A number of countries have recently responded to high and volatile commodity prices by setting up commodity funds. In several cases, these funds have proved effective in stabilising government spending and boosting savings, but on the whole they have unfortunately not achieved the hoped-for...

This article focuses on the volatility of crude oil futures prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It aims at examining whether this market creates excess volatility, which would not be observed in the absence of such a market. In order to reach this objective, price fluctuations are...

Markets for high-value agricultural commodities are growing and can contribute to reducing rural poverty. However, the poor may be unable to participate in such markets, and adverse environmental impacts may counterbalance short-term benefits. Hence, policies are needed that help reducing...

This article presents and compares two different Kalman filters. These methods provide a very interesting way to cope with the presence of non-observable variables, which is a frequent problem in finance. They are also very fast even in the presence of a large information volume. The first...

Examines the movements of the crude oil futures prices' curve in Great Britain. Relationship between the spot price and futures prices for different delivery dates; Problems in identifying the crude oil prices' movements; Factors that affect the movements of crude oil prices.