Non-linearities in the dynamics of oil prices

Khalid Kisswani and Salah Nusair

Energy Economics, 2013, vol. 36, issue C, 341-353

Abstract: Examining stationarity is of particular importance and represents the first step in empirical time-series research. Non-stationarity invalidates many of the results obtained from standard techniques and, therefore, requires special treatment. Because oil prices play an important role in affecting economic variables, this paper examines the stationarity of real oil prices (Brent, Dubai, WTI and the World) over the period 1973:2–2011:2. Real oil prices are expressed in the currencies of seven Asian countries (Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) and in the U.S. dollar. While using linear unit root tests without structural breaks shows no evidence of stationarity, allowing for breaks shows very limited evidence of stationarity. We argue that these results are attributed to the presence of nonlinearities in the behavior of oil prices. Testing for nonlinearity shows significant evidence of nonlinearity in all the cases with evidence of exponential smooth transition autoregression (ESTAR) nonlinearity-type in most cases. Applying unit root tests that account for two types of nonlinearities (smooth transition and nonlinear deterministic trends) reveals evidence of stationarity in all the cases.

Keywords: Oil prices; Nonlinear unit root tests; Nonlinear deterministic trends; Smooth transition autoregression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 O53 Q43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988312002216
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Non-linearities in the dynamics of oil prices (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:36:y:2013:i:c:p:341-353

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2012.09.007

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().