REIT and Commercial Real Estate Returns: A Postmortem of the Financial Crisis

In the years surrounding the financial crisis, the share prices of equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) were much more volatile than the underlying commercial real estate prices. To better understand this phenomenon we examine the cross‐sectional dispersion of REIT returns during this time period with a particular focus on the influence of their capital structures. By looking at both the debt ratio and the maturity structure of the debt, we separate the pure leverage effect from the effect of financial distress. Consistent with leverage and financial distress costs amplifying the price decline, we find that the share prices of REITs with higher debt‐to‐asset ratios and shorter maturity debt fell more during the 2007 to early‐2009 crisis period. Although REIT prices rebounded with the bounce back in commercial real estate prices, financial distress costs had a permanent effect on REIT values. In particular, we find that REITs with more debt due during the crisis period tended to sell more property and issue more equity in 2009, when prices were depressed.     

Changes in subjective well-being with retirement: assessing savings adequacy

Does retirement represent a state of relative prosperity or unanticipated hardship? To assess whether individuals are successful in smoothing their well-being across the transition to retirement we analyse measures of subjective well-being (SWB) in the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Specifically, this research examines retirees’ current standard of living, financial security and overall happiness relative to their pre-retirement levels. It is found SWB either improves or remains constant for the large majority of individuals as they retire from the labour force. However, there are significant disparities in changes in well-being with retirement among the group of retirees. In particular, the subset of individuals who are forced to retire early due to job loss or their own health, and who find their income in retirement to be much less than expected, report marked declines in their SWB with retirement.     

Entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty

Individuals living in poverty remain a critical issue. This special issue focuses on how entrepreneurship can help to solve such poverty. Rather than viewing those in poverty as a market for goods, the solution lies in understanding how to help those living in poverty create their own businesses. Ultimately, entrepreneurship among those in poverty will create a long lasting solution to their poverty. Herein, we initially examine the extant knowledge about entrepreneurship. We then examine where future research on this important topic should move. Finally, we introduce the five articles that make up this special issue. These five articles came from the initial 71 submissions and enhance our knowledge about entrepreneurship as a pathway to reducing poverty.     

The Elasticity of Demand for Labour in Australia

The elasticity of demand for labour at the aggregate level is an important parameter for macroeconomic analysis. In particular, policy issues concerning the impact of wage falls on employment and unemployment hinge on the size of this parameter. It is argued in the present paper that previous work on the elasticity of demand for labour in Australia has been unsatisfactory in a number of ways. A new set of estimates is provided that are derived using a better methodology than before.     

Pastoral Accounting in Pre-Federation Victoria: A Case Study on the Jamieson Family

This Australian study of the surviving pre-Federation pastoral accounting records of the pioneering Jamieson family in the Western District of Victoria examines the structure and usage of accounting information prepared in an isolated setting in a time-specific context. The study endeavours to identify the key variables affecting the accounting practices observed for one particular case of pastoral industry management throughout the fifty years to 1900. Although further research of other sets of surviving Western District pastoral accounting records is necessary to provide more generalised results, tentative conclusions are drawn about the impact of cultural, educational, legal, political, professional skill and economic factors as key explanatory variables.     

Human Choice: the genetic code for social development

A comprehensive theory of social development is needed that treats human beings as the center of the development process and integrates all its economic, political, social, and cultural factors. Drawing a wide range of intriguing parallels with biological evolution, the authors describe the central role of organization in social development; “surplus human energy” as both condition and fuel for the process; the role of conscious individual pioneers who express subconscious social aspirations; imitation as the mechanism for social diffusion; information flows that serve as catalysts for new things to do and new ways to do old things; and laws, policies and formal systems as way-stations on the road to internalized values and informal social organizations. The primary resource and ultimate determinant of development is the individual human being's unlimited capacity for creativity and resourcefulness. Extending greater freedom of choice to its individual citizens is the central mechanism by which society can tap and release this infinite resource for the collective benefit.     

Strategy and the board of directors in venture capital-backed firms

The results of this research demonstrate that boards of directors in venture-capital backed companies are more involved in both strategy formation and evaluation than are boards where members do not have large ownership stakes. These same results are demonstrated even when industry, board size, level of diversification, and insider board representation are held constant. Agency theory and institutional theory are advanced as reasons for this higher level of involvement.Venture capitalists are generally seen as value-added investors who have played a significant role in the development of many entrepreneurial businesses (Bygrave and Timmons 1992). This success has lead students of industrial competitiveness like Thurow (1992) to argue that the venture capitalist should serve as an example for directors of all types of organizations. One of the most significant value-added activities of the venture capitalist is involvement with strategy [Fried and Hisrich 1995] , [MacMillan, Kulow, and Khoylian 1988] , Sapienza 1989, [Sapienza et al. 1996] and [Rosenstein, Bruno, Bygrave, and Taylor 1993] . Implicit in the writings extolling directors who act like venture capitalists Porter 1992a, Porter 1992b, [Bhide 1994] and [Thurow 1992] is the belief that they will be more active than traditional board members. However, little empirical work has been done to directly compare the level of strategic involvement of the two types of boards.Building on the work of Judge and Zeithaml (1992), this study compares the level of board involvement with strategy by the boards of venture capital-backed companies with the boards of other types of organizations. After establishing different levels of involvement, it then examines why there is a difference. Finally, this study provides additional empirical evidence on the relationship between board involvement and performance (Zahra and Pearce 1989).     

The cost of childhood injury in France

Injuries are a major public health problem worldwide. In the USA, injuries cause 146, 400 deaths annually, with 31 million non-fatal injury visits to emergency departments (EDs). EDs thus represent an important source of injury data. The primary objective of the current study was to describe the epidemiology of injury-related ED visits and assess injury-related utilization of health care resources in an inner-city hospital in Indiana, using data stored in a computerized medical record system. It involved a retrospective review of the records for injury visits to EDs and injury admissions over a 3-year period. The variables extracted and analysed included patients' demographics, external cause of injury, diagnosis, length of stay, ED and hospital charges. A total of 60,470 injury-related ED visits were made, the majority of patients were male (61.6%), uninsured (63.1%), treated in ED and discharged (98.4%). The leading causes of injury were falls (18.8%), motor vehicle crashes (18.4%), assaults (17.6%), being struck (11.2%) and overexertion (10.6). Firearms caused most injury deaths (32.4%; n = 314); motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of hospitalization (26.6%; n = 642) and also the most expensive to treat as inpatients (mean charge $19,190). The mean charge per patient treated and discharged was $150 compared to $11,116 for patients admitted. These findings demonstrate the value of computerized medical records in capturing and storing E-coded injury data. The system generates data that can be used for epidemiological surveillance and injury prevention at the local level, and for assessment of impact of specific injuries on health care resources.     

The Influence of Regionalization and Cultural Distance on the Direction of Exports

Research has identified two distinct influences on the direction of firm internationalisation, cultural distance, and regionalisation. This paper sets out to test the strength of these influences on the direction of exports in circumstances where they act in different directions. The paper applies a quantitative methodology to a large, purposively compiled data set of Australian export values over the period 1990 to 2004. The Australian context provides an interesting case because its cultural linkages and its geographic connections lie in different directions. It is shown that regionalisation is the dominant influence on the direction of exports in the Australian context.     

Competition in the food marketing chain

Competition in the Australian food marketing chain is of continuing concern, but little evidence is available to guide policy debate. In a search for broad guidelines, the theoretical and empirical evidence is reviewed and the recent report of the Joint Select Committee on the Retailing Sector is examined. Then publicly available data on several food groups are used to test for evidence of persistent market power. The purchasing behaviour of the grains and oilseeds processing sector is found to warrant more detailed attention. A possible research agenda and a call for greater attention to data requirements complete the article.