How do oil supply and demand shocks affect Asian stock markets?

This paper examines how oil market shocks affect Asian stock prices using the structural vector autoregression (VAR) approach. Global oil supply and demand shocks are disentangled using sign restrictions and elasticity bounds. Oil price increases are bad news only if the source is from oil-market-specific demand shifts. Northeast Asian stock markets are more resilient as investors’ expectation of continued economic growth outweighs the adverse effect of higher oil prices. Increased global economic activity also stimulates stock prices. Global oil shocks are more important in explaining variability in Asian stock returns compared with the United States, suggesting different dynamics in Asia.     

Speculative dynamics and price behavior in the Shanghai Stock Exchange

This article examines the extent to which the trading behavior of heterogeneous investors manifests in stock price changes of asset portfolios which constitute the Shanghai Stock Exchange. There are three major findings that materialize. Firstly, reliable statistical evidence of a negative relation between the conditional first and second moments of the return distributions of stock prices lends support to the volatility feedback effect. Secondly, ‘feedback’, or momentum-type investors, are not present in this market as is often detected from the daily price changes of other industrialized markets. Finally, trade volume as a proxy for ‘information-driven’ trading suggests that such investors play a statistically significant role in stock price movements. Parameter estimates from this latter group of investors imply that a rise in stock prices from a high volume trading day is more likely than a rise resulting from a low volume trading day.     

Financial and monetary policy responses to oil price shocks: evidence from oil-importing and oil-exporting countries

In this study, we investigate the financial and monetary policy responses to oil price shocks using a Structural VAR framework. We distinguish between net oil-importing and net oil-exporting countries. Since the 80s, a significant number of empirical studies have been published investigating the effect of oil prices on macroeconomic and financial variables. Most of these studies though, do not make a distinction between oil-importing and oil-exporting economies. Overall, our results indicate that the level of inflation in both net oil-exporting and net oil-importing countries is significantly affected by oil price innovations. Furthermore, we find that the response of interest rates to an oil price shock depends heavily on the monetary policy regime of each country. Finally, stock markets operating in net oil-importing countries exhibit a negative response to increased oil prices. The reverse is true for the stock market of the net oil-exporting countries. We find evidence that the magnitude of stock market responses to oil price shocks is higher for the newly established and/or less liquid stock markets.     

Sudden changes in volatility in emerging markets: The case of Gulf Arab stock markets

This article examines sudden changes in volatility for five Gulf area Arab stock markets using the iterated cumulative sums of squares (ICSS) algorithm and analyzes their impacts on the estimated persistence of volatility. This algorithm identifies large shifts in volatility of the stock markets during the weekly period 1994 to 2001. In contrast to Aggarwal et al. [Aggarwal, R., Inclan, C., & Leal, R., 1999, Volatility in emerging markets. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 34, 33-55], this paper found that most of the Gulf Arab stock markets are more sensitive to major global events than to local and regional factors. The 1997 Asian crisis, the collapse of oil prices in 1998 after the crisis, the adoption of the price band mechanism by OPEC in 2000, and the September 11th attack have been found to have consistently affected the Gulf markets. Accounting for these large shifts in volatility in the GARCH(1,1) models significantly reduces the estimated persistence of the volatility in the Gulf stock markets.     

Local and global price memory of international stock markets

The prime focus of this paper is on the impact of the world’s leading markets (USA, Japan, Hong Kong, UK, France, Switzerland and Germany) on the returns of the small Nordic markets (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden). The order and the degree of processing both ‘local’ and ‘global’ information are uncovered using a combination of cointegration analysis and structural VAR modeling utilizing daily index returns. The results indicate that the US price changes, conditioned on the same day changes on the other markets, have an impact on all other markets during the following day, including the US market itself. Price changes on the Asian–Pacific markets are completely absorbed in price changes in Europe and do not have any direct effect on US prices. Finally, a cointegration relationship between Sweden and Norway is found, which affects also Finland.     

Are oil, gold and the euro inter-related? Time series and neural network analysis

This paper investigates inter-relationships among the price behavior of oil, gold and the euro using time series and neural network methodologies. Traditionally gold is a leading indicator of future inflation. Both the demand and supply of oil as a key global commodity are impacted by inflationary expectations and such expectations determine current spot prices. Inflation influences both short and long-term interest rates that in turn influence the value of the dollar measured in terms of the euro. Certain hypotheses are formulated in this paper and time series and neural network methodologies are employed to test these hypotheses. We find that the markets for oil, gold and the euro are efficient but have limited inter-relationships among themselves.     

Market selection with learning and catching up with the Joneses

We study the market selection hypothesis in complete financial markets, populated by heterogeneous agents. We allow for a rich structure of heterogeneity: individuals may differ in their beliefs concerning the economy, information and learning mechanism, risk aversion, impatience and ‘catching up with the Joneses’ preferences. We develop new techniques for studying the long-run behavior of such economies, based on Strassen’s functional law of the iterated logarithm. In particular, we explicitly determine an agent’s survival index and show how the latter depends on the agent’s characteristics. We use these results to study the long-run behavior of the equilibrium interest rate and the market price of risk.     

Effects of speculation and interest rates in a “carry trade” model of commodity prices

The paper presents and estimates a model of the prices of oil and other storable commodities, a model that can be characterized as reflecting the carry trade. It focuses on speculative factors, here defined as the trade-off between interest rates on the one hand and market participants' expectations of future price changes on the other hand. It goes beyond past research by bringing to bear new data sources: survey data to measure expectations of future changes in commodity prices and options data to measure perceptions of risk. Some evidence is found of a negative effect of interest rates on the demand for inventories and thereby on commodity prices and positive effects of expected future price gains on inventory demand and thereby on today's commodity prices.     

Volatility spillovers between WTI and Brent spot crude oil prices: an analysis of granger causality in variance patterns over time

There has been an increase in price volatility in oil prices during and since the global financial crisis (GFC). This study investigates the Granger causality patterns in volatility spillovers between West Texas International (WTI) and Brent crude oil spot prices using daily data. We use Hafner and Herwartz’s (2006) test and employ a rolling sample approach to investigate the changes in the dynamics of volatility spillovers between WTI and Brent oil prices over time. Volatility spillovers from Brent to WTI prices are found to be more pronounced at the beginning of the analysis period, around the GFC, and more recently in 2020. Between 2015 and 2019, the direction of volatility spillovers runs unidirectionally from WTI to Brent oil prices. In 2020, however, a Granger-causal feedback relation between the volatility of WTI and Brent crude oil prices is again detected. This is due to the uncertainty surrounding how the COVID-19 pandemic will evolve and how long the economies and financial markets will be affected. In this uncertain environment, commodities markets participants could be reacting to prices and volatility signals on both WTI and Brent, leading to the detection of a feedback relation.     

Oil prices implied volatility or direction: Which matters more to financial markets?

We examine the impact of oil price uncertainty on US stock returns by industry using the US Oil Fund options implied volatility OVX index and a GJR-GARCH model. We test the effect of the implied volatility of oil on a wide array of domestic industries’ returns using daily data from 2007 to 2016, controlling for a variety of variables such as aggregate market returns, market volatility, exchange rates, interest rates, and inflation expectations. Our main finding is that the implied volatility of oil prices has a consistent and statistically significant negative impact on nine out of the ten industries defined in the Fama and French (J Financ Econ 43:153–193, 1997) 10-industry classification. Oil prices, on the other hand, yield mixed results, with only three industries showing a positive and significant effect, and two industries exhibiting a negative and significant effect. These findings are an indication that the volatility of oil has now surpassed oil prices themselves in terms of influence on financial markets. Furthermore, we show that both oil prices and their volatility have a positive and significant effect on corporate bond credit spreads. Overall, our results indicate that oil price uncertainty increases the risk of future cash flows for goods and services, resulting in negative stock market returns and higher corporate bond credit spreads.     

中国利率市场的价格发现——对国债现货、期货以及利率互换市场的研究

本文采用信息份额模型和基于向量自回归(VAR)模型的格兰杰因果检验,研究了国债现货、国债期货和利率互换三个市场之间的价格发现机制。信息份额模型表明,从整体来看利率互换相对于国债期货和国债现货都具有信息优势,而国债期货相对于国债现货具有信息优势。另外,国债期货的价格发现能力相对于另外两个市场都在随时间增强。格兰杰因果检验结果显示,利率互换在价格发现中单向引领国债期货以及国债现货,国债期货单向引领国债现货。所有结果一致表明, 利率互换和国债期货这两种利率衍生产品在引导中国利率市场价格发现中发挥了重要作用。     

What drove the mid-2000s explosiveness in alternative energy stock prices? Evidence from U.S., European and global indices

Soaring prices in European alternative energy stocks and their subsequent tumble have attracted attention both from investors and academics. We extend recent research to an international setting and analyze whether the explosive price behavior of the mid-2000s was driven by rising crude oil prices and overall bullish market sentiment. Inflation-adjusted U.S. alternative energy stock prices do not exhibit signs of explosiveness. By contrast, we find strong evidence of explosive price behavior for European and global sector indices, even after controlling for a set of explanatory variables. Interestingly, while the sector indices plunged with the outbreak of the global financial crisis, idiosyncratic components continued to rise and did not start to decline until after world equity markets had already begun to recover in 2009. This finding suggests a substantial revaluation of alternative energy stock prices in light of intensifying sector competition and shrinking sales margins and casts some doubts on the existence of a speculative bubble. Nevertheless, we observe temporary episodes of explosiveness between 2005 and 2007 followed by rapid collapses, indicating the presence of some irrational exuberance among investors.     

Renegade Asset Markets

Local markets with tight land use controls result in prices rising relative to wages and affordability. Affordability is eased by unconventional but risky finance. Tight land use and loose financing in these renegade markets concentrates the impact of national or international shocks. A positive demand shock raises prices in these tight markets. If ongoing price momentum is expected, households switch to ownership and landlords reduce the rental stock. House prices, rents and occupancy rise and fall together in these markets. A five-equation sequential structure in land use, financial contracts, house prices, rents and vacancy for 17 United States cities confirms geographical concentration. Coastal California and South Florida are fundamentally risky markets. Discount rates there are three percentage points higher than the sample median. Two percentage points are attributable to land use and the other to unconventional finance. National and international financial crises are highly concentrated regionally.     

Tracking Distortions in Agriculture: China and Its Accession to the World Trade Organization

This article examines the impacts of China's accession to theWorld Trade Organization (WTO) on prices in its agriculturalsector. The analysis uses a new methodology to estimate nominalprotection rates in China's agricultural sector before its accessionto the WTO. These new measures account for differences in commodityquality within China and between China and world markets. Theanalysis shows that some of China's agricultural commoditiesare well above world market prices and others are well below.The article also assesses market integration and efficiencyin China. It finds high degrees of integration between coastaland inland markets and between regional and village markets.The remarkable improvements in market performance in recentyears mean that if increased imports or exports affect China'sdomestic price near the border, producers throughout most ofChina will feel the price shifts.     

Optimal Loss Mitigation and Contract Design

This work examines the interaction between the premium rates set by an insurer and the incentives of an individual to purchase market insurance and undertake mitigation to reduce the size of a potential loss. A risk‐neutral monopolistic insurer prices insurance according to the price‐elasticity of demand for coverage. The elasticity of demand is affected by the presence of both mitigation and government intervention. The availability of loss reduction activities increases the consumer's elasticity of demand and lowers the optimal rate charged by the monopolist. Government intervention reduces both expenditures on mitigation and the rate charged by the monopolistic insurer.     

Time-varying impacts of demand and supply oil shocks on correlations between crude oil prices and stock markets indices

This paper investigates the time-varying impacts of demand and supply oil shocks on correlations between changes in crude oil prices and stock markets returns. The findings, obtained by means of a DCC-GARCH from June 2006 to June 2016, indicate that demand shocks positively affected the correlations between crude oil prices and stock market returns from late 2007 to mid-2008, during the apex of the financial markets volatility; from early 2009 to mid-2013, during global economy recovery from the financial crisis; and after 2015, when uncertainties about the Chinese growth and the US economy upturning arose. The dynamic conditional correlation, obtained after the removal of demand shocks effects, presented an average value of 0.13 when all economy sectors were considered and of 0.03 when the energy sector returns were excluded from the stock index. These correlations, still positive on average, suggest that exogenous supply oil shocks had little impact on US mainly enterprises cash flows over the last 10 years. Exceptions are the periods from 2006 to financial crisis and from 2014 until April 2016, when significant and unpredicted changes in oil market happened, considerably affecting the value of the main US companies.     

去伪存真:油价趋势与股票市场——来自“一带一路”35国的经验证据

油价波动深刻影响全球经济,严重时会造成全球股市动荡,甚至引发系统性金融风险。然而油价中的信息噪音严重阻碍国际油价对股票市场的预测效果。本文提出的移动平均法可有效减弱信息噪音,研究表明,本文基于移动平均法构建的油价趋势因子对“一带一路”沿线国家股票市场具有良好的样本内和样本外可预测性。进一步研究发现,国际油价波动对产油国和非产油国股票市场的影响存在非对称性。本文为国际油价冲击股票市场提供了新的有力证据,同时本文研究成果提示了油价风险,对维持我国股票市场稳定,保持金融稳定具有一定意义。     

Commodity Prices and Stock Market Behavior in South American Countries in the Short Run

Using Geweke feedback measures, we present empirical evidence that largely supports the hypothesis that the stock markets of South American countries are highly affected by changes in commodity prices after controlling for changes in exchange rates, interest rates, and North American stock market changes. In total, six different Goldman Sachs commodity price indexes are tested against the unexplained variation in stock market returns for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela, covering the period 1995-2007. The Argentinian, Brazilian, and Peruvian stock markets are significantly affected by changes in commodity prices the same day. Venezuela's stock market, however, does not react to changes in commodity prices, even including energy prices. Stock market returns for Chile show a contemporaneous relation with energy and metals prices, whereas Colombia's equity market is affected by price changes for agricultural and industrial metals. In all cases, we find a contemporaneous relation and no indication of a lead or lag relationship.     

Recent developments in the theory of inflation and unemployment

The paper examines the theoretical literature of the past decade on the causes of inflation and unemployment. The basic theme is the pervasive impact of sluggish price adjustment on the validity and relevance of recent models. The insulation of real output from anticipated monetary changes, derived in the recent rational expectations literature, loses its validity when prices adjust slowly to changes in demand. The search literature explains only part of unemployment when layoffs rather than wage cuts are the major tool of employment adjustment in recessions. The ‘new-new’ microeconomics of implicit contracts, idiosyncratic exchange, and default penalties is reviewed, as are the implications of sluggish price adjustment for both ‘domestic monetarism’ and for the monetary approach to balance-of-payments theory.     

Oil price shocks and exchange rate movements

This study investigates the effects of oil price shocks on exchange rate movements in five major oil-exporting countries: Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Norway. The R² of the fundamental model doubles in Russia and Brazil, but increases slightly in Canada and Norway when oil prices are added to it. The volatility of exchange rates associated with oil price shocks is significant in Russia, Brazil, and Mexico, but weak in Norway and Canada. It takes much longer for the exchange rate to reach the initial equilibrium level in Russia, Brazil, and Mexico than in Norway and Canada. The asymmetric behavior of exchange rate volatility among countries seems to be related to the efficiency of financial markets rather than to the importance of oil revenues in the economy.