In this paper I analyze Canadian government regulation of rail transportation as it affects the domestic price of canola in both the street and futures market. The regulation gives rise to an idiosyncrasy: Vancouver canola futures and Vancouver spot prices do not converge, with futures trading...

There remains controversy over whether the empirical curve relating intertemporal commodity price spreads and stocks, originally drawn by Holbrook Working in 1933 (i.e., the Working curve), is a valid stylized fact in commodity markets. The core of the controversy is the portion of the curve...

The U.S. government notified the GATT in 1994 that it intended to increase tariff rates on wheat and barley imported from Canada. This threat of increased permanent protection resulted in Canada voluntarily agreeing to restrict wheat sales to the United States. Why would Canada agree to this...

The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is a statutory marketing authority with exclusive control over exports of Canadian wheat and barley and sole authority over domestic marketing of milling wheat and malting barley. It is a government marketing board with implicit monopoly rights over the supply of...

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures contract was revamped in 1997 and it is one of the largest futures markets for a nonstorable commodity. The literature is divided on whether or not futures prices for nonstorables provide reliable forecasts of cash prices. We find that from 1998 to...

This study examines the simultaneous relationship between Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions and congressional votes on U.S. sugar legislation. We extend the conventional analysis by specifying a three-equation system in which each congressman's vote depends on contributions received...

Canada has stringent regulations covering the release of new wheat varieties, but the United States has virtually no regulations in this area. Monsanto Co. developed genetically modified (GM) spring wheat for North America, and made a commitment to the U.S. industry to release this new...