Institutional Investors and Firm Efficiency of Real Estate Investment Trusts

This study investigates the effect of institutional ownership on improving firm efficiency of equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), using a stochastic frontier approach. Firm inefficiency is estimated by comparing a benchmark Tobin??s Q of a hypothetical value-maximizing firm to the firm??s actual Q. We find that the average inefficiency of equity REITs is around 45.5%, and that institutional ownership can improve the firm??s corporate governance, and hence reduce firm inefficiency. Moreover, we highlight the importance of heterogeneity in institutional investors??certain types of institutional investors such as long-term, active, and top-five institutional investors, and investment advisors are more effective institutional investors in reducing firm inefficiency; whereas hedge funds and pension funds seem to aggravate the problem. In sub-sample analysis, we find that these effective institutional investors can reduce inefficiency more effectively for distressed REITs, and for REITs with high information asymmetry, and with longer term lease contracts. Lastly, we find that the negative impact of institutional ownership (except for long-term institutional investors) on firm inefficiency reduces over time, possibly due to strengthened corporate governance and regulatory environment in the REIT industry.     

基于澳大利亚房地产信托基金市场的VaR模型实证分析

房地产信托基金(REITs)代表着目前全世界房地产领域最先进的生产力.澳大利亚房地产信托基金市场(A-REITs)在金融危机期间表现相对平稳.本文通过介绍A-REITs市场情况,从微观角度采用VaR风险模型方法,测出A-REITs整体市场和特定个体风险水平.在此基础上,建议中国房地产信托基金行业(C-REITs)统一市场风险计量工具,建立相关制度控制内外部风险,为C-REITs试点健康快速发展提供参考.     

Real Estate Risk Exposure of Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts

This study examines the linkage between equity real estate investment trust (REIT) returns and the private real estate factor. The results reveal a tighter connection between REIT and the private real estate market starting from 1993. In addition, large-cap REITs seem to behave more like real estate than do small-cap REITs. Overall, the results are consistent with three notions: (1) that institutional investors provide information-gathering services (Bradrinath et al., Rev. Financ. Stud., 8:401–430, 1995), (2) that a more sophisticated investor base improves information flow, and (3) that a high degree of participation from institutional investors strengthens the linkage between REIT returns and the underlying real estate factor (Ziering et al., The evolution of public and private market investing in the new real estate capital markets, Prudential Real Estate Investors, Parsippany, NJ, 1997).

从苹果社区信托看中国房地产信托的发展

苹果社区信托产品的面世一方面说明房地产融资并非只有银行贷款一条出路,另一方面说明了基于实体经济的金融创新具有广阔的市场前景。     

Liquidity and Liquidation: Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts

This study provides evidence that highly leveraged owner-managed properties liquidated assets during the commercial real estate decline of the late 1980s, and that this provided buying opportunities for better capitalized buyers. The analysis documents significant financial distress costs for highly leveraged firms during an industry-wide downturn and shows that these costs are particularly large for owner-managed firms.     

Dividend Taxes and Share Prices: Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts

Prior empirical evidence regarding the impact of dividend taxes on firm valuation is mixed. This study avoids some of the complications encountered in previous empirical work by exploiting institutional characteristics of REITs, such as their limited discretion over dividend policy and the relative transparency of REIT assets. We regress the market value of equity on the market value of assets and tax basis, which creates tax deductions that lower future dividend taxes without affecting future pretax cash flow. We find that firm value is positively related to tax basis, suggesting that future dividend taxes are capitalized into share prices.     

Insider Ownership and Firm Value: Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts

Real estate investment trust (REIT) provides a unique laboratory to study the relation between insider ownership and firm value. One, a REIT has to satisfy special regulations which weaken alternative mechanisms to control agency problems. Empirically, I find a significant and robust nonlinear relation between Tobin's Q and REIT insider ownership that is consistent with the trade-off between the incentive alignment and the entrenchment effect of insider ownership. Two, many REITs are Umbrella Partnership REITs (UPREITs) which have dual ownership structure. They have both common shares and Operating Partnership Units (OP units). Property owners can contribute their properties to the UPREIT in exchange for OP units. Their capital gains taxes remain deferred as long as they hold onto their OP units and the UPREIT does not sell the properties they contributed. OP units owners are locked in with the firm and have incentive to monitor firm management, but their interests diverge from the common shareholders because their tax bases are much lower. Consistent with the trade-off between positive monitoring effect of OP units and tax-induced agency costs, I find that UPREIT's firm value increases with the fraction of OP units, but the effect is significantly weaker for the UPREITs where insiders hold OP units.     

Information Asymmetry and Corporate Liquidity Management: Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts

We examine the impact of information asymmetry on a firm??s choice between cash and credit lines for corporate liquidity management using a panel data set from real estate investment trusts (REITs). Information asymmetry, as measured by analyst forecast error and dispersion, is negatively related to the use of lines of credit. Specifically, firms with more severe information asymmetry are less likely to have access to bank credit lines. Concurrently, more transparent firms are more likely to utilize bank credit lines as opposed to cash for liquidity management. The results are robust to alternative information asymmetry proxies and specifications. These findings suggest that information asymmetry plays an important role in corporate liquidity management.     

Board Independence,Ownership Structure and Performance: Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts

For Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), mandatory distribution of income limits free cash flow. But, restrictions on source of income and asset structure result in widely dispersed stock ownership, which makes external monitoring through the takeover market less likely. As such, alternative monitoring mechanisms, including external directors, must be in place to discourage deviant managerial behavior. Using a simultaneous equation system, we conclude that while independent directors enhance REIT performance, the effect is weak. Higher CEO stock ownership and control through tenure and chairmanship of the board reduce the representation by outside directors, and adversely affect REIT performance. Institutional ownership or blockownership fails to serve as alternate disciplining mechanism to (inadequate) monitoring by outside board members, although their presence seems to enhance performance.     

Residential Real Estate Brokerage Efficiency from a Cost and Profit Perspective

Using 1994–1995 microeconomic data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), this article estimates cost and profit X-efficiency levels in the residential real estate brokerage market using traditional and Bayesian stochastic frontier models. We find that firms err more from failure to maximize profits than from failure to minimize costs. To determine what characteristics influence efficiency, we perform a regression analysis. The results show that franchising and firm age are associated with increases in efficiency, while MLS affiliation and producing a balanced output of listings and sales decrease performance. Finally, we estimate economies of scale and find compelling evidence that firms are operating at increasing returns to scale.     

Financial Leverage,CEO Compensation,and Corporate Hedging: Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts

This paper studies the determinants of corporate hedging practices in the REIT industry between 1999 and 2001. We find a positive significant relation between hedging and financial leverage, indicating the financial distress costs motive for using derivatives in the REIT industry. Using estimates of the Black–Scholes sensitivity of CEO’s stock option portfolios to stock return volatility and the sensitivity of CEO’s stock and stock option portfolios to stock price, we find evidence to support managerial risk aversion motive for corporate hedging in the REIT industry. Our results indicate that CEO’s cash compensation and the CEO’s wealth sensitivity to stock return volatility are significant determinants of derivative use in REITs. We also document a significant positive relation between institutional ownership and hedging activity. Further, we find that probability of hedging is related to economies of scale in hedging costs.

信托:房地产融资的新亮点--访北京国际信托投资有限公司总经济师时宝东

成为房地产融资新宠 <银行家>:信托投资公司在房地产融资市场起的作用越来越重要,请您谈谈我国房地产信托业发展的情况.     

不动产评估中重置成本的分析

重置成本法是我国最常用的财产价值评估方法,也是评估不动产中使用较多的方法。如何合理地确定不动产的重置成本,不同的评估人员有着不太一致的说法。本文通过对有关重置成本的规范标准的对比,进行了重置成本的各种确定方法的综合分析,并提出了建议。     

Modelling Foreign Real Estate Investment: The Spanish Case

Foreign real estate investment in Spain has grown considerably during the last decade, representing around 40% of total foreign direct investment inflows. This trend has exerted an important macroeconomic effect maintaining a long lasting housing bubble and contributing significantly to finance the rising current account deficit. Foreign real estate investment in Spain is mostly of a housing acquisition type and therefore the analysis of its determinants requires a specific approach. In this sense, neither a pure foreign direct investment nor a portfolio theoretical model might be useful. So we propose a modelling of foreign real estate investment for Spain from the point of view of a demand for tourism services and from a financial focus. Using time series data from 1990 to 2007 the hypothesis arising from our foreign real estate investment modelling reveals the consistency of this approach. There seem to be relevant determinants from the demand side and from the financial dimension. Indeed, Gross Domestic Product per capita, expected capital gains, travel costs, tourism agglomeration and housing prices are all relevant factors explaining Foreign real estate investment. We consider that this case study may also be applied to other countries sharing similar foreign real estate investment type flows.     

发展中国家小额信贷机构管理效率研究

本文采用随机边界模型对MFI成本效率和管理效率的影响因素进行研究发现,提高女性客户的占比、根据机构自身的业务特点优化要素投入、提高机构的信息披露程度、增加贷款总额都可以在精准扶贫的同时,通过降低成本、提高管理效率,实现机构本身的盈利。通过这些选择性的运行机制,MFI的社会性和持续性目标可以实现机构内部的统一,获得长足发展。     

The impact of the stapled security structure on the quality of financial disclosure: Evidence from Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts and Listed Infrastructure Funds

This paper is the first study to explore whether the stapled structure influences firms’ activities in earnings management (EM). Trusts and firms under stapled securities are exposed to various managerial opportunities and activities that can provide the flexibility of using EM approaches. Therefore, the stapled structure is expected to induce increased EM behavior and signal a lower level of financial disclosure quality than the unstapled structure. This empirical research analyzes a panel dataset that contains information of Australian REITs (A-REITs) and Listed Infrastructure Funds (LIFs) from the year of 2000–2017. Evidence shows that stapled A-REITs and LIFs use a greater magnitude of EM approaches than unstapled entities. The results imply that the stapled security structure may signal lower-quality of financial disclosure for firms than the unstapled security structure. This study provides additional insight into the understanding of how the security structure may impact firms’ financial disclosure behavior.     

我国发展房地产信托投资基金的可行性分析

本文结合投资需求、房地产融资多元化、资本市场的发展、房地产市场的完善对我国房地产引进REITs的动因进行分析,同时从政策法规、实际操作的视角讨论了REITs在我国实施的可行性,最后得出REITs在我国切实可行的结论并提出相关建议。     

基于随机前沿模型的中国西部地区碳排放效率评价研究

本文基于随机前沿模型,对中国西部地区2003—2011年的碳排放效率进行了测算,并根据计算结果对西部地区的碳排放效率进行分类。得出的主要结论是:(1)西部地区的碳排放效率在2003—2011年提升速度较慢,具有巨大的节能减排潜力。(2)西部地区的碳排放效率分类结果为:在2011年属于碳排放高效区的只有广西省;属于碳排放中效区的有4个省:四川、重庆、青海、云南;属于碳排放低效区的有6个省:陕西、新疆、甘肃、内蒙古、贵州、宁夏。最后根据分类提出了相应的政策建议。     

Avoiding Taxes at Any Cost: The Economics of Tax-Deferred Real Estate Exchanges

This study examines the role tax-deferred exchanges play in the determination of reservation and transaction prices in U.S. commercial real estate markets. Taxpayers face significant time constraints when seeking to complete a delayed tax-deferred exchange. In a perfectly competitive market, a weakened bargaining position would not affect the transaction price. However, in illiquid, highly segmented commercial real estate markets, the exchanger may be required to pay a premium for the acquired property relative to its fair market value. Using a unique and rich dataset of commercial property transactions, we find that tax-motivated exchange buyers pay significantly more, on average, than non-exchange investors for their apartment and office properties, all else equal. Moreover, these average price premiums generally exceed the tax deferral benefits investors obtain by the use of a tax-deferred exchange. This result is robust to a number of alternative specifications. Thus, for many investors the pursuit of tax avoidance comes at a steep price.