How much did oil market developments contribute to the 2009 recession in Germany?

Carstensen, Kai; Elstner, Steffen und Paula, Georg (2013): How much did oil market developments contribute to the 2009 recession in Germany? In: Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Vol. 115, No. 3: pp. 695-721

Abstract

In this paper, we use a structural vector autoregressive model to study the effects of oil market developments on the German economy. We find that higher oil prices are always associated with a decline in private consumption expenditures, but the response of gross domestic product (GDP) crucially depends on the underlying shock. While a disruption in oil supply provokes a recession, positive world demand shocks prompt a temporary increase in exports and investment, which initially outweigh the cutback on consumption. In a counterfactual analysis, we show that the world demand shocks that led to the 2007/2008 oil price rise triggered a delayed 0.8 percent decrease in German GDP in 2009, and therefore notably contributed to the recession of that year.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Economics; Economics > Chairs > CESifo-Professorship for Business Cycle Analysis and Surveys (closed)
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• Language: English