The first essay of this dissertation investigates the relationship between downside risk andreturns of real estate investment trusts (REITs) and assesses the performance of real estatemutual funds (REMFs). We measure the asymmetric risk through downside and upside betas andthrough the measures...

Using a time-varying approach, this paper examines the dynamics of volatility in the real estate investment trust (REIT) sector. The results highlight the attractiveness and suitability of using GARCH based approaches in the modeling of daily REIT volatility.The paper examines the factors that...

This study investigates why externally advised real estate investment trusts (REITs) underperform their internally managed counterparts. Consistent with previous studies, we find that REITs managed by external advisors underperform internally managed ones by over 7 percent per year....

With the significant growth in Islamic financial products in recent years, the world?s first Islamic real estate investment trust (REIT) was established in Malaysia in August 2006, with these REIT portfolios needing to be Shariah compliant. This paper constructs three Malaysian REIT (M-REIT)...

Listed property trust (LPTs) have been the most successful indirect property investment vehicle in Australia. Surveys conducted by the Australian Stock Exchange in 1999 found that the LPT sector was the fastest growing stockmarket sector, increasing its number of investors by 88%, compared to...

Recent years have seen increased attention given to the real estate investment opportunities available from the non-traditional real estate sectors such as self-storage, healthcare, and other specialty real estate sectors. In particular, these non-traditional real estate sectors in equity REITs...

Forestland tenure institutions and patterns are in a period of rapid change in the USA. Historically dominant forestland tenures are disappearing, and new tenures are emerging. Traditional, vertically-integrated forest products firms have shed their forestland holdings to be picked up by Timber...

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...

We model organization as the command-and-communication network of managers erected on top of technology (which is modeled as a collection of plants). In our framework, the role of a manager is to deal with shocks that affect the plants that he oversees directly or indirectly. Organizational form...

Quality of service is of major economic significance in natural monopoly infrastructure industries but is generally not reflected in efficiency analysis. In this paper we present an efficiency analysis of electricity distribution networks using a sample of about 500 electricity distribution...