Findings from a Cross-Sectional Housing Risk-Factor Model

Housing data from the last 25 years show that returns to residential real estate in the U.S. can be volatile and vary significantly among locations. The variations in returns are driven by economically as well as geographically and psychologically motivated factors, but so far, no asset pricing model that adequately explains systematic risks in cross-sectional housing returns is widely accepted. This paper proposes an asset pricing model for housing returns that includes a market-wide return factor, an economically motivated factor derived from income growth, a geographically based factor derived from land supply elasticity and a momentum factor, which is psychological in nature. The model explains well the systematic risks in housing returns and is robust to different portfolio segmentations. Moreover, the model illustrates that local risk factors indirectly capture the risk previously attributed to market-wide price changes. While housing is not actively traded when compared to other financial assets, understanding the risk-factors that explain housing return in cross-section provides important insight for real estate investors, builders, real estate future traders, homeowners, banks and other mortgage lenders.     

Price informativeness and stock return synchronicity: Evidence from the pricing of seasoned equity offerings

We investigate what stock return synchronicity reflects in terms of price informativeness by examining its effect on the pricing of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). Based on 5,087 SEOs from 1984 to 2007, we find a significantly negative relation between stock return synchronicity (estimated as the logit transformation of the R-squared statistic from a two-factor regression) and SEO discounts (the percentage differences between pre-offer day closing prices and offer prices). The negative relation is strongest when there is no analyst coverage, and it declines as analyst coverage increases. This shows that stock price is more informative when stock return synchronicity is higher and also that information asymmetry can be mitigated by analyst coverage. We further decompose stock return synchronicity into the market comovement and industry comovement components and find that both components are equally important in affecting SEO discounts.     

Stock and Bond Liquidity and its Effect on Prices and Financial Policies

An asset is liquid if it can be traded at the prevailing market price quickly and at low cost. We show that in addition to risk, liquidity affects asset prices and returns. Theories of asset pricing suggest that the expected return of an asset is increasing in its risk, because risk-averse investors require compensation for bearing more risk. Because investors are also averse to the costs of illiquidity and want to be compensated for bearing them, asset returns are increasing in illiquidity. Thus, asset prices should depend on two asset characteristics: risk and liquidity. This paper surveys research on the effects of liquidity on asset prices and returns, showing that liquidity is an important factor in capital asset pricing.     

Real Estate Fund Flows and the Flow-Performance Relationship

Convexity in the flow-performance relationship of traditional asset class mutual funds is widely documented, however it cannot be assumed to hold for alternative asset classes. This paper addresses this shortcoming in the literature by examining the flow-performance relationship for real estate funds, specifically open-end, direct-property funds. This investment vehicle is designed to provide the risk-return benefits of private market real estate and is available to retail investors in many countries across the globe. An understanding of fund flow dynamics associated with this investment vehicle is of particular interest due to the liquidity risk associated with holding an inherently illiquid asset in an open-end structure. Our analysis draws on the theoretical foundations provided in the literature on mutual fund flows, performance chasing, liquidity risk, participation costs and dynamics across market cycles. We focus on German real estate funds from 1990 to 2010 as this is the largest market globally and there is a high level of confidence in the data. The results show that real estate fund investors chase past performance at the aggregate level and the relationship between flows and relative performance is asymmetric (i.e., convex) at the individual fund level. Fund-level liquidity risk tends to weaken convexity, while sensitivity increases with higher participation costs. We find the flow-performance relationship varies across time, though our interpretation is asset and investment vehicle specific. The implications are applicable to investors and fund managers of open-end, direct-property funds and, more broadly, other alternative asset funds where the underlying asset may not be liquid.     

Market States and the Effect on Equity REIT Returns due to Changes in Monetary Policy Stance

This study investigates the effect of changes in monetary policy on US equity real estate investment trust (EREIT) returns in lower and higher return ranges during bull, bear, and volatile stock market states using quantile regression. Results show that EREIT returns are sensitive to changes in monetary policy at different EREIT return ranges in different market states. During bull markets, changes in monetary policy have a significant negative impact on EREIT when investors have lower expectations of real estate price increases, but are not effective when investors have higher expectations of real estate price increases. During volatile and bear markets, EREIT returns are not sensitive to changes in monetary policy stance. Results also show that EREIT returns respond positively to stock returns in various states and conditions.     

Risk and return in residential spatial markets: An empiric and theoretic model

The paper is concerned with price and rent fluctuations in predominantly owner-occupied residental real estate. It presents the owner-occupier household as a housing consumer as well as an investor. It conjectures that since risk and return are known to be positively related in financial markets, they might also be thus related in residential real estate markets. If that is so, neighborhoods that are known to yield high returns will be the ones less price and rent stable than low yielding ones.The Capital Asset Pricing Model is not helpful in explaining a possible risk/return relationship in housing markets. Its major assumption about portfolio diversification is contrary to the nature of owner-occupied residential real estate. An owner occupier household, by definition, holds one unit of the asset and acts simultaneously as an investor and consumer of housing. For the capital market investor, investment and consumption decisions are separable. Therefore, a new theoretical model of consumer choice is proposed. Tel-Aviv price and rent data during a volatile market period are used for testing the main risk/return conjecture as well as other related hypotheses stemming from the model. The findings lend support to the conjecture and shed light on possible spatial determinants of owners' risk.     

Price and Volatility Transmission across Borders

Over the past forty years, financial markets throughout the world have steadily become more open to foreign investors. With open markets, asset prices are determined globally. A vast literature on portfolio choice and asset pricing has evolved to study the importance of global factors as well as local factors as determinants of portfolio choice and of expected returns on risky assets. There is growing evidence that risk premia are increasingly determined globally. An important outcome of this force of globalization is increased comovement in asset prices across markets. This survey study examines the literature on the dynamics of comovements in asset prices and volatility across markets around the world. The literature began in the 1970s in conjunction with early theoretical developments on international asset pricing models, but it blossomed in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the availability of comprehensive international stock market databases and the development of econometric methodology to model these dynamics.     

房价预期与城镇居民家庭股市参与——理论探讨与微观经验证据

本文基于中国家庭金融调查数据,通过构建理论模型和实证检验分析了房价预期与家庭股市参与的关系,考察了行为金融偏差在房价预期影响股市参与过程中的作用,并根据背景风险、社会网络和户主特征进行异质性分析。结果表明:(1)房价上涨预期通过降低居民家庭的股票收益率预期和增加住房资产,进而降低居民家庭的股市参与概率和参与程度;(2)“心理账户”以及“有限关注”的存在显著弱化了房价上涨预期对家庭股市参与的负向作用;(3)房价上涨预期对股市参与概率和参与程度的负向作用在收入风险更高、健康状况更差、社会网络水平较低以及受教育程度偏低的家庭中更大。因此,稳定房价预期能够通过提升家庭股市参与,进而从需求角度促进股票市场的健康发展。     

Alternate approach to unify CAPM and APT

We utilize the joint elliptical distribution to model a multi-factor return generating process and derive an equilibrium multi-beta capital asset pricing model (CAPM) in which the market portfolio and a set of nonelliptical factors are sufficient to price all financial assets. Most important, it is shown that the market portfolio, while generally nonelliptical, can proxy all elliptical factors and hence: including elliptical factors in addition to the market portfolio in the pricing equation contribute nothing to asset pricing. While the representative investor prices the exposure of aggregate wealth to various nonelliptical systematic risk factors, individual securities are priced in accordance to their contributions to different aspects of the risk of aggregate wealth. The present model collapses to the Sharpe-Lintner CAPM when either the market investor is neutral to nonelliptical risk factors or when all risk factors follow a joint spherical distribution. When residuals cancel out of the market portfolio, the present model collapses to Conner (1984) pricing model.     

Optimal Portfolio Choices, House Risk Hedging and the Pricing of Forward House Transactions

This paper develops a utility indifference model for evaluating various prices associated with forward transactions in the housing market, based on the equivalent principle of expected wealth utility derived from the forward and spot real estate markets. Our model results show that forward transactions in the housing market are probably not due to house sellers?? and buyers?? heterogeneity, but to their demand for hedging against house price risk. When the imperfections of real estate markets and the risk preferences of market participants are taken into consideration, we are able to show that the idiosyncratic risk premium, which mainly depends on the participants?? risk preferences and the correlation between the traded asset and the real estate, is a remarkable determinant of house sellers?? and buyers?? forward reservation prices. In addition, we also find that the market clearing forward price usually will not converge toward the expected risk-neutral forward price. The sellers?? or buyers?? risk aversion degrees and market powers are also identified to play crucial roles in determining the clearing forward price.     

中国房地产市场价格泡沫与空间传染效应

本文使用对数周期性幂律(Log Period Power Law, LPPL)模型对房地产市场价格泡沫进行测度,运用空间计量模型对我国房地产市场价格泡沫和空间传染效应进行研究。LPPL模型认为由价格泡沫产生并最终破裂的金融市场与地震系统具有很多相似之处,即金融资产的价格呈周期性变化规律,价格持续上涨到临界状态直至反转。本文采用2010年6月至2017年11月间我国100个城市的房地产市场数据对各城市房地产价格泡沫进行测度和物理/经济空间传染效应研究。研究发现,LPPL模型能够对我国100个城市房地产价格泡沫进行甄别且主要存在两种泡沫状态:正向泡沫(房价持续上升)和反转泡沫(房价整体下降却存在反转点)。各个城市(地区)房地产价格具有较强的空间传染性;存在正向泡沫区域的空间传染性相较反转泡沫区域更为明显,在考虑经济空间测度而不是物理空间测度的情况下,各城市间的空间传染性更强。与现有文献不同,我们发现反转泡沫区域的新房价格指数特别是二手房价格指数的上升对周边城市的房地产价格指数存在强烈的正向推高影响。最后,本文发现城市的房地产调控政策在一定程度上抑制了房价传统影响(比如信贷、新房、二手房价等)因素的推高影响,但各城市房地产价格之间的联动变化特征应该引起监管部门的注意。     

REITs,Decimalization, and Ex-dividend Stock Prices

The ex-dividend pricing of real estate investment trust (REIT) stocks under fractional and decimal pricing regimes is investigated. For REITs, with the move from discrete to decimal pricing, the price drop on the ex-dividend day approaches the dividend amount, the ex-date abnormal return decreases, the spread-to-dividend ratio declines, abnormal trading volume increases, and the potential erroneous appearance of a tax-clientele effect is diminished. Discreteness and other transaction costs are reduced with decimalization implying that part of the persistence in the appearance of the tax-clientele effect when modeling ex-dividend stock pricing might be generated by the interaction between transaction costs, dividend amount, and yield.      

The Cross Section of Expected Real Estate Returns: Insights from Investment-Based Asset Pricing

Motivated by investment-based asset pricing, we show that two firm fundamentals, investment and profitability, have substantial predictive power for REIT returns. The return predictability of investment and profitability is not subsumed by conventional models and can be useful for understanding the cross section of expected REIT returns. To illustrate, we construct an investment-based factor model for REITs that consists of a market factor, an investment factor, and a profitability factor. The investment-based model outperforms conventional models in capturing well-known cross-sectional patterns in REIT returns. Our findings suggest that incorporating investment-based asset pricing can be a promising direction for future real estate finance research.     

Dynamics of Asset Prices and Transaction Activity in Illiquid Markets: the Case of Private Commercial Real Estate

This paper investigates the relationship between capital flows, turnover and returns for the UK private real estate market. We examine a number of possible implications of capital flows and turnover on capital returns testing for evidence of a price pressure effect, ‘return chasing’ behaviour and information revelation. The main tool of analysis is a panel vector autoregressive (VAR) regression model in which institutional capital flows, turnover and returns are specified as endogenous variables in a two equation system in which we also control for macro-economic variables. Data on flows, turnover and returns are obtained for the ten market segments covering the main UK commercial real estate sectors. Our results do not support the widely-held belief among practitioners that capital flows have a ‘price pressure’ effect on property prices. However, we do find a significant positive relationship between lagged turnover and contemporaneous capital returns, suggesting that asset turnover provides increased price revelation which, in turn, reduces investment risk and increases property values.     

Frothy Housing Markets and Local Stock-Price Movements

Prior empirical research finds habitat effects manifest in stock pricing among firms that share headquarters cities. We empirically investigate whether trends in residential real estate prices affect headquarters-city stock pricing phenomena for companies across U.S. metro areas for 1989?C2004. Specifically, we hypothesize that stocks of firms headquartered in ??hot?? residential real estate markets experience higher returns compared to stocks of firms from ??cold?? markets. We also hypothesize that stocks of firms headquartered in hot real estate markets display stronger return comovement with same-city stocks. We find support for these hypotheses during the 1999?C2004 sample period which coincides with the start of the housing bubble of the 2000?s; we find mixed results in earlier periods. Our findings indicate that city-specific home price patterns conditionally affect stock pricing of local firms, suggesting that investor behavior is influenced by localized shocks to household real estate wealth.     

基于房地产市场的我国系统性金融风险测度与预警研究

本文阐释了基于房地产市场的系统性金融风险形成机制,据此建立了分阶段、跨部门的房地产市场的系统性金融风险网络模型,并运用2006-2017年16家上市银行数据,分析和测度了我国房价大幅下跌所引发的系统性金融风险水平和结构,构建了基于房地产市场的系统性金融风险预警指标并进行测算。研究发现:在房价下跌30%的压力情景下,我国金融体系的潜在总损失总体呈级数式上升,年均增长22.70%;基于房地产市场的系统性金融风险值(SR)呈现先上升后波动下降的总体趋势;系统性金融风险(SR)的脆弱性指标(FLI)整体呈现波浪式振荡变化,且与房地产贷款/权益整体呈反向变动,系统性金融风险(SR)的传染性指标(CTI)在2012-2017年呈持续下降趋势,且与金融市场压力指数、金融机构间资产占总资产比重呈现出高度的一致性变化趋势。最后,基于房地产市场的系统性金融风险预警指标(SRWI)值呈收敛式振荡走势,表明基于房地产市场的系统性金融风险总体可控且呈收敛式下降。     

International capital asset pricing: Evidence from options

We study the risk dynamics and pricing in international economies through a joint analysis of the time-series returns and option prices on three equity indexes underlying three economies: the S&P 500 Index of the United States, the FTSE 100 Index of the United Kingdom, and the Nikkei-225 Stock Average of Japan. We develop an international capital asset pricing model, under which the return on each equity index is decomposed into two orthogonal jump-diffusion components: a global component and a country-specific component. We apply separate stochastic time changes to the two components so that stochastic volatility can come from both global and country-specific risks. For each economy, we assign separate market prices for the two return risk components and the two volatility risk components. Under this specification, we obtain tractable option pricing solutions. Model estimation reveals several interesting insights. First, global and country-specific return and volatility risks show different dynamics. Global return movements contain a larger discontinuous component, and global return volatility is more persistent than the country-specific counterparts. Second, investors charge positive prices for global return risk and negative prices for volatility risk, suggesting that investors are willing to pay positive premiums to hedge against downside global return movements and upside volatility movements. Third, the three economies contain different risk profiles and also price risks differently. Japan contains the largest idiosyncratic risk component and smallest global risk component. Investors in the Japanese market also price more heavily against future volatility increases than against future market downfalls.     

中国个人投资者处置效应研究——一个非理性信念的视角

处置效应是指投资者过早卖出盈利股票而长期持有亏损股票的现象。大量文献表明金融市场投资者存在显著的处置效应,但其产生的原因和机理存在争议。本文在前景理论框架下,构建了包含投资者非理性预期的离散时间投资组合决策模型,发现处置效应随投资者情绪升高而减弱。本文使用我国某券商2007—2009年近177万个人投资者股票账户的交易数据进行了实证分析,得到与理论模型预测的一致结果,即投资者情绪与投资者处置效应之间呈现显著的负相关关系。而且,受情绪影响,投资者处置效应在估值难度较大的股票中更弱。本文结论对理解投资者处置效应、优化投资者卖出决策和加强资本市场基础制度建设具有一定理论和实践意义。     

Market Segmentation and Foreign Share Discount in China

In this paper, I formulate and test a one-period capital asset pricing model under ownership restrictions to explain the price differentials between the classes of shares that can be bought by Chinese citizens and by foreign investors, respectively. I find that time-series variability in the spread between domestic and foreign share returns is consistent with differences in risk exposures and expected risk premium, thus supporting the hypothesis of effective market segmentation and price discrimination. I also find that cross-sectional differences between domestic and foreign share returns are correlated with individual shares'; market betas. The result further supports the price discrimination hypothesis.     

Long memory in financial markets: A heterogeneous agent model perspective

During last decades, studies on asset pricing models witnessed a paradigm shift from rational expectation and representative agent to an alternative, behavioral view, where agents are heterogeneous and boundedly rational. In this paper, we model the financial market as an interaction of two types of boundedly rational investors — fundamentalists and chartists. We examine the dynamics of the market price and market behavior, which depend on investors' behavior and the interaction of the two types of investors. Numerical simulations of the corresponding stochastic model demonstrate that the model is able to replicate the stylized facts of financial time series, in particular the long-term dependence (long memory) of asset return volatilities. We further investigate the source of the long memory according to asset pricing mechanism of our model, and provide evidences of long memory by applying the modified R/S analysis. Our results demonstrate that the key parameter that has impact on the long memory is the speed of the price adjustment of the market maker at the equilibrium of demand and supply.