Do Tense Geopolitical Factors Drive Crude Oil Prices?

Fen Li, Zhehao Huang, Junhao Zhong and Khaldoon Albitar
Additional contact information
Fen Li: School of Marxism, Hunan Institute of Technology, Hengyang 421001, China
Zhehao Huang: Guangzhou Institute of International Finance, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510405, China
Junhao Zhong: School of Economics and Commerce, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Khaldoon Albitar: Accounting and Financial Management, Portsmouth Business School, Portsmouth PO1 3DE, UK

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-20

Abstract: Geopolitical factors are considered a crucial factor that makes a difference in crude oil prices. Over the last three decades, many political events occurred frequently, causing short-term fluctuations in crude oil prices. This paper aims to examine the dynamic correlation and causal link between geopolitical factors and crude oil prices based on data from June 1987 to February 2020. By using a time-varying copula approach, it is shown that the correlation between geopolitical factors and crude oil prices is strong during periods of political tensions. The GPA (geopolitical acts) index, as the real factor, drives the rise in prices of crude oil. Moreover, the dynamic correlation between geopolitical factors and crude oil prices shows strong volatility over time during periods of political tensions. We also found unidirectional causality running from geopolitical factors to crude oil prices by using the Granger causality test.

Keywords: GPR index; time-varying copula; Granger causality test; extreme political acts; dynamic correlation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/16/4277/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/16/4277/ (text/html)

Related works:
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:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:16:p:4277-:d:400712

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().