IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i6p2788-d1099936.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Ethanol Market and Its Relation to the Price of Agricultural Commodities

Author

Listed:
  • Paulo Henrique Hoeckel

    (Department of Economics, Federal University of Grande Dourados, Dourados 79825-070, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil)

  • Augusto Mussi Alvim

    (Business School, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 90619-900, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)

  • José Pedro Pontes

    (Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Universidade de Lisboa, 1200-781 Lisbon, Portugal)

  • João Dias

    (Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Universidade de Lisboa, 1200-781 Lisbon, Portugal)

Abstract

In this article, we seek to present the synthesis of the global ethanol market in the United States (US) and Brazil by using caloric equivalence to empirically characterize the elasticity of supply and demand. We also seek to evaluate the relationship between world ethanol production and prices of agricultural commodities (wheat, rice, corn, soybeans and sugar) from 1981 to 2016 using climate-induced yield shocks as instrumental variables. The main results for the world market indicate that the production and demand for ethanol respond elastically to changes in commodity prices. The world ethanol production has no significant relationship with food prices. However, evaluation of the ethanol market and its interaction with the agricultural commodities market confirms the hypothesis that Brazilian ethanol is weakly related to the price of food.

Suggested Citation

  • Paulo Henrique Hoeckel & Augusto Mussi Alvim & José Pedro Pontes & João Dias, 2023. "The Ethanol Market and Its Relation to the Price of Agricultural Commodities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-18, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:6:p:2788-:d:1099936
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/6/2788/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/6/2788/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anderson, Soren T., 2012. "The demand for ethanol as a gasoline substitute," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 151-168.
    2. Teresa Serra & David Zilberman & José Gil, 2011. "Price volatility in ethanol markets," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 38(2), pages 259-280, June.
    3. Bastianin, Andrea & Galeotti, Marzio & Manera, Matteo, 2016. "Ethanol and field crops: Is there a price connection?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 53-61.
    4. Govinda R. Timilsina & John C. Beghin & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe & Simon Mevel, 2012. "The impacts of biofuels targets on land‐use change and food supply: A global CGE assessment," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 43(3), pages 315-332, May.
    5. Serra, Teresa, 2011. "Volatility spillovers between food and energy markets: A semiparametric approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1155-1164.
    6. Michael J. Roberts & Wolfram Schlenker, 2013. "Identifying Supply and Demand Elasticities of Agricultural Commodities: Implications for the US Ethanol Mandate," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2265-2295, October.
    7. Searchinger, Timothy & Heimlich, Ralph & Houghton, R. A. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Hayes, Dermot J. & Yu, Hun-Hsiang, 2008. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12881, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    8. Gardner Bruce, 2007. "Fuel Ethanol Subsidies and Farm Price Support," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-22, December.
    9. Zhang, Zibin & Lohr, Luanne & Escalante, Cesar & Wetzstein, Michael, 2010. "Food versus fuel: What do prices tell us?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 445-451, January.
    10. Baltagi, Badi H. & Liu, Long, 2009. "A note on the application of EC2SLS and EC3SLS estimators in panel data models," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(20), pages 2189-2192, October.
    11. Rudinei Toneto Júnior & André Luis Squarize Chagas, 2008. "Teremos que trocar energia por comida? Análise do impacto da expansão da produção de cana-de-açúcar sobre o preço da terra e dos alimentos," Anais do XXXVI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 36th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 200807181249020, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    12. Luchansky, Matthew S. & Monks, James, 2009. "Supply and demand elasticities in the U.S. ethanol fuel market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 403-410, May.
    13. Zibin Zhang & Luanne Lohr & Cesar Escalante & Michael Wetzstein, 2009. "Ethanol, Corn, and Soybean Price Relations in a Volatile Vehicle-Fuels Market," Energies, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-20, June.
    14. Michael J. Roberts & Wolfram Schlenker, 2009. "World Supply and Demand of Food Commodity Calories," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1235-1242.
    15. Pacini, Henrique & Silveira, Semida, 2011. "Consumer choice between ethanol and gasoline: Lessons from Brazil and Sweden," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 6936-6942.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karel Janda & Ladislav Kristoufek, 2019. "The relationship between fuel and food prices: Methods, outcomes, and lessons for commodity price risk management," CAMA Working Papers 2019-20, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    2. Karel Janda & Ladislav Kristoufek & David Zilberman, 2012. "Biofuels: policies and impacts," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 58(8), pages 372-386.
    3. Zingbagba, Mark & Nunes, Rubens & Fadairo, Muriel, 2020. "The impact of diesel price on upstream and downstream food prices: Evidence from São Paulo," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Serra, Teresa, 2011. "Volatility spillovers between food and energy markets: A semiparametric approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1155-1164.
    5. Kristoufek, Ladislav & Janda, Karel & Zilberman, David, 2012. "Correlations between biofuels and related commodities before and during the food crisis: A taxonomy perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1380-1391.
    6. Abdelradi, Fadi & Serra, Teresa, 2015. "Food–energy nexus in Europe: Price volatility approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 157-167.
    7. Gardebroek, Cornelis & Hernandez, Manuel A., 2013. "Do energy prices stimulate food price volatility? Examining volatility transmission between US oil, ethanol and corn markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 119-129.
    8. Dong Hee Suh & Charles B. Moss, 2017. "Dynamic adjustment of ethanol demand to crude oil prices: implications for mandated ethanol usage," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1587-1607, June.
    9. Stephen P. Holland & Jonathan E. Hughes & Christopher R. Knittel & Nathan C. Parker, 2015. "Some Inconvenient Truths about Climate Change Policy: The Distributional Impacts of Transportation Policies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1052-1069, December.
    10. Condon, Nicole & Klemick, Heather & Wolverton, Ann, 2015. "Impacts of ethanol policy on corn prices: A review and meta-analysis of recent evidence," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 63-73.
    11. Chrz, Stepan & Hruby, Zdenek & Janda, Karel & Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2013. "Provazanost trhu potravin, biopaliv a fosilnich paliv [Interconnections within food, biofuel, and fossil fuel markets]," MPRA Paper 43958, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Peri, Massimo & Baldi, Lucia, 2013. "The effect of biofuel policies on feedstock market: Empirical evidence for rapeseed oil prices in EU," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 18-37.
    13. Kristoufek, Ladislav & Janda, Karel & Zilberman, David, 2012. "Relationship Between Prices of Food, Fuel and Biofuel," 131st Seminar, September 18-19, 2012, Prague, Czech Republic 135793, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Serra, Teresa & Zilberman, David, 2013. "Biofuel-related price transmission literature: A review," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 141-151.
    15. Karel Janda & Ladislav Kristoufek & David Zilberman, 2011. "Modeling the Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts of Biofuels," Working Papers IES 2011/33, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Oct 2011.
    16. Hassouneh, Islam & Serra, Teresa & Goodwin, Barry K. & Gil, José M., 2012. "Non-parametric and parametric modeling of biodiesel, sunflower oil, and crude oil price relationships," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1507-1513.
    17. Chia-Lin Chang & Yiying Li & Michael McAleer, 2018. "Volatility Spillovers between Energy and Agricultural Markets: A Critical Appraisal of Theory and Practice," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, June.
    18. Bastianin, Andrea & Galeotti, Marzio & Manera, Matteo, 2014. "Causality and predictability in distribution: The ethanol–food price relation revisited," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 152-160.
    19. Ladislav Kristoufek & Karel Janda & David Zilberman, 2013. "Regime-dependent topological properties of biofuels networks," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 86(2), pages 1-12, February.
    20. Stephen P. Holland & Jonathan E. Hughes & Christopher R. Knittel & Nathan C. Parker, 2013. "Unintended Consequences of Transportation Carbon Policies: Land-Use, Emissions, and Innovation," NBER Working Papers 19636, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:6:p:2788-:d:1099936. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.