Assessing the Vulnerability to Price Spikes in Agricultural Commodity Markets

We examine empirically the predictability of conditions associated with a higher probability of a price spike in agricultural commodity markets. We find that the forward spread is the most significant indicator of probable price jumps in maize, wheat and soybeans futures markets, a result which is in line with the ‘Theory of Storage’. We additionally show that some option-implied variables add significant predictive power when added to the more standard information variable set. Overall, the estimated probabilities of large price increases from our probit models exhibit significant correlations with historical sudden market upheavals in agricultural markets.     

Price and Volatility Transmission and Market Power in the German Fresh Pork Supply Chain

We investigate the relationship between the transmission of price volatility and market power in the German fresh pork supply chain. We use a theoretical model underpinning this relationship followed by an empirical application that uses monthly farm, slaughterhouse and retail pork price data for the period 2000–2011. We examine both the relationships of market power with price level transmission and price volatility transmission in the chain. We use a vector error correction model and least squares regressions to analyse price transmission and price volatility transmissions, respectively. Results show that retail market power limited both types of transmissions. Competition inducing policy measures coupled with measures that support price risk management initiatives of chain actors are suggested.     

Distinguishing between Equilibrium and Integration in Spatial Price Analysis

This article introduces a new spatial price analysis methodology based on maximum likelihood estimation of a mixture distribution model incorporating price, transfer cost, and trade flow data. This method permits differentiation between market integration and competitive market equilibrium and derivation of intuitive measures of intermarket tradability, competitive market equilibrium, perfect integration, segmented equilibrium, and segmented disequilibrium. One can also use these estimates to derive semiparametric measures of time-varying regime probabilities to track changing market conditions. An application to trade in soybean meal among Pacific Rim economies demonstrates the usefulness of the method.     

国有农用地基准地价评估研究——以广东省云浮市云城区为例

农用地估价,是以农用地定级为基础的农用地基准地价评估。农用地定级与基准地价评估是根据农用地的自然属性和经济属性,对农用地的质量优劣进行综合评定,划分土地质量级别并测算土地价格。以广东云城区国有农业用地为研究对象,采取"先定级后估价"的方式,通过因素因子法综合评定农用地级别,再通过样点地价法进行估价,确定了农用地的基准地价。     

Volatility and Price Jumps in Agricultural Futures Prices—Evidence from Wheat Options

Evidence suggests that agricultural futures price movements have fat-tailed distributions and exhibit sudden and unexpected price jumps. There is also evidence that the volatility of futures prices is time-dependent both as a function of calendar-time (seasonal effect) and time to maturity (maturity effect). This article extends Bates' (1991) jump-diffusion option pricing model by including both seasonal and maturity effects in the volatility specification. Both in-sample and out-of-sample procedures to fit market option prices on wheat futures show that the suggested model outperforms previous published models. A numerical example shows the magnitude of pricing errors for option valuation.     

基于GARCH、EGARCH模型的LME镍期货价格波动集聚性实证分析

镍是经济发展的重要资源,是伦敦金属交易所(LME)六大交易品种之一。讨论LME镍期货价格波动规律,有助于更科学合理地预测镍期货市场行情,把握国际镍期货市场风险。1980年1月—2014年12月LME镍期货价格时间序列具有明显的随机游走趋势与自相关关系,LME镍期货市场为弱式有效。镍期货价格序列存在ARCH效应,GARCH(1,1)模型计量结果显示其具有波动集聚性特征,反映出波动的外部冲击对市场的影响具有长期性,EGARCH(1,1)模型计量结果显示镍价格序列波动的非对称性特征,但利好信息、利空信息对镍价冲击的杠杆效应很弱,有助于揭示镍期货市场风险规律与投资策略。     

Decomposing Changes in Agricultural Producer Prices

This article develops a method for decomposing changes in agricultural producer prices. The method builds on a procedure used by the World Bank, with the main variables in the decomposition being trade prices, exchange rates and trade policies. We expand on the World Bank decomposition procedure by broadening the analysis of policy effects, adding the effect from incomplete transmission of changes in trade prices and exchange rates to producer prices, and handling the effect on prices from interactions between variables as they change simultaneously. Decomposition results are presented for various commodities for the major emerging markets of Brazil, China and South Africa.     

农地非农配置价格扭曲与可持续发展

偏低的农地非农配置价格是农地过度损失的重要原因,从农地非农配置产生的社会、经济和生态纯收益出发,从理论角度探讨了农地非农配置的合理价格,进而分析转型期我国农地价格扭曲现状及原因,认为消除扭曲的最优方法是体制改革,对我国而言,减少政府干预,建立和完善农地非农配置市场是当务之急。     

World Commodity Prices and Domestic Retail Food Price Inflation: Some Insights from the UK

We focus on two aspects of the links between world commodity prices and retail food price inflation: first, the effects of exchange rates and other input costs, and second; the effects of the duration of shocks on world commodity markets, not just the magnitude of price spikes (the latter often commanding most attention). The UK offers a natural and rather unexplored setting for the analysis. Applying time series methods to a sample of 259 monthly observations over the 1990(9)–2012(3) period we find substantial and significant long‐term partial elasticities for domestic food price inflation with respect to world food commodity prices, the exchange rate and oil prices (the latter indirectly via a relationship with world food commodity prices). Domestic demand pressures and food chain costs are found to be less substantial and significant over our data period. Interactions between the main driving variables in the system tend to moderate rather than exacerbate these partial effects. Furthermore, the persistence of shocks to these variables markedly affects their effects on domestic food prices.     

Forty Years of Price Transmission Research in the Food Industry: Insights,Challenges and Prospects: Comment

Lloyd's review of the literature on food price transmission in the Journal of Agricultural Economics (2017) is incomplete in that it omits discussion of technical change and international trade. The purpose of this Comment is to explain why these topics are essential for a proper understanding of price transmission. As a by‐product of the discussion, I show that the pass‐through and pass‐back equations that serve as the basis for Lloyd's theoretical insights are more general than one might think based on Gardner's (American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 1975) discussion of these equations.     

Tariff Liberalisation,Price Transmission and Rural Welfare in China

China's tariff liberalisation as part of its WTO accession application and eventual agreement has been thoroughly analysed in the literature. However, much of this literature is based on forward‐looking ex‐ante analyses and few studies provide empirical evidence on its actual impact. We fill in this gap by evaluating empirically the welfare effects of China's actual tariff liberalisation on Chinese farmers during the 1997–2010 period. By estimating the domestic market price effects of China's tariff liberalisation and the associated wage earning effects, we find that on average Chinese farmers were able to gain more from reduced consumption prices than they would lose from reduced agricultural and wage income due to tariff liberalisation. Welfare gains over time are estimated to be positively correlated with the actual degrees of tariff liberalisation, implying that relatively more gains were realized immediately before and after China's WTO accession in 2001, as compared to the more recent period when relatively little liberalisation was carried out. Farmers’ rising non‐agricultural income and increasing consumption shares of non‐agricultural products are important determinants of these positive average welfare effects. Moreover, welfare gains from tariff liberalisation are shown to be distributed unevenly across Chinese provinces and income levels, with farmers located in coastal provinces and at higher income levels gaining more than their counterparts in remote provinces and at lower income levels.     

Local versus Global Separability in Agricultural Household Models: The Factor Price Equalization Effect of Land Transfer Rights

Commonly employed global tests for separability between production and consumption decisions are theoretically inappropriate when the market failures creating non–separabilities differentially constrain some, but not all households. Simulated maximum likelihood estimates using Chinese panel data reject the restrictions implied by a global separability test in favor of regime–specific or local separability tests. The estimates also show that a global approach to separability obscures the significant effect that less–encumbered land transfer rights would have on shadow factor price equalization across households and allocative efficiency. The findings on transfer rights suggest a resolution to the debate in China on further property rights reform.     

Welfare Impacts of Alternative Public Policies for Agricultural Pollution Control in an Open Economy: A General Equilibrium Framework

A general equilibrium approach is used to evaluate the welfare impacts of alternative policies for reducing agricultural pollution in an open economy with preexisting distortions caused by income taxes and agricultural subsidies. The policies examined here include the removal of distortionary agricultural subsidies. We find that even though these distortions are small compared to others in the economy, removing them and imposing nitrogen reduction subsidies and/or output taxes can enhance welfare and reduce nitrogen pollution; thereby leading to a substantial double dividend. The relative efficiency of the alternative policies examined here depends on the level of the nitrogen reduction target.     

Agricultural price transmission across space and commodities during price bubbles

This article investigates agricultural price transmission during price bubbles. The empirical approach concerns the horizontal transmission of cereal prices both across different market places and across different commodities. The trade policy intervention put forward to mitigate the impact of price exuberance is considered. The analysis is performed using Italian and international weekly spot (cash) price data over years 2006–2010, a period of generalized turbulence of agricultural markets. Firstly, the properties of price time series are explored; then, interdependence across prices is specified and estimated by adopting appropriate cointegration techniques. Results suggest that the bubble had only a slight impact on the price spread and the temporary trade‐policy measure, when effective, has limited this impact.     

东北粮食主产区农村土地承包经营权规模化流转定价机制研究—— 以黑龙江省克山县为例

研究目的:通过建立农村土地承包经营权规模化流转定价机制,促进农村土地承包经营权流转市场完善,为合理确定农村土地承包经营权规模流转价格提供科学依据。研究方法:区间价格模型,Hurwicz准则,层次分析法,收益现值法。研究结果 :克山县农村土地承包经营权规模流转的价格区间为6380元/hm~2到9155元/hm~2;通过对比供需双方土地流转意愿的影响因素,计算得土地流转价格系数为0.498;在价格区间内引入Hurwicz准则,测算土地承包经营权规模流转价格是可行的。研究结论:以村集体经济组织为中介代理人、以维护流转双方利益为准则的土地承包经营权规模化流转定价机制不仅体现利润分享原则,也丰富了马克思地租地价理论的实践应用,符合赋予农民更多财产权利、拓宽农民财产性收入的政策改革方向。     

Distance and Border Effects on Price Transmission: A Meta‐analysis

Using price transmission estimates for 1,189 cereal market pairs extracted from 57 published studies in a meta‐analysis, we examine whether geographic distance and separation by an international border affects the strength and speed of price transmission. Our findings indicate that a border reduces the likelihood that two cereal prices will be cointegrated by 23%, and each additional 1,000 km of distance reduces the probability of cointegration by 7%. The speed of price transmission is on average 13 percentage points per period faster between prices that are located within the same country compared with cross‐border price pairs. Our meta‐analysis also indicates that increasing distance strongly reduces the speed of price transmission on domestic markets, but that the effect of distance on the speed of transmission is considerably weaker for trade over longer international distances. Overall, these results confirm expectations and complement the findings in the trade literature that borders and distance affect trade flows and price dispersion.     

Agricultural price transmission elasticity: importance of controlling for unobserved common factors

A voluminous amount of the literature estimates price transmission from world markets to domestic markets ignoring unobserved factors that commonly affect domestic markets. This article reevaluates the long‐run and short‐run transmission elasticity of world food price shocks to domestic markets using a “common factor framework” that takes unobserved common factors that are correlated with regressors into consideration. In the estimation, annual price data for rice, wheat, and maize for a panel of developed and developing countries that are observed over the period of 1960–2007 are used. The results from a common factor framework to those that do not account for common factors are then compared. Our findings suggest that ignorance of common factors is likely to result in upwardly biased elasticity estimates.