:42:y:2014:i:5:p:662-685
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142113490986
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142113490986
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1091142113490986?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey P. Cohen & Cletus C. Coughlin & David A. Lopez, 2012. "The boom and bust of U.S. housing prices from various geographic perspectives," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Sep, pages 341-368.
    2. Chicoine, David L. & Giertz, J. Fred, 1988. "Uniformity in a Dual Assessment System," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 41(2), pages 247-56, June.
    3. Sjoquist, David L. & Walker, Mary Beth, 1999. "Economies of Scale in Property Tax Assessment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 2), pages 207-20, June.
    4. Alm, James & Buschman, Robert D. & Sjoquist, David L., 2011. "Rethinking local government reliance on the property tax," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 320-331, July.
    5. Sjoquist, David L. & Walker, Mary Beth, 1999. "Economies of Scale in Property Tax Assessment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(2), pages 207-220, June.
    6. Michael D. Makowsky & Shane Sanders, 2010. "Political Costs and Fiscal Benefits: The Political Economy of Residential Property Value Assessment," Working Papers 2010-16, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2010.
    7. Mehta, Shekhar & Giertz, J. Fred, 1996. "Measuring the Performance of the Property Tax Assessment Process," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 49(1), pages 73-85, March.
    8. Chernick, Howard & Langley, Adam & Reschovsky, Andrew, 2011. "The impact of the Great Recession and the housing crisis on the financing of America's largest cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 372-381, July.
    9. Justin M. Ross, 2012. "Interjurisdictional Determinants of Property Assessment Regressivity," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(1), pages 28-42.
    10. Melvin V. Borland, 1990. "On the Degree of Property Tax Assessment Inequity in Complex Tax Jurisdictions," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 431-438, October.
    11. Lutz, Byron & Molloy, Raven & Shan, Hui, 2011. "The housing crisis and state and local government tax revenue: Five channels," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 306-319, July.
    12. David Downs & Z. Güner, 2012. "Information Producers and Valuation: Evidence from Real Estate Markets," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 167-183, January.
    13. Mehta, Shekhar & Giertz, J. Fred, 1996. "Measuring the Performance of the Property Tax Assessment Process," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 49(1), pages 73-85, March.
    14. Bowman, John H. & Mikesell, John L., 1989. "Elected Versus Appointed Assessors and the Achievement of Assessment Uniformity," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 42(2), pages 181-89, June.
    15. Earl D. Benson & Arthur L. Schwartz, Jr., 1997. "Vertical Equity in the Taxation of Single Family Homes," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 14(3), pages 215-232.
    16. Hillhouse, Joel J. & Adler, Christine M., 1997. "Investigating stress effect patterns in hospital staff nurses: Results of a cluster analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(12), pages 1781-1788, December.
    17. Chicoine, David L. & Giertz, J. Fred, 1988. "Uniformity in a Dual Assessment System," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 41(2), pages 247-256, June.
    18. Griffin, Ronald C. & Montgomery, John M. & Rister, M. Edward, 1987. "Selecting Functional Form In Production Function Analysis," Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 12(2), pages 1-12, December.
    19. Bowman, John H. & Mikesell, John L., 1989. "Elected Versus Appointed Assessors and the Achievement of Assessment Uniformity," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 42(2), pages 181-189, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yilin Hou & Yusun Kim & John Yinger, 2019. "Does Coordination Among Assessing Units Generate Returns to Scale? Evidence from New York State," CESifo Working Paper Series 7931, CESifo.
    2. Kolbe, Jens & Schulz, Rainer & Wersing, Martin & Werwatz, Axel, 2019. "Land value appraisal using statistical methods," FORLand Working Papers 07 (2019), Humboldt University Berlin, DFG Research Unit 2569 FORLand "Agricultural Land Markets – Efficiency and Regulation".
    3. Jens Kolbe & Rainer Schulz & Martin Wersing & Axel Werwatz, 2019. "Bodenwertermittlung mit statistischen Methoden [Land value appraisal using statistical methods]," Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie (German Journal of Real Estate Research), Springer;Gesellschaft für Immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung e. V., vol. 5(1), pages 131-154, November.
    4. Hamid Beladi & Nicholas S. P. Tay & Reza Oladi, 2011. "On Competition for Listings," Working Papers 0003, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    5. John Merrifield & Yong Bao, 2007. "Residential Property Taxation: Is Periodic Reassessment worth it?," Working Papers 0003, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    6. Goodman, Christopher B, 2018. "House Prices & Property Tax Revenues During the Boom & Bust: Evidence from Small-Area Estimates," SocArXiv fam2d, Center for Open Science.
    7. Chernick, Howard & Reschovsky, Andrew & Newman, Sandra, 2021. "The effect of the housing crisis on the finances of central cities," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    8. Makowsky, Michael & Sanders, Shane, 2013. "Political costs and fiscal benefits: The political economy of residential property value assessment under Proposition 212," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(3), pages 359-363.
    9. Richard Harris & Michael Lehman, 2001. "Social and Geographic Inequities in the Residential Property Tax: A Review and Case Study," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(5), pages 881-900, May.
    10. Justin Ross & Wenli Yan & Craig Johnson, 2015. "The Public Financing Of America'S Largest Cities: A Study Of City Financial Records In The Wake Of The Great Recession," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 113-138, January.
    11. Jian Chen & David H. Downs, 2013. "Property Tax and Tenure Choice: Implications for China," International Real Estate Review, Global Social Science Institute, vol. 16(3), pages 323-343.
    12. Ross, Justin M. & Yan, Wenli, 2013. "Fiscal Illusion From Property Reassessment? An Empirical Test of the Residual View," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(1), pages 7-32, March.
    13. Jerch, Rhiannon & Kahn, Matthew E. & Lin, Gary C., 2023. "Local public finance dynamics and hurricane shocks," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    14. James Alm, 2017. "Is Economics Useful for Public Policy?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(4), pages 835-854, April.
    15. Chernick, Howard & Langley, Adam & Reschovsky, Andrew, 2011. "The impact of the Great Recession and the housing crisis on the financing of America's largest cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 372-381, July.
    16. Albert Solé-Ollé & Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal, 2017. "Housing booms and busts and local fiscal policy," Working Papers XREAP2017-14, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Dec 2017.
    17. Agnese Sacchi & Simone Salotti, 2017. "The influence of decentralized taxes and intergovernmental grants on local spending volatility," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 507-522, April.
    18. Siodla, James, 2020. "Debt and taxes: Fiscal strain and US city budgets during the Great Depression," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    19. Ihlanfeldt, Keith R. & Willardsen, Kevin, 2014. "The millage rate offset and property tax revenue stability," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 167-176.
    20. Anderson, Nathan B., 2012. "Market value assessment and idiosyncratic tax-price risk: Understanding the consequences of alternative definitions of the property tax base," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 545-560.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:42:y:2014:i:5:p:662-685. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.