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This study examines the long-run hedging ability of gold and silver prices against alternative measures of consumer price index for the UK and the US. We employ a dataset that spans from 1791 to 2010, and both a time-invariant and a time-varying cointegration framework. We find that gold can at least fully hedge headline, expected and core CPI in the long-run. This ability tends to be stronger when we allow for the long term dynamics to vary over time. The inflation hedging ability of gold is on average higher in the US compared to the UK. Silver does not hedge US consumer prices albeit evidence emerges in favor of a time-varying long-run relationship in the UK.

In this paper we examine long-run house price convergence across US states using a novel econometric approach advocated by Pesaran (2007) and Pesaran et al. (2009). Our empirical modelling strategy employs a probabilistic test statistic for convergence based on the percentage of unit root rejections among all state house price differentials. Using a sieve bootstrap procedure, we construct confidence intervals and find evidence in favour of convergence. We also conclude that speed of adjustment towards long-run equilibrium is inversely related to distance.

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The paper examines the relationship between UK wholesale gas prices and the Brent oil price over the period 1996-2003. Tests for Unit Roots and Cointegration are carried out and it is discovered that a long run equilibrium relationship between UK gas and oil prices predates the opening of the UK-Mainland Europe Inter-connector. Following a recursive methodology (Hansen & Johansen 1999), it was found that the cointegrating relationship is present throughout the sample period. However, the long run solutions seem to be more volatile. Evidence is provided that the short run relationship is linear and impulse response functions are used to examine the effects that a shock in oil would have on gas.