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Do oil prices respond to real interest rates?

Vipin Arora () and Matthew Tanner

Energy Economics, 2013, vol. 36, issue C, 546-555

Abstract: We show that the robustness of an inverse relationship between the real interest rate and real oil price depends crucially on how the real interest rate is calculated, and the time-frame of the sample. Consistent with earlier studies, we find that the oil price falls with an unexpected rise in either U.S. or international ex-ante real interest rates. When the ex-post real interest rate is used, the oil price only falls with rises to short-term rates (3months or less). Additionally, the response of the oil price to long-term ex-ante real interest rates must include the period through the mid-2000s for the inverse relationship to appear. In contrast, the oil price consistently falls with unexpected rises in short-term real interest rates throughout the entire sample. We draw two conclusions from the results. The first is that the oil price is consistently responsive to short-term U.S. and international real interest rates, underlying the importance of storage. Second, oil prices have become more responsive to long-term real interest rates over time.

Keywords: Oil price; Real interest rate; VAR; Hotelling; Storage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C51 C58 Q40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

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Working Paper: How important are real interest rates for oil prices? (2011) Downloads
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:36:y:2013:i:c:p:546-555

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2012.11.001

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

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