TEMPORAL PRICE RELATIONSHIPS IN THE VANCOUVER RAPESEED FUTURES MARKET AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS TO FARM PRICES*

This paper is concerned with an evaluation of pricing performance in the Canadian rapeseed market. Holbrook Working's model of temporal price relationships in continuous inventory futures markets is used to show that Vancouver rapeseed futures are inverted and biased downward. Prices received by producers are affected since the inverted and biased futures prices are reflected through street price committees in Western Canada.
Cet article cherche àévaluer la fluctuation des prix de vente des Graines de colza sur le marché canadien. L'auteur se sen du modèle de Holbrook Working, qui traite des fluctuations sur un inventaire ďactions continuel, afin re montrer que la vente des actions des Graines de colza sur le marché de Vancouver est renversé. Les prix reçus par les producteurs sont affectés parce que les prix renversés des actions sont réflétés par le prix de vente ďactions non enregistrés sur le marché de ľouest Canadien.     

储备粮运作与粮食价格变动关系的实证分析

我国储备粮运作在平抑粮价方面没有发挥应有的作用。文章在无法直接获取粮食储备总量的情况下,根据假设条件计算出粮食储备量的增量数据,分析了储备粮规模变动与粮食价格变动的关系,发现储备粮在平抑市场粮价波动方面虽然有一定效果,但不是很显著,储备粮的运作存在一定程度的"逆向操作"现象。因此,文章建议将粮食储备的目标定位于粮食安全,进一步理顺国家和地方粮食储备的关系,在储备粮运作中引入期货市场机制。     

TESTING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF FOOD PRICE SPREADS

This paper develops and illustrates a test of the competitiveness of food price spreads. The test does not require information on the structure of the food industry or estimation of conjectural variations, but rather the prices of the intermediate inputs used to produce the raw farm product and the prices of the intermediate inputs that are combined with the raw farm product to produce the final consumer good. The test is applied to the US farm/wholesale beef market.     

THE TAXATION OF COOPERATIVES: SOME ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS

Although the question of the tax treatment of cooperatives has been approached from the ethical, legal, business and philosophical standpoints, little economic analysis has been used to examine this controversy. This paper offers theoretical arguments in support of existing tax laws covering cooperative institutions. The argument that cooperatives should be taxed as ordinary corporations is countered with an economic analysis of cooperatives and the economic impact of extension of the income tax to cooperative institutions is compared with its impact on ordinary firms. The results of the analysis point to the possibility of a severe misallocation of resources in the cooperative sector if cooperatives are taxed in the same manner as a profit seeking enterprise. The economic models constructed in this paper support the contention of cooperatives that they are significantly different from private firms and thus warrant special tax treatment. Bien que la question de la taxation des coopératives ait été abordée tour à tour du point de vue éthique, légal, commercial el philosophique, peu ?analyse économique a été employé pour examiner ceue polémique. Ce papier offre des arguments théoriques à?appui des lois contribulives existantes qui s'appliquenl aux institutions coopératives. La thèse qui insiste que les coopératives devraienl être comme des sociétés ordinaires est contrecarré par une analyse économique des coopératives et par une comparaison de la portée économique ?une extension des contributions directes sur les institutions coopératives par rapport à ses effels sur les maisons ordinaires. Les résultats de ?analyse indiquent la possibilité de graves erreurs dans ?allocation des ressources dans le domaine coopératif si ces coopératives sont taxées de la même manière que les entreprises à but lucratif à la recherche du profit. Les modèles économiques construits dans ce papier soutiennent ?affirmation des coopératives qu'elles sont sensiblement différenles des maisons privées et qu'elles méritent done une imposition speciale.     

政府提高最低收购价推动食品价格上涨?

2011农历新年上班第一天,国务院总理温家宝主持召开国务院常务会议,决定继续提高2011年稻谷最低收购价水平。2011年生产的早籼稻（三等,下同）、中晚籼稻、粳稻最低收购价分别提高到每50公斤102元、107元、128元,比2010年分别提高9元、10元、23元,提高幅度分别达到9.68%、10.31%、     

AGRICULTURAL PRICE PROTECTION,IMPORT DEPENDENCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF WHEAT

This article analyses determinants of agricultural price protection for one important food, wheat, in a pooled cross-country and time-series analysis. For the aggregate sample it is shown that wheat price protection increases with a rising level of economic development and with a growing import dependence in wheat. Beyond this general pattern, the paper shows that the variation in wheat price protection can be significantly better explained if qualitative variables are introduced additionally into the model. For example, in Japan, in the Northern European countries and during the commodity price boom (1973–75), wheat price protection followed a specific pattern. Income elasticities and import-dependence elasticities of wheat price protection are computed for all countries in 1968–80, and additionally for various sub-regions and sub-periods.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORLD PRICE INSTABILITY AND THE PRICES FARMERS RECEIVE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

World prices for agricultural commodities are traditionally unstable, but they were particularly turbulent during the late 1970s and early 1980s. This paper uses available post-War data on individual commodity prices to test whether world price instability is increasing, and to examine its impact on the prices producers receive in developing countries. It is found that the recent turbulence was more a statistical fluke than the beginning of any longer-term increase in market instability. Further, while the variability in world prices has been almost entirely transmitted to developing countries in the dollar value of their export unit values, it has not been fully transmitted to average producer prices. Real exchange rates, domestic marketing arrangements and government intervention have acted to buffer price movements for producers in many developing countries.     

论矿床经济分析与矿产品价格取值问题

文章对矿床经济分析与矿产品价格取值的关系作了分析,并提出一套分析模型和计算方法,对矿产品价格取值也进行了探讨.     

WELFARE IMPLICATIONS OF MORE ACCURATE RATIONAL FORECAST PRICES

Models are constructed to assess the welfare effects for producers, consumers and society of producers using forecast prices based on more accurate estimates of variables causing shifts in the demand for and supply of commodities. The basic model is a stochastic cobweb model in which producers' forecast price is the rational forecast price. The model is extended for many commodities, for partial producer response to more accurate forecast prices, and to include stock holding. In terms of economic surplus, producers and consumers gain from more accurate estimates of demand shift variables, producers gain and consumers lose from more accurate estimates of supply shift variables, and in both cases there is a net society gain.     

稳粮价保民生促发展——把百价之基打得更牢

2010年以来,我国农产品价格轮番上涨,引起社会强烈反响。近期闭幕的中央经济工作会议将稳定物价总水平放在了2011年经济工作的突出位置。粮价是＂百价之基＂,维护粮价的基本稳定,对经济和社会稳定具有十分重要的意义。未来粮价将如何走向？宏观调控从何入手？本期专题与您共同关注。     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOD PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION VARIABILITY: POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

This paper examines whether there is increased inter-year instability in food consumption at the national level, and to what extent this is attributable to increased instability of food production in the wake of adoption of modern agricultural technology. The data analysed indicates that increased production instability does translate into increased fluctuations in consumption. Nevertheless, year-to-year consumption variability among the sample of 38 countries has declined during the past 25 years. This is attributed to improved stocking operations and trade practices which accompany economic growth. Nevertheless, food insecurity, as measured in terms of fluctuations around trend levels of consumption, does remain a problem, especially among the poor. Therefore, policy options to reduce consumption instability are outlined.     

THE FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRIES AND THE SECOND PRICE COMMISSION (1977–1979)

This paper is a second one on the subject of price controls in the late 1970s, the previous one being that presented by Ivor Lightman to the April 1978 conference of the Agricultural Economics Society held at the University of Manchester (Lightman, 1978). That paper traced the development of price controls in the UK over the period between 1973 and 1978. Lightman explained how under the terms of the 1977 Price Commission Act the reconstituted Price Commission (PC) had been given the task of appraising notifications of price increases by large companies and of investigating cases in detail at its discretion. The present paper firstly discusses the problems that make it difficult to assess the impact of the reconstituted PC. It then offers an interim assessment of the PC arising from a project based at Loughborough University financed by the Economic and Social Research Council. The project involved a programme of interviews between the two researchers, Dr. M. C. Fleming and myself, and senior management of companies that were the subject of investigation by the PC.     

我国2005年粮食价格综述和进一步健全粮食价格体系的建议

2005年我国对稻谷仍然实行最低收购价政策,收购的稻谷品种、水平与2004年相同。稻谷几个品种的市场价都高于最低收购价。中籼稻、晚籼稻和玉米、大豆的市场价低于上年,早籼稻、粳稻和小麦市场价略高于上年,谷物(包括稻谷、小麦、玉米)市场价稍低于上年。在2005年粮食价格疲软的情况下,国家实行最低收购价,极大地起到了提升并稳定粮食主产区粮食市场价格的作用。成品粮零售价比原粮收购价高10%以上,因此当年收购的粮食当年销售,粮食购销部门获利不小。化肥、农用柴油(0号)和农膜的市场零售价大大高于上年,使粮肥(化肥)、粮油(农用柴油)和粮膜…     

CO-INTEGRATION ANALYSIS AND THE DETERMINANTS OF LAND PRICES

This paper outlines the concept of co-integration and its use in econometric modelling. The techniques of co-integration analysis are described, with particular emphasis given to test procedures. Co-integration between two or more variables is taken to imply the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between them. Co-integration analysis is applied in a re-examination of recent empirical models of the determination of land prices in England and Wales. The results suggest that recent land price models do not describe longrun relationships between land prices and the explanatory variables selected. Criticisms of the different measurements of returns to land used in studies to date are sustained by the analysis, and a clear role for interest rates in the determination of land prices is indicated.