Oil and the Macroeconomy: A Structural VAR Analysis with Sign Restrictions

No 6830, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We consider an economy where the oil price, industrial production, and other macroeconomic variables fluctuate in response to a variety of fundamental shocks. We estimate the effects of different structural shocks using robust sign restrictions suggested by theory using US data for the 1973-2007 period. The estimates show that identifying the shock underlying the oil price change is important to predict the sign and the magnitude of its correlates with the US production. The results offer a natural explanation for the smaller correlation between oil prices and US production in the recent years compared to the seventies.

Keywords: Business cycle; Oil prices; Sign Restrictions; Structural VAR (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C32 E3 F4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cba, nep-ene, nep-mac and nep-opm
Date: 2008-05

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