The impacts of global oil prices fluctuations on stock market returns: An empirical analysis for OECD countries

Purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of fluctuations occurred in national and world oil prices to financial (Equity Share Price Index (RSP)) and macroeconomic factors (Short Term Interest Rate (IR), Industrial Production Rate (IPR)) within the scope of 19 OECD countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom) and to contribute to empiric studies which take place in field literature. In the study monthly data set of the period of 1994-2013 of above counties was used. For the analysis these data; stationary, cointegration and Granger tests were used. In line with the findings offered on the basis of countries, even though it is not possible to come up with a certain deduction between the energy and financial and macroeconomic factors towards all the countries, it was possible to group the related variables in relation to the countries belonging to OECD in terms of interactions among each other. Keywords: Global oil prices, Stock market returns, Cointegration, Causality, OECD