In the last twenty years a large number of competitive ethanol firms have established operations in the US. Ethanol, produced from corn, is blended with pure gasoline to produce fuel. Producers hold an option to turn off unprofitable plants. Blenders choose to substitute ethanol for gasoline at...

Preface: It is necessary to thank many people at the end of a big project like writing a book. First, my thanks go to my patient editor Sunil Nair and his editorial assistants Rachel Holt and Sarah Gelson. Two anonymous reviewers made very thorough and useful comments on an earlier manuscript....

We develop an efficient Monte Carlo method for the valuation of a financial contract with payoff dependent on discretely realized variance. We assume a general model in which asset returns are random shocks modulated by a stochastic volatility process. Realized variance is the sum of squared...

I investigate how local supply shocks in the globally distributed production of commodities are incorporated into CME futures prices. I exploit that the soybean market share of the US (Argentina) decreased (increased) between 1996 and 2010, and use rain, which tends to increase output, as a...