Challenging what you think you know about oil prices

摘要

What effect do high oil prices have on the world's economy?Many would argue that high prices are bad and that they slow economic growth. But now two researchers, Tobias Rasmussen and Agustin Roitman, are challenging that notion in a new paperforthe International Monetary Fund entitled Oil Shocks in a Global Perspective: Are they Really that Bad?"Approaching the data from several angles, we find that the impact of higher oil prices on oil-importing economies is generally small: a 25 per cent increase in oil prices typically causes GDP [gross domestic product] to fall by about half of one percent or less," they write.