Economic Activities and Oil Price Shocks in Indian Outlook: Direction of Causality and Testing Cointegration

Abstract

The current study intends to find out the linkages between crude oil prices and economic activity in the context of Indian economy. The macroeconomic variables such as gross domestic product (GDP), unemployment, industrial output, inflation, exchange rate and stock market prices have been used as a proxy to economic activity. We have analysed the sample data of 30 years, that is, from year 1991 to 2020. To inspect the short-run relationship between oil prices and the above-mentioned macroeconomic variables, Granger causality test has been applied after removing the presence of unit root through differencing the series. To investigate the long-run relationship, vector error correction model (VECM) has been applied after testing cointegration through the Johansen method of cointegration. The findings of the study show that oil prices have short-run causality with all the variables, that is, GDP, unemployment, industrial output, inflation, exchange rate and stock market prices, while they have a long association with inflation, industrial production and unemployment. Further we find a negative relationship between oil prices and unemployment, industrial output, inflation and exchange rate and a positive relationship with GDP and stock prices.