Dynamic OLS estimation of the U.S. import demand for Mexican crude oil

This paper estimates the U.S. import demand for crude oil from Mexico. The analysis is based on time series from January 1990 to December 2010. Time series properties of the processes that generate the data are assessed in order to specify the order of integration for each series. According to results from unit root tests, all the series under study are unit root non-stationary. The paper then estimates the cointegrating import demand regression using Dynamic OLS procedure. Residuals from the DOLS cointegrating regression are tested and found to be stationary; thus, the cointegrating regression is not spurious. According to estimation results, U.S. import demand for Mexican crude oil is income inelastic, perfect price inelastic, and responsive to changes in both U.S. stock of oil (excluding SPR) and unemployment rate in the U.S. Also, this paper points to the estimate bias from omitting relevant variables as it is common in the mainstream literature on crude oil import demand.