This paper attempts to reconcile two strands of literature on oil and speculation: one that posits the predominance of supply/demand fundamentals, and one that investigates the hypothesis of speculative trading. To do so, we develop a Markov switching analysis based on the WTI crude oil futures...

Switching model, we estimate the demand for mortgage using aggregate monthly data from January 2003 to September 2012. The results show that this variable has been subject to cycles of contraction and expansion since 2003. The boom starts at the end of 2005 is marked by the alternation of two...