The theoretical literature suggests a positive relation between financial leverage and asset returns, but the empirical evidence on this effect is mixed. We examine leverage effects in public real estate markets across eight countries with active public real estate markets. Cross-country public real estate markets provide an interesting testing ground given the significant use of leverage in re...

This paper addresses the tension between benefits of centralized data control against the benefits of decentralized control at the level of the business unit. Centralized data control provides the benefit of uniform standards whereas business unit data control grants flexibility to react to rapidly changing environments. Many data standardization efforts fail because they do not fully take into...

The paper analyses a particular type of housing arrangement between owner of a housing unit and owner of the land on which it is sited, where the unit is partially or totally immobile. While the focus is on mobile-home parks, the analysis is also applicable to certain condominium and cooperative housing. After exploring reasons for divided asset ownership, the possibility that divided ownership...

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of gender differences in economic support and well-being in eight countries in Southern and Eastern Asia (Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Taiwan). We examine multiple economic indicators, including sources of income, receipt of financial and material support, income levels, ownership of assets, and sub...

We investigate a household’s asset allocation, housing, and mortgage decisions in a calibrated life-cycle model with costly stock market entry and participation and a risky housing market featuring housing adjustment costs, mortgage collateral borrowing requirement, refinancing charge, and default penalty. Our analysis demonstrates that a household’s liquid wealth is the most important determin...

Over the last 35 years, the concentration of institutional assets in equity markets has increased dramatically. The stock ownership by the largest ten asset managers now accounts for 23.1% of total stock market capitalization, having quadrupled over this period. The paper asks whether idiosyncratic shocks to these institutions can spill over to their underlying holdings through their trading ac...

Investors often influence the strategic decisions of their holdings, such as long-term orientation and investments in intangible assets. Investigating IT capability as a strategic asset, we examine the influence of institutional shareholders’ investment horizon and blockholdings on the development of organizational IT capability. We perform a panel data analysis of eleven years of archival data...

This paper investigates under which circumstances negotiating simultaneously over multiple issues or assets helps reduce inefficiencies due to the presence of asymmetric information. We find that a simultaneous negotiation over multiple assets that are substitutes reduces inefficiencies. The effect is stronger if goods are heterogeneous, and in this case the inefficiency can be eliminated altog...

During the year prior to management buyout (MBOs) announcements, some target firms exhibit abnormally high discretionary expenses in selling, general and administration, abnormally low discretionary accruals, and realize losses from asset sales. Higher discretionary expenses and losses from asset sales are associated with lower pre-MBO abnormal stock returns, especially for firms with higher in...

This study examines the impact of capital structure on agency costs in 211 non-financial Chinese listed firms for the period 1999-2001. There are two main findings. (1) Firms with high debt to asset ratio have high ratio of annual sales to total assets and high ratio of return-on-equity. If a firm has a high debt to asset ratio, creditors are much more concerned about the payment of interest an...