Abstract
In 1985 the international exchange rate intervention known as the “Plaza Accord” was carried out between the G-5 countries, the US, Japan, Germany, France, and the UK. In this study I employ the synthetic control method to examine if there was a causal effect of the Plaza Accord on residential housing prices in Japan. Following the agreement Japan experienced a bubble in urban real estate and the stock market. I find small and insignificant effects of the Plaza Accord on real housing prices in the several years following it, providing evidence that the Accord did not exacerbate the bubble. © 2025 Western Economic Association International.