VCU news

By Tom Gresham

Virginia Commonwealth University is one of the most productive sources of top-flight real estate research in the world, according to a new study published in the current issue of the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics.

VCU ranked No. 14 among U.S. universities based on the total number of pages published in the three top-tier, real estate-focused research publications – Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research and Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics – during the 10-year stretch between 1998 and 2008, according to the study. VCU also ranked No. 23 among academic and non-academic research institutions worldwide for the period that dates between 1973 and 2008.

The Real Estate Program, which is part of the Department of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate in the VCU School of Business, has produced the bulk of the work compiled for the study. 

“Scholarly research is a vital component of Virginia Commonwealth University’s academic portfolio and a major focus of our strategic plan,” said Beverly Warren, Ed.D., Ph.D., interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at VCU. “The faculty in the Real Estate Program excel in productive research activities. We are proud of their accomplishments and look forward to their continued national and international recognition.”

Authors were identified with the institution with which they were affiliated in November 2009.

The study not only reflects the longstanding emphasis on research in the Real Estate Program, but highlights the program’s growing strength in that area since the Kornblau Institute was formed in the School of Business in 2006 to promote research in commercial and residential real estate.

Research issues generated through the Kornblau Institute focus on the social, cultural and economic sides of the real estate business and include matters such as land use, housing and commercial development. Often, the research takes an interdisciplinary approach.

“The Real Estate Program has benefited a great deal from the development of the Kornblau Institute and its encouragement of ambitious, meaningful research,” said David Downs, Ph.D., Alfred L. Blake Chair of Real Estate and director of the Kornblau Institute at VCU. “The results of this study help demonstrate the productive past of the program, but it also highlights that VCU is a rising international star in real estate research.”

Among those current professors whose research publications contributed to the ranking are Downs; Brent Smith, Ph.D., associate professor of real estate; and Rich Phillips, Ph.D., associate professor of real estate, all from the real estate program, and Kenneth Daniels, Ph.D., professor of finance.

Downs was listed as No. 33 on the listing of Hall of Fame authors with the most publication pages during the 1973 to 2008 time frame, though Downs entered high school in 1973 and did not start publishing research articles for several years.