The Differential Impacts of Critical Mineral Prices and Oil Prices on the Economy

Abstract: This paper compares the impacts of critical mineral price and oil price on an economy in a unified neoclassical growth model. Unlike oil price shocks, which affect the cost of utilizing existing capital (e.g., cars), critical mineral price shocks influence the cost of creating new capital (e.g., electric vehicles) without altering the cost of existing capital. 

We find that both types of shocks ultimately reduce output and welfare. However, oil-price increases are systematically more contractionary for the economy. Mineral-price increases generate comparatively larger adjustments in investment, capital, and external borrowing but smaller and more gradual losses in output and welfare, and in capital-rich economies can slightly raise long-run employment. 

These results imply that oil-price shocks remain the more serious threat to aggregate activity and welfare, whereas mineral-price shocks call for policies that smooth investment and external-balance-sheet adjustment (e.g., macroprudential tools and precautionary reserves or fiscal buffers).