Structural Change and Forecasting Long-Run Energy Prices

The authors test the statistical significance of Pindyck’s (1999) suggested class of econometric equations that model the behaviour of long-run real energy prices. The models postulate meanreverting prices with continuous and random changes in their level and trend, and are estimated using Kalman filtering. In such contexts, test statistics are typically non-standard and depend on nuisance parameters. The authors use simulation-based procedures to address this issue; namely, a standard Monte Carlo test and a maximized Monte Carlo test. They find statistically significant instabilities for coal and natural gas prices, but not for crude oil prices. Out-of-sample forecasts are calculated to differentiate between significant models.