We argue that the workings of world metal markets can be characterised by three facts: Fact One: Global determinants of prices do not dominate market-specific ones. Fact Two (in its simplest form): The relative price of a metal is inversely proportional to its relative volume of production. If,...

One measure of the change in the “quality” of consumption is the degree to which the consumption basket as a whole moves towards more luxurious goods, away from necessities. We introduce two related measures based on the luxury/necessity distinction. One is an index of the extent to which...

The dispersion of the distribution of relative prices in poor countries is substantially higher than that in the rich. As in 130+ countries relative prices are closely related to incomes, we develop a model that shows that the prices of luxuries (necessities) rise (fall) with income growth. This...

Half a century ago, Barten (1964) and Theil (1965) formulated what is now known as the Rotterdam model. A path-breaking innovation, this system of demand equations allowed for the first time rigorous testing of the theory of the utility-maximising consumer. This has led to a vibrant, on-going...

Food occupies a role of particular importance in the consumer’s budget, especially in poor countries. This paper deals with special issues arising from modelling food consumption patterns in 138 countries, where per capita incomes differ by as much as a factor of 100. We explore various forms...

This paper uses a descriptive statistical approach to identify longer-term patterns, or empirical regularities, in the prices of 16 prominent metals from 1950 to 2010. We also examine some related aspects of the behaviour of the corresponding volumes. Our approach is to summarise the data in the...

Cornelsen et al. (2014) and Green et al. (2013) provide a comprehensive review/summary of a large number of recent estimates of the price responsiveness of food consumption using a meta-regression approach. For seven food items, they present uncompensated elasticities that include both the...

The paper provides an account of aspects of exchange-rate economics that are of particular relevance to the resources sector. The issues discussed include exchange-rate volatility and risk management practices used to deal with it, the role of productivity differences across countries, the...

This paper introduces an inverse differential demand system that has exactly the same form as the corresponding direct version. Its application is illustrated with the case of Australian fruit, whose prices were substantially affected by Severe Tropical Cyclone Larry in 2006.