A Model of Financialization of Commodities

We analyze how institutional investors entering commodity futures markets, referred to as the financialization of commodities, affect commodity prices. Institutional investors care about their performance relative to a commodity index. We find that all commodity futures prices, volatilities, and correlations go up with financialization, but more so for index futures than for nonindex futures. The equity‐commodity correlations also increase. We demonstrate how financial markets transmit shocks not only to futures prices but also to commodity spot prices and inventories. Spot prices go up with financialization, and shocks to any index commodity spill over to all storable commodity prices.     

中国黄金金融化指数的构建与时间演化研究

运用变异系数法、相关系数法、熵值法和Critic法四种赋权方法,构建中国黄金金融化指数,考量中国黄金金融化指数的时间演化.结果发现:随着时间的推移,中国黄金金融化的整体水平不断上升;2008-2015年"储备与支付属性"对黄金金融化的贡献度最高,是推动中国黄金金融化的主要驱动力量.     

Extreme risk spillovers from commodity indexes to sovereign CDS spreads of commodity dependent countries: A VAR quantile analysis

Given the financialization of commodities and the increase in the CDS markets' size and structure, we examine the co-movement and dependence structure between four commodity indexes and sovereign credit risk via an extreme volatility risk spillover methodology. We use the daily change in sovereign CDS data between October 1, 2010 to March 31, 2020 for ten commodity-dependent countries and four commodity indexes (agricultural, precious and industrial metals, and energy). The results of White et al.'s (2015) VAR for Value at Risk (VaR) and the pseudo quantile impulse response function (QIRF) show that the volatility of the primary commodity export category (e.g., agriculture, mineral, and energy) substantially influences the volatility of sovereign spreads (except for two agriculture-dependent exporters). Still, it does not always have the strongest risk spillover effect when other commodity indixes are included in the analysis. When drilling down on the data and examining the single commodity index (i.e., gold, corn, etc.), our results indicate that the primary commodity exports significantly influence the volatility of its sovereign CDS spreads. Based on the results of the QIRF, most shocks are absorbed within 30 days. Most risk spillover from the volatility of sovereign CDS spreads to the volatility of commodity indexes is found to be insignificant.     

Consumption heterogeneity,employment dynamics and macroeconomic co-movement

Real-business-cycle models rely on total factor productivity (TFP) shocks to explain the observed co-movement among consumption, investment and hours. However an emerging body of evidence identifies “investment shocks” as important drivers of business cycles. This paper shows that a neoclassical model consistent with observed heterogeneity in labor supply and consumption across employed and non-employed can generate co-movement in response non-TFP shocks. Estimation reveals fluctuations in the marginal efficiency of investment that explain the bulk of business-cycle variance in consumption, investment and hours. A corollary of the model׳s empirical success is the labor wedge that is not important at business-cycle frequencies.     

Crowding out or crowding in? Correlations of spending components within and across countries

Using data for a sample of advanced and developing countries, the paper studies variation in the transmission of shocks from public and private components of spending to the macro-economy and distinguishes between the effects of expansionary and contractionary shocks. The aim is to study the extent by which capacity and propagation channels would reinforce or mitigate the cyclical responses of macroeconomic variables to expansionary and contractionary shocks to private and public components of spending. Further, the evidence will spell out the extent of co-movement in the variables’ adjustments to the specific shock across the macro economy. The bulk of the time-series evidence indicates more pervasive effects on growth in connection to private consumption across advanced countries. In contrast, the growth effects of public consumption are more pervasive across developing countries. Across the two groups, the growth impact of public consumption is more pronounced, compared to that of public investment. Further, the inflationary effects are pronounced with respect to public and private spending shocks. In general, the limited statistically significant real time-series evidence attests to conflicting channels with respect to variables’ adjustments to one shock and inadequate co-movement in the transmission mechanism of various public and private spending shocks in many countries.     

Strategic commodity allocation

This article extends the study of the financialization of commodities (Rouwenhorst and Tang [Annu. Rev. Financ. Econ., 2012, 4, 447–467]) by considering an investment in the term structure of commodity futures prices. Specifically, we analyse the benefits of adding a distant commodity futures contract and/or a spot commodity (near month futures contract) to a portfolio of bonds and stocks in a setting similar to Brennan and Schwartz [The use of treasury bill futures in strategic asset allocation programs. In Worldwide Asset and Liability Modeling, edited by W.T. Ziemba and J.M. Mulvey, pp. 205–230, 1998 (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge)]. Our analysis employs an empirical study that covers the post financial crisis period. We show that the spot commodity considerably improves the value of the portfolio. However, an investment in the whole term structure of futures contracts is optimally achieved through high opposite positions in the spot commodity and distant futures contracts. We find that these extreme calendar spreads can result in an inappropriate investment.     

Return and volatility co-movement in commodity futures markets: the effects of liquidity risk

Commodity markets are a widely researched topic in the field of finance. In this paper, we investigate the co-movement of return and volatility measures in different commodity futures markets and how these measures are affected by liquidity risk. First, we find that commodity returns display co-movement and that liquidity risk plays a key role in shaping asset return patterns. Moreover, we show that the volatilities of commodity returns co-move, and we demonstrate the role of liquidity risk in this joint pattern. We also find that the commodity markets we investigated share a common volatility factor that determines their joint volatility co-movement. Because liquidity risk affects both commodity returns and volatility shocks, it might be interpreted as the common causal factor driving both measures simultaneously. Therefore, we affirm the view that liquidity shocks are firmly related to two residual risks originating from both market return and market volatility. Finally, we also show that liquidity spillovers can significantly drive cross-sectional correlation dynamics.     

Co-movement between commodity and equity markets revisited—An application of the Thick Pen method

This paper analyses interdependence between the returns of specific energy and non-energy commodities and equities using (i) Thick Pen Measure of Association (TPMA) and (ii) Multi-Thickness Thick Pen Measure of Association (MTTPMA). We capture time-varying co-movement and co-movement across different time scales to analyse the short-term and long-term features of the time series using stationary data. Energy index futures show an increase in co-movement with equities since the start of the financialisation period. There are asymmetric effects in cross-scale co-movement between various commodities and equities. Weak co-movement between equity and specific commodity futures indicates diversification benefits for short-term and long-term investors.     

实体企业金融化行为的逆周期效应及"脱实向虚"风险研究

基于2002-2017年A股上市公司数据,利用面板固定效应回归分析方法,检验实体企业金融化行为.结果显示:实体企业金融化行为具有显著的逆周期效应,但受企业异质性影响,不同类型企业金融化行为逆周期效应具有差异性,属于轻资产、国有制、制造业以及非东部的企业,其金融化行为的逆周期效应较为突出.实体企业金融化行为会抑制固定资产及研发创新的投入,进而挤出实体资产收益.在经济周期不同阶段,实体企业金融化行为的潜在动机表现不同.在经济上行期,企业金融化是套利投资行为;在经济下行期,企业金融化可以起到平滑资金作用,但需防范实体企业过度金融化可能带来的"脱实向虚"风险.     

英国养老金金融化改革的经验和启示

文章梳理了英国养老金制度改革历程,归纳了三个支柱改革的金融化导向及表现,分析了金融化改革对第二、三支柱养老金覆盖率、缴费率、投资收益和基金积累的影响,以及生命周期化投资、养老金债券等金融创新在应对低利率风险、金融危机冲击风险中的作用.基于英国养老金金融化改革经验,结合我国企业年金和个人养老金发展的实际,总结了引入"自动加入"制度、发展集合年金计划、完善税收优惠、推行审慎监管、鼓励养老金生命周期投资创新以及改革基础养老金制度为职业年金和个人养老金金融化改革创造条件等结论和启示.     

Commodity market financialization,herding and signals: An asymmetric GARCH R-vine copula approach

Institutional investors have significantly increased their exposure to commodity futures after 2004 in the process of commodity market financialization, raising questions about the risk-sharing and price-discovery functions of the market. We identify some symptoms of financialization through examining S&P500, JPM bond index, and 18 S&P GSCI excess return indices, employing ARMA-GARCH R-vine copula approach that can flexibly model high-dimensional multivariate asymmetric tail dependence. We discover three trends: an increased resemblance between the news impact curve of stocks and those of commodities; an increased bi-variate stock-commodity tail dependence; and an increased multivariate tail-dependence across all commodities. We also explore the market structural change underlying these symptoms using an augmented news impact curve. We suggest and provide evidence that herding, in addiction to leverage effect, explains the observed symptoms. The findings have profound implications for commercial hedgers and financial traders, and for regulators who are concerned about the functionalities of commodity futures market.     

中国财产保险需求的影响因素研究——基于险种结构的动态分析

将影响财产保险需求的因素分为宏观性间接因素和结构性直接因素两大类,进而选择新增汽车拥有量、固定资产投资、民事案件受理数量和出口贸易总值等四个具有代表性的结构性直接变量,利用1980年～2009年我国的时间序列数据,运用脉冲响应和方差分解的方法考察了各因素对产险需求影响的动态特征,以及这些影响因素的相对重要性。实证结果较好地解释了产险内部各子险种需求的动因,以及产险内部险种结构严重失衡的内因。     

They're back! Post-financialization diversification benefits of commodities

Do alternative assets such as commodities improve portfolio diversification? The empirical evidence is generally positive but mixed, and almost exclusively focuses on U.S. data. Using several distinct commodity indexes over the period 1993–2019, we investigate the case of an investor in Canada, a commodity-currency country where equities are already exposed to commodity beta. We use spanning tests and several out-of-sample performance measures for both risk-averse and disappointment-averse investors. Overall, we find that while the diversification potential of commodities was limited in Canada before and during financialization, the post-financialization period offers new opportunities. The evidence suggests that portfolio performance is significantly improved using some, but not all, commodity indexes. Thus, the choice of a relevant commodity index matters as a vehicle for diversification. Finally, compounding an international component to the sectorial diversification of the portfolio can significantly improve its performance.     

Are there profit (returns) in Shariah-compliant exchange traded funds? The multiscale propensity

This paper is the first attempt to investigate the multiscale tendency of the co-movement and cross-correlation of nine Islamic Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) returns across the global developed and emerging markets using both wavelet coherence and wavelet MODWT methods. The wavelet coherence results tend to indicate consistent co-movement between most of the ETF returns especially in the long run. The study also uncovers evidence of wide variation of co-movement across the time-scales during the global financial crisis and the Euro debt crisis. Strong co-movement can be observed during the global financial crisis, both for the medium term investors and long term investors. The paper studies the relationship between different ETF returns using wavelet multi-resolution analysis. The cross-correlation analysis also shows certain significant and positive correlations between the ETF returns, especially during the period of global financial crisis. The findings from these two recent dynamic time-scale decomposition methodologies have important policy implications for both risk management and investors’ investment policy.     

我国债券市场价格波动的均衡与因果分析

债券价格的决定理论主要有古典利率理论、流动偏好理论、可贷资金理论和理性预期理论。本文采用协整和因果检验方法，研究宏观经济变量、货币金融变量与我国债券市场价格波动的联动和因果关系。我国债券市场价格与固定资产投资、净出口，物价指数、货币供应量、金融机构存贷款和外汇储备存在长期均衡关系。居民储蓄和净出口对我国债券市场价格走势具有单向引导关系，我国债券市场价格对固定资产投资和金融机构存款具有显著影响。     

经济变量对国债市场的动态影响——基于市场分割的比较研究

本文从我国国债市场分割的实际出发,利用基于VAR系统的脉冲响应函数与方差分解技术实证检验了经济变量对交易所国债市场与银行间国债市场的短期动态影响。结论表明国债指数收益率对CPI指标的冲击反应呈负相关关系,我国国债投资者对于通货膨胀风险的补偿要求较高;对来自股票市场波动冲击的反应较大,跷跷板效应明显,市场投机风险较大。研究发现,CPI变量虽然是影响交易所国债价格波动的第一大因素,然而在银行间国债市场,排在第一位的却是股市收益率变量。两个市场对经济变量冲击的反应存在的差异之处体现了国债市场分割的现状。     

Financialization and de-financialization of commodity futures: A quantile regression approach

This study employs a quantile regression approach to examine the financialization of commodity futures. We confirm a strong degree of dependence in energy commodities from 2004 to 2013, with moderate effects in metals and lesser magnitudes in agriculture. Our findings show a strengthening in the financialization of energy commodities during the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, while there were weaker effects in agriculture and a decoupling or de-financialization in metal markets. The findings reveal the de-financialization of metals and agricultural markets from 2014 to 2017, after the 2013 closure of commodity trading units on Wall Street. Overall, our findings cast doubt on the diversification benefits of energy-dominated commodity indices after 2013. We argue the impact of financialization on commodity futures markets is more permanent than previously thought.     

中国实体企业金融化:货币扩张、资本逐利还是风险规避?

本文构建了一个刻画实体企业在流动性金融资产和固定资产之间进行权衡的投资组合选择模型,并创新性地将货币扩张的宏观因素引入微观模型,推演中国实业部门金融化的驱动逻辑。理论模型显示:货币扩张、资本逐利和风险规避本质上是宏观和微观两个不同层面的要素变量,但都卷入实业部门金融化的驱动机制中,然而驱动效应的表现形式要比已有文献的理论模型更加复杂。基于上市公司面板数据总体样本的实证结果表明:货币扩张、资本逐利和风险规避均是企业金融化的关键影响因素,但货币扩张表现为直接抑制和间接促进两种效应。进一步引入宏观风险因素和根据企业所有权性质划分样本的稳健性检验则给出了更为细致的信息:货币因素可能通过宏观风险因素间接作用于企业金融化;所有权性质不同的企业的金融化驱动机制也表现出明显的异质性:国有企业金融化主要受货币因素和风险规避因素影响;民营企业金融资产占比层面的金融化驱动因素是风险规避和资本逐利,而金融渠道获利占比层面的金融化则受到货币因素的显著影响;其他类型企业的金融化主要受货币因素的显著影响。     

Speculators,commodities and cross-market linkages

We use a unique, non-public dataset of trader positions in 17 U.S. commodity futures markets to provide novel evidence on those markets' financialization in the past decade. We then show that the correlation between the rates of return on investible commodity and equity indices rises amid greater participation by speculators generally, hedge funds especially, and hedge funds that hold positions in both equity and commodity futures markets in particular. We find no such relationship for commodity swap dealers, including index traders (CITs). The predictive power of hedge fund positions is weaker in periods of generalized financial market stress. Our results support the notion that who trades helps predict the joint distribution of commodity and equity returns. We find qualitatively similar but statistically weaker results using a proxy for hedge fund activity based on publicly available data.     

Does the stock market drive herd behavior in commodity futures markets?

This paper contributes to the debate on commodity financialization by extending tests of herd behavior to commodity futures markets. Utilizing a regime-switching model, we test the presence of herd behavior in a number of commodity sectors including energy, metals, grains and livestock during the low and high market volatility states. We find significant evidence of herd behavior in grains only during the high volatility state. We also find that large price movements in the energy and metal sectors significantly contribute to herd behavior in the market for grains. Finally, we find no significant effect of the stock market on herd behavior in the commodity futures market. Our findings in general do not support the much debated commodity financialization hypothesis.