Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Robbe Demey, a statistician at Valuebase visiting from Belgium, to explore why property tax matters from both philosophical and economic efficiency perspectives. The conversation covers the Georgist case for land value taxation, the dire state of property tax in Belgium where valuations haven't been updated since 1975, and the persistent challenge of vertical equity in mass appraisal models. Robbe Demey also dives into how cross-validation and ensemble modeling techniques are pushing the frontier of property tax assessment, and what it would take to fix property tax across Europe.

• 00:00 – Introduction and welcome with Robbe Demey, a Valuebase statistician visiting from Belgium
• 01:30 – Why property tax matters: the philosophical fairness argument and economic efficiency of land value taxation
• 03:50 – Natural resources, property rights, and the philosophical case for taxing land versus labor and capital
• 06:00 – Land, violence, and the Georgist proposal for peace through fair resource distribution
• 08:45 – Land reform lessons from Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Asia — and why land value tax is a better mechanism
• 11:20 – The state of property tax in Belgium: outdated 1975 valuations, second-toilet quirks, and government secrecy
• 14:30 – What it would take to fix Belgian property tax through courts, better valuation, and public support
• 16:30 – EU tax policy, VAT coordination, and why property tax works best at the local level
• 17:30 – Vertical equity in property tax: why mass appraisal models systematically overtax low-value and undertax high-value properties
• 22:45 – Cross-validation and holdout sets: why rigorous model testing is essential and underused in the industry
• 27:15 – The frontier of mass appraisal: better locational data, ensemble models, and the wisdom of crowds approach
• 31:30 – How to fix property tax in Europe: reducing income taxes, rallying support, and convincing landlords everyone benefits