This paper analyses the contribution of interest rates to explain recent house price developments in Spain trying to reconcile different pieces of evidence. On the one hand, empirical evidence supports the view that interest rates are a key variable to explain house price developments. As a...

We estimate alternative price to rent ratios in the Spanish housing market by considering different stochastic discount factors in present value models similar to those used in the financial literature but where the higher rigidity that characterises this market is taken into account. We...

Taking the Spanish market for deposits as a case study we show the importance of properly controlling for the quality of the services provided when assessing the degree of banking competition. While a simple approach based on estimating the price elasticity of the residual supply of deposit...