In this paper we study the oil prices-macroeconomy relationship by means of studying the impact of oil price shocks on both economic activity and consumer price indexes for six Asian countries over the period 1975Q1-2002Q2. The results suggest that oil prices have a significant effect on both economic activity and price indexes although the impact is limited to the short-run and more significant when oil price shocks are defined in local currencies. Moreover, we find evidence of asymmetries in the oil prices-macroeconomy relationship for some of the Asian countries.

Concerns for environmental quality and its impact on people's welfare are fundamental arguments for the adoption of environmental legislation in most countries. In this paper, we analyse the relationship between air quality and subjective well-being in Europe. We use a unique dataset that merges three waves of the European Social Survey with a new dataset on environmental quality including SO 2 concentrations and climate in Europe at the regional level. We find a robust negative impact of SO 2 concentrations on selfreported life satisfaction.JEL classification: I31, Q51, Q53, Q54

This paper analyzes the oil price-macroeconomy relationship by means of analyzing the impact of oil prices on inflation and industrial production indexes for many European countries using quarterly data for the period 1960-1999. First, we test for cointegration allowing for structural breaks among the variables. Second, and in order to account for the possible non-linear relationships, we use different transformation of oil price data. The main results suggest that oil prices have permanent effects on inflation and short run but asymmetric effects on production growth rates. Furthermore, significant differences are found among the responses of the countries to these shocks.

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This paper investigates the volatility spillovers and co-movements among oil prices and stock prices of major oil and gas corporations over the period between 18th June 2001 and 1st February 2016. To do so, we use the spillover index approach by Diebold and Yilmaz (2009, 2012, 2014 and the dynamic correlation coefficient model of Engle ( 2002) so as to identify the transmission mechanisms of volatility shocks and the contagion of volatility among oil prices and stock prices of oil and gas companies, respectively. Given that volatility transmission across oil and major oil and gas corporations is important for portfolio diversification and risk management, we also examine optimal weights and hedge ratios among the aforementioned series. Our results point to the existence of significant volatility spillover effects among oil and oil and gas companies' stock volatility. However, the spillover is usually unidirectional from oil and gas companies' stock volatility to oil volatility, with BP, CHEVRON, EXXON, SHELL and TOTAL being the major net transmitters of volatility to oil markets. Conditional correlations are positive and time-varying, with those between each of the aforementioned companies and oil being the highest. Finally, the diversification benefits and hedging effectiveness based on our results are discussed.