We create market-based measures from options data to predict changes in REIT capital structure. REIT capital structure differs from that of typical listed firms: REITs have high leverage ratios of about 50 percent, their use of short-term debt is higher and more volatile, and debt issuance and...

Recent literature has shown that liquidity is important in explaining price effects for firms and firm decisions. For example, see Morellec (2001) and Bharath et al (2009). We follow and extend that literature by looking at the liquidity of market based options to forecast REIT capital structure...