IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jrefec/v62y2021i1d10.1007_s11146-019-09741-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economies of Scale and the Operating Efficiency of REITs: A Revisit

Author

Listed:
  • Michael J. Highfield

    (Mississippi State University)

  • Lily Shen

    (Clemson University)

  • Thomas M. Springer

    (Clemson University)

Abstract

Building on past research regarding the operating efficiency of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and recognizing the substantial changes in this industry since the turn of the millennium, we examine REIT efficiency over the period 2001–2015. Using both time-varying stochastic frontier and linear models of costs, revenues, and performance measures, we find evidence showing that the REIT industry is slowly moving away from both cost and revenue efficiency over time; however, size remains positively correlated with efficiency. Despite the rapid expansion of asset sizes and evidence of diminishing efficiencies of scale, larger REITs still enjoy comparative advantages over smaller REITs in both revenue (production) and costs. We also find evidence that post-recession efficiencies exceed pre-recession efficiencies, and we document modest evidence of the “weeding-out” of inefficient enterprises during the market downturn. The results suggest, through a diverse set of measures, that additional efficiency opportunities for REITs may be achievable through continued growth and consolidation.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael J. Highfield & Lily Shen & Thomas M. Springer, 2021. "Economies of Scale and the Operating Efficiency of REITs: A Revisit," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 108-138, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jrefec:v:62:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s11146-019-09741-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11146-019-09741-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11146-019-09741-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11146-019-09741-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lewis, Danielle & Springer, Thomas M & Anderson, Randy I, 2003. "The Cost Efficiency of Real Estate Investment Trusts: An Analysis with a Bayesian Stochastic Frontier Model," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 65-80, January.
    2. Badunenko, Oleg & Fritsch, Michael & Stephan, Andreas, 2008. "Allocative efficiency measurement revisited--Do we really need input prices?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 1093-1109, September.
    3. Rogers, Kevin E., 1998. "Nontraditional activities and the efficiency of US commercial banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 467-482, May.
    4. Berger, Allen N. & Mester, Loretta J., 1997. "Inside the black box: What explains differences in the efficiencies of financial institutions?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 895-947, July.
    5. Brent W. Ambrose & Michael J. Highfield & Peter D. Linneman, 2005. "Real Estate and Economies of Scale: The Case of REITs," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 33(2), pages 323-350, June.
    6. Ambrose, Brent W. & Ehrlich, Steven R. & Hughes, William T. & Wachter, Susan M., 2000. "REIT Economies of Scale: Fact or Fiction?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 211-224, March.
    7. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    8. Martina Bers & Thomas M. Springer, 1997. "Economies of Scale for Real Estate Investment Trusts," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 14(3), pages 275-290.
    9. John C. Topuz & Ali F. Darrat & Roger M. Shelor, 2005. "Technical, Allocative and Scale Efficiencies of REITs: An Empirical Inquiry," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(9‐10), pages 1961-1994, November.
    10. Libo Sun & Sheridan D. Titman & Garry J. Twite, 2015. "REIT and Commercial Real Estate Returns: A Postmortem of the Financial Crisis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 43(1), pages 8-36, March.
    11. Anderson, Randy I. & Fok, Robert & Springer, Thomas & Webb, James, 2002. "Technical efficiency and economies of scale: A non-parametric analysis of REIT operating efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(3), pages 598-612, June.
    12. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    13. Michael Devaney & William Weber, 2005. "Efficiency, Scale Economies, and the Risk/Return Performance of Real Estate Investment Trusts," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 301-317, November.
    14. Ruoran Xu & Joseph T. L. Ooi, 2018. "Good Growth, Bad Growth: How Effective are REITs’ Corporate Watchdogs?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 64-86, July.
    15. J. Mulherin & Kiplan Womack, 2015. "Competition, Auctions & Negotiations in REIT Takeovers," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 151-180, February.
    16. Dennis R. Capozza & Paul J. Seguin, 1998. "Managerial Style and Firm Value," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 26(1), pages 131-150, March.
    17. John C. Topuz & Ali F. Darrat & Roger M. Shelor, 2005. "Technical, Allocative and Scale Efficiencies of REITs:," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(9-10), pages 1961-1994.
    18. Stephen M. Miller & Terrence M. Clauretie & Thomas M. Springer, 2006. "Economies Of Scale And Cost Efficiencies: A Panel‐Data Stochastic‐Frontier Analysis Of Real Estate Investment Trusts," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 74(4), pages 483-499, July.
    19. Isik, Ihsan & Topuz, John C., 2017. "Meet the “born efficient” financial institutions: Evidence from the boom years of US REITs," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 70-99.
    20. John Topuz & Ihsan Isik, 2009. "Structural changes, market growth and productivity gains of the US real estate investment trusts in the 1990s," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 33(3), pages 288-315, July.
    21. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joseph R. Nicholson & James A. Stevens, 2022. "REIT Operational Efficiency: External Advisement and Management," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 127-151, July.
    2. Mansley, Nick & Wang, Zilong & Weng, Xiaoyu & Zhang, Wenjing, 2023. "Good growth, bad growth: Market reaction to capital raising for REIT expansion," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Paul Anglin & Jianxin Cui & Yanmin Gao & Li Zhang, 2021. "Analyst Forecasts during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from REITs," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mustafa Kemal Yilmaz & Ali Osman Kusakci & Ekrem Tatoglu & Orkun Icten & Feyzullah Yetgin, 2019. "Performance Evaluation of Real Estate Investment Trusts using a Hybridized Interval Type-2 Fuzzy AHP-DEA Approach: The Case of Borsa Istanbul," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(06), pages 1785-1820, November.
    2. Ambrose, Brent W. & Fuerst, Franz & Mansley, Nick & Wang, Zilong, 2019. "Size effects and economies of scale in European real estate companies," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    3. Mansley, Nick & Wang, Zilong & Weng, Xiaoyu & Zhang, Wenjing, 2023. "Good growth, bad growth: Market reaction to capital raising for REIT expansion," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Isik, Ihsan & Topuz, John C., 2017. "Meet the “born efficient” financial institutions: Evidence from the boom years of US REITs," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 70-99.
    5. Ruoran Xu & Joseph T. L. Ooi, 2018. "Good Growth, Bad Growth: How Effective are REITs’ Corporate Watchdogs?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 64-86, July.
    6. Changha Jin & Kwanyoung Kim, 2017. "Do Economies of Scale Exist? : Evidence from Korean REITs," International Real Estate Review, Global Social Science Institute, vol. 20(3), pages 349-374.
    7. Eli Beracha & Zifeng Feng & William G. Hardin, 2019. "REIT Operational Efficiency: Performance, Risk, and Return," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 408-437, April.
    8. Hui Chen Chiang & Yih Ching Tsaih & Wen-Cheng Hsiao, 2016. "The Efficiency Analysis Of Singapore Real Estate Investment Trusts," Eurasian Journal of Business and Management, Eurasian Publications, vol. 4(4), pages 9-20.
    9. Joseph R. Nicholson & James A. Stevens, 2022. "REIT Operational Efficiency: External Advisement and Management," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 127-151, July.
    10. Stephen M. Miller & Terrence M. Clauretie & Thomas M. Springer, 2006. "Economies Of Scale And Cost Efficiencies: A Panel‐Data Stochastic‐Frontier Analysis Of Real Estate Investment Trusts," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 74(4), pages 483-499, July.
    11. Vaneet Bhatia & Sankarshan Basu & Subrata Kumar Mitra & Pradyumna Dash, 2018. "A review of bank efficiency and productivity," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 55(3), pages 557-600, November.
    12. Sandrine Kablan & Ouidad Yousfi, 2015. "Performance of Islamic Banks across the World: An Empirical Analysis over the Period 2001-2008," International Journal of Empirical Finance, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 4(1), pages 27-46.
    13. Adnan Kasman & Canan Yildirim, 2006. "Cost and profit efficiencies in transition banking: the case of new EU members," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(9), pages 1079-1090.
    14. Stephen M. Miller & Thomas M. Springer, 2007. "Cost Improvements, Returns to Scale, and Cost Inefficiencies for Real Estate Investment Trusts," Working papers 2007-05, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    15. Levent Kutlu & Shasha Liu & Robin C. Sickles, 2022. "Cost, Revenue, and Profit Function Estimates," Springer Books, in: Subhash C. Ray & Robert G. Chambers & Subal C. Kumbhakar (ed.), Handbook of Production Economics, chapter 16, pages 641-679, Springer.
    16. Jiang, Chunxia & Yao, Shujie & Zhang, Zongyi, 2009. "The effects of governance changes on bank efficiency in China: A stochastic distance function approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 717-731, December.
    17. Eli Beracha & Zifeng Feng & William Hardin, 2017. "The Operational Efficiency of REITs," ERES eres2017_50, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    18. Nor Nazihah Chuweni* & Ihsan Isik & Ahmad Shazrin Mohamed Azmi, 2018. "Productivity, Technology and Efficiency Change of Islamic and Conventional Reits in Malaysia," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 382-389:6.
    19. Chrysovalantis Gaganis & Iftekhar Hasan & Fotios Pasiouras, 2013. "Efficiency and stock returns: evidence from the insurance industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 429-442, December.
    20. Qayyum, Abdul & Ahmed, Munir, 2006. "Efficiency and Sustainability of Micro Finance Institutions in South Asia," MPRA Paper 85467, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2014.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    REITs; Economies of scale; Operating efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • R30 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jrefec:v:62:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s11146-019-09741-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.