Do net positions in the futures market cause spot prices of crude oil?

The last decade has witnessed sharp increases in the price of crude oil. There are two possible explanations for these increases: dramatic increases in financial firms' position in the oil futures market and recent increases in oil prices from changes in economic fundamentals. This paper examines the causal relationship between the net financial position and the crude oil price by using three types of Granger non-causality tests: the classical Granger non-causality test, a robust Granger non-causality test and a Granger non-causality test in quantiles. The empirical results provide some evidence of causality from the net financial position to the spot price of crude oil. In addition, futures prices serve as a transmission mechanism underlying the causal relationship between the net financial position and the crude oil price.     

国际油价波动对经济增长的影响——基于中国的实证分析

基于1990年1月至2009年3月的月度数据,本文实证分析了我国经济增长与国际石油价格之间的长期变动关系,其特点在于,采用稳健性较强的T-Y因果检验来分析油价与经济增长的Granger因果关系,同时,运用非对称协整技术以考察油价与经济增长之间的非线性关系。研究发现：①长期中油价是我国经济增长的单向Granger原因;②油价与我国经济增长之间存在非对称协整关系,油价上涨对经济活动的负面影响大于油价下跌的积极影响。基于中国经济运行的实际,本文还分析了实证结果背后的原因,并提出当前国际金融危机背景下,油价呈下跌趋势,需抓住有利时机,动用外汇储备,大力购入石油资源,建立起石油战略储备;在经济复苏、油价上涨时,可以启动石油战略储备来减少石油供应冲击,从而有助于及时保证我国经济平稳快速增长的政策建议。     

Crude oil and BRICS stock markets under extreme shocks: New evidence

In this paper, we propose an extreme Granger causality analysis model to uncover the causal links between crude oil and BRICS stock markets. Instead of analyzing the average causal relationship, as is usually done, we first decompose the data into three cumulative components and investigate the causality between different combinations of extreme positive, extreme negative and normal shocks. These types of combinations can describe all facets of the interactions between crude oil and BRICS stock markets, especially under extreme shocks. In contrast to the results obtained by the traditional Granger causality test, our empirical findings demonstrate that the effect of oil price changes on the stock markets is stronger under extreme circumstances than under normal circumstances. Furthermore, large upward or downward oil price changes have an asymmetric impact on extreme upward or downward stock price changes. Finally, robustness checks verify the rationality and validity of the extreme Granger causality analysis.     

Housing and the Great Depression

This article considers the structural stability of the relationship between the real housing price and real GDP per capita for an annual sample that includes the Great Depression. We test for structural change in parameter values using a sample of annual US data from 1890 to 1952. The article examines the long-run and short-run dynamic relationships between the real housing price and real GDP per capita to determine whether these relationships experienced structural change over the sample period. We find that temporal Granger causality exists between these two variables only for subsamples that include the Great Depression. For the other subsample periods as well as for the entire sample period, no relationship exists between these variables.     

Natural gas prices and stock prices: Evidence from EU-15 countries

This study investigates the long-run relationship between natural gas prices and stock prices by using the Johansen and Juselius cointegration test and error–correction based Granger causality models for the EU-15 countries. We employ quarterly data covering the period from 1990:1 to 2008:1. Empirical findings suggest that there is a unique long-term equilibrium relationship between natural gas prices, industrial production and stock prices in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Luxembourg. However, no relationship is found between these variables in the other ten EU-15 countries. Although we detect a significant long-run relationship between stock prices and natural gas prices, Granger causality test results imply an indirect Granger causal relationship between these two variables. In addition, we investigate the Granger causal relationship between stock returns, industrial production growth and natural gas price increase for Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Luxembourg. As a result, increase in natural gas prices seem to impact industrial production growth at the first place. In turn, industrial production growth appears to affect stock returns.     

An investigation into the dynamic relationship between international and China’s crude oil prices

This article studies the dynamic relationship between international (WTI, Brent and Dubai) and domestic (Da Qing) crude oil prices in China using threshold cointegration method. We find evidence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between each pair of international and Da Qing oil prices, favouring the market integration hypothesis. We also estimate asymmetric adjustments under the momentum threshold autoregressive (M-TAR) specification in a TVECM, and the results show that adjustments to eliminate disequilibrium happen faster when oil price spread increases than when it decreases. The long-run and short-run Granger causality tests support the notion that China has influence on the international oil markets. The results imply that China should open up its domestic and imported oil markets, and also establish a well-functioning crude oil futures market, as they are essential for arbitrage and hedging strategies.     

Attendance and pricing at sporting events: empirical results from Granger Causality Tests for the Melbourne Cup

This study applies Granger causality tests to examine the relationship between attendance, admission prices and real income at the Melbourne Cup, which is Australia’s premier horseracing event and one of the world’s leading handicap races. The motivation for the paper is that while market demand suggests that causation should run from admission price to attendance, it is equally plausible that sporting authorities could alter admission prices in response to a change in demand reflected in attendance. The main findings are that in the short-run there is unidirectional Granger causality running from income to attendance, attendance to admission price and income to admission price, while in the long run both admission price and income Granger cause attendance.     

CPI与PPI的非线性Granger因果关系研究——基于深圳市月度数据的实证分析

文章基于深圳市2005年1月至2013年12月的居民消费价格指数(CPI)和工业生产者出厂价格指数(PPI),运用非线性Granger因果关系检验,从非线性的角度考察深圳市的CPI与PPI之间的作用关系,并采用逐步检验方法对CPI与PPI之间在不同时期的作用关系进行动态分析。非线性Granger因果关系检验的结果表明,在所考察的样本时期内,存在着由PPI到CPI的单向非线性Granger因果关系。逐步检验则进一步显示,PPI是引起CPI变化的非线性Granger因果原因。这说明供给因素在以CPI衡量的通货膨胀中占优于需求因素,也意味着上游生产要素的价格上涨将传导至下游消费品的价格,以致加大了成本推动通货膨胀的压力。因此,治理通货膨胀应采取以供给调控为主的政策,并适时适度地根据CPI与PPI之间的动态关系进行宏观调控。     

经济适用房与高房价关系的实证分析——基于VAR模型

使用2005—2010年的月度数据对我国房价增长速度与经济适用房之间的关系进行实证分析。通过建立VAR模型,进行脉冲响应分析和方差分解,并运用协整检验和Granger检验,分析两者之间可能存在的长期和短期关系以及作用方向。研究结果表明:在短期,经济适用房对全国房价增速起正向推动作用,但推动力先增强后衰减,影响较小且会在10个月后消失;在长期,经济适用房与全国房价增速之间不存在长期均衡关系和Granger因果关系。     

Oil price and exchange rates: A wavelet based analysis for India

In this paper, we explore linear and nonlinear Granger causalities between oil price and the real effective exchange rate of the Indian currency, known as ‘rupee’. First, we apply the standard time domain approach, but fail to find any causal relationship. So, we decompose the two series at various scales of resolution using the wavelet methodology in an effort to revisit the relationships among the decompose series on a scale by scale basis. We also use a battery of non-linear causality tests in the time and the frequency domain. We uncover linear and nonlinear causal relationships between the oil price and the real effective exchange rate of Indian rupee at higher time scales (lower frequency). Although we do not find causal relationship at the lower time scales, there is evidence of causality at higher time scales only.     

Exchange rates and fundamentals: A bootstrap panel data analysis

This study attempts to re-examine the Granger non-causality from exchange rates to observed fundamentals based on the present value model of Engel and West (2005). To this end, we employ the bootstrap panel Granger non-causality analysis, which allows us to untangle the causal nexus between exchange rates and fundamentals in panel data. Among the main results, it is found that the null hypothesis of no cross-sectional dependence across the members of the panel is strongly rejected, indicating that the bootstrap critical value is required in conducting the panel Granger non-causality test. The null hypothesis of Granger non-causality running from the fundamentals to exchange rates is significantly rejected, implying that the monetary approach of exchange rate determination is a useful benchmark to understand the evolution of the exchange rate. Empirical evidences also show that exchange rates Granger-case the fundamentals, supporting the view that exchange rates are determined as the present value that depends in part on observed fundamentals.     

Long-run waves or short-run fluctuations – what establishes the correlation between oil and food prices?

The strong correlation between food prices and energy prices has gained much attention in the public debate. In this article, we focus on the so-called excess co-movement, which is the correlation between crude oil price and the prices of food commodities after controlling for economic activity. We use a frequency domain Granger causality test to analyse short-run and long-run relationships between crude oil prices and prices of food commodities. For important biofuel inputs like maize, soybeans, rapeseed and EU sugar, we find evidence for long-run Granger causality in particular for the period after 2007. This supports the hypothesis that the increasing biofuel production creates the link between the prices of crude oil and food commodities. However, we also find short-run Granger causality for various food commodities. This result is more in line with herd behaviour or speculation in commodity markets.     

Real wages,inflation and labour productivity in Australia

This article presents an analysis of real wages, inflation and labour productivity interrelationships using cointegration, Granger causality and, most importantly, structural change tests. Applications of tests to Australian data over the 1965 to 2007 period corroborate the presence of a structural break in 1985 and show that a 1% increase in manufacturing sector real wages led to an increase in manufacturing sector productivity of between 0.5% and 0.8%. Comparable estimates for the effect of inflation on manufacturing sector productivity have limited statistical significance. Granger causality test results suggest that real wages and inflation both Granger cause productivity in the long run.     

我国房地产税与房价关系的实证研究

本文以我国1988--2006年房地产税和房价的相关数据为基础,通过协整分析、向量自回归、误差修正和Granger因果检验,研究了我国房地产税对房价的短期影响及两者的长期关系。结论如下：我国房地产税和房价之间存在长期稳定的均衡关系,房价和房地产税存在正相关关系,调高房地产税会引起房价增长;在不考虑地方公共支出对房价影响的情况下,房地产税的长期影响效应要大于短期影响效应;我国房地产税制设置欠完善,房地产税的变化会影响房价,而房价的变化不会影响房地产税。最后,本文提出,应对现行的房地产税收制度进行改革,减少房地产流通环节的税种和税负,开征物业税。     

Price volatility spillovers between supply chain and innovation of financial pledges in China

This study investigates the price volatility spillover of commodities in China using the Granger causality test and the variable structure Copula model, by employing data covering the daily average transaction prices of silver, copper, aluminum, rebar, and fuel oil from 2009 to 2017. The results show that the causal direction of price volatility spillover is uncertain, and that the impact from the correlation coefficients of copper and aluminum is the highest. Hence, there is a clear long-run price volatility spillover between silver and fuel oil as well as between silver and aluminum. Macroeconomic influences on different combinations of commodities present similar changing structure points, such as the debt crisis in Europe, the reduction of the quantitative easing monetary policy proposed by the U.S. Federal Reserve, and the promotion of RMB internationalization. Overall, our findings provide a theoretical reference for commercial banks to make full use of the volatility spillover effect between commodity pledges and their combinations, in order to achieve the goal of avoiding any price volatility risk.     

上海股票市场收益率与成交量因果关系研究

线性因果关系检验结果表明,在股市得到快速发展和市场交易制度改善后,我国股市量价因果关系阶段性异质特征明显,我国股票市场量价关系从因果关系不显著发展为具有双向因果关系.同时,非线性因果关系检验也得到类似的结论,不同之处在于在取消涨跌停板制度后的第二阶段,虽然不存在交易量对收益的线性因果关系,但存在非线性格兰杰因果关系.所有检验结果表明我国股市在交易制度转变后,市场结构也同时发生了根本变化.     

Causality patterns for Brent,WTI, and Argus oil prices

Causality patterns are analysed for daily Brent, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), and Argus Sour Crude Index (Argus) oil prices, Argus is the reference price for exports from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. Nonparametric Granger causality testing uncovers bi-directional causal links between Brent and WTI prices at multiple lags. Unidirectional causality from both Brent to Argus and WTI to Argus is also documented. If the current Saudi Arabia attempt to increase market share is successful, variations in Argus prices may start preceding movements in Brent and WTI, also.     

Conditional price volatility,speculation, and excessive speculation in commodity markets: sheep or shepherd behaviour?

The present study aims to investigate the dynamics of primary commodity spot prices and the role of speculation for the period 1995–2012. Using a linear and nonlinear Granger causality analysis, the relationship between speculation and GARCH conditional price volatility on the one side, and the linkage between excessive speculation and GARCH conditional price volatility on the other side, is carefully examined with the scope to establish whether volatility drives speculation or speculation drives price volatility, or whether there are no linkages between the two variables. The results show that excessive speculation leads conditional price volatility, and that bilateral relationships often exist between price volatility and speculation. In addition, the lead-lag relationships are not found for the entire sample period, but rather when small sub-periods are taken into account. It turns out, in fact, that excessive speculation has driven price volatility for maize, rice, soybeans, and wheat in particular time frames, but the relationships are not always overlapping for all considered commodities. Generally, the results under linear causality tests are in agreement with those obtained under nonlinear counterparts.     

Structural transformation and the oil price

What part of the high oil price can be explained by structural transformation in the developing world? Will continued structural transformation in these countries result in a permanently higher oil price? To address these issues I identify an inverted-U shaped relationship in the data between aggregate oil intensity and the extent of structural transformation: countries in the middle stages of transition spend the highest fraction of their income on oil. I construct and calibrate a multi-sector, multi-country, general equilibrium growth model that accounts for this fact by generating an endogenously falling aggregate elasticity of substitution between oil and non-oil inputs. The model is used to measure and isolate the impact of changing sectoral composition in the developing world on global oil demand and the oil price in the OECD. I find that structural transformation in non-OECD countries accounts for up to 53% of the oil price increase in the OECD between 1970 and 2010. However, the impact of structural transformation is temporary. Continued structural transformation induces falling oil intensity and an easing of the upward pressure on the oil price. Since a standard one-sector growth model misses this non-linearity, to understand the impact of growth on the oil price, it is necessary to take a more disaggregated view than is standard in macroeconomics.     

The relationship between agricultural commodity prices,crude oil prices and US dollar exchange rates: a panel VAR approach and causality analysis

This study examines the relationship between crude oil prices, US dollar exchange rates and 30 selected international agricultural prices and five international fertilizer prices in a panel framework. The study uses panel VAR methods and Granger causality tests on panel data sets of agricultural commodity prices (as well as specific agricultural commodity sub-groups) and fertilizer prices with monthly observations of the period from June 1983 to June 2013. The empirical results of the present study indicate that crude oil prices as well as US dollar exchange rates affect international agricultural commodity and fertilizer prices. Furthermore, contrary to the findings of several studies in the literature, the present study supports bidirectional panel causality effects between crude oil prices and international agricultural prices as well as between US exchange rates and international agricultural prices.