Time-varying impacts of oil price shocks on China’s stock market under economic policy uncertainty

The role of economic policy uncertainty in the risk transmission between crude oil and stock market cannot be ignored. However, it is unclear whether economic policy uncertainty always amplifies the impact of oil price shocks on stock market over time. This study employs the time-varying parameter structural vector autoregression with stochastic volatility (TVP-SVAR-SV) model to examine the dynamic relationship among different types of oil price shocks, economic policy uncertainty, and China’s stock market returns at the aggregate and industry levels. The empirical results are as follows: First, different types of oil price shocks and economic policy uncertainty have significant time-varying impacts on stock market returns, which mainly occur in the short term. During periods of increased economic policy uncertainty, the stock market is more sensitive to oil price shocks. Second, economic policy uncertainty provides a transmission channel for the propagation between oil price shocks and stock markets, but how does economic policy uncertainty connect oil-stock nexus depends on the origins of oil price shocks. Third, the response patterns of stock market to oil price shocks and economic policy uncertainty are heterogeneous in different industries. Our results provide important implications for policymakers and investors.