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How to Understand High Food Prices

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  • Christopher L. Gilbert

Abstract

Commodity price booms are best explained by macroeconomic rather than market-specific factors. I argue that the rise in food prices over 2007 and the first half of 2008 should be seen as part of the wider commodity boom which is largely the result of rapid economic growth in China and throughout Asia in a context of loose money and in which, because of previous low investment, supply was inelastic. The demand for grains and oilseeds as biofuel feedstocks was the main cause of the price rise but macroeconomic and financial factors explain its extent. The futures market may be an important monetary transmission mechanism, but it is commodity investors, not speculators, who, by investing in commodities as an asset class, may have generalized prices rises across markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher L. Gilbert, 2008. "How to Understand High Food Prices," Department of Economics Working Papers 0823, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    • Handle: RePEc:trn:utwpde:0823
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Irwin, Scott H. & Sanders, Dwight R., 2012. "Financialization and Structural Change in Commodity Futures Markets," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 44(3), pages 1-26, August.
    2. Priti Dubey & Rishika Shankar, 2020. "Determinants of the Commodity Futures Market Performance: An Indian Perspective," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 21(2), pages 239-257, September.
    3. Troester, Bernhard & Staritz, Cornelia, 2013. "Fundamentals or financialisation of commodity markets: What determines recent wheat prices?," Working Papers 43, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    4. Huda, Fakir Azmal, 2014. "Process Of Global Shocks Transmission To Domestic Food Price Level: Case Of Bangladesh," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 2(2), pages 1-16, April.
    5. Pies, Ingo, 2012. "Die zivilgesellschaftliche Kampagne gegen Finanzspekulationen mit Agrarrohstoffen: Eine wirtschaftsethische Stellungnahme," Discussion Papers 2012-23, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    6. Borychowski Michał & Czyżewski Andrzej, 2015. "Determinants of prices increase of agricultural commodities in a global context," Management, Sciendo, vol. 19(2), pages 152-167, December.
    7. Jörg Mayer, 2009. "The Growing Interdependence Between Financial And Commodity Markets," UNCTAD Discussion Papers 195, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    8. Lehecka, Georg V., 2013. "Have food and financial markets integrated? An empirical assessment on aggregate data," 53rd Annual Conference, Berlin, Germany, September 25-27, 2013 156108, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    9. Girardi, Daniele, 2011. "Do financial investors affect commodity prices? The case of Hard Red Winter Wheat," MPRA Paper 35670, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Dudziński Jerzy, 2009. "Financial Factors in Price Movements of Primary Commodities on the International Market," Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, Sciendo, vol. 8(1), pages 113-125, January.
    11. Kavallari, Aikaterini & Gay, Hubertus & Burrell, Alison M., 2010. "Eu Biofuel Policies: A Closer Look At Some Collateral Impacts," 14th ICABR Conference, June 16-18, 2010, Ravello, Italy 188099, International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research (ICABR).
    12. Bernhard Troester, 2012. "The determinants of the recent food price surges – A basic supply and demand model," Competence Centre on Money, Trade, Finance and Development 1206, Hochschule fuer Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin.
    13. Adam Zaremba, 2015. "Portfolio Diversification with Commodities in Times of Financialization," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 4(1), pages 18-36, January.
    14. Eliezer NIYORUGIRA, 2024. "The Effect of Taxpayer Awareness on Tax Compliance in Rwanda (Case Study: Kigali Sector 2022)," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(4), pages 618-638, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food prices; commodity prices; money; futures markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q11 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices

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