In the first chapter of this dissertation, I hypothesize that several non-tax-driven benefits of debt induce REITs managers to issue debt despite no apparent tax-driven benefit. Several methodologies and tests applied in capital structure literature are introduced to the literature of REITs capital structure. First, I investigate how the market prices leverage in absence of tax-deductibility benefit. Then, I diagnose the relative importance of several non-tax-driven benefits of leverage in deriving the capital structure decisions of REITs. Third, I conduct a thought investment experiment with debt-restricted vs. non-restricted REITs portfolios. I find weak evidence that leverage, by itself, creates value. Nevertheless, I find strong evidence that during financial crisis debt-restricted REITs perform better than non-restricted ones. Also I find evidence that lends support to the pecking order story of leverage. I conclude that REITs managers issue debt mainly to avoid issuing equity and to maximize wealth of existing shareholders. The second chapter addresses corporate diversification discount. I present and test a hypothesis that diversifiers exchange immediate diversification discount with future value gain attributed to unanticipated financial and strategic advantages of diversification. Two implications of this hypothesis are tested in this dissertation. First, the initial diversification discount found in static methodologies should be attenuated in a dynamic analysis. Second, diversifier's value evolution patterns are driven by the materialization of certain financial and strategic efficiencies. The overall results indicate that there is value recovery over time. Diversifiers' performance and value evolution is dynamically linked to synchronous improvements in market power, internal capital market activities, and cost efficiencies. Further, consistent with current evidence in diversification literature, related diversifiers outperform unrelated diversifiers. Moreover, related diversifiers witness faster value recovery relative to unrelated diversifiers.

Using a sample of EREIT returns during the period 1993 to 2006 from the CRSP/Ziman REITs database, I construct portfolios of equity REITs based on past raw returns and evaluate their raw returns and risk-adjusted returns during the holding period for persistence. After adjusting for risk with Carhart (1997)’s 4-factor model, I find no evidence of persistence. By implication, a momentum strategy of buying historical winners and short-selling losers does not generate statistically significant abnormal returns. However, I do find strong evidence of performance reversal based on two-year and three-year ranking and holding periods. Consistent with DeBondt and Thaler (1985)’s overreaction theory, investors tend to overreact based on long-term rather than short-term performance records. This would suggest that investors tend to take a much longer period of time to formulate an opinion regarding a REIT’s performance record than previously assumed by earlier researchers. While there is a measurable tendency toward performance reversal, the return spread between the best performing EREITs and worst performing EREITs is marginal. This would indicate that the REIT markets are behaving in a generally efficient fashion. The investigation of the association of EREIT characteristics and performance persistence suggests a property type focus and geographic diversification strategy for EREITs. At the same time, EREITs with high leverage also tend to exhibit good performance persistently.

Real Estate Investment Trusts is suggested as an attractive addition to mixed-asset portfolio. This study develops several hypothesized portfolio and tests whether REITs can actually increase diversification benefits of investors. We use mean-variance spanning test by Kan and Zhou (2008) to examine whether adding a REITs into portfolio can significantly expand efficient frontier in either global minimum variance portfolio or tangency portfolio. We assume our investors hold portfolio in the four markets, namely Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and US markets for period from March 2005 to February 2008. Three hypotheses are tested under various assumed conditions. The first hypothesis, which is REITs can provide diversification benefit, is confirmed in all these four markets. In addition, we find, for Taiwan domestic investors, holding international REITs in their portfolio rather than only Taiwan¡¦s REITs will provide more diversification benefit. The second hypothesis, which is holding period will affect diversification benefit, is not supported. However, this could be resulted from a test of short period in this study. The final hypothesis, which is different investment portfolio will affect the diversification benefit of RETIs for Taiwan domestic investors, is confirmed. Our results also suggest that expanding of efficient frontier are mainly from global minimum variance portfolio rather than tangency portfolio.

In the last two decades, many firms in the U.S. forest products industry have either divested their timberlands or converted their corporate structures from C corporations to real estate investment trusts (REITs). This study hypothesizes that this large-scale timberland ownership change affects the financial performance of firms involved in divestitures and on timber supply and, as a result, the economic surplus of producers and consumers in the U.S. timber markets. These issues have not been adequately addressed in existing literature. Event analysis and equilibrium displacement models were employed to address firm financial performance in the capital markets and welfare implications in U.S. timber markets, respectively. The capital markets responded to divestiture events by significantly improving buying firms’ and REITs’ market value. Annual average timberland ownership changes resulted in a net reduction of timber supply which, in turn, caused total social surplus to decrease by $43 million on annual rate of timberland ownership change basis. Compared to over $33 billion U.S. timber markets, this surplus reduction was small. Thus, this study helps justify timberland ownership change decisions and explains the nature and extent of surplus shifts among producers and consumers when timberlands change hands.

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This research examines the relation between incentive-based compensation and subsequent Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) performance as well as the determinants of incentive-based compensation for REITs. I propose that REITs either rely on incentive-based compensation to substitute for poor corporate governance practices or may not need to rely excessively on incentive-based compensation to align managers and shareholder interests, given their heavily regulated nature and their corporate governance practices. Using a sample of publicly traded equity, hybrid, and operating REITs for the 1999-2003 period, I find a negative relation between incentive based compensation awards and subsequent stock returns for REITs. Interestingly, this relation is not found when return on assets (ROA) is the measure of performance. These results imply that excessive incentive-based compensation negatively impact future REIT performance from a market perspective, but not an accounting perspective. With regard to the determinants of incentive based compensation, I find that CEO ownership, board of director characteristics, and institutional ownership are consistent determinants of the level of incentive based compensation awarded to REIT CEOs. Overall, the results imply that REIT corporate governance practices substitute for incentive-based compensation, but still, the level of incentive-based compensation paid to REIT CEOs is excessive up to the point that it negatively affects subsequent REIT performance.

This paper examinesinflation in Singapore and Hong Kong between 2002 to 2021. The purpose is to investigate whether REITs can hedge against inflation. The inflation will be divided into expected inflation (EI) and unexpected inflation (UI). Furthermore, the empirical analysis will test the relationship between REIT price return (PI), dividend yield return (DY), and total return (TR) returns and inflation separately and attempt to find out what could be the possible sources of hedging against inflation. The Fama and Schwert (1977) model was applied to analyze the relationship between REIT returns and inflation. The ARIMA model (Baciu, 2015) was applied to measure the expected inflation. Regression results show that the Singapore REIT price returns and total returns positively correlated with unexpected inflation, while the dividend yield returns are negatively correlated with unexpected inflation. However, the Hong Kong REIT price and total returns negatively correlate with expected inflation. This research will provide knowledge about the inflation-hedging characteristics of Singapore and Hong Kong REITs and implications for portfolio management and inflation risk management. / I den här artikeln undersöks förhållandet mellan avkastningen från fastighetsinvesteringsbolag (REIT) och inflationen i Singapore och Hongkong mellan 2002 och 2021. Syftet är att undersöka om REITs kan skydda sig mot inflation. Inflationen kommer att delas upp i förväntad inflation (EI) och oväntad inflation (UI). Vidare kommer den empiriska analysen att testa förhållandet mellan REIT:s prisavkastning (PI), avkastning på utdelning (DY) och totalavkastning (TR) och inflationen separat och försöka ta reda på vilka källor som kan vara möjliga för att skydda sig mot inflationen. Fama och Schwerts (1977) modell användes för att analysera förhållandet mellan REIT-avkastning och inflation. ARIMA-modellen (Baciu, 2015) tillämpades för att mäta den förväntade inflationen. Regressionsresultaten visar att Singapores REIT-prisavkastning och totalavkastning korrelerar positivt med oväntad inflation, medan avkastningen på utdelningsavkastning korrelerar negativt med oväntad inflation. Hongkongs REIT-pris och totalavkastning korrelerar dock negativt med den förväntade inflationen. Denna forskning kommer att ge kunskap om inflationsskyddande egenskaper hos Singapores och Hongkongs REITs och ge konsekvenser för portföljförvaltning och hantering av inflationsrisker.

The research investigated the impact of EU law and policies on direct taxation in REITs, and movement towards a harmonised EU-REIT with common direct taxation of REITs profits. It represents the first comparative study of EU member state REIT regimes to identify an emerging common understanding informed by European jurisprudence and Europeanization policy and theory. After identifying the fundamental elements of a REIT (following the original US model) within a context of Europeanization theory, the research examined EU policy mechanisms (such as goodness of fit and adaptational soft pressure) and the impact of relevant case law from the European Court of Justice. It then presented in-depth case studies of three member states: France (example of a well-established REIT regime), Bulgaria (a new accession state) and Spain (a recent REIT regime). The research found an emerging common understanding between member states’ REIT regimes, offering the prospect of a European harmonised REIT form distinguishable from the US model. It also found negative approaches to direct taxation in cross-border situations, and member state concerns about loss of sovereignty and tax base, which should be recognised within any harmonised direct tax regime. The research can claim to be the first comparative analysis of MS REIT regimes to address a common understanding, and thus is relevant to practitioners and academics in the fields of European law and international taxation. It has potential to contribute towards an improved common direct taxation approach and the harmonisation of European REITs within the wider processes of Europeanization. The research was limited to REIT regimes in EU member states, and further research could analyse relevant member state tax regimes outside the 'common understanding' REIT model, and further explores issues of loss of sovereignty and tax base in member states.

The first essay of this dissertation investigates the relationship between downside risk and returns of real estate investment trusts (REITs) and assesses the performance of real estate mutual funds (REMFs). We measure the asymmetric risk through downside and upside betas and through the measures incorporated higher moments such as coskewness and Leland's beta. We do not find significant contemporary relationship between the asymmetric risk and returns of REITs. There are only a small portion of REITs reacting to up and down market conditions differently. We find weak evidence that this asymmetric movement of REITs to market may be due to small and value components embedded in REITs. We evaluate the performance of real estate mutual funds (REMFs) from the asymmetric risk perception. According to our results, most of REMFs do not outperform the market. The downside risk helps to explain some of the abnormal returns associated with REMFs. However, the evaluation may be sensitive to the choices of the model and the market index being used. The second essay examines the liquidity of Asian REITs. We use various measures to assess the liquidity of JREITs and SREITs. The overall evidence indicates that the liquidity of JREITs is greater than that of SREITs. Comparing to non-REIT stocks, JREITs are less liquid than Japanese common stocks while there is no significant difference in liquidity between SREITs and Singaporean common stocks. There is also strong evidence that US REITs have smaller spreads and are traded more often than both JREITs and SREITs. We also find that the primary determinants of JREIT spreads are turnover and return volatility. The secondary factors that affect the spread of JREITs are life and property holdings. The dominant factors affecting SREITs' spreads are price, return volatility, and life. The significance of life suggests that there is a learning effect existed in both JREIT and SREIT markets in 2005.

The Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) argues that all unsystematic risk can be diversified away thus there should be no relationship between idiosyncratic risk and return. Ooi, Wang and Webb (2009) employ the Fama-French (1993) three-factor model (FF3) to estimate the level of nonsystematic return volatility in REITs as a proxy for idiosyncratic risk. They find a significant positive relationship between expected returns and conditionally estimated idiosyncratic risk contrary to the MPT. In this research, I examine other potential sources of systematic risk in REITs which may explain the seeming violation of the MPT found by Ooi et al (2009). I re-examine the proportion of idiosyncratic risk in REITs with Carhart’s (1997) momentum factor, which is largely applied on the FF3 to control for the persistency of stock returns as supplemental risk in the finance literature. Next, I conduct cross-sectional regression and test the significance of the relationship between idiosyncratic risk and expected returns. I further analyze the role of property sector on idiosyncratic risk as well as on its relationship with expected returns. I argue three conclusions. First, momentum has a relatively minor effect on the idiosyncratic risk consistent with the financial literature. Second, the effect of momentum is not strong enough to cause a significant change in the relationship between idiosyncratic risk and expected returns. Third, a REIT portfolio diversified across property sectors neutralizes the relationship between idiosyncratic risk and expected returns, though the contribution of each property sector is not statistically significant.