The 2020 Rena Sivitanidou Annual Research Symposium was held at the University of Southern California University Club on March 5th, 2020. This symposium featured a panel of more than 20 leading scholars in real estate economics drawn from both academic and policy institutions. Participants came from University of Southern California, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, Cal State Fullerton, UC Riverside, University of Texas at Austin, etc... These scholars gathered at USC to share their recent findings and opinions on the past and future developments of the housing market and how they related to the American economy.
The Lusk Annual Research Symposium is held in honor of Rena Sivitanidou, an associate professor of real estate planning and development in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development and an expert on the nature and dynamics of land rents. She was considered an outstanding teacher, researcher and colleague, Sivitanidou won the school's Planning and Development Outstanding Teacher Award for every one of the eight years she taught at USC. She unfortunately passed away in her early 40s due to illness. This research symposium carries forward her initative of furthering knowledge in the fields of Real Estate and Urban Economics.
The day-long symposium started with a welcome speech from Richard Green, the Director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate and Jorge De La Roca, the Research Director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate and Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. The symposium continued with seven sessions of presentations. Each presentation was followed by a discussion and a Q&A section. These sessions covered a wide range of cutting-edge topics within the real estate economics interacting with finance, macroeconomics, and urban economics.
Presentations
Below are summary highlights from the symposium, followed by the presenter's abstract and respective paper and video presentation, where available. Please note: express permission from author needed for citation or use of any material.
Rogier Holtermans | Assistant Professor of Real Estate Finance, University of Guelph
Title: The Art of the Deal: Value-Added of Commercial Real Estate Brokerage (joint with Piet Eichholtz)
Discussant: Lingxiao Li | Assistant Professor of Finance, Cal State Fullerton
Click here for full presentation
Yuxi Yao | Ph.D. Candidate, University of Western Ontario
Title: Land Use and the Rise in the Dispersion of House Prices and Rents Across U.S. Cities
Discussant: Edward Coulson | Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Real Estate, UC Irvine
Click here for full presentation
Ruchi Singh | Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
Title: Is Competition a Cure for Confusion? Evidence from the Residential Mortgage Market (joint with Steven G. Malliaris and Daniel A. Rettl)
Discussant: Moussa Diop | Assistant Professor, USC Price
Click here for full presentation
LUNCH PANEL:
Leslie Appleton-Young | California Association of Realtors
Jennifer Boss | Heitman
Noah Shore | Fortress Investment Group
Mary Lynne Boorn | USC Price
Nils Kok | Associate Professor of Finance and Real Estate, Maastricht University
Title: On the Economics of Health in Buildings
Discussant: Christian Redfearn | Associate Professor, USC Price
Click here for full presentation
Stuart Gabriel | Professor of Finance and Director of Ziman Center for Real Estate, UCLA
Title: Ideology, Religion and Cheap Housing: Israeli Settlement of the West Bank (joint with Danny Ben-Shahar and Roni Golan)
Discussant: Eunjee Kwon | Ph.D Candidate, USC Dornsife
Click here for full presentation
KEYNOTE:
William Wheaton | Professor, Center for Real Estate | Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, MIT
Title: The Economic Theory of Urban Form
For questions or comments, please contact:
Nina Tibayan
Lusk Director of Administration
213-740-0969