The diminishing hedging role of crude oil: Evidence from time varying financialization
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
Department/School
Accounting and Finance
Publication Title
Journal of Multinational Financial Management
Abstract
Using daily data from 1999 to 2019, we document a diminishing hedging role that crude oil plays for the stock market as a result of growing financialization. With interest rates driven near zero after the crisis of 2007-2009 and the extreme volatility of oil prices, vector autoregressions (VARs) suggest larger roles of oil prices in explaining stock returns during the 2007-2009 crisis and afterwards. We also find increased co-movement between stock and oil during the post-crisis period. Our results indicate that more short positions in crude oil are required to hedge long positions in equity markets during the post-crisis period, i.e., it costs more to use crude oil investments as a hedging tool compared to pre-crisis period. Therefore, investors holding a mixed portfolio of stocks and oil enjoy lower diversification benefits.
Link to Published Version
Recommended Citation
Sharma, S., & Rodriguez, I. (2019). The diminishing hedging role of crude oil: Evidence from time varying financialization. Journal of Multinational Financial Management, 52–53, 100593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mulfin.2019.100593