Search Results
Journal Article
Financial Markets, Oil Prices, and Supply-Side Risks
The relation between stocks and bonds indicates whether supply or demand shocks dominate the risks to economic activity. After two decades of concerns primarily about changes in demand, the stock-bond correlation recently flipped, suggesting that the perceived source of risk to the economy has shifted towards supply shocks. Other financial correlations, such as the stock-oil correlation, also changed accordingly and thus agree with this interpretation. In line with this evidence, financial market pricing now indicates that elevated oil prices and potential inflation are prominent sources of ...
Working Paper
Fuel subsidies, the oil market and the world economy
This paper studies the e ffects of oil producing countries' fuel subsidies on the oil market and the world economy. We identify 24 oil producing countries with fuel subsidies where retail fuel prices are about 34 percent of the world price. We construct a two-country model where one country represents the oil-exporting subsidizers and the second the oil-importing bloc, and calibrate the model to match recent data. We find that the removal of subsidies would reduce the world price of oil by six percent. The removal of subsidies is unambiguously welfare enhancing for the oil-importing ...
Discussion Paper
Putting the Current Oil Price Collapse into Historical Perspective
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late January, oil prices have fallen sharply. In this post, we compare recent price declines with those seen in previous oil price collapses, focusing on the drivers of such episodes. In order to do that, we break oil price shocks down into demand and supply components, applying the methodology behind the New York Fed’s weekly Oil Price Dynamics Report.
Journal Article
Oil Shocks when Interest Rates Are at the Zero Lower Bound
New evidence suggests that rising oil prices associated with declining oil supply slow economic activities less when interest rates are constrained at the zero lower bound. Moreover, these oil price spikes can even increase overall output. Evidence points to the following explanation. An oil supply shock raises inflation in all periods, but the nominal interest rate does not react under the zero lower bound, so the shock reduces the real interest rate, stimulating demand in the economy.
Working Paper
Forecasts of inflation and interest rates in no-arbitrage affine models
In this paper, we examine the forecasting ability of an affine term structure framework that jointly models the markets for Treasuries, inflation-protected securities, inflation derivatives, and oil future prices based on no-arbitrage restrictions across these markets. On the methodological side, we propose a novel way of incorporating information from these markets into an affine model. On the empirical side, two main findings emerge from our analysis. First, incorporating information from inflation options can often produce more accurate inflation forecasts than those based on the Survey of ...
Oil Prices and Container Shipping Costs
Oil-price shocks are also fuel- and shipping-cost shocks, but their effect can vary depending on a container ship’s age, size and how long it spends at sea.
Journal Article
Higher Oil Prices Will Likely Increase Severance Tax Revenues in Rocky Mountain States
The Iran conflict that began in February triggered a historically large energy market disruption, leading to a substantial increase in oil prices. Although higher oil prices may present challenges for households and businesses, Rocky Mountain states’ budgets—especially Wyoming and New Mexico—stand to gain from additional severance tax revenue related to elevated oil prices.
Journal Article
Higher Oil Prices May Not Meaningfully Boost Oklahoma’s Broader Economy
The Iran conflict has significantly curtailed global oil supply, causing a sharp increase in prices. This edition of Oklahoma Economist examines how elevated oil prices may affect the state’s economy. It finds that higher prices have boosted oil and gas firms’ profits, but several factors may limit broader economic gains for Oklahoma.
Discussion Paper
The Perplexing Co-Movement of the Dollar and Oil Prices
Oil prices and the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the euro have often moved together over the past decade or so, but it is not at all clear why they should. The standard interpretation of oil price movements as a response to global oil supply and demand shifts makes it unlikely that the correlation stems from the dollar’s effect on oil prices. In addition, the notorious difficulty in predicting currency moves makes it hard to believe that oil prices dictate the dollar’s value. Improbability aside, however, in this blog post we document the tendency for the value of the dollar to ...
Discussion Paper
Oil Prices, Global Demand Expectations, and Near-Term Global Inflation
Oil prices have increased by nearly 60 percent since the summer of 2020, coinciding with an upward trend in global inflation. If higher oil prices are the result of constrained supply, then this could pose some stagflation risks to the growth outlook—a concern reflected in a June Financial Times article, “Why OPEC Matters.” In this post, we utilize the demand and supply decomposition from the New York Fed’s Oil Price Dynamics Report to argue that most of the oil price increase over the past year or so has reflected improving global demand expectations. We then illustrate what these ...