Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, housing prices have risen sharply and ubiquitously, with the highest jumps frequently occurring in previously sleepy markets like Boise City, Idaho (FHFA, 2021). One explanation touted in the media and in "YIMBY" activist circles is the restrictive effect of land use regulation on housing supply. Although economic theory generally accords with this explanation, attempts to quantify the effects of land use regulations on housing supply have faced significant conceptual and practical challenges. Conceptually, land use regulations are difficult to measure because regulations are multidimensional, dynamic and political, among other challenges. Practically, there is no national database of land use regulations, so researchers have typically gathered their own data and created their own measures of regulatory stringency, either directly—typically by reading and interpreting hundreds of pages of legalese per city or surveying thousands of urban planners—or indirectly—by connecting land use regulations to a different, more easily measured, quality like time required for a permit or percentage of permits accepted, or inferring effects from natural experiments. Methodological differences between time periods studied, types of regulations measured, numbers and types of jurisdictions included, and level of spatial analysis have frustrated efforts to unify the lessons of each study into a coherent whole (Gyourko and Molloy 2015). What is needed is a way to quantify and analyze land use regulations that is: a) Easily calculated from readily available open-source data b) Comparable within and across geographic areas at multiple scales c) Comparable within and across geographic areas over time This thesis explores an original measurement that meets the criteria above: regulatory utilization, which is the used proportion of a regulatory limit. It defines Ru and demonstrates its calculation from municipal GIS and administrative data. It explores the advantages and disadvantages compared to current approaches. And it demonstrates a method for combining many different Ru values into two aggregate metrics: density utilization and bulk utilization. The next section relates these aggregates to 3 important topics in real estate economics: real options, price elasticity of supply, and land leverage. It continues by suggesting applications in identifying and interpreting neighborhood change, calculating a "build score" (similar to a "walk score") for parcels, and estimating the impact of policy reforms. Directions for future research are outlined in the conclusion. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning / Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, housing prices have risen sharply in many cities, with the highest jumps frequently occurring in previously sleepy markets like Boise City, Idaho (FHFA, 2021). One explanation given in the media and in activist circles is that local regulations are causing a shortage by making it very difficult to build more housing in popular areas. This is a sound economic argument in theory but proving it requires a way to measure how restrictive, a.k.a. "stringent", these regulations are so researchers can compare cities. But each city has its own unique code with hundreds of pages of regulations. These rules can change over time, and different cities may use the same word in different ways. Even compiling these rules can be challenging because there is no national source of information. Researchers have been gathering their own data and inventing new measurements for decades. Some collect and read the regulations themselves, but this limits how many cities they can study at once. Others send out surveys to thousands of urban planners or real estate developers, but these provide a spotty and limited view. Still others tried to measure something simpler like the time or number of steps it takes for someone to get a building permit, but these might be different for many reasons (efficiency, number of staff, etc.) so these too are unreliable. Overall, the differences and disagreements between studies have prevented scholars from drawing definitive conclusions about the effects of these regulations on housing construction and prices (Gyourko and Molloy 2015). I argue that an ideal measurement of regulatory stringency would be: a) Easily calculated from open-source data available online b) Comparable within and across geographic areas c) Comparable over time in the same area(s) This thesis explores an original measurement that meets these three criteria that I call "regulatory utilization." I start by defining land use regulations and describing how economists think they affect markets for jobs, homes, and land. Next, I explain several challenges that researchers face when trying to measure these regulations and examine the main approaches that have been used in the past. Then I define my own measurement. I demonstrate how to calculate it from the open data that many cities publish on their websites, and I compare it to past approaches. I show how it relates to important topics in real estate economics and consider practical applications: to sense neighborhood change over time, inform homeowners about their redevelopment options, and help politicians and activists estimate the impacts of potential zoning changes. I conclude by summarizing and suggesting areas for further study.

This paper aims to explore how well green facility management has performed in Shanghai office building and finds the possible way to improve the situation. Together with two interviews, questionnaire based on benchmarking approach is conducted in a case study of the Asia Building, which lead to the conclusion that green facility management has done a fair work in Asia Building, and suggestions that laws and regulations related to green facility management should be established; governmental organization, the Trade Association of Shanghai Property Management, should take responsibility to improve the situation concerning to the issue; property management company should develop a healthy relationship with property owner and occupiers.

This paper examines whether the total amount issued of a company has an effect on corporate bonds’ yield spreads on the Swedish debt capital market. With panel data regression of over 150,000 observations from over 20 investment graded companies, it is found that the relationship is smile-like. Companies with lower and higher amount of issued bonds have a higher yield spread compared to those in the middle-size range of the same credit risk. The significance hold after controlling for other regressors such as bond-specific, firm-specific, and macroeconomic variables. The effect can be viewed as a market-illiquidity problem from the theory of constrained investors where Swedish issuers outgrow the smaller SEK market and the yield spread levels are not fully explained by default risk determinants. The paper’s result indicates that the total amount outstanding of a company has a role in explaining the dynamics of corporate bonds’ yield spread. / Denna uppsats undersöker om det totala utfärdade beloppet för ett företag har en effekt på företagsobligationers yield spread på den svenska skuldkapitalmarknaden. Med paneldataregression på över 150,000 observationer från över 20 investeringsgraderade företag kan det konstateras att förhållandet är icke-linjärt. Företag med lägre och högre belopp emitterade obligationer har en högre yield spread jämfört med dem i medelstorleksintervallet av samma kreditrisk. Signifikansen håller efter kontroll för andra regressorer, såsom obligationsspecifika, företagsspecifika och makroekonomiska variabler. Effekten kan ses som ett problem med illikviditet på marknaden utifrån teorin om begränsade investerare där svenska emittenter växer ifrån den mindre SEK-marknaden. Uppsatsens resultat indikerar att det totala utestående beloppet för ett företag har en roll i att förklara dynamiken i företagsobligationernas yield spread.

This dissertation consists of three empirical essays on labor, health, and real estate economics. The first essay theoretically and empirically analyzed the effects of the costs of firing an employee and hiring a replacement in a labor market with imperfect information. The theory suggested that increased expected firing or replacement costs contributed to a ``lemons effect" for the fired worker through the negative signal received in the labor market regarding the worker's ability. To test this theory, data from the Displaced Worker's Supplement to the Current Population Survey from 2004 to 2014 was used. The results were mixed, but suggested that workers in the United States who were displaced from their job experienced decreased probabilities of finding reemployment as firing costs increased. The essay also examined whether this ``lemons effect" contributed to larger wage decreases, but the estimates did not support this conclusion. The second essay estimated the impacts of the 2001 elimination of the Medicare 24-month waiting period for non-elderly Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients. Using data from the National Hospital Discharge Survey, this essay estimated the effects of the elimination on health insurance coverage and utilization of health care services. By applying a difference-in-difference OLS estimation technique, it was estimated that, as a result of the waiting period elimination, non-elderly ALS patients were more likely to be insured, but there was a significant crowd-out of private insurance. These non-elderly patients who were admitted to the hospital with serious symptoms were also more likely to be transferred to long- or short-term care facilities while non-serious patients were more likely to receive a high (four or more) number of medical services while hospitalized. In the third essay, the effects of a new suburban casino on local housing prices were evaluated. Similar to the second essay, a difference-in-difference approach was applied, but it was combined with a spatial hedonic pricing model. Using data from a GIS product from the Maryland Department of Planning and local-area data from the American Community Survey, the effects that the opening of Maryland Live! Casino had on home sales prices of properties located in primary (one-mile radius) and secondary (one to three miles) impact areas were estimated. The results of the estimations indicated that the opening of the casino had a positive impact on housing prices in the primary impact area and this impact likely began during the construction period. No impacts, however, were evident in the secondary impact area. / Economics

The overall aim of this research project is to study green/energy-efficient real estate from an economic perspective. The thesis summarizes the results from five different studies with a connection to green/energy-efficient real estate.The aim of the first paper (paper A) is to study how tenants perceive the indoor environment in green-rated premises, and to compare these results with tenants’ perception of a conventional building’s indoor environment. The main result is that the tenants in the green-rated building are more satisfied with the indoor environment than the tenants in the conventional building.Papers B and C assess whether energy efficiency has an impact on buildings’ income and market values using Swedish real-estate data. The key result is that although there is a small impact on building-related income, this does not seem to translate into a higher market value.The last two papers included in this thesis study hindrances to a more energy-efficient building sector. In paper D, two office buildings are used as baseline cases to provide insights into the difficulties that can arise when trying to upgrade a building to make it more energy efficient. The results indicate that changing existing leases is a prohibitive process and that it is often difficult to evaluate the final impact of an energy upgrade. The last paper focuses on why it may be rational to postpone green refurbishments even if they are profitable. The main result is that it may be rational to postpone such refurbishments. However, by introducing different financial penalties and/or subsidies, these investments could be triggered today.To sum up, the results indicate that green buildings are preferred by tenants, but that there still appear to be economic barriers to a greener building sector. / Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att studera grön/energieffektiva byggnader ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv. Avhandlingen består av en kappa och fem separata studier, vilka belyser tre olika forskningsfrågor. Syftet med den första studien är att studera hur hyresgäster upplever inomhusmiljön i gröna byggnader. I studien jämförs inomhusmiljön i en grön byggnad med inomhusmiljön i en likvärdig konventionell byggnad. Resultatet visar, på det stora hela, att hyresgästerna är mer nöjda med inomhusmiljön i den gröna byggnaden. De nästföljande studierna, B respektive C, undersöker om byggnadens energiprestanda har någon inverkan på dess hyra respektive marknadsvärde. Resultaten visar på en liten signifikant hyrespåverkan, dock verkar denna inte ha någon effekt på byggnadernas marknadsvärdebedömningar. Skälet till detta kan vara att hyrespremien anses för liten för att ha någon signifikant inverkan på byggnadens marknadsvärde, alternativt att fastighetsvärderare inte beaktar energiprestanda när en fastighet värderas. De två sista studierna studerar varför vissa, tillsynes lönsamma, energiinvesteringar inte genomförs. Resultaten från studie D visar på svårigheterna med att ingå ett samarbetsavtal (för att eliminera felaktiga incitament) mellan hyresgäst och hyresvärd. Sådana avtal tar lång tid att förhandla fram och det uppkommer ofta svårigheter med att utvärdera de tänkta energiinvesteringarnas ekonomiska utfall. Studie E utgår ifrån en realoptionsmodell, vilken används för att utvärdera när ”gröna” renoveringar bör genomföras i en befintlig byggnad. Studien visar att det kan vara rationellt att vänta trots att investeringen idag är lönsam. Vidare visar resultaten att det är möjligt att via byggsubventioner/finansiella ”straff” påverka aktörer att tidigarelägga energieffektiviseringsåtgärder.  Dock är det viktigt att dessa utformas korrekt så att det inte skapar några snedvridna incitament. Övergripande visar resultaten att gröna byggnader är att föredra ur ett brukarperspektiv men att det fortfarande finns ekonomiska hinder för en mer hållbar byggsektor. Nyckelord: gröna byggnader, energieffektiva byggnader, EPC, inomhusmiljö, Realoptioner, fastighetsekonomi. / <p>QC 20160407</p>

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In 2002, Baker and Wurgler posited that capital structure is the cumulative outcome of past attempts to time the equity market. Due to this theory´s recent introduction it has not been subjected to the same comprehensive testing as other financing theories. Most importantly, this theory lacks extensive industry and country specific testing that is required to truly understand its explanatory power. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the applicability of the market timing theory on a country and industry specific level. Given these constraints, the study measured the market timing effects on Swedish real estate firms by performing a panel data regression with yearly financial data from 1991 through 2021. In addition, due to the time-varying nature of capital structure, the data was further divided into three sub periods. First, the study controls for short-term effects by regressing market-to-book with three components of leverage. The results suggest a positive relationship between equity issues and market-to-book values, indicating support for short-term market timing effects. Next, the study implements the external financed weighted-average market-to-book variable to measure if the market timing effects are indeed persistent over the long run. Opposing the market timing theory, the results do not find any support for long-term effects. Instead, the findings imply that firms likely rebalance their capital structure shortly after equity market timing attempts. / År 2002 påstod Baker och Wurgler att ett företags kapitalstruktur är det kumulativa resultatet av historiska försök att tajma aktiemarknaden. Då denna teori är relativt ny så har den inte utsatts för samma rigorösa prövning som äldre finansieringsteorier. Med andra ord så saknar teorin i synnerhet omfattande bransch-och-nationsspecifika tester. Syftet med denna avhandling är därmed att undersöka Market-timing-teorins applicerbarhet på svenska fastighetsföretag genom att utföra en paneldataregression med årliga finansiella data mellan 1991 och 2021. På grund av kapitalstrukturens tidsvarierande karaktär delades studiens data upp i tre tidsintervall. Först kontrollerade studien för kortsiktiga effekter genom regression av market-to-book med tre komponenter av skuldsättningsgraden. Resultaten tyder på ett positivt samband mellan aktieemissioner och market-to-book, vilket indikerar stöd för kortsiktiga effekter av market-timing. Därefter implementerar studien External Finance Weighted-Average Market-to-book variabeln för att mäta om market-timing-effekterna verkligen är ihållande på lång sikt. I motsats till market-timing-teorin finner resultaten inte något stöd för långsiktiga effekter. I stället antyder resultaten att företag sannolikt balanserar om sin kapitalstruktur kort efter försök av market-timing.

Purpose – In recent decades the inflation- and interest rates have followed a long-termdeclining trend. Followed by central banks starting to use unconventional monetary policiesto cope with financial crises have led to increased amounts of liquidity in the financialsystems and available and looking for investment alternatives on the capital markets. At thesame time real estate property prices have set new highs corresponding to a longer-termtrend of declining cap rates. The traditional cap rate formula components the risk-free rateand risk premium less rental growth do not entirely explain the trend of declining cap ratesthat have led to very low cap rates. The purpose with this thesis quantitative study is to testif the newer cap rate determinants money supply and foreign investments percentage of allmarket transactions can explain the decline and recently very low cap rates.Design/Methodology – The master thesis firstly conducts a literature review on previousstudies on cap rate determinants and subsequent conduct an own quantitative study byrunning dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) regression analysis on time series ofStockholm central business district commercial office cap rates and determinants chosen asindependent variables representing macro- and market fundamental factors driving caprates with the addition of money supply proxied by monetary aggregate M3 and foreigninvestments on the market proxied by the foreign share of investments on the Stockholmcommercial office market.Findings – The DOLS regression model (1)-(5) determinants are overall significant androbust. Of the newer cap rate determinants that are tested the monetary aggregate M3 andits included lags are of higher and stronger significance and impact on the cap rate than theforeign investment share. However, the foreign investment share time-series data used inthe study do not entirely correspond to the Stockholm central business district (CBD)commercial office market but rather against the larger Stockholm commercial office marketand hence the foreign investment share is assumed to be a relevant cap rate determinantwith support from studies referred to in the section theoretical framework.Research limitations/implications – To ensure high quality in statistical analysis andhypothesis testing large data samples corresponding to longer time-series data than waspossible to obtain for this thesis quantitative study is required. However, even though arelatively small sample has been used it performed well in tests conducted of the dataquality.Originality/value – The master thesis aims to measure and quantify the impact fromunconventional monetary policy and international real estate investments on commercialoffice cap rates. Executed on the Swedish capital Stockholms CBD office market. / Syfte – De senaste decennierna har inflationen- och räntorna följt en långsiktigtnedåtgående trend. Detta har följts upp av att centralbanker börjat använda okonventionellpenningpolitik för att hantera finanskriser, vilket lett till att en ökad penningmängd i definansiella systemen sökt investeringsmöjligheter på kapitalmarknaderna. Samtidigt harfastighetspriserna satt nya rekord ett flertal gånger vilket motsvarar en långsiktig trend avsjunkande kapitaliseringstakter. Den traditionella modellen för kapitaliseringstakt med riskfriränta och riskpremium med subtraktion av hyrestillväxt förklarar inte helt detta. Syftet meddetta examensarbetes kvantitativa studie är att pröva om de nyare potentielladeterminanterna penningmängd och andelen utländska investeringar kan förklaranedgången och de nyligen väldigt låga kapitaliseringstakterna.Design/Metodik – Examensarbetet börjar med en litteraturstudie inom konceptetkapitaliseringstakt och dess determinanter. Därefter görs en kvantitativ studie med DOLSregressionsanalys av kapitaliseringstakter för kontorsmarknaden i Stockholms centralaaffärsdistrikt och modeller av dess determinanter bestående av makro- ochmarknadsfundamentala faktorer som antas vara drivande för kapitaliseringstakten. Medtillägg av determinanterna penningmängd modellerad med måttet M3 och andelenutländska investeringar modellerad med andelen utländska investeringar påkontorsmarknaden i Stockholm.Undersökningsresultat – Kapitaliseringstakts determinanterna i modellerna (1)-(5) ärövergripande signifikanta och robusta. Av de två nyare determinanterna är penningmängdM3 och dess inkluderade laggade värden av högre och starkare signifikans och med störreinverkan på kapitaliseringstakten än andelen utländska investeringar. Dessvärre motsvararinte tidsserien av andelen utländska investeringar på kontorsmarknaden i Stockholm detmindre segmentet kontorsmarknaden för Stockholms centrala affärsdistrikt och därmedantas den motsvarande andelen utländska investeringar vara signifikant med stöd av tidigarestudier som lyfts fram i litteraturstudien.Begränsningar/implikationer – För att säkerställa hög kvalité på analys av statistik behövsstora stickprov vilket motsvarar data för långa tidsserier, vilket inte var möjligt att erhålla fördetta examensarbetes kvantitativa studie. Positivt är dock ändå att tidsserie data somanvänts, trots att de inte är så långa som önskat, presterat bra i de genomförda testerna avdatakvalitén.

Die vorliegende Dissertation zu makroökonomischen Themen beinhaltet einen einleitenden Literaturüberblick, drei eigenständige und voneinander unabhängige Kapitel sowie einen technischen Anhang. In Kapitel zwei wird ein Zwei-Länder Modell einer Währungsunion betrachtet, in dem die gemeinsame Zentralbank die Wohlfahrt der gesamten Währungsunion maximieren will, während die zwei fiskalpolitischen Akteure vergleichbare, aber minimal abweichende länderspezifische Verlustfunktionen zu minimieren suchen. Das Konkurrenzverhalten dieser drei Institutionen wird in sieben spieltheoretischen Szenarien analysiert. Beim Vergleich einer homogenen mit einer heterogenen Währungsunion lassen sich für letztere deutlich höhere Wohlfahrtsverluste relativ zum sozialen Optimum feststellen. Die Szenarien mit den geringsten Wohlfahrtsverlusten sind Kooperation aller drei Institutionen und eine Stackelberg-Führerschaft der Zentralbank. Kapitel drei untersucht, inwieweit das Verhältnis von Immobilienpreise zum Bruttoinlandsprodukt als langfristig konstant und nur auf Grund von Produktivitätsschocks von seinem Mittelwert abweichend angesehen werden kann. Hierzu wird ein Zwei-Sektoren RBC-Modell für den Immobiliensektor und einen Konsumgütersektor erstellt. Es wird gezeigt, dass ein antizipierter, zukünftiger Schock auf das Produktivitätswachstum im Konsumgütersektor eine sofortige, deutliche Erhöhung der Immobilienpreise relativ zum Bruttoinlandsprodukt zur Folge hat. In Kapitel vier wird gefragt, ob ein typisches Neukeynesianisches Modell "sechs große Rätsel der internationalen Makroökonomie" erklären kann. Die sechs Rätsel werden in Bedingungen für erste und zweite Momente übersetzt und fünf wesentliche Modellparameter geschätzt. Das Ergebnis ist erstaunlich gut: unter anderem können die empirischen Beobachtungen zur Heimatpräferenz wiedergegeben und die Schwankungsbreite des realen Wechselkurses deutlich erhöht werden. Handelskosten sind für dieses Ergebnis ein wesentlicher Faktor. / This dissertation consists of an introductory chapter with an extended literature review, three chapters on individual and independent research topics, and an appendix. Chapter 2 uses a two-country model with a central bank maximizing union-wide welfare and two fiscal authorities minimizing comparable, but slightly different country-wide losses. The rivalry between the three authorities is analyzed in seven static games. Comparing a homogeneous with a heterogeneous monetary union, welfare losses relative to the social optimum are found to be significantly larger in a heterogeneous union. The best-performing scenarios are cooperation between all authorities and monetary leadership. The goal of Chapter 3 is to investigate whether or not it is possible to explain the house price to GDP ratio and the house price to stock price ratio as being generally constant, deviating from its respective mean only because of shocks to productivity? Building a two-sector RBC model for residential and non-residential capital, it is shown that an anticipated future shock to productivity growth in the non-residential sector leads to an immediate large increase in house prices relative to GDP. In Chapter 4, it is asked whether a typical New Keynesian Open Economy Model is able to explain "Six Major Puzzles in International Macroeconomics". After translating the six puzzles into moment conditions for the model, I estimate five parameters to fit the moment conditions implied by the data. Given the simplicity of the model, its fit is surprisingly good: among other things, the home bias puzzles can easily be replicated, the exchange rate volatility is formidably increased and the exchange rate correlation pattern is relatively close to realistic values. Trade costs are one important ingredient for this finding.