Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the existence of psychological barriers in cryptocurrencies. Design/methodology/approach: To detect psychological barriers, the authors perform a uniformity test, a barrier hump test, a barrier proximity test and conditional effects test to a sample comprised by the daily closing quotes of six of the most liquid cryptocurrencies. Findings: The results evidence the existence of psychological barriers in four of the cryptocurrencies under scrutiny, namely, Bitcoin, Dash, NEM and Ripple. Practical implications: The fact that the cryptocurrency market has a high share of unexperienced investors and presents several cases of psychological barriers is consistent with the hypothesis that that class of investors is particularly prone to the behavioral biases which cause psychological barriers. Originality/value: This paper studies, for the first time, the existence of psychological barriers in the market of cryptocurrencies.

Purpose: This paper explores the real estate price determinants at four geographical levels: in the European Union as a whole, in the 28 European Union countries, in one European Union country (Portugal) and in 25 Portuguese metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).Design/methodology/approach: The authors run two time series regression models and two panel data regression models with observations of potential real estate price determinants and House Price Indices collected from Eurostat.Findings: The results show that price determinants, such as gross domestic product (GDP), interest rates, housing starts and tourism, are statistically significant, but not in all the four geographical levels of analysis. The results also confirm the autoregressive characteristic of real estate prices, with the last period price change being the most important determinant of current period real estate price change.Practical implications: Forecasting real estate prices can be made more effective by knowing that each geographical level of analysis implies different price determinants and that momentum is an important determinant in real estate returns.Originality/value: To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study to develop and test a real estate price equilibrium model at several different geographical levels of the same political space.

Green cryptocurrencies have been recently created to reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution by adopting alternative mining practices. This paper examines for the first time the market of green cryptocurrencies for indication of herding behavior in the period of January 2017–June 2022. By using two measures that capture the proximity of asset returns from the market consensus, we conclude that herding behavior among investors in green cryptocurrencies was absent in the whole sample. However, the results of a subsample analysis and rolling window regression show that herding dynamics varied significantly throughout the sample period. The recent COVID-19 pandemic amplified the observed levels of herding behavior, suggesting that opportunities for diversification for investors operating in this market may have become more limited lately. For this reason, financial regulators should focus on the market of green cryptocurrencies if they want to promote the market’s efficiency necessary to attract additional investors.