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Speculation and food-grain prices

Author

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  • Joshua Lawson
  • Rafayet Alam
  • Xiaoli Etienne

Abstract

The impact of speculative activities in financial markets on food-grain prices is a topical but debated issue. We consider four major food-grain commodities and several speculation measures–which represent different underlying definitions of speculation–in structural vector autoregression models to examine this issue empirically. Results show that the impact of speculation depends on the commodity in question (rice and wheat are generally less sensitive than corn and soybean) and the measure of speculation used. Further analysis shows that traders’ behaviour in the futures market is different for wheat and rice, around 80% of which are directly used for human consumption, compared to corn and soybean, only around 15% of which are directly used as human food. We also show that the heterogeneous effect of different speculative measures is mostly due to their construction. Results are robust to various modifications of the models. From a policy perspective, we think a blanket regulation for all the commodities may not be optimal.

Suggested Citation

  • Joshua Lawson & Rafayet Alam & Xiaoli Etienne, 2021. "Speculation and food-grain prices," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(20), pages 2305-2321, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:53:y:2021:i:20:p:2305-2321
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2020.1859451
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    Cited by:

    1. Dhakal, Aayush Raj & Etienne, Xiaoli L. & Trujillo-Barrera, Andres A., 2022. "Effect of Drought on Spring Wheat Prices in Northern United States," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322285, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Long, Shaobo & Guo, Jiaqi, 2022. "Infectious disease equity market volatility, geopolitical risk, speculation, and commodity returns: Comparative analysis of five epidemic outbreaks," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    3. Algirdas Justinas Staugaitis & Bernardas Vaznonis, 2022. "Financial Speculation Impact on Agricultural and Other Commodity Return Volatility: Implications for Sustainable Development and Food Security," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-27, November.
    4. Raza, Syed Ali & Guesmi, Khaled & Belaid, Fateh & Shah, Nida, 2022. "Time-frequency causality and connectedness between oil price shocks and the world food prices," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Mei, Dexiang & Xie, Yutang, 2022. "U.S. grain commodity futures price volatility: Does trade policy uncertainty matter?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    6. Algirdas Justinas Staugaitis & Bernardas Vaznonis, 2022. "Short-Term Speculation Effects on Agricultural Commodity Returns and Volatility in the European Market Prior to and during the Pandemic," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-26, April.
    7. Guo, Jiaqi & Long, Shaobo & Luo, Weijie, 2022. "Nonlinear effects of climate policy uncertainty and financial speculation on the global prices of oil and gas," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Zhuo Chen & Bo Yan & Hanwen Kang, 2023. "Price bubbles of agricultural commodities: evidence from China’s futures market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(1), pages 195-222, January.

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