Revised HWWA commodity price index

Have Commodity Index Funds Increased Price Linkages between Commodities? by

The revised Consumer Price Index: changes in definitions and availability.

The release of the January 1987 Consumer Price Index (cpi) in February will introduce updated market baskets that reflect population distributions from the 1980 census of population and spending patterns from the 1982-84 Consumer Expenditure Survey . This release will be part of a 5-year program to update the cpi market basket and incorporate numerous technical enhancements . t Although the cpi...

Volatility and Commodity Price Dynamics

Commodity prices tend to be volatile, and volatility itself varies over time. Changes in volatility can affect market variables by directly affecting the marginal value of storage, and by affecting a component of the total marginal cost of production: the opportunity cost of exercising the option to produce the commodity now rather than waiting for more price information. I examine the role of ...

An Expert System for Reviewing Commodity Substitutions in the Consumer Price Index

An expert system is being developed to help assure the quality of data in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The system replicates the reasoning of Commodity Analysts determining if a substitute product is comparable to a product priced in the previous month. If comparable, its price can be considered in producing the CPI. The system reasons with expertise directly entered by Commodity Analysts. T...

The Simple Economics of Commodity Price Speculation

The price of crude oil in the U.S. never exceeded $40 per barrel until mid-2004. By 2006 it reached $70, and in July 2008 it peaked at $145. By late 2008 it had plummeted to about $30 before increasing to $110 in 2011. Are speculators at least partly to blame for these sharp price changes? We clarify the effects of speculators on commodity prices. We focus on crude oil, but our approach can be ...