Oil prices and economic downturns: the case of Spain

We address the macroeconomic effects of an oil price shock in Spain. We apply a vector autoregression model (VAR) analysis to quarterly data for the Spanish economy since 1986, to elucidate the effects of variations in the oil price on the economy, considering the three main causes of disruptions in the oil markets: oil supply shocks, oil demand shocks and oil-specific (precautionary) demand shocks. We conclude that the effects in Spain strongly depend on the type of shock: the consumer price index (CPI) has mainly been influenced by oil demand shocks; output has only reacted to oil supply shocks; and monetary policy has mainly reacted after precautionary shocks. Second-round effects caused by the behaviour of nominal wages have not been found. Additionally, we discuss two facts: the ability of firms to increase markups in a context of rising demand and the procyclical role of monetary policy when faced with oil demand shocks.     

Oil price uncertainty and the business cycle: Accounting for the influences of global supply and demand within a VAR GARCH-in-mean framework

ABSTRACT

This article reinvestigates the influence of oil price uncertainty on real economic activity in the United States using a four-variable VAR GARCH-in-mean asymmetric BEKK model. In contrast to previous studies in this area, the analysis focuses on business cycle fluctuations and we control for global supply and demand factors that might affect the real price of oil, its volatility as well as the US economy. We find that – even after accounting for these factors – oil price uncertainty still has a highly significant negative influence on the US business cycle. Our computations show that the effect is economically important during several periods, mostly after a significant variance shift in the mid-1980s. We simultaneously estimate the effect on the global business cycle but find that it is comparatively weak. Finally, significant spillover effects in the GARCH model suggest that oil price volatility is a gauge and channel of transmission of more general macroeconomic shocks and uncertainty. These linkages are particularly strong in case of unexpected bad news.     

THE IMPACT OF OIL PRICE SHOCKS ON THE U.S. STOCK MARKET*

It is shown that the reaction of U.S. real stock returns to an oil price shock differs greatly depending on whether the change in the price of oil is driven by demand or supply shocks in the oil market. The demand and supply shocks driving the global crude oil market jointly account for 22% of the long‐run variation in U.S. real stock returns. The responses of industry‐specific U.S. stock returns to demand and supply shocks in the crude oil market are consistent with accounts of the transmission of oil price shocks that emphasize the reduction in domestic final demand.     

Oil shocks,policy uncertainty and stock returns in China

This paper examines the interdependence of China's policy uncertainty, the global oil market and stock market returns in China. A structural VAR model is estimated that shows that a positive shock to economic policy uncertainty in China has a delayed negative effect on global oil production, real oil prices and real stock market returns. Shocks to oil market‐specific demand significantly raise China's economic policy uncertainty and reduce the real stock market returns. As measured by a spillover index, the interdependence between these variables has been rising since 2003 as China's influence in the oil market has increased. An equivalent spillover index calculated for the US is smaller and has been largely flat over time.     

Cyclicality of commodity markets with respect to the U.S. economic policy uncertainty based on granger causality in quantiles

Given the importance of the U.S. in global commodity markets, the goal is to explore whether U.S. economic policy uncertainty impacts the price performance of certain commodities. The analysis uses the Granger causality in quantiles method that allows us to test whether there are different effects under different market conditions. The results document that economic uncertainty impacts the returns on the commodities considered, with the effects clustering around the tail of their conditional distribution. Robust evidence was obtained under alternative definitions of uncertainty.     

油价冲击、货币政策调整与产出波动——基于中国的经验证据

本文基于我国2001-2010年宏观经济月度数据,采用SVAR模型分析了国际油价波动时,央行货币政策在排除回应油价干扰与未排除干扰下的反应差异及油价波动对产出的影响。研究发现,在排除货币政策回应油价波动干扰后,通过脉冲响应函数反映的油价波动对产出的短期负面影响消失。方差分解结果显示,长期内产出波动由油价冲击和货币政策解释的比例分别为5716%和32480%,比排除干扰前分别下降了2569%和4560%。这说明我国油价冲击带来的经济衰退主要是因为货币政策及其回应油价冲击紧缩所致。此外,面对油价的短期冲击,CPI指数并未随着生产者购进价格指数上升而上升,产出也未发生明显的衰减;但在较长时间内,油价上升会因为相对价格的改变,而影响CPI水平和货币政策,从而对产出产生显著的负面影响。     

Oil shocks,US economic uncertainty,and emerging stock markets

This paper investigates the impacts of oil price shocks and US economic uncertainty on emerging equity markets within a structural VAR model. I find that both precautionary oil demand and US economic uncertainty shocks have significant negative effects on emerging stock returns, whereas aggregate demand shocks cause a sustained rise of the returns. In particular, the direct effects of oil shocks on emerging stock returns are amplified by the endogenous response of US economic uncertainty. Variance decomposition analysis shows that oil market fundamentals and US economic uncertainty are an important determinant of emerging equity returns, accounting for 35% and 24% of their long-term variations, respectively. The heterogeneous impacts of structural shocks on individual emerging markets, however, suggest that a well-diversified portfolio can be obtainable.     

Asymmetric responses of money demand to oil price shocks in Saudi Arabia: a non-linear ARDL approach

Saudi Arabia is an open oil-based economy with fixed exchange rates; therefore, it has limited monetary policy autonomy. Using non-linear autoregressive distributed lag approach, this article investigates the asymmetric effects of oil price shocks on the demand of money in Saudi Arabia over the period 1990:Q1–2014:Q4. The empirical results show evidence of positive long run but asymmetric effects of oil price shocks on the money demand. In particular, we find that the positive oil price shocks are more important than negative shocks. Therefore, two policy responses can be considered: either sustaining the fixed exchange rate regime and following an economic diversification policy or switching towards a flexible exchange rate regime to achieve price stability. In that case, the existence of a stable money demand function in Saudi Arabia is a necessary precondition for adopting a monetary policy strategy targeted to price stability using instruments like money targeting.     

Macroeconomic and financial effects of oil price shocks: Evidence for the euro area

The paper investigates the macroeconomic and financial effects of oil price shocks for the euro area, with a special focus on post-2009 oil price dynamics and the recent slump. The analysis is carried out episode by episode, by means of a large-scale time-varying parameter model. We find that recessionary effects are triggered by oil price hikes and, in some cases, also by oil price slumps. In this respect, the post-2009 run-up likely contributed to sluggish growth, while uncertainty and real interest rate effects are the potential channels through which the 2014 slump has depressed aggregate demand and worsened financial conditions. Also in light of the zero interest rate policy carried out by the ECB, in so far as the Quantitative Easing policy failed to generate inflationary expectations, a more expansionary fiscal policy might be required to counteract the deflationary and recessionary threat within the expected environment of soft oil prices.     

Foreign output shock in small open economies: A welfare evaluation of monetary policy regimes

We examine the impact of negative foreign output shocks, which entail negative demand side effects by lowering exports and positive supply side effects by lowering oil prices, on the welfare of non-oil producing, small open economies under five exchange rate and monetary policy regimes. We use a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with parameter values calibrated for Hong Kong, Israel, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. We find that welfare levels among the five policy regimes depend on the economy's share of oil imports in world oil consumption. Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel, which have smaller shares, maximize welfare under the Taylor rule, which targets both CPI inflation and real output. South Korea, with higher shares, and Taiwan, with more rigid prices, maximize welfare under real output targeting. CPI inflation targeting, nominal output growth targeting and fixed exchange rate regimes generate lower welfare. However, optimal monetary policy, which generates the highest welfare, gives greater weight on real output than CPI inflation.     

Inflation Targeting: Some Extensions

Previous analyses of the implementation of inflation targeting are extended to monetary policy responses to different shocks, consequences of model uncertainty, and effects of interest rate smoothing and stabilization. Model uncertainty, output stabilization, and interest rate stabilization or smoothing all call for a more gradual adjustment of the conditional inflation forecast toward the inflation target. The conditional inflation forecast is the natural intermediate target during inflation targeting. The optimal way of reacting to shocks is hence to check how they affect the inflation forecast and then take the appropriate action.
JEL classification : E 42; E 52; E 58     

Nominal Wage Flexibility and Economic Performance: Evidence and Implications Across Industrial Countries

By considering the theoretical connection between labour and product markets, the paper evaluates the economic relationship of these markets within the contractual wage rigidity New Keynesian explanation of business cycles. The empirical analysis focuses on the short‐run cyclical behaviour of real output, prices and wages for 19 industrial countries. Time‐series and cross‐sectional regressions are estimated. Cross‐sectional cyclical correlations in the labour and goods markets are also evaluated across countries. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, aggregate uncertainty is an important factor in increasing the flexibility of the nominal wage in response to aggregate demand shocks. Wage flexibility accelerates price inflation and moderates the response of real output growth to aggregate demand shocks. Wage flexibility does not appear to be an important factor in differentiating the real and inflationary effects of energy price shocks across countries. Finally, aggregate uncertainty increases the responsiveness of output and price to productivity shocks.     

US oil consumption,oil prices,and the macroeconomy

Since the oil price shock of 1973–74, researchers have waged an intense debate regarding the connection between the U.S. energy sector and national income. Studies examining the relationship between oil prices, oil consumption, and real output have produced remarkably mixed results. In particular, the two most widely cited investigations by Darby and Hamilton come to dramatically different conclusions concerning the effect of oil shocks on economic activity. To date, however, studies of this issue have been either correlation based and thus void of causality inferences, have used overly restrictive bivariate causality techniques, or covered periods that exclude major oil price disruptions. This paper analyzes a quarterly multivariate VAR model to investigate the existence and direction of causality between oil prices, oil consumption, real output, and several other key macroeconomic policy variables. Among the key findings is that oil price shocks are not a major cause of U.S. business cycles. Moreover, our findings also suggest that both oil prices and real output cause significant changes in oil consumption without feedback. These results support the contention that a systematic U.S. conservation policy would not significantly impair real economic activity.     

The international spillover of china’s monetary policy: a case study of a developing country

This paper aimed to investigate the evidence on the transmission of China’s monetary policy shocks to macroeconomic variables in Iran. Since 1990, China has become one of the main trading partners of Iran; therefore, it is expected that China’s macroeconomic shocks have some consequences on Iran’s Economy. In this study, a structural vector autoregressive model is used to explore such a transmission. The findings of the study reveal that the China’s monetary policy changes significantly affect the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as Iran’s CPI meaningfully increases with the expansion of China’s money supply. Furthermore, it was found that Iran’s other economic variables, including the real GDP, real effective exchange rate, and interest rate, do not significantly reflect the China’s monetary shocks; even though confirm the expected sign and direction.     

食品价格冲击对核心CPI的传递效应*——基于3种核心CPI的比较研究

本文利用2001—2015年的月度数据,在计算多种核心CPI的基础上,实证分析了食品价格冲击对核心CPI的传递效应。本文研究发现,我国食品CPI存在高惯性特征,其对核心CPI具有较大的冲击作用,长期传递系数为0140;这种传递效应在2008年12月前后存在内生性结构突变,突变前后两阶段的长期传递系数分别为0186和0097;虽然2008年12月以后食品价格对核心CPI的冲击下降幅度较大,但长期传递系数仍具有明显的上升趋势。这些结果表明,食品价格冲击已经显著影响我国通货膨胀的持续性成分,我国货币政策应重视食品价格冲击带来的传递效应;尽管我国政策调整的作用有所显现,但是稳定物价的压力依然很大。     

国际石油价格冲击研究综述

国际石油价格剧烈波动对2007年世界金融危机爆发起到了推波助澜的作用,并直接影响当前全球经济复苏进程。本文从石油价格及其形成机制、石油价格冲击对实体经济和金融市场的影响以及应对策略等多个方面对石油价格冲击研究文献进行梳理。已有文献多以发达国家为研究对象,在当前全球经济复苏的背景下,结合当前国际石油市场状况与我国国情,提出有价值的研究方向,这是本文拟达到的目的。     

Exchange rates of oil exporting countries and global oil price shocks: a nonlinear smooth-transition approach

This paper models logistic and exponential smooth transition adjustments of real exchange rates for six major oil-exporting countries in response to different shocks affecting oil prices. The logistic form captures asymmetric and the exponential form symmetric adjustments in regards to positive and negative oil price shocks. We chose oil-exporting countries that do not peg their exchange rates. For most countries, we detect no statistically significant non-linearities for the adjustment process of real exchange rate returns, be they asymmetric or symmetric, in response to oil supply shocks, idiosyncratic oil-market-specific shocks, and speculative oil-market shocks. Exceptions are oil supply shocks in the UK and possibly Brazil, where exchange rates respond nonlinearly, though the effects are symmetric for both countries. On the other hand, global aggregate demand shocks, which are shocks not originating directly in the oil market, have nonlinear asymmetric effects on real exchange rate returns for Canada, Mexico, Norway and Russia, and nonlinear symmetric effects for Brazil and the UK.     

Effects of mineral-commodity price shocks on monetary policy in developed countries

This article investigates effects of changes in mineral commodity prices on monetary policy. Using macroeconomic data from three mineral-producing countries (Australia, Canada and New Zealand) and two non-mineral-resource countries (USA and UK), I estimate the impulse response functions of the policy interest rates and the core consumer price index (CPI) inflation rates to mineral-commodity price shocks. I find that the central banks in both groups of the examined countries significantly respond to mineral-commodity price shocks. In responses to an unexpected 10% increase in mineral commodity prices, the central banks are estimated to increase their policy interest rates by approximately 0.8 percentage points. Moreover, the central banks seem to take anticipatory policy reactions to control core CPI variations triggered by these shocks. Thus, mineral commodity prices would act as important determinants of the monetary policies in both groups of the examined countries. These findings would be useful for analysing Taylor rules in their countries. However, effects of the increase in their policy interest rates on core CPI inflation cannot be identified for the examined countries.     

Responses of Economic Activity to Global Oil Market Shocks: A Comparative Analysis of Major Net Oil‐Producing and ‐Consuming Countries

We argue that four channels drive oil price shocks during 1986M5–2013M1, namely the oil supply, aggregate demand, oil‐specific demand and real exchange rates. Our findings are that oil price shocks driven by oil supply positively affect net oil‐consumer countries faster than net oil‐producer countries. Oil price shocks driven by aggregate demand are largely country‐specific. Oil shocks driven by other demands influence net oil‐producers faster than net oil‐consumers negatively, and persistently mostly among net oil‐producers. Other shocks have large negative effects on the industrial production of all countries, with responses appearing very quickly and persisting for at least a year.     

Economic policy uncertainty and real output: evidence from the G7 countries

We use economic policy uncertainty index, and impulse response based test to assess the impact of economic policy-related uncertainty on real economic activity. We use monthly data, over the period from 1985:1 to 2015:3, and impulse response functions to investigate how the economies of the G7 countries respond to positive and negative economic policy uncertainty shocks of different magnitudes. We find that economic policy uncertainty is countercyclical, that the effects of uncertainty shocks increase with size and that the responses of real output to positive and negative economic policy uncertainty shocks are country specific. Our research is important for policymaking and in favour of policies that remove economic uncertainty and its negative effects on the economy. We argue that some control over yellow journalism, a transparent tax system and a set of predictable fiscal and monetary policies can minimize the social costs of economic policy uncertainty.