Research
Research
joint with Sumit Agarwal, Brent W. Ambrose and Luis A.
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
2021 ARES Annual Meeting Manuscript Prize Winner, Property/Asset Management sponsored by IREM®
Media Coverage: VT News | AEA Research Highlight Podcast | Apple Podcast
In this study, we examine the broader economic effects of the U.S. federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by focusing on the performance of securitized commercial mortgages. We provide novel evidence for spillover effects of government interventions in the face of economic crises. We find that the PPP reduced mortgage delinquencies by approximately $36 billion in 2020. The strongest effects occur when PPP funds targeted businesses in areas most affected by COVID-19, where banks overperformed in providing PPP loans, and among mortgages on properties in retail and lodging. Thus, PPP relief to small businesses eased economic distress beyond the labor market.
2023 RERI Dissertation Grant
2023 AREUEA National Conference Junior Scholar Program
available on SSRN
Due to climate change, firms face growing uncertainty tied to the transition towards a low-carbon economy. This paper studies how real asset owners price firm level climate transition risk within-industry using commercial real estate leases. Mapping firm carbon intensity to leases, I exploit the cross-sectional variation in firms with different levels of climate transition risk. I find novel evidence on asymmetric pricing of climate transition risk based on income exposure. Moreover, I document green engagement and local policy stringency affect climate transition risk rent premium. These suggest that awareness and local policy environment shape perceptions about climate transition risk.
joint with Liang Peng
Revise & Resubmit at Real Estate Economics
2023 RERI Funded Research Project
available on SSRN
Media Coverage: The Real Estate Haystack
Analyzing 60,730 leases in the five largest office markets in the U.S. from 2010 to 2019, we find novel evidence suggesting that the office space market is segmented based on leases’ space size (square footage). We define the Abundance of a lease as the percentage of leases of similar size in the market, which is a proxy for the equilibrium quantity of leases in its size segment. Using hedonic regressions, we find that lease Abundance significantly increases rent, controlling for attributes of leases, tenants, and buildings, particularly the cross-segment spillover of demand and supply of space. This finding is robust across regions and time, and the Abundance Premium is higher for larger leases and bigger buildings.