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Essays In Real Estate Securities And Financial Institutions, Zifeng Feng

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays that examine aspects of real estate securities and financial institutions.

The first essay examines the relations between Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) efficiency and operational performance, risk, and stock return. REIT-level operational efficiency is measured as the ratio of operational expenses to revenue, where a higher operational efficiency ratio (OER) indicates a less efficient REIT. For a sample of U.S. equity REITs, operational performance, measured by return on assets as well as return on equity, is negatively associated with previous-year operational efficiency ratios. Results further show that more efficient REITs have lower levels of …