How do the CEO political leanings affect REIT business decisions?

Deng, X. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4896-6333, Anglin, P. M., Gao, Y. and Sun, H. (2021) How do the CEO political leanings affect REIT business decisions? Journal of Real Estate Research, 43 (4). pp. 419-446. ISSN 2691-1175 doi: 10.1080/08965803.2021.2003507

Abstract/Summary

Business decisions made by the real estate industry have a profound effect on the well-being of people who live, work, or shop in these buildings. While these decisions may be informed by evidence, the available evidence is often incomplete or imperfect. Therefore, the personal opinions or judgments of senior executives can have an effect. In this paper, we study these effects in two parts: risk-taking and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. Since a person’s political learning is a relatively stable measure, and is associated with preferences for risk and ESG activities, we examine how the political leanings of the CEOs are related to these effects. Using the data from 2003 to 2016, we find that real estate investment trusts with Democratic-leaning CEOs tend to take more risks, as evidenced by higher levels of leverage and more risk in stock prices. We further find that Democratic-leaning CEOs are more broadly engaged in environmentally oriented ESG activities.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/114491
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Henley Business School > Real Estate and Planning
Publisher	American Real Estate Society
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item