This paper offers a comprehensive comparison of the structure of banking and financial markets in the euro area. Based on this, several hypotheses about the role of banks in monetary policy transmission are developed. Many of the predictions that have been proposed for the U.S. are deemed...

In this paper, we analyse the relationship between the Spanish business cycle and the capital buffers held by Spanish commercial and savings banks. We build an incomplete panel of Spanish institutions from 1986 to 2000 –thus covering a complete business cycle– and estimate an equation for...

In this paper we use a relatively general intertemporal asset pricing model where housing services and consumption are non-separable to obtain a measure of the potential overvaluation of housing in relation to rents in Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The results show that part...

The potential negative consequences of high financial volatility have been an important concern recently. Although its empirical relevance has not been proved conclusively, clear theoretic and intuitive arguments justify this concern. Many efforts have been conducted, therefore, to determine...

This paper analyses the informational content of financial prices in Spain, mainly from the viewpoint of a central bank. In particular, we examine the informational content of domestic yields and yield spreads, foreign-domestic spreads, credit quality spreads, stock prices and exchange rates on...

This paper analyses whether there has been an increase in the degree of financial market integration during the nineties. To do this, we focus on stock markets and compute, first, a number of standard measures of co-movements that sometimes are interpreted as measures of financial integration....

This paper uses a Spanish panel of tax returns and another on household expenditure during the period 1985-1991 to examine the incidence of the introduction in 1988 of tax incentives to retirement savings on contributions to pension funds and on savings. We first identify the population cohorts...