Interview with Christiane Baumeister: Oil Price Shocks

Tim Sablik acts as interlocutor in “Interview with Christiane Baumeister,” subtitled “On measuring the effects of oil shocks, changes in global energy markets, and forecasting tail risks” (Econ Focus: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Third Quarter 2026). Here are some of the comments that caught my eye: On her career choice: My father was a high school economics teacher, and I loved to spend time in his office browsing through his books. … When I had to pick my field of study in high school, I picked economics, and I never looked back. On a pass-through of higher oil prices: When thinking about the passthrough of oil prices to consumer prices, you can divide that into a direct and an indirect mechanism. Given that households do not directly consume crude oil, the first stage of passthrough really happens in oil-related products. The price passthrough is reflected in energy goods and services that form part of the consumer basket, and price developments in these oil-related products…