When Bubble Meets Bubble: Contagion in OECD Countries

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The series Working Papers on Economics is published by the Office for Economic Studies at the Banco de la República (Central Bank of Colombia). The works published are provisional, and their authors are fully responsible for the opinions expressed in them, as well as for possible mistakes. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Banco de la República or its Board of Directors.

AUTHOR OR EDITOR
Jose Eduardo Gomez
Juliana Gamboa
Jorge Hirs
Andrés Pinchao
Autores y/o editores

We study the existence and international migration of housing market bubbles, using quarterly information of twenty OECD countries for the period comprised between 1970 and 2015. We find that housing bubbles are present in all the countries included in our sample. Multiple bubbles are found in all but two of the countries included in our sample. We found ten episodes of migration. All of them had origin in the US housing bubble preceding the subprime crisis. Most migrations were to European countries. Notably, the Spanish housing bubble was not a direct consequence of the US housing bubbles. Its origin must be found in other causes.

 

The series Borradores de Economía is published by the Economic Studies Department at the Banco de la República (Central Bank of Colombia). The works published are provisional, and their authors are fully responsible for the opinions expressed in them, as well as for possible mistakes. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Banco de la República or its Board of Directors.