This paper studies expectations of capital appreciation in the housing market. We show that expectations impounded in the rent/price ratio at the beginning of the decade successfully predict appreciation rates, but only if we first control for cross-sectional differences in the quality of rental...

This study analyzes the effect of managerial style on firm value by partitioning general and administrative (G&A) expenses in the real estate investment trust industry into a nondiscretionary "structural" component associated with the costs of asset and liability management and a discretionary...

This research hypothesizes that, in markets where information costs, transaction costs and the economic impact of information can vary widely, we should expect predictability to vary systematically. We test this hypothesis with data on equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) from 1985 to...

We trace the effects of corporate focus by examining the relationships among focus, cash flows and firm value. In contrast to past studies that examine the effects of diversifying across SIC-code-defined industries, we show that diversification, even within a single industry, reduces value. Our...

In this study, we examine the relationship between the liquidity of equity and its market value. We find that creating liquid equity claims on relatively illiquid property assets increases value by 12-22%. However, the fixed costs associated with creating these claims offset these liquidity...

In real options models, investment can increase under some conditions when interest rates rise. This research tests for these positive interest rate responses in the context of the Capozza-Li model of land development. In the model variable capital intensity is a sufficient condition for...

Using recent theoretical advances and an extensive panel data set on metropolitan areas, this study provides new tests of the contingent claims based model of default. The empirical modeling incorporates a full complement of variables that permit direct tests of the options-based model including...