Mean-Reversion in Unprocessed Food Prices

The high volatility in food prices in the last decade is a major concern for policymakers across the globe. This study tests if there is mean-reverting behaviour in the unprocessed food prices towards a long-run trend, for twenty-four European countries, using linear and nonlinear unit root tests. The results indicate linear or non-linear mean reversion for more than one-third of the group. Non-linear models are useful in detecting asymmetric correction behaviour, depending on the size and sign of the deviation from the mean. However, out-of-sample forecasting performances of these models are poor relative to a simple autoregressive benchmark.