This article contributes to contemporary debates within the financialization and assetization literatures by examining the sale of tax credits in U.S. property markets over the last twenty years. Whereas the vast majority of research on financial assets focuses on the income-generating aspects of property, this article considers a more holistic approach to assets. Through detailed empirical analysis of syndication in historic tax credit and conservation easement markets, we demonstrate how assets are not just sources of income or cash flow but also—critically—sources of expense reduction. Drawing from relevant U.S. tax law and related legal provisions, we trace three interlocking components in the assetization process: enabling and disabling legislation, the structures and typologies of property ownership, and the actors that make deals happen. By starting with asset creation, rather than assumed geographies of investment, we bridge the rural–urban divide to reveal new geographies of finance sourced directly from the state. Although the tax sheltering dimensions of assets are unique in this regard, the state retains the capacity to unmake assets that lack “economic substance.” As such, this article offers a new direction forward—a legal-institutionalist framework—that foregrounds the state as setting and enforcing the limits to financialization.

本文通过研究过去二十年来美国房地产市场的税收抵免销售情况，为金融化和资产化文献中的当代辩论做出贡献。尽管对金融资产的绝大多数研究都集中在财产的创收方面，但本文考虑了一种更全面的资产方法。通过对历史税收抵免和保护地役权市场中的银团进行详细的实证分析，我们展示了资产如何不仅是收入或现金流的来源，而且——至关重要的是——减少开支的来源。借鉴相关的美国税法和相关法律规定，我们追踪资产化过程中的三个相互关联的组成部分：启用和禁用立法、财产所有权的结构和类型，以及促成交易的行为者。通过从资产创造开始，而不是假设的投资地域，我们弥合了城乡鸿沟，揭示了直接来自国家的新金融地域。尽管资产的避税维度在这方面是独一无二的，但国家保留了取消缺乏“经济实质”的资产的能力。因此，本文提供了一个新的前进方向——法律制度主义框架——将国家置于设定和执行金融化限制的前景。