Market efficiency in agricultural futures markets

Market efficiency and unbiasedness are tested in four agricultural commodity futures markets - live cattle, hogs, corn, and soybean meal - using cointegration and error correction models with GQARCH-in-mean processes. Results indicate each market is unbiased in the long run, although cattle, hogs and corn futures markets exhibit short-run inefficiencies and pricing biases. Models for cattle and corn outperform futures prices in out-of-sample forecasting. Results also suggest short-run time-varying risk premiums in cattle and hog futures markets.     

Policy reform and farmers' coping strategies: The case of corn price shocks in Heilongjiang Province of China

A substantial decrease in corn prices caused by the policy reform in 2016 in China led to heterogeneous supply responses of corn producers: decreasing corn acreage, making no change in corn acreage, and expanding corn acreage. We investigate the causes and consequences of cropland allocation of the supply responses using the balanced panel data on corn-producing households from 2015 through 2016 in Heilongjiang Province. We find that the corn producers largely acted in accordance with their own household resource endowments to make their choice decisions in response to the corn price shocks. Our results show that the decrease in corn prices led to a small decline in total corn acreage and a considerable increase in total acreage for soybeans and rice in 2016 and that the increase in total soybean acreage was more through area expansion rather than through substitution. Our results also show that crop structure for large-scale producers was more responsive to corn price than for medium- and small-scale producers. Given that continuous corn rotation prevails currently in Heilongjiang, our major finding suggests that the acreages planted to corn and soybeans cannot be easily adjusted by the market.     

Empirical analysis of corn and soybean basis in Canada

The article examines the factors affecting the basis for corn and soybeans using several time-series techniques to account for potential structural breaks, seasonality, residual serial correlation and structural breaks, as well as potential endogeneity and nonstationarity. The spatio-temporal empirical framework is based on storage and trade theories which assume the relationship between nondelivery location’s spot price and futures price of a storable commodity depends on opportunity cost of capital, warehousing costs, a convenience yield and shipping costs. The interest rate effect is strong for both crops with shipping costs also affecting soybean basis and own inventory levels positively correlated with corn basis. The effect of the wedge between the price of carrying physical grain and the maximum storage rate on basis is positive for both crops. The empirical results, which are robust to multiple estimators, provide stronger evidence of a structural break for the soybean basis than for the corn basis.     

Segregating genetically modified and nongenetically modified corn in a marketing channel

The adoption of GM corn in the United States depends on many factors including segregation costs, which have minor impacts on aggregate welfare. Because the demand for nonGM corn is small relative to its supply, no premium for nonGM corn can be generated in excess of the segregation costs. An outward shift in the supply of corn resulting from the adoption of GM varieties has a greater impact on aggregate welfare than do the segregation costs required to satisfy the GM-free demand. A 10% increase in the aggregate supply of GM corn increases aggregate welfare by more than US $250 million. However, nonadopters of GM corn lose while adopters can gain or lose depending on the nature of the aggregate demand curve for US corn.     

我国粮食市场价格波动特征——基于ARCH类模型的实证分析

基于1998年1月9日至2012年12月14日全国小麦、玉米和大豆的批发价格指数周数据,利用ARCH类模型对我国小麦、玉米和大豆的市场价格波动特征进行实证分析。研究结果表明:在5%的显著性水平下,小麦、玉米和大豆的市场价格波动具有明显的时变性和集簇性;玉米市场具有高风险、高回报的特征;小麦的市场价格波动具有非对称性;玉米市场与大豆市场之间存在显著的双向价格波动溢出效应。     

政府支出与居民消费:替代或互补——基于非线性有效消费函数的实证

以非线性有效消费函数为基础,笔者构造了一个政府支出与居民消费的跨期替代模型,并利用1978年～2004年相关数据,实证研究了我国政府支出与居民消费的关系.研究结果表明,在短期内,我国政府支出与居民消费呈互补关系;但在长期内,我国政府支出与居民消费呈替代关系,即政府支出挤占居民消费支出.因此,在短期内,政府可以通过增加支出增加居民消费以提高社会总需求;但在长期经济均衡时,政府不宜采用支出政策来实现长期经济目标.     

Women and Work: A Survey of Textbooks

The third Marshall–Hicks–Allen rule of elasticity of derived demand purports to show that labor demand is less elastic when labor is a smaller share of total costs. As Hicks, Allen, and then Bronfenbrenner showed, this rule is not quite correct, and actually is complicated by an unexpected negative relationship involving labor's share of total costs and the elasticity of substitution. The standard intuitive explanation for the exception to the rule presented by Stigler and referenced in many textbooks describes a situation rather different than the one described in the rule. The author presents an example that illustrates the peculiar negative impact of labor's share operating via the elasticity of substitution and then explains why the unexpected relationship between labor's share of total cost, the elasticity of substitution, and the elasticity of labor demand holds.     

Adjustment costs and threshold effects in factor demand relationships

It has been recently argued that producers may not respond to every input price change in the way that a linear factor demand model would predict. This lumpy response is due to adjustment costs that are inherent in the act of adjusting the mix of inputs applied in the underlying production technologies. This study aims to provide a solid conceptual framework for these nonlinearities in factor demand relationships. Industry-specific implications of convex and non-convex adjustment costs for the linearity of the factor demand relationships as well as price and substitution elasticities are explored. A two-regime threshold system of factor demand equations is estimated for several manufacturing industries in the United States. Empirical results suggest significant threshold effects in the factor demand relationships in most nondurable goods sectors. The size and the nature of thresholds depend upon industry characteristics, including input composition and (non)convexity of underlying adjustment costs. Complete matrices of price and substitution elasticities for each industry are derived using estimates of threshold factor demand systems. Discussion of two contrasting cases in greater detail sheds light on how the effect of price shocks on factor demand relationships varies across industries with different adjustment cost structures.     

Elasticity estimates of farmed salmon demand in Spain and Italy

In this paper, estimates of the elasticities that characterize the structure of demand for farmed salmon in Spain and Italy are reported. The demand models are specified using a Box-Cox transformation of the variables and a Hausman test is used to determine price endogeneity in the demand equations. The results show short-run unitary own-price elasticity of demand for farmed salmon in both markets, but long run estimates show significant elastic price response. Short run substitution of salmon for other fish species is not observed and, for both Spain and Italy, farmed salmon is characterized as a luxury good. Interestingly, we show that our a priori expectations about own-price elasticities being lower in smaller market areas is confirmed. Finally, the results obtained are compared to other recent results reported in the salmon demand literature.     

Stock Market Fluctuations and Money Demand in Italy, 1913–2003

This paper examines the impact of stock market fluctuations on money demand in Italy from a long‐run perspective. The money demand function estimated by Muscatelli and Spinelli (2000) for a long time span is utilized as a benchmark, adding to the specification information on share prices from the Milan Stock Exchange Reform of 1913 to recent years. For a shorter time period (1938–2003), annual observations on stock market capitalization and turnover velocity are also considered. The empirical findings suggest that stock market fluctuations help to explain temporary movements in liquidity preference, rather than its secular patterns. Overall, a positive association emerges between an index of stock market prices that includes dividends and real money balances; however, the estimated long‐run relationship is unstable. In a dynamic, short‐term specification of money demand, the estimated coefficient of deflated stock prices is positive, and therefore compatible with a wealth effect, in the years 1913–1980, while in the last two decades a substitution effect has prevailed and the correlation between money and share prices has been negative. This is likely to reflect a change in financial structure and the increasing role of opportunity costs defined over a wider range of assets. These results are confirmed by data on stock market capitalization. Moreover, in the recent period, stock market turnover and money growth are positively correlated .     

中国货币替代现象的VEC模型:1994-2005

随着人民币汇率制度改革的进行和资本账户开放进程的加快,中国的货币替代现象理当引起我们更大的关注.本文通过建立货币替代的VEC模型对中国的货币替代程度及其影响因素之间的关系作了动态分析,最后得出人民币名义有效汇率在长期和短期内都是影响中国货币替代的主要因素,名义有效汇率的频繁波动会造成货币替代乃至货币需求的不稳定.因此加快人民币汇率制度改革、降低美元在人民币汇率盯住篮子中的比重就显得尤为重要了.     

收入增长中城乡居民畜产品消费结构趋势实证研究——以浙江省为例

基于浙江省城乡居民固定观测点的调查数据,细分不同产品种类,采用扩展线形支出系统（ELES）模型,实证研究了收入增长过程中城乡居民畜产品消费结构的变动趋势。研究结果显示：随着人均收入的增加,浙江省城镇居民畜产品的消费变化主要表现为猪肉消费的减少及奶类消费的增加;农村居民对家禽类产品有较高的边际预算份额及较大的需求收入弹性。     

畜禽养殖业的环境影响及经济分析

畜禽业污染是我国农业面源污染的主要来源。本文估算了我国畜禽养殖业污染物排放量,阐述了畜禽养殖的环境影响,分析了畜禽污染内在的经济原因,并提出了防治畜禽污染的经济政策和措施,包括发展循环畜牧业、建设现代化的畜禽业物流体系、采纳各种环境经济手段、界定农村公共资源产权、实施优质畜禽产品品牌化战略、鼓励发展环保产业。     

Monetary easing policy and long-run food prices: Evidence from China

The money easing policy in the past decade incurred a significant impact on food prices through channels of both demand and supply, and leads to a problem of welfare distribution in China. Through the construction of a theoretical model, this paper empirically studies the impact of money supply on 7 major food products in China. We find that except for the price of rice which is stable and the price of wheat flour which slightly increases, all other food prices including soybean oil, poultry meat, pork, beef and mutton, decline in response to money expansion. This mainly results from a relatively larger stimulating effect of money expansion on supply to that on demand. The governments should make precautionary policies to protect farmers from welfare loss.     

中国长期煤炭需求:影响与政策选择

本文采用协整技术研究中国煤炭需求的长期均衡关系,估计出中国煤炭需求的长期收入弹性、价格弹性、结构弹性以及运输成本弹性;预测未来长期煤炭需求并分析其对环境、煤炭供给和煤炭价格的影响;模拟解释变量不同增长率下煤炭需求的演变并给出政策选择。中国高速经济增长是煤炭需求增长的主要原因。GDP是引导煤炭需求的原因,但煤炭需求不是引导GDP增长的原因,这也说明了将GDP作为解释变量的合理性。变量模拟得出的政策选择是工业结构的调整,即便是微调,也会对煤炭需求有很大的抑制作用;煤炭出厂价格的变动对煤炭需求变动的影响不太大,但煤炭需求对运输成本相当敏感,因而煤炭的最终价格对煤炭需求影响很大。     

Dynamic multiproduct optimal hedging in the soybean complex – do time-varying correlations provide hedging improvements?

Optimal multiproduct time-varying hedge ratios are determined – for a soybean complex – and their risk-mitigating impact is contrasted over single-commodity time-varying and naive hedge ratios. A parsimonious regime-switching dynamic correlation model is employed, with the estimated dynamic correlation matrix among prices varying between two different levels, and the time-varying correlations being applied to the multiproduct setting. Findings obtained are three-fold. First, there is significant evidence that estimated simultaneous correlations among different commodities’ prices (e.g. soybean spot and soybean meal futures) attain different values along the time series. Second, there is a substantial reduction in margin variance provided by the optimal multiproduct time-varying hedge ratios over single time-varying and naive hedge ratios, for both in- and out-of-sample data. Third, average optimal multiproduct time-varying hedge ratios for soybean and soybean meal (0.82 and 0.74, respectively; for out-of-sample data) are significantly below the naive full hedge ratio, providing risk mitigation at lower costs.     

Swedish Multinationals and Competition from High- and Low-Wage Locations

This study uses data on Swedish multinationals to estimate cross-elasticities of labor demand in different locations. With a vertical decomposition of the firm's activities, whether there is substitution or complementarity between employment in different parts of the firm will depend on whether wage changes lead to a relocation of activities or simply to changes in marginal costs and/or demand for inputs in other parts of the firms. It is found that there is some evidence of a substitutionary relationship between employment in the Swedish parts of the firms and employment in other high-income locations, but no evidence of substitution stemming from employment in low-income locations.     

我国粮食价格与CPI关系研究

本文利用1998年1月-2010年10月的月度CPI数据和粮食批发价格指数对粮食价格和CPI的关系进行了定性和定量分析。实证结果表明,两者之间存在长期和短期关系,从长期来看,粮食价格每上涨1%会使CPI上涨0.336%;从短期来看,粮价对CPI有滞后1期的影响,CPI对粮价有滞后3期的影响。综合考虑影响粮食价格的国际效应、供给效应、市场预期效应和政策效应,未来几个月我国粮价将有所上涨,但涨幅不会很大。     

Currency substitution and transactions costs

This paper examines currency substitution in Canadian money demand vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar. A variant of the model developed by Bordo and Choudhri (1982) is estimated to test for the presence and extent of this substitution. The modified model is enhanced by the introduction of foreign exchange transactions costs. The resulting increased explanatory power indicates that previous tests which have omitted such costs understate the extent of currency substitution.     

INCREASED INDUSTRIAL USES OF AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES POLICY, TRADE AND ETHANOL

Using agricultural feedstocks for industrial products affects domestic and international agricultural markets, all of which are encumbered with complex policies. This article examines the interaction of three seemingly unrelated policies: the Clean Air Act, the U.S. corn program, and European Union agricultural subsidies. More ethanol production, resulting from new regulations associated with the Clean Air Act, increases the use of U.S. corn and increases the supply of corn gluten feed, an ethanol co-product. Corn gluten feed is primarily exported to Europe under a loophole in European Union trade barriers. But recent reform of European Union farm policy will lower the price of the European grain for which corn gluten feed is a substitute. This development lowers prices for a major ethanol co-product and thus makes ethanol itself less profitable just as the demand for the fuel is expanding. NAFTA, GATT, and new technologies also play cameo roles in the story .