Housing prices diverge from construction prices after 1997 in four major countries. Besides, total-factor productivity (TFP) differences between construction and the general economy account for the evolution of construction prices in the US and Germany, but not in the UK and Spain.

We present time-series evidence on output convergence for 14 OECD countries allowing for time-varying determinants of transitional dynamics. We develop a simple theoretical model and test for non-stationarity in relative outputs using stationary covariates finding strong support for convergence.