Darren Hayunga

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Associate) at University of Georgia

This article investigates the options market around a revision in the financial analysts’ consensus recommendation. The results demonstrate that options investors trade in the correct direction of the upcoming revision approximately 3 days prior to the announcement. We find this behavior in option-implied prices, implied volatilities, and options t...

We use parallel processing and improved algorithms to search for the weights given to two locational coordinates as well as three non-locational dimensions to find multidimensional neighbors (previous in time) to fit a multidimensional STAR model. We find that the improvements allow for quick specification searches. The effect of the improved speci...

This article investigates measurement errors when using indices to model house prices over time. Our analysis, comparing index prices to actual transaction values, reveals that in many cases, widely-used indices display measurement errors correlated with the index values. Measurement error correlated with predictors constitutes “differential measur...

This article conducts a comprehensive analysis of the potential returns from investing in residential real property, with a special interest in any added gains due to trading larger volumes. Since the literature suggests that they are at a bargaining disadvantage, one notable finding is that individuals earn price benefits like so-called profession...

Trading costs are a significant, but unobserved, drag on mutual fund performance. Because an index fund does not engage in securities selection or market timing, its trading costs are equivalent to its underperformance relative to its benchmark plus any securities lending income it earns. Using a large sample of index funds, we find positive return...

We revisit the nature of returns to scale following Pástor, Stambaugh, and Taylor (2015). Using replicated versions of their domestic equity fund sample, we confirm their negative and significant relation between industry scale and performance. However, upon closer examination we find the diseconomies of scale at the industry level result is an art...

Machine learning algorithms such as neural nets, support vector machines, and tree-based techniques (classification and regression trees) have shown great success in dealing with a number of complex problems (Hastie et al. 2009). However, real estate data exhibit both temporal dependence and high levels of spatial dependence (Pace et al., Internati...

Maintenance and improvements affect house values and thus the observed pecuniary return. Whether due to lack of liquidity or the presence of strategic incentives, some borrowers have a higher probability of default and this could lead to lower maintenance and investment in the property. We test this hypothesis using a sample of properties on which...

Search theory shows that real property prices and marketing durations are simultaneously determined and positively related. Yet, empirical studies find positive, negative, and insignificant parameter estimates on the time-on-the-market (TOM) variable in price models. Using a dataset well suited to the research question, this article investigates re...

Outliers represent a fundamental challenge in the empirical finance research. We investigate whether the routine techniques used in finance research to identify and treat outliers are appropriate for the data structures we observe in practice. Specifically, we propose a multivariate identification strategy that can effectively detect outliers. We a...

This article examines the bargaining power and information advantages of housing market participants with special interest in the outcomes of individuals compared to real estate agents. Prior studies examining agents’ sales of their own properties find that they obtain higher prices than their clients, which is notable because it suggests a possibl...

This article examines the use of concessions in the US housing market, specifically payments for closing costs, home warranties, and structural repairs. This is the first study to examine the motivations and characteristics of homeowners that utilize concessions. It also examines the impact concessions have on transaction prices and marketing durat...

Recent research suggests that improper identification of outliers can lead to distorted inference. We investigate this issue by examining the role that multivariate outliers play in research outcomes using the Chen et al. (2004) study. We find that the documented negative relation between scale and return performance in the actively managed mutual...

A seller sets the list price based upon their ex-ante perception of the trade-off between marketing duration versus transaction price, which depends on the liquidity of the property and the depth of the market. As such, list prices reflect property, market, and seller characteristics. In addition, Genesove and Mayer (2001) and Bokhari and Geltner (...

This article is the first to examine financial restatements by real estate investment trusts (REITs). We provide a descriptive breakdown of the underlying causes of REIT restatements as well as overall and subsample analyses of stock market reactions to restatements from 2000 to 2011. REIT restatements occur for a large variety of accounting issues...

The primary cash financing literature consists of two early 1990s publications. Both of these studies found large cash discounts in residential transaction prices. We revisit this topic by examining residential transaction prices in Pinehurst, North Carolina. We find that cash buyers in the market do not negotiate a discount for the use of cash fin...

Mapping spatial processes at a small scale is a challenge when observed data are not abundant. The article examines the residential housing market in Fort Worth, Texas, and builds price indices at the inter- and intra-neighborhood levels. To accomplish our objectives, we initially model price variability in the joint space–time continuum. We then u...

This article is the first to examine financial restatements by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). We provide a descriptive breakdown of the underlying causes of REIT restatements as well as overall and subsample analyses of stock market reactions to restatements from 2000 to 2011. REIT restatements occur for a large variety of accounting issues...

We examine residential real estate transactions in a market where an additional property right to a club good may have an influence on prices. We find that for single-family property, the market capitalizes approximately 50% of the full value of the extra property right. For condominiums, the amount reduces to approximately 25%. While these amounts...

This article examines trading behavior in the options market conditioned on mispricing in the underlying stock. We investigate the price equilibrium between the observed equity asset and the options-implied synthetic share as well as the relative divergence between the two prices. We find a consistently positive relation between the level of stock...

We investigate the overconfidence theory and inflation-illusion hypothesis of asset mispricing. Both concepts address subjective asset valuation but place the impetus on differing explanations within the standard dividend-growth model. We find that one of the theoretical outcomes of overconfidence—asset turnover—consistently explains mispricing in...

Portfolio theory shows that diversification can enhance the risk-return trade-off. This study uses the absolute location of commercial real estate property along with spatial statistics to address the inherent problem of determining geographical diversification based upon a set of economic and property-specific attributes, some of which are unobser...

We investigate the potential competition between multifamily and condominium developers for raw land throughout the U.S. When considering the entire sample period, we find evidence that condominium developers paid, on average, more for land than their multifamily counterparts. Alternatively, when we separate the sample into low versus high‐growth l...

A new era began for US equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) around 1992. This study is the first to document the dividend smoothing, determinants of dividend payouts, and the market reaction to dividend announcements of the modern REIT. We find the Lintner (195631. Lintner , J. 1956. Distribution of incomes of corporations among dividends,...

The traditional mechanisms of private covenants and public restrictions may not meet the needs of residential property owners who want to preserve a certain neighborhood style. Privately initiated and publicly enforced conservation district regulations can preserve desirable neighborhood characteristics and signal to buyers that neighborhood confor...