Economies of scale in property tax assessment

We estimate the costs of performing property tax assessments using a transl og cost Junction over a sample of 138 county-level assessment offices in Ge orgia. We find that there are substantial economies of scale. For example, computed at the sample means, a ten percent increase in the volume of asses sments results in an increase of approximately three percent in total costs . The model considers both the number of parcels ann the value of parcels a s alternate measures of volume; both measures give similar results. We also estimate a two-product cost function, with residential and nonresidential property assessment as the different outputs. These results show no evidenc e of economies of scope, and calculated economies of scale are very close t o the single output results.