IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijfss/v12y2024i4p121-d1536071.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food Financialization: Impact of Derivatives and Index Funds on Agri-Food Market Volatility

Author

Listed:
  • María del Rosario Venegas

    (FES Acatlán, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Naucalpan de Juarez 53150, Mexico)

  • Jorge Feregrino

    (FES Acatlán, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Naucalpan de Juarez 53150, Mexico)

  • Nelson Lay

    (Escuela de Psicología, Facultad Educación y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago 7591538, Chile)

  • Juan Felipe Espinosa-Cristia

    (Ecuela de Ingeniería Comercial, Departamento de Ingeniería Comercial, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaiso 2390123, Chile)

Abstract

This study explores the financialization of agricultural commodities, focusing on how financial derivatives and index funds impact the volatility of agro-food markets. Using a Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC) GARCH model, we analyze volatility spillovers among key agricultural commodities, particularly maize, and related financial assets over a sample period from 2007 to 2020. Our analysis includes major financial assets like Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), the S&P 500 index, and agribusiness corporations such as ADM and Bunge and the largest corn flour producer, GRUMA. The results indicate that financial speculation, especially via passive investments such as ETFs, has intensified price volatility in commodity futures, leading to a systemic risk increase within the sector. This study provides empirical evidence of increased market integration between the agro-food sector and financial markets, underscoring risks to food security and economic stability. We conclude with recommendations for regulatory actions to mitigate systemic risks posed by the growing financial influence in agricultural markets.

Suggested Citation

  • María del Rosario Venegas & Jorge Feregrino & Nelson Lay & Juan Felipe Espinosa-Cristia, 2024. "Food Financialization: Impact of Derivatives and Index Funds on Agri-Food Market Volatility," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-30, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:12:y:2024:i:4:p:121-:d:1536071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/12/4/121/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/12/4/121/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer Clapp & S. Ryan Isakson, 2018. "Risky Returns: The Implications of Financialization in the Food System," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(2), pages 437-460, March.
    2. Luca J. Liebi, 2020. "The effect of ETFs on financial markets: a literature review," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 34(2), pages 165-178, June.
    3. Suleyman Basak & Anna Pavlova, 2016. "A Model of Financialization of Commodities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(4), pages 1511-1556, August.
    4. Liu, Peng (Peter) & Tang, Ke, 2010. "No-arbitrage conditions for storable commodities and the modeling of futures term structures," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1675-1687, July.
    5. Wonho Wilson Choi & Jinyong Kim & Mingook Kim, 2016. "Derivatives holdings and market values of U.S. bank holding companies," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(49), pages 4747-4757, October.
    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. Seiler, Volker, 2024. "The relationship between Chinese and FOB prices of rare earth elements – Evidence in the time and frequency domain," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 160-179.
    2. Shernaz Bodhanwala & Harsh Purohit & Nidhi Choudhary, 2020. "The Causal Dynamics in Indian Agriculture Commodity Prices and Macro-Economic Variables in the Presence of a Structural Break," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(1), pages 241-261, February.
    3. Girardone, Claudia & Kokas, Sotirios & Wood, Geoffrey, 2021. "Diversity and women in finance: Challenges and future perspectives," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Karakotsios, Achillefs & Katrakilidis, Constantinos & Kroupis, Nikolaos, 2021. "The dynamic linkages between food prices and oil prices. Does asymmetry matter?," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    5. Vassilios Babalos & Elie Bouri & Rangan Gupta, 2024. "Does the Introduction of US Spot Bitcoin ETFs Affect Spot Returns and Volatility of Major Cryptocurrencies?," Working Papers 202416, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    6. Lyócsa, Štefan & Molnár, Peter & Todorova, Neda, 2017. "Volatility forecasting of non-ferrous metal futures: Covariances, covariates or combinations?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 228-247.
    7. Nikitopoulos, Christina Sklibosios & Thomas, Alice Carole & Wang, Jianxin, 2023. "The economic impact of daily volatility persistence on energy markets," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    8. Nicola, Francesca de & De Pace, Pierangelo & Hernandez, Manuel A., 2016. "Co-movement of major energy, agricultural, and food commodity price returns: A time-series assessment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 28-41.
    9. Xiao, Jihong & Wen, Fenghua & He, Zhifang, 2023. "Impact of geopolitical risks on investor attention and speculation in the oil market: Evidence from nonlinear and time-varying analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    10. Bianchi, Robert J. & Fan, John Hua & Todorova, Neda, 2020. "Financialization and de-financialization of commodity futures: A quantile regression approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    11. Halser, Christoph & Paraschiv, Florentina & Russo, Marianna, 2023. "Oil–gas price relationships on three continents: Disruptions and equilibria," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    12. Angelopoulos, Jason & Sahoo, Satya & Visvikis, Ilias D., 2020. "Commodity and transportation economic market interactions revisited: New evidence from a dynamic factor model," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    13. Yan, Lei & Irwin, Scott H. & Sanders, Dwight R., 2018. "Mapping algorithms, agricultural futures, and the relationship between commodity investment flows and crude oil futures prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 486-504.
    14. Yang Liu & Tongshuai Qiao & Liyan Han, 2022. "Does clean energy matter? Revisiting the spillovers between energy and foreign exchange markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(11), pages 2068-2083, November.
    15. Gilles de Truchis & Elena Ivona Dumitrescu & Florent Dubois, 2019. "Local Whittle Analysis of Stationary Unbalanced Fractional Cointegration Systems," EconomiX Working Papers 2019-15, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    16. Delphine H. Lautier, Franck Raynaud, and Michel A. Robe, 2019. "Shock Propagation Across the Futures Term Structure: Evidence from Crude Oil Prices," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    17. Duc Khuong Nguyen & Nikolas Topaloglou & Thomas Walther, 2020. "Asset Classes and Portfolio Diversification: Evidence from a Stochastic Spanning Approach," Working Papers 2020-009, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    18. Cyriac Guillaumin & Salem Boubakri & Alexandre Silanine, 2020. "Do commodity price volatilities impact currency misalignments in commodity-exporting countries?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1727-1739.
    19. Zhou, Xinquan & Bagnarosa, Guillaume & Gohin, Alexandre & Pennings, Joost M.E. & Debie, Philippe, 2023. "Microstructure and high-frequency price discovery in the soybean complex," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    20. Jorge Lorca, 2021. "Capital Flows and Emerging Markets Fluctuations," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 898, Central Bank of Chile.

    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:gam:jijfss:v:12:y:2024:i:4:p:121-:d:1536071. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.