Do IMF Programmes Have a Catalytic Effect on Other International Capital Flows?

It has frequently been assumed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plays an important catalysing role in mobilizing international capital for developing countries and countries in transition. The Fund has conventionally been depicted as a "gatekeeper" that unlocks financial flows from other sources, particularly private international capital markets. However, more recently, international financial crises have highlighted the problem of capital volatility and have led to calls for reform of the international financial architecture and, as part of this, the IMF. Unfortunately, basic questions about the interaction between current institutional arrangements and international capital markets have yet to be answered. How do international capital markets react to the activities of the IMF? Do the reactions of private and public lenders differ? Have their reactions changed over time? Do market responses depend on country characteristics and on the type of IMF involvement and, if so, how? This paper addresses these questions and goes on to discuss the policy implications that arise.     

Land-property markets and planning: A special case

Land use policy often intervenes in land-property markets. This raises a question that may have critical implications for land use policy: are these normal markets? This paper addresses that question: are land and property ordinary market goods, or do they lack some of the preconditions necessary for markets to work properly? We find that land-property has limited substitutability, due to the critical factor of location; qualified by location, land is limited and sometimes unique. These attributes make land and property investment assets risking speculation, warranting public intervention to mitigate negative social consequences. Land-property markets need market or administrative support to work, which planning provides through public and private agents. The paper reviews the different forms of planning and development control in land-property markets.     

Market Integration in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Selected Vegetables in Indonesian Markets

Abstract

Market integration has retained and increased in importance in the recent years, particularly in developing countries, where it has potential application to policy questions regarding government intervention in markets. Specifically, it provides evidence of competitiveness of the market, effectiveness of arbitrage and efficiency of pricing. In this study, selected vegetables in Indonesian markets are used as a case study. Indonesia, consisting of 17,000 islands and 182 million people, provides an interesting case study because of the importance of vegetable production and marketing in the rapidly growing economy. The results suggest that none of the markets are segmented. Short- and long-run market integration tests suggest that transportation and product perishability are important in explaining the speed of price transmission. Another important result is that market integration is directional.     

中国碳交易价格与电力价格相关性研究

以广东的碳交易市场和电力市场为主要研究对象,考虑到电力市场是产生碳排的因素市场之一,而碳排价格也会对电力成本产生影响,因此利用多种动态模型得出碳交易市场与电力市场两者之间确实有交错影响关系。最后还从发展角度对改善碳排、实现技术改革、发展地方经济提出了建议。     

The Effects of Maize Market and Policy Reforms on Price Discovery and Competitiveness in Zimbabwe, 1991–1997

Abstract

Maize is Zimbabwe's staple food. An adequate supply of maize is essential to food security and domestic stability. A series of droughts and government mismanagement of the economy led to a maize production and food security problem in the 1980s. Zimbabwe's maize marketing system was transformed dramatically from a government monopoly to a competitive market system in which prices are determined by market forces in the 1990s. This paper examines the steps that Zimbabwe took towards maize market reform and the benefits of that reform. The movement to a competitive market led to formation of a commodity exchange to improve price discovery and increase price transparency. De-regulation has increased entry and competitiveness from new private sector hammer millers and traders. Farmers, millers, and traders face new profit opportunities and new price and financial risks that have increased management responsibilities. Consumers enjoy lower cost maize meal products and more convenient service. The benefits of the 1991–1997 reforms indicate what could be achieved in the long run if prices are determined by the market, rather than by the government.     

Is there evidence of insider trading in Australian water markets?

Insider trading is a much studied form of market manipulation in the financial market literature. However, studies addressing the issue of insider trading in resource markets, and in particular water markets, are rare. This study investigates the occurrence of insider trading practices around important water market allocation announcements in the Goulburn temporary water market trading zone in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia, which is one of the largest and longest operating water market districts in the world. Nine years of daily water allocation volume and price transactions between 2008 and 2017 are modelled, with some evidence found of abnormal price movements in the 3 or 5 days preceding water allocation announcements, and especially before the introduction of insider trading rules in 2014. However, although the results do suggest some very weak statistically significant evidence that insider trading may still be present in Goulburn water markets post‐2014, it is just as feasible that our results may also reflect an increased sophistication of trader behaviour over time.     

Trade Reforms and the Efficiency of Firms in India

In this paper, we analyse the impact of reforms on manufacturing efficiency in India. The sector chosen--the cotton textile industry in India--is a very large employer and exporter and also has considerable historical significance. Its response to the reforms therefore is being watched with some concern. The paper concludes that while there was considerable dispersion in efficiency levels before the reforms, this dispersion has decreased since the reforms. To analyse this, we estimate a best practice frontier for the industry and then measure efficiency as the distance from this frontier. We find that efficiency has increased because the reforms have influenced other factors such as market shares, exports and imports and capital-labour ratios. Our results also indicate that geography--the location of the firm within a state and its proximity to a major urban centre--influences the efficiency levels of firms within it.     

Market intermediaries,storage and policy reforms

Intermediaries play a crucial role in the functioning of agricultural and food markets in developing countries through linking production, imports and storage with consumption. We analyse how competition in the intermediary sector and alternative forms of intermediaries determine the incentives for storage and market outcomes more generally. We apply this framework to the Egyptian wheat sector as an illustrative case study, a country where food security is a priority, where both forms of intermediaries co-exist and undertake storage but where issues of reforms to the role of intermediaries have been raised. Through stochastic simulation, we analyse two changes in government policy: first, the effects of changing the policy instruments with both types of intermediaries undertaking storage; second, relating to market reforms where the private sector replaces the storage function of the parastatal. These issues have wider significance for addressing the interaction between food security and a wide range of policy reforms including de-regulation of parastatals in developing countries.     

Farmer Participation,Entry and Exit Decisions in the Italian Crop Insurance Programme

The factors affecting the demand for agricultural insurance in the USA have been extensively studied over the last two decades. However, the determinants of a farm's entry and exit decisions in the insurance market have received relatively little attention. Turnover in the insurance book of business is an important issue in most private and public crop insurance plans. Moreover, insurance markets in the EU are still largely under‐investigated. We investigate empirically the determinants of crop insurance participation in Italy. We show that the participation rate is high for large firms and that it is negatively correlated with crop diversification, which is itself a form of insurance. High premiums tend to inhibit both entry and exit from the insurance market. Larger and wealthier farms are more likely to adopt insurance and renew coverage over time. We discuss implications of our results for public intervention and the private industry. In particular, we demonstrate that the decision to drop coverage by an insured grower may differ significantly from the corresponding decision to enroll in an insurance programme by an uninsured farmer. To the extent that policymakers want to encourage participation in subsidized crop insurance programmes, education and outreach efforts toward uninsured farmers may differ substantially from those directed toward keeping insured farmers enrolled in the programme. We investigate these differences.     

Planning Viable Wholesale Markets for Fruit and Vegetables in Eastern European Cities

Abstract

The paper provides an overview on the present status of wholesale market (wm) development in Eastern European countries. Wms are providing essential facilities for the development of a private wholesale trade for fruit and vegetables. The study addresses major issues in planning viable wholesale markets, particularly those which are affecting the economic viability of market to be newly built. The issues addressed include: the need of identifying accurately major shortcomings of the present marketing systems and their causes, the need for active participation of beneficiaries in the planning and implementation process, deciding on size, type of buildings, on institutional and management aspects and viability of assembly markets. All these issues affect the viability of wholesale markets and their capacity of repayment loans.     

中国碳排放权交易市场收益率波动性特征研究

以北京、上海、广东、湖北和重庆碳排放权交易市场为研究对象,运用GARCH族模型研究中国碳排放权交易市场收益率波动性特征。结果表明,5个碳排放权交易市场收益率的波动聚集性、持续性表现不完全一致;北京、上海和重庆存在负向的杠杆效应,广东和湖北不存在杠杆效应;从波动溢出效应关系看,5个碳排放权交易市场间的整体联动性不强;运用方差比率检验法得出,5个碳排放权交易市场均未达到弱势有效市场。这些特征反映出中国碳排放权交易市场的运行机制仍然存在缺陷,建议加强顶层设计,完善碳排放权交易体系。     

The retail warehouse: A hybrid form of development

Summary

The paper examines the property market aspects of retail warehouse development. To set the context for the discussion, the history of the development of retail warehouses is traced, highlighting the increasing sophistication of this form of trading and comparing the future development prospects in each of the three main goods sectors. Comparative rental evidence provides the basis for the discussion of the relative influences of the retail and industrial property markets which follows, from which it is evident that the market for retail warehouses is much more strongly related to the industrial market than to the retail market. It is concluded, however, that the influence of the industrial market is likely to weaken as grouped developments of retail warehouses become more common and thus a ranking of centres emerges which is reflected in increasingly differentiated rental levels. Finally, the impact of planning policies on retail warehouse developments is considered.     

The Olive Oil Sector Facing New International Market Challenges

Abstract

This article explores the new economic context in which international olive oil marketing strategies are framed. The underlying premises are that the growing liberalization of international trade is inducing an emergent globalization process in product trading, and that business strategies are increasingly influenced by a more demand-driven food chain. The first part discusses the macro-factors conditioning olive oil trade on a worldwide scale, surveying the main changes in market regulation schemes as well as in recent world product supply and demand trends. The second part addresses a series of microeconomic and organizational factors shaping business strategies with respect to product marketing, placing special emphasis on quality as a key factor for expansion into potential markets.     

Women,Wives and Land Rights in Africa: Situating Gender Beyond the Household in the Debate Over Land Policy and Changing Tenure Systems

The debate over land reform in Africa is embedded in evolutionary models, in which it is assumed landholding systems are evolving into individualized systems of ownership with greater market integration. This process is seen to be occurring even without state protection of private land rights through titling. Gender as an analytical category is excluded in evolutionary models. Women are accommodated only in their dependent position as the wives of landholders in idealized 'households'. This paper argues that gender relations are central to the organization and transformation of landholding systems. Women have faced different forms of tenure insecurity, both as wives and in their relations with wider kin, as landholding systems have been integrated into wider markets. These cannot be addressed while evolutionary models dominate the policy debate. The paper draws out these arguments from experience of tenure reform in Tanzania and asks how policy-makers might address these issues differently.     

Government intervention and market integration in Indonesian rice markets

Long-run spatial price relationships in Indonesian rice markets and factors affecting the degree of market integration are evaluated using multivariate cointegration tests with weekly price data for the 1982-1993 period. The analysis includes evaluation of pre-self-sufficiency and post-self-sufficiency periods as well as Cot the entire period. The cointegration tests for entire Indonesian rice market, represented by the nine most relevant price series, indicate that relative to the pre-self-sufficiency period, the post-self-sufficiency period has a smaller degree of market integration. The change of the degree of market integration over time indicates that rationalizing of the Indonesian rice price policy beyond 1984 rice self-sufficiency has resulted in a less integrated market. This suggests that the policy shift has allowed the government to decrease its intervention without significantly decreasing market integration, indicating that the private sector is responding to price signals appropriately. It is possible that further reduction in intervention through widening the band between the floor and ceiling price could be accomplished without greatly affecting market integration. Regression results show that government intervention in terms of rice procurement significantly influenced market integration during the period of post-self-sufficiency (1985-1993) and the entire period of 1982-1993. This indicates that this aspect of government intervention has had positive influences on market integration, in contrast to distribution efforts, which were not found to be statistically significant, Procurement prices may be high, and could perhaps be lowered, reducing program costs. Regional per capita income is also found to be positively related to highei levels of market integration, suggesting that in periods of economic growth, government intervention may be decreased, thereby reducing program costs.     

The Potential Impacts of State Trading Enterprises on World Markets: The Exporting Country Case

Export state trading enterprises (STEs) play an important role in global agricultural trade. STE behavior has significant implications for world food markets, irrespective of whether or not these markets are inherently competitive. Previous literature has suggested that STEs have market power and can earn oligopolistic rents. We find there is no compelling empirical evidence to support this argument. However, we show the cross-commodity effects of export STEs can disrupt competitive world markets, through offering an implicit export subsidy to a downstream industry.     

Marketing Practices and Distribution System of Rice in Punjab,India

Abstract

The study focuses on the marketing practices, market structures, and firms' motives for vertical co-ordination of the paddy-rice distribution system during the post green revolution period in the Punjab state of India. The study is based upon secondary data taken from several published sources and intensive interviews with the market agents in the entire distribution chain from growers to the retailers. Study highlighted the emergence of public sector as a giant player in the paddy (non-basmati) wholesale markets, unscrupulous practices for paddy/rice supplies, wide disparities in the issue prices for the below and above poverty line families, reduced off take from the public distribution system, launching of several schemes to off load excessive stocks, and improve market efficiency. Open market segment of the industry is highly fragmented wherein a large majority of the market agents have confined at the levels they can be best managed, vertical co-ordination plays a pivotal role to cope up with market imperfections and supply agents constitute a strategic link for rice sales. However, private milling gains momentum particularly during the downward phase of the industry due to increased profitability.     

Price Discovery in Private Negotiation Trading with Forward and Spot Deliveries

Advance production in spot markets increases seller costs because inventories must be held. This cost does not exist in production-to-demand (or forward) markets, for which production follows trading, and sales exactly match quantities produced. Data from laboratory-computerized markets that trade through private negotiation are analyzed. For the experimental supply and demand conditions, price convergence patterns show spot prices 10.8% lower and the number of trades 12.4% fewer than forward outcomes. The adverse impact of advance production and private negotiation on seller earnings is emphasized when earnings are compared with those from double auction trading.     

Spatial Integration of Wheat Markets in India: Evidence from Cointegration Tests

Using the maximum likelihood method of cointegration, this paper empirically evaluates intra-state and inter-state spatial integration of wheat markets in India. The cointegration tests provide strong evidence in favour of spatial integration of the regional wheat markets. Even though the regional markets are geographically dispersed, the prices across different market centres within and across the selected states have exhibited long-run spatial linkages, suggesting that all the exchange locations are integrated and the prices provide relevant market signals. There are several implications of these results for agricultural price policy and food market liberalization programmes.     

Government intervention in city development of China: A tool of land supply

There has been continuous debate on whether the state can support market-based activities in the land market. It is widely recognized that land markets do not function by themselves, mainly because they are inherently imperfect; this imperfection provides foundation for state intervention. Under the Land Use Rights System of China, land supply is a powerful tool for intervening into land markets, and proceeds from land supply greatly contribute to local revenue and financing of infrastructure construction. The state, however, is not an impartial entity. Its desire to increase local revenue through land leasing has led to the oversupply of land and housing affordability problems in real estate markets. This paper, using evidence from Guangzhou, argues that land supply intervention is a two-edged sword in Chinese city development. It further claims that the state intervention is becoming gradually professional after the real estate market bubble in the early 1990s. Problems, such as structure imbalance in land supply, however, still have negative impacts on the sustainable development of Chinese cities.