Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/145027 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5992
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
The recent plunge in oil prices has brought into question the generally accepted view that lower oil prices are good for the US and the global economy. In this paper, using a quarterly multi-country econometric model, we first show that a fall in oil prices tends relatively quickly to lower interest rates and inflation in most countries, and increase global real equity prices. The effects on real output are positive, although they take longer to materialize (around 4 quarters after the shock). We then re-examine the effects of low oil prices on the US economy over different sub-periods using monthly observations on real oil prices, real equity prices and real dividends. We confirm the perverse positive relationship between oil and equity prices over the period since the 2008 financial crisis highlighted in the recent literature, but show that this relationship has been unstable when considered over the longer time period of 1946-2016. In contrast, we find a stable negative relationship between oil prices and real dividends which we argue is a better proxy for economic activity (as compared to equity prices). On the supply side, the effects of lower oil prices differ widely across the different oil producers, and could be perverse initially, as some of the major oil producers try to compensate their loss of revenues by raising production. Taking demand and supply adjustments to oil price changes as a whole, we conclude that oil markets equilibrate but rather slowly, with large episodic swings between low and high oil prices.
Subjects: 
oil prices
equity prices
dividends
economic growth
oil supply
global oil markets
and international business cycle
JEL: 
C32
E17
E32
F44
F47
O51
Q43
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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