Nicolai C. Striewe analyzes potential opportunistic behavior of REIT managers and provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of institutional monitoring as a corporate governance mechanism. The author also suggests ways to promote sustainable management by means of institutional participation. The results of his study provide valuable insights to enhance corporate governance, transparency and efficiency in the REIT market. They encourage (a) academics to include a behavioral component into studies of the REIT market, (b) REIT managers to incorporate effective monitoring and control mechanisms, (c) investors to become more aware of agency conflicts in REITs and (d) policy makers to facilitate a legal framework conducive to a sustainable REIT market.

By adopting the ‘REIT laboratory’ and incorporating REIT-specific Fama-French factors, Nick Martin Trefz builds the foundation to appropriately isolate the parameters of interest and to transparently investigate the areas of interest (Short Selling, Covid-19, and ESG) throughout the chapters in this book. He finds that short selling activity measured by short interest correlates with positive excess returns, and that low short interest portfolios have positive and statistically significant alphas. He further identifies that during the Covid-19 pandemic the sources of spillovers among US real estate sectors remain constant compared to before Covid-19. Lodging can be identified as a source of total return as well as tail risk, and Office can be considered a source of volatility. Lastly, he shows that ESG ratings do not affect returns during Covid-19. However, higher ESG ranked REITs show significantly lower volatility during Covid-19.

Abstracts of dissertations available on microfilm or as xerographic reproductions.