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Shareholder Activism in REITs
Author(s) -
Downs David H.,
Straska Miroslava,
Waller H. Gregory
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
real estate economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.064
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1540-6229
pISSN - 1080-8620
DOI - 10.1111/1540-6229.12242
Subject(s) - real estate investment trust , shareholder , equity (law) , shareholder value , business , economics , financial system , monetary economics , corporate governance , finance , political science , law , real estate
Conventional wisdom suggests that shareholder activism in REITs is less prevalent than in other (non‐REIT) public firms because of stronger barriers to hostile takeovers and potentially less undervaluation. Our results, however, suggest that the conventional wisdom does not hold. Specifically, we find that in 2006–2015, Equity REITs (EREITs) are as likely to be targeted by shareholder activists as non‐EREITs. We also find that shareholder campaign characteristics and determinants, as well as their value consequences, appear similar for EREITs and non‐EREITs. Given that this is the first study to examine shareholder activism in REITs, we raise several questions for future research.