Conditional risk premiums of Asian real estate stocks

This paper uses a multi-factor latent variable model to examine the time variation of expected returns on Asian property stocks. Using data from 1990 to 1997, we found strong evidence of time-varying risk premium, suggesting property development based on constant discount rate may underestimate the cost of capital. A further study using a multi-country model suggests that conditional excess returns of many crisis-stricken economies appear to move quite closely with each other. This supports the hypothesis that the risk premiums in these Asian markets move closely over time As a result, they provide a partial explanation of market contagion in the region.