Pricing Limited Partnerships in the Secondary Market

This study investigates the pattern of prices for multiple partnerships sold in the secondary market. In the model, the partnership buyer prefers to purchase the units sequentially since sellers have varying desires to sell. The benefit of a sequential purchase strategy is partially offset by rational sellers who demand higher prices in earlier sales since the possibility of future sales reduces the sellers’ eagerness to sell in earlier rounds. If this strategic component is sufficiently large, a pattern of decreasing prices should be observed. Using a panel dataset comprised of 52,679 transactions from eighteen real estate limited partnerships, and after controlling for performance characteristics, the study finds that prices decrease over time, thus indicating a significant strategic component in this market.

Bandwidth efficient CCSDS coding standard proposals

The basic concatenated coding system for the space telemetry channel consists of a Reed-Solomon (RS) outer code, a symbol interleaver/deinterleaver, and a bandwidth efficient trellis inner code. A block diagram of this configuration is shown. The system may operate with or without the outer code and interleaver. In this recommendation, the outer code remains the (255,223) RS code over GF(2 exp 8) with an error correcting capability of t = 16 eight bit symbols. This code's excellent performance and the existence of fast, cost effective, decoders justify its continued use. The purpose of the interleaver/deinterleaver is to distribute burst errors out of the inner decoder over multiple codewords of the outer code. This utilizes the error correcting capability of the outer code more efficiently and reduces the probability of an RS decoder failure. Since the space telemetry channel is not considered bursty, the required interleaving depth is primarily a function of the inner decoding method. A diagram of an interleaver with depth 4 that is compatible with the (255,223) RS code is shown. Specific interleaver requirements are discussed after the inner code recommendations

Exotic Reservations – Low Price Guarantees

The increase in the volume of internet online bookings has had a major impact on distribution channels in the hotel industry. The popularity of such services stems from the consumers\u27 desire to obtain the lowest rate within their desired market segment. One possible cure is to offer the best rate guarantee. We show that current rate guarantees are essentially worthless to consumers; and demonstrate how a hotel company can structure a best rate guarantee that would provide value to consumers. In addition, we show, using a well-established exotic option pricing formula, how to price this best rate guarantee so that consumers would be willing to pay for the option

Foreclosure of Securitized Commercial Mortgage - A Model of the Special Servicer

The decision to foreclose on a CMBS mortgage is made by the special servicer. A loan is in special servicing when the mortgage is either delinquent or in a state of imminent default. The special servicer should represent the interests of the underlying CMBS bondholders by getting the most dollars back for the investors. In this paper, we show that the special servicer\u27s compensation structure results in an incentive for him to extend the loan beyond the time desired by the bondholders. We develop a model of these conflicting incentives and demonstrate how compensation incentives interact and influence the special servicer\u27s foreclosure decision. Our model takes into consideration the dynamic nature of this decision by viewing the foreclosure decision as a dynamic programming problem whereby foreclosure represents a discrete terminal state of an optimal stopping problem. This model thus captures the trade-off between continuation of the loan with its termination and we use this model to determine how the stopping rule changes under various compensation structures

Common Global and Local Drivers of RevPAR in Asian Cities

This study examines the common global and local factors that drive changes in revenue per available room (RevPAR) in eight major Asian cities. We find that RevPARs for these cities tended to move together until about 2009, after which the RevPARs began diverging significantly. The study tests economic variables that capture both local and global factors and which explain most of the changes in RevPAR in each city. One factor, the number of tourist arrivals, is always positively associated with RevPAR changes in the eight cities. Other factors that drive RevPAR in most of the eight cities are inflation, Chinese consumer confidence, U.S. consumer confidence, and Chinese real-estate development (as a proxy for China’s GDP). Most of these gateway cities are more heavily influenced by global factors than local factors. At one extreme, global factors explain over 90 percent of the changes in RevPAR in Seoul. At the other extreme, local factors explain 66 percent of the changes in RevPAR in Bangkok. These similarities and differences give hoteliers and investors a window into the factors that drive their properties’ revenues and allow a more accurate risk assessment

The Dynamics of Credit Spreads in Hotel Mortgages and Signaling Implications

This paper investigates the loan pricing of risk in a market with short term leases (hotels) relative to longer term leases (office properties) with respect to how news on the economy, capital and real estate markets is incorporated in loan pricing using a vector autoregression (VAR) framework. The hotel loan pricing data provides a unique laboratory to study loan pricing adjustments given the short-term nature of the hotel leases. We examine the information content of hotel credit spreads in two stages. After establishing the impact of economic variables on loan pricing and the informational content of the incremental risk spread, we next examine how loan pricing adjusts in response to expected delinquencies. We find that improvement in general economic conditions, an increase in forward looking corporate profitability, an increase in capital availability and/or an increase in the demand for hotel services forecast a decline in the hotel risk premium differential. Thus, the relative loan prices—the spread—reflect systematic risk. We also find that hotel spreads themselves contain important economic information. Unexpected increases in hotel spreads predict hotel delinquencies. In other words, lenders appear to set interest rates on hotel mortgages in anticipation of hotel delinquencies and foreclosures in future periods. Lenders do not appear to consider past delinquencies in their setting their rate

Developing the DELTA: Capturing cultural changes in undergraduate departments

Departments are now recognized as an important locus for sustainable change on university campuses. Making sustainable changes typically requires a shift in culture, but culture is complex and difficult to measure. For this reason, cultural changes are often studied using qualitative methods that provide rich, detailed data. However, this imposes barriers to measuring culture and studying change at scale (i.e., across many departments). To address this issue, we introduce the Departmental Education and Leadership Transformation Assessment (DELTA), a new survey aimed at capturing cultural changes in undergraduate departments. We describe the survey’s development and validation and provide sugges-tions for its utility for researchers and practitioners

Hyperparathyroidism subsequent to radioactive iodine therapy for Graves\u27 disease

BACKGROUND: The development of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) after radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment for thyroid disease is poorly characterized. The current study is the largest reported cohort and assesses the disease characteristics of patients treated for PHPT with a history of RAI exposure. METHODS: A retrospective analysis comparing patients, with and without a history of RAI treatment, who underwent surgery for PHPT. RESULTS: Twenty-eight of the 469 patients had a history of RAI treatment, all for Graves\u27 disease. Patients with a history of RAI exposure had similar disease characteristics compared to control; however, patients with a history of RAI treatment had a higher rate of recurrence (7.4% vs 1.2%, p = 0.012). CONCLUSION: PHPT in patients with a history of RAI treatment can be approached in the same manner as RAI naive PHPT patients; however, the risk of recurrence of PHPT in RAI exposed patients may be higher

Microwave Components with MEMS Switches

RF MEMS switches with metal-metal contacts are being developed for microwave applications where broadband, high linearity performance is required. These switches provide less than 0.2 dB insertion loss through 40 GHz. This paper describes the integration of these switches into selected microwave components such as reconfigurable antenna elements, tunable filters, switched delay lines, and SPDT switches. Microwave and millimeter wave measured results from these circuits are presented