scholarly journals Adjustment costs and factor demand: New evidence from firms’ real estate*

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonin Bergeaud ◽  
Simon Ray
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Heterogeneous Firms ◽  
Adjustment Costs ◽  
Firm Dynamics ◽  
Labour Demand ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Factor Demand ◽  
Corporate Real Estate ◽  
Real Estate Prices

Abstract We study corporate real estate frictions and its effect on firm dynamics and labour demand. We build and simulate a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms that predicts the response of firms to a productivity shock in the presence of fixed adjustment costs on real-estate. Using a large firm-level database merged with local real estate prices, we then exploit variations in the tax on capital gain to document a causal effect of adjustment costs on firms’ labour demand and derive new results on the causes and implications of firms’ local relocation.

The Micro and Macro of Managerial Beliefs

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Maria Barrero
Keyword(s):  
Rational Expectations ◽  
Asset Price ◽  
Heterogeneous Firms ◽  
Adjustment Costs ◽  
Consumer Welfare ◽  
Sales Growth ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Managerial Decisions ◽  
Managerial Beliefs ◽  
Growth Volatility

This paper studies how biases in managerial beliefs affect managerial decisions, firm performance, and the macroeconomy. Using a new survey of US managers I establish three facts. (1) Managers are not over-optimistic: sales growth forecasts on average do not exceed realizations. (2) Managers are overprecise (overconfident): they underestimate future sales growth volatility. (3) Managers overextrapolate: their forecasts are too optimistic after positive shocks and too pessimistic after negative shocks. To quantify the implications of these facts, I estimate a dynamic general equilibrium model in which managers of heterogeneous firms use a subjective beliefs process to make forward-looking hiring decisions. Overprecision and overextrapolation lead managers to overreact to firm-level shocks and overspend on adjustment costs, destroying 2.1 percent of the typical firm’s value. Pervasive overreaction leads to excess volatility and reallocation, lowering consumer welfare by 0.5 to 2.3 percent relative to the rational expectations equilibrium. These findings suggest overreaction may amplify asset-price and business cycle fluctuations.

Firm location and systematic risk: the real estate channel

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-409
Author(s):  
Xiang Gao ◽  
John Topuz
Keyword(s):  
Asset Pricing ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Abnormal Returns ◽  
Systematic Risk ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Firm Risk ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Land Availability ◽  
Real Estate Prices

Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether the cyclicality of local real estate prices affects the systematic risk of local firms using a geography-based measure of land availability as a quasi-exogenous proxy for real estate price cyclicality. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses the geography-based land availability measure as a proxy for the procyclicality of real estate prices and the location of a firm’s headquarters as a proxy for the location of its real estate assets. Four-factor asset pricing model (market, size, value and momentum factors) is used to examine whether firms headquartered in more land-constrained metropolitan statistical areas have higher systematic risks. Findings The results show that real estate prices are more procyclical in areas with lower land availability and firms headquartered in these areas have higher systematic risk. This effect is more pronounced for firms with higher real estate holdings as a ratio of their tangible assets. Moreover, there are no abnormal returns to trading strategies based on land availability, consistent with stock market betas reflecting this local real estate factor. Research limitations/implications This paper contributes to the literature on local asset pricing factors, the collateral role of firms’ real estate holdings and the co-movement of security prices of geographically close firms. Practical implications This paper has important managerial implications by showing that, when firms decide on the location of their buildings (e.g. headquarters building, manufacturing plant and retail outlet), the location’s influence on systematic risk should be part of the decision-making process. Originality/value This paper is among the first to use a geography-based measure of land availability to study whether the procyclicality of local real estate prices influences firm risk independent of the procyclicality of the local economy. Thus, both the portfolio formed and firm-level analyses provide a more direct evidence of the positive relation between the procyclicality of local real estate prices and firm risk.

scholarly journals What is the Impact of Increased Business Competition?

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (276) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Feliz ◽  
Chiara Maggi
Keyword(s):  
Heterogeneous Firms ◽  
Firm Dynamics ◽  
Demand Elasticity ◽  
Employment Decisions ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Constant Elasticity ◽  
Constant Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Entry Time ◽  
Variable Markups ◽  
The Impact

This paper studies the macroeconomic effect and underlying firm-level transmission channels of a reduction in business entry costs. We provide novel evidence on the response of firms' entry, exit, and employment decisions. To do so, we use as a natural experiment a reform in Portugal that reduced entry time and costs. Using the staggered implementation of the policy across the Portuguese municipalities, we find that the reform increased local entry and employment by, respectively, 25% and 4.8% per year in its first four years of implementation. Moreover, around 60% of the increase in employment came from incumbent firms expanding their size, with most of the rise occurring among the most productive firms. Standard models of firm dynamics, which assume a constant elasticity of substitution, are inconsistent with the expansionary and heterogeneous response across incumbent firms. We show that in a model with heterogeneous firms and variable markups the most productive firms face a lower demand elasticity and expand their employment in response to increased entry.

Corporate real estate ownership, cash and credit ratings

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stoyu I. Ivanov ◽  
Matthew Faulkner
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Credit Ratings ◽  
Cash Holdings ◽  
Commercial Real Estate ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Corporate Real Estate ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Estate Ownership

PurposeRecently, multiple examples of large firms acquiring real estate have polarized investors. Who are the firms investing in real estate and what are their characteristics? How does this investment in owning commercial real estate relate to cash holding policies? Is owning commercial real estate associated with better credit ratings? This study questions commonly held beliefs in finance that firms prefer to lease their real estate rather than own it and examines what are the differences in outcomes between the choices.Design/methodology/approachThe authors identify three testable hypotheses based on the research questions and prior literature. The authors use univariate and multivariate analyses to test these hypotheses along with thorough robustness and addressing of endogeneity issues to confirm that our results hold in a variety of settings. The authors employ new proxies of real estate to the literature from Bloomberg and firm level data from Compustat.FindingsThe authors show that more firms within the S&P 500 choose to own commercial real estate. The authors also find many significant differences in corporate characteristics between firms who own real estate and those who do not, such that firms with real estate ownership have significantly: higher growth opportunities, higher R&D expenses, higher working capital levels, lower capital expenditures, higher leverage and higher cash flow. Firms with corporate real estate (CRE) ownership hold less cash. Contingent on real estate ownership, firms have higher cash holdings as their real estate holdings increase. Last, firms with commercial real estate ownership have higher credit ratings.Originality/valueOne of the main contributions of this study is in the use of a new specific proxy using data on corporate land, buildings and construction in progress, which to the best of our knowledge has not been done in the past. Other studies focus on aggregate property, plant and equipment data which blurs the CRE ownership picture. Additionally, the authors provide an underexplored variable of CRE ownership to its impacts of cash holdings and credit ratings, which had yet to be uncovered.

scholarly journals Local governments’ indebtedness and its impact on real estate prices

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1032-1048
Author(s):  
Martin Micheli
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
The Other ◽  
Property Prices ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Real Estate Prices ◽  
And Control ◽  
Rational Behaviour

This paper estimates the causal effect of public debt on real estate prices and rental prices. We identify shocks to debt of self-governed cities in Germany and control for potential benefits such as an increased supply of public goods, which may come together with increased indebtedness. Using spatial variation across self-governed cities, we can quantify the causal effect. We find that shocks to public debt capitalise into property prices, questioning the presence of debt illusion in Germany. Rental prices, on the other hand, do not seem affected by public debt but by the actual tax burden, indicating that renter illusion does not reflect an illusion but rational behaviour.

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