... interbank rate for Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK, a three-month Treasury bill rate for Belgium, Sweden and the US, and ... product (GDP) and interest rates.6 Much of the interest in the behaviour and determination of asset prices stems from their role in episodes of financial instability. Since there is a natural ... for these countries the existence of cointegration could not be rejected. We therefore specify the VAR models in the level of the variables. Nevertheless, we neither impose the number of cointegrating...