Regret Aversion and False Reference Points in Residential Real Estate

This study empirically exams the combination of regret aversion and false reference points in a residential real estate context. Survey respondents were put in a hypothetical situation, where they had purchased an investment property several years ago. Hindsight knowledge about a foregone all time high was introduced. As hypothesized, respondents on average expressed higher regret if they had actively failed to sell at the all time high (commission scenario) than if they had simply been unaware of the potential gain (omission scenario). Women were found to be more susceptible to regret aversion and false reference points than men.

Epitaxial undoped indium oxide thin films: Structural and physical properties.

Indium oxide thin films were grown by the pulsed electron beam deposition method on c-cut sapphire substrates at 10−2 mbar oxygen pressure and temperature up to 500 1C. Such conditions lead to the formation of dense, smooth and stoichiometric In2O3 films, with the cubic bixbyite structure. Epitaxial thin films were obtained at substrate temperatures as low as 200 1C. Pole figure measurements indicate the existence of (111) oriented In2O3 crystallites with different in-plane symmetry, i.e. three-fold and six-fold symmetry. The origin of this effect may be related to the specificities of the growth method which can induce a large disorder in the oxygen network of In2O3, leading then to a six-fold symmetry in the (111) plane of the bixbyite structure. This temperature resistivity behaviour shows metallic conductivity at room temperature and a metal– semiconductor transition at low temperature for In2O3 films grown at 200 1C, while the classical semiconductor behaviour was observed for the films grown at 400 and 500 1C. A maximum mobility of 24.7 cm2/V s was measured at 200 1C, and then it falls off with improving the crystalline quality of films. The optical transparency is high (480%) in a spectral range from 500 nm to 900 nm

Advisor Choice in Asia-Pacific Property Markets

This paper examines advisor choice decisions by publicly traded REITs and listed property companies in Asia-Pacific real estate markets. Using a sample of 168 firms, we find robust evidence that firms strategically evaluate and compare the increased agency costs associated with external advisement against the potential benefits associated with collocating decision rights with location specific soft information. Our empirical results reveal real estate companies tend to hire external advisors when they invest in countries: 1) that are more economically and politically unstable, 2) whose legal system is based on civil law, 3) where the level of corruption is perceived to be high, and 4) when disclosure is relatively poor. Additionally, we find the probability of retaining an external advisor is directly related to the expected agency costs. Lastly, we find evidence of return premiums in excess of 13 % for firms whose organizational structure matches their investment profile. As such, we conclude that the decision to hire an external advisor represents a value relevant trade-off between the costs and benefits of this organizational arrangement

Capital Structure and Political Risk in Asia-Pacific Real Estate Markets

This study investigates the determinants of capital structure decisions by real estate firms, with a specific focus on the impact of political risk on leverage. Using a sample of Asia-Pacific REITs and listed property trusts, we find those firms with properties located in countries characterized by relatively high degrees of political risk, such as political instability, and/or greater uncertainty in the ability to repatriate and monetize profits from international investment activities, employ less debt than their counterparts operating in more politically stable environments. This core finding remains robust to alternative sample selection criteria including the division of the sample into high versus low market-to-book value firms, and also holds within the subset of organizations that are active in raising additional capital in the secondary markets

Shedding light on a living lab: the CLEF NEWSREEL open recommendation platform

In the CLEF NEWSREEL lab, participants are invited to evaluate news recommendation techniques in real-time by providing news recommendations to actual users that visit commercial news portals to satisfy their information needs. A central role within this lab is the communication between participants and the users. This is enabled by The Open Recommendation Platform (ORP), a web-based platform which distributes users' impressions of news articles to the participants and returns their recommendations to the readers. In this demo, we illustrate the platform and show how requests are handled to provide relevant news articles in real-time

Effects of substrate and ambient gas on epitaxial growth indium oxide thin films

Indium oxide thin films were grown by pulsed electron beam deposition method at 500 °C on c-cut sapphire and (0 0 1) oriented LaAlO3 single crystal substrates in oxygen or argon gas. The effects of ambient gas and substrate symmetry on the growth of indium oxide thin films were studied. Stoichiometric In2O3 films are formed in oxygen, while oxygen deficient In2O2.5 films are grown in argon, with In metallic nanoclusters embedded in a In2O3 matrix (nanocomposite films). In both cases, epitaxial In2O3 films having the bixbyite phase were grown with various orientation relationships, depending upon the substrate symmetry and gas ambient (oxygen or argon). Domain matching epitaxy was used to describe the precise in-plane epitaxial film-substrate relationships. The differences in film texture were correlated to the differences in growth conditions, while the differences in the film properties were correlated to the film oxygen composition

The Impact of Geographic and Cultural Dispersion on Information Opacity

This paper investigates the influences of intrafirm geographic and cultural dispersion, the distance between the location of a firm’s investments and its headquarters, on the firm’s information environment. Specifically, using a sample of publicly traded real estate companies across the Asia-Pacific region, we examine how intrafirm geographic and cultural distance impacts a firm’s capital acquisition costs. As a consequence of both the heavily regulated operating environment faced by these firms, as well as the capital intensive nature of this industry, funding costs should be of pronounced importance to firms within this sector. Consistent with this paradigm, we find that firms with geographically disperse investments exhibit enhanced informational opacity. Specifically, firms with more geographically disperse investments exhibit higher capital acquisition costs than their more geographically concentrated counterparts. Similarly, firms with more culturally disparate investments also exhibit enhanced informational opacity, as evidenced by increased capital costs. Additionally, we present evidence that the impact of both physical and cultural distance is increasing following the global financial crisis. Taken together, our results provide strong evidence that both intrafirm geographic and cultural dispersion materially impact both an organization’s information environment and funding costs

Involution and Constrained Dynamics I: The Dirac Approach

We study the theory of systems with constraints from the point of view of the formal theory of partial differential equations. For finite-dimensional systems we show that the Dirac algorithm completes the equations of motion to an involutive system. We discuss the implications of this identification for field theories and argue that the involution analysis is more general and flexible than the Dirac approach. We also derive intrinsic expressions for the number of degrees of freedom.Comment: 28 pages, latex, no figure

On the Fredholm property of bisingular pseudodifferential operators

For operators belonging either to a class of global bisingular pseudodifferential operators on $R^m \times R^n$ or to a class of bisingular pseudodifferential operators on a product $M \times N$ of two closed smooth manifolds, we show the equivalence of their ellipticity (defined by the invertibility of certain associated homogeneous principal symbols) and their Fredholm mapping property in associated scales of Sobolev spaces. We also prove the spectral invariance of these operator classes and then extend these results to the even larger classes of Toeplitz type operators.Comment: 21 pages. Expanded sections 3 and 4. Corrected typos. Added reference

The Comparative Effectiveness of Systematic Desensitization and an Integrative Approach in Treating Public Speaking Anxiety: A Literature Review and a Preliminary Investigation

An analysis of the literature related to public speaking anxiety (PSA) and various treatments of it are discussed. PSA is a state or situational type of anxiety which can have tremendous effects on those who suffer from it. Two of the major treatments—systematic desensitization (SD) and the integrative approach (IA)—are reviewed and then experimentally tested to determine which is the more effective in treating PSA. The results are somewhat inclusive, but there is strong evidence to suggest that both SD and IA reduce trait and state anxiety. It was found, however, that IA is more effective in decreasing the symptoms associated with PSA