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This study aims to examine the economic consequences of, and managerial behaviour in response to, the introduction of IFRS 16 Leases. It extends the debt covenant hypothesis to explain why firms reduce the use of operating leases with the introduction.

This study develops a model, based on operating leases as an alternative financing source and the determinants of debt policy, to estimate the effects of gearing on operating lease intensity. High gearing is a proxy to probably closer to the violation of, or expected to violate, the gearing restriction in debt covenants given the retrospective capitalisation of operating leases, when IFRS 16 takes effect.

This study finds that operating lease intensity fell between 2011 (immediately after the first exposure draft leading to IFRS 16) and 2018 (immediately prior to the effective date of IFRS 16). It also finds that gearing affects changes in operating lease intensity over 2011 and 2018, consistent with the debt covenant hypothesis.

The introduction of IFRS 16 is a natural experiment with unique characteristics (the active lobbying behaviour, ex ante evidence on adverse economic consequences, a prolonged standard-setting period, etc.) valuable for accounting research.

A showcase about the relevance of financial reporting for contracting interests of firms and managers and a good reference for accounting standard setters in considering and managing the economic consequences of proposed accounting standards.

This study adds to the limited research on the consequences of accounting standards and documents the ex-post impact on firm leverage ratios and the behavioural aspects of reporting entities.

The purpose of this paper is to review empirical research on the determinants of leasing.

The paper reviews previous literature that has focused on studying the determinants of leasing decisions. It also discusses the determinants of the lease‐buy decision and the determinants of the choice between finance leases and operating leases.

Previous empirical studies show that there is no consensus as to whether debt and leases are complements or substitutes. However, there are some factors that affect the choice between leases and debt, such as size, taxes, nature of assets, financial constraints and management compensation. Leases tend to be more prevalent in some industries (such as air transport, retailing and services and utilities) than in others, and companies tend to lease assets that are less specific, of general usage and more liquid. Previous studies also show that higher leverage companies tend to use leases rather than other forms of financing.

The paper only addresses the determinants of leasing. Previous studies about leases address other areas such as the lease accounting standards and the economic consequences and valuation of leases, which are not discussed in this paper.

The paper presents an exhaustive review of previous literature on the determinants of leasing. Evidence from research on this topic is likely to be helpful in capital market investment decisions, accounting standard setting and decisions on corporate financial disclosure.

This chapter focuses on the IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers and IFRS 16 Leases in the airline industry considering the case of Air France – KLM (AF-KLM). This airline timely adopted IFRS 15 and early adopted IFRS 16 for the year 2018 and restated its 2017 financial statements using the full retrospective method so that the 2018 financial statements of the airline provide comparative financial information during the transition phase from IAS 18 to IFRS 15 as well as from IAS 17 to IFRS 16. In the first part of the chapter, liquidity, solvency, and profitability ratios along with cash flow ratios were used to analyze the cumulative effect of IFRS 15 and IFRS 16 using 2017 and restated 2017 financial statements. In this context, results indicate that the liquidity ratios decreased, and the solvency ratios increased in general. In addition, the cumulative effect of IFRS 15 and IFRS 16 created an upward change in general on profitability ratios based on the several performance parameters that should be considered during the transition from IAS 18 to IFRS 15 and from IAS 17 to IFRS 16. Overall, IFRS 15 has minor effect and IFRS 16 has major effect on the financial statements of AF-KLM. In the second part of the chapter, the compliance level of the mandatory disclosures requirements of the airline was examined from the lessee standpoint and the research pointed out that the airline fully complied with these disclosures at its first adoption of IFRS 16 and provided some voluntary disclosures as well.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of leasing decisions for a sample of China’s non-financial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Pooled ordinary least squares and Tobit models are used to analyze five years of data (2009-2013) on the sample units, to find the determinants of leasing decisions after controlling for industry. In order to assess the robust of the results, the authors further apply instrumental variables methods.

The results suggest that CEO ownership, tax rate, financial distress potential, and firm size are positively related to the operating lease share, whereas debt ratio, profitability, and tangibility are negatively linked to the operating lease share. In contrast, capital lease share increases with debt ratio, profitability, firm size, and strong corporate governance; it decreases with CEO ownership and financial distress potential.

Using a small sample might not be enough capture industry effects. Future research may gain more insights using sufficient sample and considering the types of leases as well as leased assets.

This study offers evidences to the policy-makers who may adopt the practices to promote the development of leasing market. Furthermore, these results provide important implications to lessors in making operating strategy decisions and to potential lessees in making financing decisions.

To the authors’ limited knowledge, this is the first study on leasing relies on publicly traded Chinese SMEs. The results of this study enrich the literature on the determinants of leasing in several ways.

Purpose – This article examines the operating lease cost stickiness characteristics exhibited by retail firms.

Methodology/approach – Anderson, Banker, and Janakiraman (2003) laid important groundwork for the study of asymmetric cost behavior or cost stickiness. The authors found that a firm’s selling, general, and administrative costs (SG&A) costs increase more with a sales increase than those expenses decrease with an equivalent sales decline. Their findings provided avenues for many studies with differing focal variables; however, extant research has not explored the degree of cost stickiness associated with operating lease expenses. Recognizing the nature and magnitude of operating leases and the competitive and changing environment for retailers, this study adapts Anderson et al.’s (2003) model to provide insights into operating lease stickiness. The study uses archival financial data from 1997 through 2016 for specialty retail firms in testing the lease cost stickiness hypotheses.

Findings – The results of this study supported the hypotheses that operating lease expenses exhibit stickiness behavior and are relatively stickier than future lease commitments for retail firms.

Originality/value – By focusing on retail firms and related lease expenses, this study provides insights into the increasingly competitive retailer environment. This article’s findings will enhance understanding of how specialty retail firms’ managers react to reduced revenues. Finally, given recent authoritative pronouncements affecting accounting for leases and the significance of leasing transactions, research providing insights into cost behavior and managerial actions stands to make an important contribution to literature and practice.

Outlines the role of the conservatism inherent in generally accepted accounting principles in Ohlson’s (1995) and Feltham and Ohlson’s (1995) valuation models and compares it with other research findings. Identifies potential sources of conservatism (e.g. expensing advertising costs, providing for deferred tax etc.), develops a mathematical model and applies it to 1980‐1994 US data to examine their relative importance. Finds that intensity of R&D and age of fixed assets are the most significant and goes on to compare the effectiveness of the Feltham/Ohlson conservatism parameter in capturing this information. Shows that their linear information models seems to capture different aspects of the relationship between book and market values and calls for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect that ownership and management structures have on ability to control operating expenses. For individual investors, intensity of management experience is also explored as a possible explanatory variable for operating expenses. For property management services that are contracted out, the level of the fee is investigated as a possible cause for movements in operating expenses as well. Finally, operating expenses are used as a possible explanatory variable for a property’s lease-up performance during the year.

The analysis consists of a series of regression models performed on data provided by the 2012 Rental Housing Finance Survey (RHFS) in the USA. The RHFS is a unique data set that covers a wide degree of information on multifamily properties. The RHFS represents 2,260 properties in total, and covers various aspects of the apartment industry, including financing and operational cost measures. Control variables used as independent variables include number of units, year of property acquisition, and age of building.

Individual ownership and self-management proved to be statistically significant drivers in driving down log operating expenses. Hours spent by individuals performing property management roles on their own properties had a slightly positive association with operating expenses. For professional managers, the fees devoted solely to the manager or management company had a highly significant and positive effect on other operating costs. Finally, when separating out the individual components of operating expenses, only two variables had significant effects on tenant lease-ups: management expenses (positive) and security expenses (negative).

The data set is potentially biased toward those properties with less than 100 units, and thus it would be problematic to assume that these findings are generalizable to the population at large. There are also no geographic coding indicators within the RHFS data set, which eliminates the potential to control for various market factors and rural/urban differences.

The research provides an understanding of some of the basic factors behind increases in operating expenses, which ultimately has implications for performance benchmarks such as net operating income and property market value.

The reasonable controlling of operating expenses ultimately has potentially positive implications for low- to moderate-income populations, who would ultimately experience lower rents as a result.

This research represents one of the first known uses of the RHFS database.

Using a unique data set, the purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that tenants pay increased accommodation costs for space in energy efficient office property.

The authors obtain lease contracts for office space in central Sydney, Australia. Empirical data on annual gross face rent and contract terms from each lease are combined with building characteristics and measured energy performance at the time of lease. Hedonic regression isolates the effect of energy performance on gross face rent.

No significant price differentials emerged as a function of energy performance, leading to a conclusion that tenants are not willing to pay for energy efficiency. Six factors – tenancy floor level, submarket location, proximity to transit, market fixed effects, building quality specification and, surprisingly, outgoings liability – consistently explain over 85 per cent of gross face rent prices in Sydney.

Rent premiums from an asset owner's perspective could emerge as a result of occupancy premiums, market timing or agent bias combined with statistically insignificant rental price differentials.

Tenants are likely indifferent to energy costs because the paper demonstrates that energy efficiency lacks financial salience and legal obligation in Sydney. This means that split incentives between owner and tenant are not a substantial barrier to energy efficiency investment in this market.

This study is the first to thoroughly examine energy efficiency rent price premiums at the tenancy scale in response to disclosure of measured performance. It also presents evidence against the common assumption that rent premiums at the asset scale reflect tenant willingness to pay for energy efficiency.

This paper aims to contrast the financial costs and benefits of leasing, rather than owning real estate assets.

The main argument is that leasing is beneficial. The hypothesis is tested using a total of 2,343 UK‐quoted companies over the period 1989‐2002, resulting in 14,101 pooled time‐series and cross‐sectional observations.

The results indicate that large and high‐growth companies are likely to lease than to own these assets. Companies that lease are more efficient in using their real estate and that these benefits are compounded in share price valuation as leasing propensity is strongly leasing propensity is not linear, but an inverse U‐shaped, suggesting that the market is also considering the costs of not owning real estate.

The study relied on historical accounting values of real estate rather than market values which are not available in machine readable format, and there was no data on the type of real estate and its location.

The results of the paper provide strong and consistent evidence that the market values the costs and benefits of leasing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether energy-efficient green buildings tend to provide net lease structures over gross lease ones. It then considers whether owners benefit by trading away operational savings in a net lease structure.

Empirical models of office leasing transactions in Sydney, Australia, with wider transferability supported by analysis of office rent data in the USA.

Labeled green buildings are approximately four to five times more likely than non-labeled buildings to use a net lease structure. However, despite receiving operational savings, tenants in net leases pay higher total occupancy costs (TOC), benefiting owners. On average, the increase in TOC paid by tenants in a net lease is equal to or greater than savings attributed to an eco-labeled building.

A full accounting of TOC in eco-labeled buildings suggests that net lease structures provide numerous benefits to owners that offset the loss of trading away operational savings.

The principal-agent market inefficiency, or “split incentive,” is a widely cited barrier to private investment in energy-efficient building technology. Here, a uniquely broad look at rental cash flows suggests its role as a barrier is exaggerated.