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

Political Risk and the Cost of Capital in Asia-Pacific Property Markets

This study investigates the impact of political risk on the cost of capital for publicly traded real estate firms. More specifically, by using a sample of 102 REITs and listed property trusts, which hold nearly 6,000 distinct investment properties across the Asia-Pacific region, we find strong empirical evidence that increased exposure to political risk increases both the cost of equity financing of a firm and its weighted average cost of capital. Interestingly, no such linkages are apparent between political risk and the cost of debt of a firm. These empirical results are robust to a variety of alternative measures of political risk, including a: 1) political rights index, 2) political change index, and 3) corruption perceptions index

The FilZ protein contains a single PilZ domain and facilitates the swarming motility of pseudoalteromonas sp. SM9913

Swarming regulation is complicated in flagellated bacteria, especially those possessing dual flagellar systems. It remains unclear whether and how the movement of the constitutive polar flagellum is regulated during swarming motility of these bacteria. Here, we report the downregulation of polar flagellar motility by the c-di-GMP effector FilZ in the marine sedimentary bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. SM9913. Strain SM9913 possesses two flagellar systems, and filZ is located in the lateral flagellar gene cluster. The function of FilZ is negatively controlled by intracellular c-di-GMP. Swarming in strain SM9913 consists of three periods. Deletion and overexpression of filZ revealed that, during the period when strain SM9913 expands quickly, FilZ facilitates swarming. In vitro pull-down and bacterial two-hybrid assays suggested that, in the absence of c-di-GMP, FilZ interacts with the CheW homolog A2230, which may be involved in the chemotactic signal transduction pathway to the polar flagellar motor protein FliMp, to interfere with polar flagellar motility. When bound to c-di-GMP, FilZ loses its ability to interact with A2230. Bioinformatic investigation indicated that filZ-like genes are present in many bacteria with dual flagellar systems. Our findings demonstrate a novel mode of regulation of bacterial swarming motility

Option Trading and REIT Returns

This article examines the relation between option trading volume and real estate investment trust (REIT) market performance. Specifically, we find that option volume increases are followed by decreases in returns. Furthermore, the portion of option volume that is orthogonal to REIT characteristics drives the observed return predictability relation, thereby suggesting that the return predictability of option trading is (at least partially) attributable to information-based explanations. Finally, consistent with informed traders favoring option market activities due to short-sale costs and/or constraints, we find option based return predictability is more evident within REITs than non-REITs, even though firms within this industry are generally viewed as informationally transparent

Core Earnings Uncertainty, Dividend Change Announcements And The Reduction Of Covariance Component Risks

We present evidence of two systematic market risk implications associated with core earnings news implicit in dividend change announcements: (1) a decline in firm-market correlation intensity, consistent with reduced investor reliance on overall market movements to value shares, and (2) a downward shift in standard deviation of returns, consistent with increased core earnings information precision. Decoupling these two covariance component risk effects is important because they can offset one another at the firm level, masking unique market influences on total systematic risk. Each is influenced by the information environment in different ways and each is shown to incrementally explain returns in a manner consistent with the capital asset pricing model (CAPM)

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

Cross-Border Investment And Firm Liquidity

We investigate the influence of interjurisdictional, geographic-based information barriers on the financial transparency and liquidity of real estate organizations across the Asia-Pacific region. Given both the unique regulatory distribution requirements across this industry and the capital-intensive nature of most real estate investment activities, firms within this market sector face unique, substantive financing concerns. As a consequence, financial transparency and liquidity are of increased importance to firms within this industry. Consistent with this paradigm, we find strong evidence that Asia-Pacific real estate firms facing enhanced levels of political risk and uncertainty are characterized by higher information barriers, and exhibit reduced financial market liquidity as measured by wider bid-ask spreads

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

Cross-Border Investment and Firm Liquidity

We investigate the influence of interjurisdictional, geographic-based information barriers on the financial transparency and liquidity of real estate organizations across the Asia-Pacific region. Given both the unique regulatory distribution requirements across this industry and the capital-intensive nature of most real estate investment activities, firms within this market sector face unique, substantive financing concerns. As a consequence, financial transparency and liquidity are of increased importance to firms within this industry. Consistent with this paradigm, we find strong evidence that Asia-Pacific real estate firms facing enhanced levels of political risk and uncertainty are characterized by higher information barriers, and exhibit reduced financial market liquidity as measured by wider bid-ask spreads