Investigating the Asymmetry in Trade Balance Response to Oil Price Changes: Evidence from China

Öz

Examining the relation between oil price changes and the trade balance is important for oil-importing countries to formulate policy solutions. This study contributes to the literature by examining the asymmetric effects of changes in oil prices on the trade balance of China, the world’s largest crude oil importer. To this end, the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) cointegration approach and Pesaran’s Generalized Variance Decompositions technique are adopted. The results reveal that the trade balance responds asymmetrically to oil price changes in the long run, while the responses are symmetric in the short run. The Generalized Variance Decompositions results indicate that the trade balance is more sensitive to the oil price increases than to decreases. These results indicate that China should support energy-efficient systems to reduce its dependency on imported oil.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Trade Balance
• Oil Price
• NARDL
• Çin

Ticaret Dengesinin Petrol Fiyatlarındaki Değişikliklere Asimetrik Tepkisi: Çin Örneği

Öz

Petrol fiyatlarındaki değişiklikler ile ticaret dengesi arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesi, petrol ithal eden ülkelerde uygulanacak politikaların belirlenmesinde oldukça önemlidir. Bu çalışma, petrol fiyatlarındaki değişimlerin dünyanın en büyük ham petrol ithalatçısı olan Çin'in ticaret dengesi üzerindeki asimetrik etkilerini inceleyerek literatüre katkı sağlamaktadır. Bu amaçla, çalışmada Doğrusal Olmayan Dağıtılmış Gecikmeli Otoregresif (NARDL) eşbütünleşme yaklaşımı uygulanmaktadır. Elde edilen bulgular, uzun dönemde petrol fiyatı değişikliklerine karşı ticaret dengesinin asimetrik olarak tepki verdiğini, kısa dönemde ise tepkilerin simetrik olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Bu sonuçlar, Çin'in ithal petrole bağımlılığını azaltmak için enerji-etkin sistemleri desteklemesi gerektiğini göstermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Ticaret Dengesi
• Petrol Fiyatları
• NARDL
• Çin

Kaynakça

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