The Dynamics of Urban Land Rent in Italian Regional Capital Cities

This research tries to interpret the results of the empirical analysis of urban land value variations from 1977 to 2012 in the regional Italian capital cities based on the well-known theory of urban land rent. The historical series to be analyzed were obtained as the difference between the market value of a property and its cost of production. The paper shows, in quantitative terms, how differential and absolute rents will be translated into the dynamics of land values in relation to local specificities. The analysis of urban land rent evolution and the comparative study of the phenomenon compared to urban geography highlighted the difference among the various urban systems investigated and the criticalities generated by processes of transformation that have affected some Italian urban contexts. The difference is essentially explained by the different weight of macroeconomic variables, related to national and international contexts, and microeconomic variables, closely related to local demand and supply, in the process of rent formation.