IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedmqr/y1990isump12-24nv.4no.3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The simple analytics of commodity futures markets: do they stabilize prices? Do they raise welfare?

Author

Listed:
  • V. V. Chari
  • Ravi Jagannathan

Abstract

This paper uses a simple, graphical approach to analyze what happens to commodity prices and economic welfare when futures markets are introduced into an economy. It concludes that these markets do not necessarily make prices more or less stable. It also concludes that, contrary to common belief, whatever happens to commodity prices is not necessarily related to what happens to the economic welfare of market participants: even when futures markets reduce the volatility of prices, some people can be made worse off. These conclusions come from a series of models that differ in their assumptions about the primary function of futures markets, the structure of the industries involved, and the tastes and technologies of the market participants.

Suggested Citation

  • V. V. Chari & Ravi Jagannathan, 1990. "The simple analytics of commodity futures markets: do they stabilize prices? Do they raise welfare?," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 4(Sum), pages 12-24.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmqr:y:1990:i:sum:p:12-24:n:v.4no.3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://minneapolisfed.org/research/qr/qr1432.html
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://minneapolisfed.org/research/qr/qr1432.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hart, Oliver D & Kreps, David M, 1986. "Price Destabilizing Speculation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 927-952, October.
    2. Dennis W. Carlton, 1984. "Futures markets: Their purpose, their history, their growth, their successes and failures," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 4(3), pages 237-271, September.
    3. Turnovsky, Stephen J & Campbell, Robert B, 1985. "The Stabilizing and Welfare Properties of Futures Markets: A Simulation Approach," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 26(2), pages 277-303, June.
    4. Masahiro Kawai, 1983. "Spot and Futures Prices of Nonstorable Commodities Under Rational Expectations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(2), pages 235-254.
    5. Turnovsky, Stephen J, 1983. "The Determination of Spot and Futures Prices with Storable Commodities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(5), pages 1363-1387, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patrick Artus, 1996. "Création d'un marché à terme, nature des imperfections financières et stabilité du prix au comptant," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 47(5), pages 1043-1062.
    2. Lence, Sergio H., 2002. "Do Futures Benefit Farmers Who Adopt Them?," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19768, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    3. Méndez Parra, Maximiliano, 2015. "Futures prices, trade and domestic supply of agricultural commodities," Economics PhD Theses 0115, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    4. Ahmet Enis Kocagil, 1997. "Does futures speculation stabilize spot prices? Evidence from metals markets," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 115-125.
    5. Kofman, Paul & Viaene, Jean-Marie, 2000. "The demise of commodity price agreements: the role of exchange rates and special interests," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 775-805, November.
    6. Gunther Capelle-Blancard & Dramane Coulibaly, 2011. "Index trading and agricultural commodity prices: A panel Granger causality analysis," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 126-127, pages 51-71.
    7. Patrick Artus, 1990. "Quand la création d'un marché à terme peut-elle déstabiliser le cours au comptant ?," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 41(1), pages 71-94.
    8. Sergio H. Lence, 2009. "Do Futures Benefit Farmers?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(1), pages 154-167.
    9. Lusheng Shao & Derui Wang & Xiaole Wu, 2022. "Competitive trading in forward and spot markets under yield uncertainty," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(9), pages 3400-3418, September.
    10. Patrick Artus & Claude Jessua, 1996. "La spéculation," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 47(3), pages 409-424.
    11. Holmberg, Pär & Willems, Bert, 2015. "Relaxing competition through speculation: Committing to a negative supply slope," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 236-266.
    12. Zant, Wouter, 2001. "Hedging Price Risks of Farmers by Commodity Boards: A Simulation Applied to the Indian Natural Rubber Market," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 691-710, April.
    13. Campbell, Robert B. & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 1985. "An analysis of the stabilizing and welfare effects of intervention in spot and futures markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 165-209, November.
    14. Hubbard, R Glenn & Weiner, Robert J, 1992. "Long-Term Contracting and Multiple-Price Systems," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 177-198, April.
    15. Santos, Joseph, 2003. "Commodity futures contracts: Furnishing an elastic currency in the nineteenth century," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 561-578, December.
    16. Christian Koziol & Tilo Treuter, 2019. "How do speculators in agricultural commodity markets impact production decisions and commodity prices? A theoretical analysis," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 25(3), pages 718-743, June.
    17. Bohl, Martin T. & Diesteldorf, Jeanne & Siklos, Pierre L., 2015. "The effect of index futures trading on volatility: Three markets for Chinese stocks," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 207-224.
    18. Dennis, Steven A. & Sim, Ah Boon, 1999. "Share price volatility with the introduction of individual share futures on the Sydney Futures Exchange," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 153-163, June.
    19. Wagner, Helmut & Matanovic, Eva, 2012. "Volatility Impact of Stock Index Futures Trading - A Revised Analysis," MPRA Paper 51204, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. R. Andergassen, 2003. "Rational destabilising speculation and the riding of bubbles," Working Papers 475, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Futures; Commercial products;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedmqr:y:1990:i:sum:p:12-24:n:v.4no.3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kate Hansel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cfrbmus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.