Real oil prices surged from 2009 through 2014, comparable to the 1970's oil shock period. Standard explanations based on monopoly markup fall short since inflation remained low after 2009. This paper contributes strong evidence of Granger (1969) predictability of nominal factors to oil prices,...

This paper contributes to the income inequality literature that is based on the traditional Kuznets model. Price stability, financial deepening, level of development, state employment, and fiscal redistribution are found to enhance income equality in a given country. While the effect of price...