The companies, after all, are required to disburse most of their profits as dividends to shareholders in exchange for preferential tax treatment.
REITs — publicly traded companies that disburse most of their income as dividends — are often considered a good portfolio diversifier, and a haven in turbulent times, because they typically have a "low correlation" with broader markets.
In 2013, 1.25 million euros was disbursed, most to help needy Italians pay for rent or utilities.
Mr. Kirby, 50, is a founder and the chairman of Green Street Advisors, an independent research and consulting firm that tracks the commercial real estate industry, with an emphasis on real estate investment trusts, or REITs, public companies that disburse most of their income as dividends.
By last month, less than half of the $1.8 billion committed to the reconstruction of Afghanistan for 2002 had been disbursed, and most of that has been used to pay for emergency projects such as resettling refugees, rather than reconstruction.
Mr. Bennett said he had had little luck trying to explain the details: that economists generally agreed that the rescue plan worked; that he voted only for the first $350 billion installment and not for the second half; that just $475 billion was disbursed and that most of that has already been repaid, plus interest.
The program has disbursed $19 million since it was created, most of it since 2004 and all of it from taxes that the new projects poured into the state's coffers.
In the Supreme Court's 5-to-4 ruling about a school-choice program in Arizona, Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion leaves intact a program that has disbursed almost $350 million of state funds, most of it to schools choosing students on the basis of religion.
Most of the loans disbursed are for cattle rearing except in the Farshoot district where there is scope for small trading and other informal sector activities.
So far the oil company has disbursed $240 million of a promised $360 million to the state.
