International oil price uncertainty and corporate investment: Evidence from China's emerging and transition economy

- The setting of China's emerging and transition economy is used.
- A dynamic model of investment is developed and estimated.
- Oil price uncertainty exerts a negative impact on corporate investment.
- The negative impact is more significant for non-state-owned listed companies.
- Different results are found between low- and high-degree marketization periods.

We develop and estimate a dynamic model of investment to investigate the impact of international oil price uncertainty on corporate investment expenditures in China's emerging and transition economy. We further examine whether state ownership affects the relationship between oil price uncertainty and corporate investment. Consistent with the model's prediction, the main finding is that oil price uncertainty exerts a negative impact on corporate investment expenditures. In addition, compared with state-owned listed companies, the negative influence of oil price uncertainty on corporate investment is more significant for non-state-owned listed companies. Our further analysis, using the market-oriented reform of refined oil pricing in 2008 as a quasi-natural event, shows the variation between the low-degree marketization period and the high-degree one in terms of the relationship between international oil price uncertainty, state ownership and corporate investment expenditures.