<i>The issue is not overall scarcity, but scarcity in specific places—the cities responsible for a disproportionate amount of the world’s output. The high price of land in these places is in part an unavoidable concomitant of success. But it is also the product of distortions that cost the world dear</i><p>The article is good but the title isn&#x27;t great; the real story isn&#x27;t about land per se, but about <i>land-use regulation</i>: the topics are related but quite distinct (and indeed the article says, &quot;The spread of land-use regulation is not hard to understand&quot;). As Matt Yglesias is fond of pointing out, steel-framed construction and elevators are well-understood, century-old technologies (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.slate.com&#x2F;blogs&#x2F;moneybox&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;03&#x2F;silicon_valley_housing_boom_there_s_no_such_thing.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.slate.com&#x2F;blogs&#x2F;moneybox&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;03&#x2F;silicon_valle...</a>).<p>But laws against deploying them have become important constraints on growth. The problems are really legal and political. The solutions will be (or won&#x27;t be) as well.