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Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 25 2014

Institutional investors as monitors of corporate diversification decisions: Evidence from real estate investment trusts

Jay C. Hartzell1; Libo Sun2; Sheridan Titman1

1 The University of Texas at Austin · 2 California State Polytechnic University

Abstract

Determining whether diversification adds or destroys value is notoriously difficult, leaving open the question of the degree to which any diversification discount can be affected by management quality and oversight. This study uses the unique setting of real estate investment trusts (REITs), which can diversify over property types as well as locations, to examine this issue. We find that REITs that diversify by investing in more locations tend to be valued lower than REITs with a tighter geographical focus. More importantly, our results suggest that the diversification discount is lower for firms with more institutional ownership, especially institutional types that tend to be more active monitors.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2013.10.006
Volume
25
Pages
61-72
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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