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Are Government Owned Investment Funds Created Equal? Evidence from Sovereign Wealth Fund Real Estate Acquisitions

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Listed:
  • Peng Liu

    (Cornell University)

  • Nathan Mauck

    (University of Missouri - Kansas City)

  • S. McKay Price

    (Lehigh University)

Abstract

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are an institutional investor class about which relatively little is known. Even though they have trillions of dollars in assets under management, their (typically) highly secretive nature renders them difficult to analyze in an academic context. We utilize transactional data from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute to provide the first academic analysis of SWF real estate investment activity of which we are aware. To better understand this growing investor class, we compare SWFs with their most closely related institutional group, public pension funds (PPFs). While both SWFs and PPFs are state owned investment funds, we find SWFs have lower Stone and Truman (2016) best practice scores (based on fund structure, governance, transparency and accountability, and behavior.) Further, while both SWFs and PPFs show increasing levels of cross-border real estate investment, SWFs are significantly more likely than PPFs to invest across international borders. We find the percentage of SWF cross-border real estate investment to be substantially higher than the percentage of SWF cross-border investment in public and private equity documented in other studies. Moreover, in a subsample of acquisitions in the U.S., cross-border real estate investments are in locations with lower capitalization rates than domestic acquisitions for both SWFs and PPFs, and there is no discernable difference in rates across the two fund types, on average.

Suggested Citation

  • Peng Liu & Nathan Mauck & S. McKay Price, 2020. "Are Government Owned Investment Funds Created Equal? Evidence from Sovereign Wealth Fund Real Estate Acquisitions," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 698-729, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jrefec:v:61:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s11146-019-09730-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11146-019-09730-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Narjess Boubakri & Veljko Fotak & Omrane Guedhami & Yukihiro Yasuda, 2023. "The heterogeneous and evolving roles of sovereign wealth funds: Issues, challenges, and research agenda," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(3), pages 241-252, September.
    3. Chao He & Lawrence Kryzanowski & Yunfei Zhao, 2023. "Political connections of Chinese fund management companies and fund performance," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 597-627, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sovereign wealth funds; Real estate investment; International real estate; Foreign investment; Cross-border investment; Public pension funds;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • P52 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Studies of Particular Economies

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