Land economics is a branch of economics which focuses on the uses and the role of land in the country’s economic. It is said that land is crucial in shaping how well a city functions and who gets the benefits from urban growth. In the past, land economics is said to focus on ecological sustainability but in recent decades, a new branch of economics which is environmental economics is made to replace it. Even so, land use still has a high impact on health and environment and thus one of its fields of focus is still on the environmental ramifications.

Land economics is often related to resources as the resource of land is scarce and limited. With this in mind, land speculation occurs everywhere all around the world and this caused situations in which supply cannot meet the demand. This is because the supply curve of land is stagnant and will not be affected by the change in demand. The resources available on the land such as minerals, forest products, land resources and water are also regarded important in economics as they are the raw materials needed. Thus land is important in land economics as it provides raw materials for the working of the market and that is why it is categorized as one of the factors of economics on par with labour and capital.

Other than this, land economics also focusses on the land use. Different land has different type of land use and this will affect the country’s economic growth in a certain way. For example, if a land in the hills are made for industrial purposes, the cost of production would have increase as the cost to transfer the goods from the manufacturers to the retailers would have increase a few fold and this affects the efficiency which in turns affect the economic. Thus it is crucial to have a well detailed plan on the land use of each land. This is because the land use directly influences the activities and productivities on the land. Thus we can also say that land economics is focused on land allocation as land is a scarce resource and its value is well influenced by it availability. This means that the allocation of land resources plays a critical role on how each land is treated. For example, in packed cities, land can be scarce and difficult to obtain, and it has a correspondingly high price. In rural regions, however, land may be very inexpensive due to decreased demand. Thus land economics is focussed on the allocation of resources to manage the supply and demand of each area.

Neo-classical economist gives very little interest to land as they typically treats land as a factor of production equivalent to the factors of economics capital and labour. Keynesian economist also gives very little concern to land because typically their analyses focus more on consumption, saving, investment and other economic aggregates. However, a georgist (geographical analyst) named Henry George has different ideas on the field of focus of land economics and have divided them into a few parts which are urban development, wealth inequality, housing affordability, environmental concerns and economic cycles.