Value-at-Risk (VaR) determines the probability of a portfolio of assets losing a certain amount in a given time period due to adverse market conditions with a particular level of confidence. Value-at-Risk has received considerable attention from financial economists and financial practitioners...

This paper explores the potential for futures contracts in tropical (hardwood) plywood, one of the few major internationally traded commodities for which there is no yet a futures market. Commodity characteristics and market structures and practices that have an impact on the feasibility of a...

Using unique retail and wholesale price data for 4,532 products carried by a major Midwestern grocery retailer, we find evidence of significant retail price rigidity during the Thanksgiving through Christmas holiday period relative to the rest of the year. We suggest that this pattern of holiday...

Multiproduct optimal hedging is compared to alternative hedging strategies as applied to a Midwestern cattle feeder. One-period feeding margin hedge ratios are estimated using weekly cash and futures price data from a simulation of a custom feedlot for 1983-1995. Hedge ratios are estimated using...

Recent changes in farm policy have renewed interest in using marketing strategies based on futures and options markets to enhance the income of field crop producers. This article reviews the literature surrounding the dominant academic theory of the behavior of futures and options markets, the...

This paper deals with the estimation of optimal hedge ratios. A number of recent papers have demonstrated that the ordinary least squares (OLS) method which gives constant hedge ratio is inappropriate and recommended the use of bivariate autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (BGARCH) model....

This paper builds a model of fragmented duopsony in backward agriculture following Basu and Bell (1991) in which the purchasers (traders) have captive markets each but compete in a contested market. We focus on the formation of captive markets through trader-farmer interlinkage in the form of...

Most economists congregate on the idea that commodity price instability should be reduced. Since at least one century a variety of instruments have been designed to that end, without much success, especially for agricultural commodities. The failure might be a consequence of the fact that most...

We use store-level data to document the exact process of changing prices and to directly measure menu costs at five multi-store supermarket chains. We show that changing prices in these establishments is a complex process, requiring dozens of steps and a nontrivial amount of resources. The menu...