What drives the commodity price beta of oil industry stocks?

We test theoretical drivers of the oil price beta of oil industry stocks. The strongest statistical and economic support comes for market conditions-type variables as the prime drivers: namely, oil price (+), bond rate (+), volatility of oil returns (−) and cost of carry (+). Though statistically significant, exogenous firm characteristics and oil firms' financing decisions have less compelling economic significance. There is weaker support for the prediction that financial risk management reduces the exposure of oil stocks to crude oil price variation. Finally, extended modelling shows that mean reversion in oil prices also helps explain cross-sectional variation in the oil beta.

► We test theoretical drivers of the oil price beta of oil industry stocks. ► Strongest statistical/economic support comes for market conditions-type variables. ► Exogenous firm characteristics have less compelling economic significance. ► Oil firms' financing decisions have less compelling economic significance. ► Oil price mean reversion also helps explain cross-sectional oil beta variation.