Hey, I don't know if there's a typo here or if I just lack the background, but I can't understand the system you're describing in this paragraph:
> Real estate is a great example. The colonial government set the scene for the oligopoly when they decided to fund their budget with land sales. All land was Crown land till decided otherwise. The government auctioned land with a twist - anyone who paid a land not designated for conversion had to pay a large conversion premium before it began. The effect was to rule out small players in the market and create an oligopoly. A paper found that the lowest return on one of these transactions (including the conversion premium) was 77% and the highest was 364%!
"Paid a land" I think should be "paid for a land." But I'm not clear on when the conversion premium happened (before... what exactly began?), and I don't really understand how there was an auction already set up for land that wasn't designated for conversion from Crown -> non-Crown land.
Thanks for posting this Pradyumna. I imagine this takes of a lot of your time so thank you for doing it.
Hey just wanted to say thanks for posting this. The news article from 1999 about Jimmy Lai vs Li was especially gripping.
Hey, I don't know if there's a typo here or if I just lack the background, but I can't understand the system you're describing in this paragraph:
> Real estate is a great example. The colonial government set the scene for the oligopoly when they decided to fund their budget with land sales. All land was Crown land till decided otherwise. The government auctioned land with a twist - anyone who paid a land not designated for conversion had to pay a large conversion premium before it began. The effect was to rule out small players in the market and create an oligopoly. A paper found that the lowest return on one of these transactions (including the conversion premium) was 77% and the highest was 364%!
"Paid a land" I think should be "paid for a land." But I'm not clear on when the conversion premium happened (before... what exactly began?), and I don't really understand how there was an auction already set up for land that wasn't designated for conversion from Crown -> non-Crown land.
Could you elaborate a bit?