The transitory and permanent volatility of oil prices: What implications are there for the US industrial production?

Abstract

This study examines the impact of oil price uncertainty on the US industrial production by decomposing oil price volatility into permanent and transitory components. The decompositions provide important evidence on sources and asymmetric effects of oil price volatility. To estimate the component structure of volatility and to analyse the dynamic impacts of the volatility components, the study uses a threshold based CGARCH and VAR modelling over a period from 1980 to 2010 for the US economy. The CGARCH model estimates show significant asymmetric effect of oil price shock on the transitory oil price volatility. Dynamic impulse response functions obtained from the estimated VAR models reveal that there is a significant and prolonged dampening impact of increased transitory oil price volatility on industrial production. The results also suggest that shocks to transitory component induce increased volatility in the general price level and non-fuel commodity prices in the US. Variance decomposition analysis reconfirms that the transitory volatility is the second most important factor to explain the variance of industrial production. These results provide additional insights on the sources of oil price uncertainty and point to the need to direct US energy policies towards stabilising short-term uncertainties in oil prices.