IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tas/wpaper/28756481.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Macroeconomic Fragility of Critical Mineral Markets

Author

Abstract

This paper applies the macroeconomic fragility framework for studying the effects of supply chain disruptions, proposed by Acemoglu and Tahbaz-Salehi (2024), to critical minerals markets. A key prediction of the macroeconomic fragility framework is that equilibrium supply chains are inherently fragile, meaning that even small shocks can trigger cascading supply chain breakdowns that can significantly magnify the discontinuous response of aggregate supply to shocks, leading to higher volatility and prices of critical minerals. We highlight the important role that the non-technical risk premium plays in magnifying global supply chain shocks in the specific case of critical minerals. Using a mixed-frequency Structural VAR model with agnostic sign restrictions and newly constructed data on non-technical risk premiums, we estimate the impact of supply chain disruption, the non-technical risk premium and their interaction on the prices and volatility of six critical minerals. We find that global supply chain disruptions, magnified by non-technical risk premiums, significantly increase critical mineral prices and price volatility for all six critical minerals studied, indicating inefficient outcomes which we interpret as macroeconomic fragility in critical minerals markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Kang, Wilson & Smyth, Russell & Vespignani, Joaquin, 2025. "The Macroeconomic Fragility of Critical Mineral Markets," Working Papers 2025-01, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tas:wpaper:28756481
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://figshare.utas.edu.au/ndownloader/files/53516087/1
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vasco M Carvalho & Makoto Nirei & Yukiko U Saito & Alireza Tahbaz-Salehi, 2021. "Supply Chain Disruptions: Evidence from the Great East Japan Earthquake," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(2), pages 1255-1321.
    2. Kilian, Lutz & Lee, Thomas K., 2014. "Quantifying the speculative component in the real price of oil: The role of global oil inventories," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 71-87.
    3. Uhlig, Harald, 2005. "What are the effects of monetary policy on output? Results from an agnostic identification procedure," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 381-419, March.
    4. Rabah Arezki & Daniel Lederman & Hongyan Zhao, 2014. "The Relative Volatility of Commodity Prices: A Reappraisal," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(3), pages 939-951.
    5. Zhang, Xiaojing & Chang, Hsu-Ling & Su, Chi-Wei & Qin, Meng & Umar, Muhammad, 2024. "Exploring the dynamic interaction between geopolitical risks and lithium prices: A time-varying analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Saadaoui, Jamel & Smyth, Russell & Vespignani, Joaquin, 2025. "Ensuring the security of the clean energy transition: Examining the impact of geopolitical risk on the price of critical minerals," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Dang, Tam Hoang-Nhat & Nguyen, Canh Phuc & Lee, Gabriel S. & Nguyen, Binh Quang & Le, Thuy Thu, 2023. "Measuring the energy-related uncertainty index," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    8. Christoph E. Boehm & Aaron Flaaen & Nitya Pandalai-Nayar, 2019. "Input Linkages and the Transmission of Shocks: Firm-Level Evidence from the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(1), pages 60-75, March.
    9. Bakas, Dimitrios & Triantafyllou, Athanasios, 2018. "The impact of uncertainty shocks on the volatility of commodity prices," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 96-111.
    10. Christopher Ksoll & Rocco Macchiavello & Ameet Morjaria, 2023. "Electoral Violence and Supply Chain Disruptions in Kenya's Floriculture Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1335-1351, November.
    11. Considine, Jennifer & Galkin, Phillip & Hatipoglu, Emre & Aldayel, Abdullah, 2023. "The effects of a shock to critical minerals prices on the world oil price and inflation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    12. Kyle Jurado & Sydney C. Ludvigson & Serena Ng, 2015. "Measuring Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(3), pages 1177-1216, March.
    13. Nicholas Bloom, 2009. "The Impact of Uncertainty Shocks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 623-685, May.
    14. Christiane Baumeister & Lutz Kilian, 2016. "Forty Years of Oil Price Fluctuations: Why the Price of Oil May Still Surprise Us," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 139-160, Winter.
    15. Carrière-Swallow, Yan & Deb, Pragyan & Furceri, Davide & Jiménez, Daniel & Ostry, Jonathan D., 2023. "Shipping costs and inflation," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    16. Joaquin Vespignani & Russell Smyth, 2024. "Artificial intelligence investments reduce risks to critical mineral supply," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    17. Cavallo, Eduardo & Galindo, Arturo & Izquierdo, Alejandro & León, John Jairo, 2013. "The role of relative price volatility in the efficiency of investment allocation," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 1-18.
    18. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:3:p:1015-1052 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Aloui, Donia & Benkraiem, Ramzi & Guesmi, Khaled & Mzoughi, Hela, 2023. "Managing natural resource prices in a geopolitical risk environment," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Haque, Md. Aminul & Topal, Erkan & Lilford, Eric, 2014. "A numerical study for a mining project using real options valuation under commodity price uncertainty," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 115-123.
    21. den Haan, Wouter J. & Sumner, Steven W., 2004. "The comovement between real activity and prices in the G7," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1333-1347, December.
    22. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    23. Basher, Syed Abul & Sadorsky, Perry, 2024. "Do climate change risks affect the systemic risk between the stocks of clean energy, electric vehicles, and critical minerals? Analysis under changing market conditions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    24. Lutz Kilian, 2009. "Not All Oil Price Shocks Are Alike: Disentangling Demand and Supply Shocks in the Crude Oil Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 1053-1069, June.
    25. Elie Bouri & Kakali Kanjilal & Sajal Ghosh & David Roubaud & Tareq Saeed, 2021. "Rare earth and allied sectors in stock markets: extreme dependence of return and volatility," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(49), pages 5710-5730, October.
    26. Dmitry Ivanov, 2024. "Transformation of supply chain resilience research through the COVID-19 pandemic," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(23), pages 8217-8238, December.
    27. Khurshid, Adnan & Khan, Khalid & Rauf, Abdur & Cifuentes-Faura, Javier, 2024. "Effect of geopolitical risk on resources prices in the global and Russian-Ukrainian context: A novel Bayesian structural model," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    28. Wang, Shanyong & Wang, Jing & Wang, Wenfu, 2023. "Do geopolitical risks facilitate the global energy transition? Evidence from 39 countries in the world," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    29. Vlado Vivoda & Ron Matthews, 2024. "“Friend-shoring” as a panacea to Western critical mineral supply chain vulnerabilities," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 37(3), pages 463-476, September.
    30. Khurshid, Adnan & Chen, Yufeng & Rauf, Abdur & Khan, Khalid, 2023. "Critical metals in uncertainty: How Russia-Ukraine conflict drives their prices?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    31. David Humphreys, 2019. "The mining industry after the boom," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 32(2), pages 145-151, July.
    32. Christiane Baumeister & Gert Peersman, 2013. "Time-Varying Effects of Oil Supply Shocks on the US Economy," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 1-28, October.
    33. Bui, Nhuong & Pippenger, John, 1990. "Commodity prices, exchange rates and their relative volatility," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 3-20, March.
    34. Dou, Shiquan & Zhu, Yongguang & Liu, Jiangyi & Xu, Deyi, 2024. "The power of mineral: Shock of the global supply chain from resource nationalism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    35. Jha, Chandan Kumar & Panda, Bibhudutta & Sahu, Santosh Kumar, 2022. "Institutions and conflict," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    36. Zhao, Jing, 2023. "Time-varying impact of geopolitical risk on natural resources prices: Evidence from the hybrid TVP-VAR model with large system," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    37. Dmitry Ivanov & Alexandre Dolgui & Boris Sokolov, 2019. "The impact of digital technology and Industry 4.0 on the ripple effect and supply chain risk analytics," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 829-846, February.
    38. den Haan, Wouter J., 2000. "The comovement between output and prices," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 3-30, August.
    39. Fry-Mckibbin, Renée & Greenwood-Nimmo, Matthew & Kima, Richard & Volkov, Vladimir, 2025. "A three-sector structural VAR model for Australia," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    40. Koop, Gary & Leon-Gonzalez, Roberto & Strachan, Rodney W., 2009. "On the evolution of the monetary policy transmission mechanism," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 997-1017, April.
    41. Irawan, Denny & Okimoto, Tatsuyoshi, 2021. "Overinvestment and macroeconomic uncertainty: Evidence from renewable and non-renewable resource firms," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    42. Donia Aloui & Ramzi Benkraiem & Khaled Guesmi & Hela Mzoughi, 2023. "Managing natural resource prices in a geopolitical risk environment," Post-Print hal-04528370, HAL.
    43. Robert S. Pindyck, 2004. "Volatility and commodity price dynamics," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(11), pages 1029-1047, November.
    44. Tokui, Joji & Kawasaki, Kazuyasu & Miyagawa, Tsutomu, 2017. "The economic impact of supply chain disruptions from the Great East-Japan earthquake," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 59-70.
    45. Gary B. Gorton & Fumio Hayashi & K. Geert Rouwenhorst, 2013. "The Fundamentals of Commodity Futures Returns," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(1), pages 35-105.
    46. Gao, Wang & Wei, Jiajia & Zhang, Hongwei & Zhang, Haizhen, 2024. "The higher-order moments connectedness between rare earth and clean energy markets and the role of geopolitical risk:New insights from a TVP-VAR framework," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    47. Philipp Sauer & Stefan Seuring, 2017. "Sustainable supply chain management for minerals," Post-Print hal-03891233, HAL.
    48. Giorgio E. Primiceri, 2005. "Time Varying Structural Vector Autoregressions and Monetary Policy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 821-852.
    49. Evrim Mandaci, Pınar & Azimli, Asil & Mandaci, Nazif, 2023. "The impact of geopolitical risks on connectedness among natural resource commodities: A quantile vector autoregressive approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    50. Fattahi, Mohammad, 2021. "Resilient procurement planning for supply chains: A case study for sourcing a critical mineral material," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    51. Yan Bai & José-Víctor Ríos-Rull, 2015. "Demand Shocks and Open Economy Puzzles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 644-649, May.
    52. Kang, Wilson & Perez de Gracia, Fernando & Ratti, Ronald A., 2025. "Stock market volatility and commodity prices," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29, pages 1-1, January.
    53. Liu, Zhen & Tang, Yuk Ming & Chau, Ka Yin & Chien, Fengsheng & Iqbal, Wasim & Sadiq, Muhammad, 2021. "Incorporating strategic petroleum reserve and welfare losses: A way forward for the policy development of crude oil resources in South Asia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    54. Ilias Vlachos, 2024. "The COVID-19 pandemic impact on supply chains: a systematic literature review," International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 48(1), pages 17-66.
    55. Nikolay Gospodinov & Serena Ng, 2013. "Commodity Prices, Convenience Yields, and Inflation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(1), pages 206-219, March.
    56. Cevik Serhan & Jalles Joao, 2024. "Eye of the Storm: The Impact of Climate Shocks on Inflation and Growth," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 75(2), pages 109-138.
    57. Sohag, Kazi & Hassan, M. Kabir & Bakhteyev, Stepan & Mariev, Oleg, 2023. "Do green and dirty investments hedge each other?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Saadaoui, Jamel & Smyth, Russell & Vespignani, Joaquin, 2025. "Ensuring the security of the clean energy transition: Examining the impact of geopolitical risk on the price of critical minerals," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    2. Lyu, Yongjian & Wei, Yu & Hu, Yingyi & Yang, Mo, 2021. "Good volatility, bad volatility and economic uncertainty: Evidence from the crude oil futures market," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    3. Abiad, Abdul & Qureshi, Irfan A., 2023. "The macroeconomic effects of oil price uncertainty," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    4. Athanasios Triantafyllou & Dimitrios Bakas & Marilou Ioakimidis, 2023. "Commodity price uncertainty as a leading indicator of economic activity," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4194-4219, October.
    5. Liu, Yang & Han, Liyan & Xu, Yang, 2021. "The impact of geopolitical uncertainty on energy volatility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    6. Liu, Li & Wang, Yudong & Wu, Chongfeng & Wu, Wenfeng, 2016. "Disentangling the determinants of real oil prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 363-373.
    7. Ioannis Dokas & Georgios Oikonomou & Minas Panagiotidis & Eleftherios Spyromitros, 2023. "Macroeconomic and Uncertainty Shocks’ Effects on Energy Prices: A Comprehensive Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-35, February.
    8. Bonnier, Jean-Baptiste, 2022. "Forecasting crude oil volatility with exogenous predictors: As good as it GETS?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    9. Liao, Wenting & Ma, Jun & Zhang, Chengsi, 2024. "Commodity returns co-movement, uncertainty shocks, and the US dollar exchange rate," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    10. Lyu, Yongjian & Yi, Heling & Wei, Yu & Yang, Mo, 2021. "Revisiting the role of economic uncertainty in oil price fluctuations: Evidence from a new time-varying oil market model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    11. Ivan, Miruna-Daniela & Banti, Chiara & Kellard, Neil, 2022. "Prime money market funds regulation, global liquidity, and the crude oil market," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    12. Lyu, Yongjian & Tuo, Siwei & Wei, Yu & Yang, Mo, 2021. "Time-varying effects of global economic policy uncertainty shocks on crude oil price volatility：New evidence," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    13. Hong, Yanran & Cao, Shijiao & Xu, Pengfei & Pan, Zhigang, 2024. "Interpreting the effect of global economic risks on crude oil market: A supply-demand perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    14. Joëts, Marc & Mignon, Valérie & Razafindrabe, Tovonony, 2017. "Does the volatility of commodity prices reflect macroeconomic uncertainty?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 313-326.
    15. Magnus Reif, 2020. "Macroeconomics, Nonlinearities, and the Business Cycle," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 87, September.
    16. Kang, Wensheng & Ratti, Ronald A. & Vespignani, Joaquin L., 2020. "Revising the Impact of Financial and Non-Financial Global Stock Market Volatility Shocks," MPRA Paper 103019, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Gu, Xin & Zhu, Zixiang & Yu, Minli, 2021. "The macro effects of GPR and EPU indexes over the global oil market—Are the two types of uncertainty shock alike?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    18. Kisswani, Khalid M. & Fikru, Mahelet G., 2025. "The dynamic nexus between economic policy uncertainty, geopolitical risk, and natural resource rents of ASEAN-5 countries: Insights from the novel Fourier augmented ARDL method (FAARDL)," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    19. Cross, Jamie & Nguyen, Bao H., 2017. "The relationship between global oil price shocks and China's output: A time-varying analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 79-91.
    20. Bakas, Dimitrios & Triantafyllou, Athanasios, 2018. "The impact of uncertainty shocks on the volatility of commodity prices," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 96-111.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Global Supply Chain Disruption; Critical Minerals; Non-technical Risk Premiums; Macroeconomic Fragility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F62 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Macroeconomic Impacts
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy
    • Q30 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tas:wpaper:28756481. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oscar Pavlov (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dutasau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.