Asymmetric political attention across foreign and domestic private equity real estate investors. Issue 1 (2nd January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gupta, Ashish; Das, Prashant
• Is Part Of: Journal of property research. Volume 39:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 29
• Publication Date: 2022-01-02
• Subjects: Private equity -- real estate -- Google -- politics -- investment -- India; Real estate business -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Land use -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 333.3
• DOI: 10.1080/09599916.2021.1906732
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-9916

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Private equity real estate (PERE) markets suffer from information inefficiency. In this study, we examine if Google Trends could help in partially mitigating the inefficiency issues. Using monthly PERE investment activities in India between 2005 and 2017, and controlling for macroeconomic variables, we show that relevant search trends are significantly associated with future investment activities. Compared to domestic investors, foreign investors are subject to information asymmetry and their investment activity is particularly sensitive to political search trends in the target country. We detect a mutually causal association between investment activity and political searches. Although significant, the effect of political Google Trends on investment activity is short-lived and fades within two months.