ECONOMIC ISSUES OF LAND USE AND LAND TENURE SYSTEMS IN TAIWAN

Land is a commodity, but it also is a resource of permanent importance. The supply of land is limited, and most land-use decisions are essentially irreversible. For example, an agricultural land that becomes a suburban development is not likely to revert to its original use. With its scarcity in nature, land resource problems have been widely discussed by economists for many years. The economic framework is primarily concerned with the operation of the market system as it affects each individual in his attempt to make profitable use of his land-resource base. Land-resource can be viewed in two different ways. It is an in situ natural resource and also a renewable natural resource commodity. The available stock of land constitutes an upper limit on how much productivities that can be generated for agricultural uses over the time path. Thus, it is useful to define S(t) as the stock of land in area, and F(t) as the flow of land opportunity productivity (LOP) separately.