Three essays on the oil-macroeconomy relationship

Abstract

Oil represents a key commodity in the world energy market and it is not a surprise that its price is largely viewed as one of the leading indicator of the global economic health. Therefore, the recent soaring up of the price of oil has generated a large concern about its potential e¤ects on global economic activity. Indeed, even thoughmost developped economies are generally better prepared to deal with oil shocks nowdays than in the 1970s (better conduct of monetary policies, technological progress), the e¤ective role of oil price shocks in a¤ecting macroeconomic performance is still debated. The aim of this thesis is then to investigate some aspects of the relationship between oil and the macroeconomy by means of both an empirical and a theoretical analysis.