Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

Sample Selection and Sources of Data 
The sample for this study was chosen from a list of 84 publicly traded lodging firms in the Standard & 
Poors' 
Compustat
database based on their 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code of 7011 (lodging), 
6798 (REITs), and 7990 (gaming). My definition of lodging firms includes lodging REITs and casino firms because 
lodging comprises a significant component of the business of these firms. This initial list of lodging firms were 
then cross-checked with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) 
Edgar
database to ensure that each firm 
had on file a complete set of annual financial reports (10-K) filed with the SEC for the period from 2000 to 2004. I 
choose the five year period from 2000-2004 because new reporting requirements for derivatives were implemented 
in 2000/2001. Firms with less than five years of annual reports were dropped from the sample, primarily because 
derivatives data is gathered from these reports. I dropped non-publicly traded firms, firms that were in Chapter 11 
bankruptcy and firms that were acquired. Based on these criteria, from an initial set of 84 firms, 37 firms were 
dropped from the sample leaving a final sample of 47 firms with 235 firm-year observations over the 5-year sample 
period.
Annual and quarterly financial statement data was obtained from Standard & Poor’s 
Compustat
database 
while stock return data is obtained from the CRSP database for the sample period from 2000-2004. Interest rate 
information was obtained from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board (FRB) H.15 Statistical Release. Comprehensive 
data on debt and market risk disclosures was hand-gathered by reading the debt and market risk disclosures in the 
2000-2004 annual 10K filings of each firm in the SEC's 
Edgar
database.