We establish several new findings on the relation between capital flow in commodity markets and asset returns. Capital flowing into commodity markets, as measured by high open-interest growth, predicts high commodity returns and low bond returns. Open-interest growth is a more powerful and robust predictor of commodity returns than other known predictors such as the short rate, the yield spread...

The purpose of this primer is to clarify some of the key characteristics of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets. A clearer picture of these markets will help legislators and regulators write better legislation and rules for the prudential regulation of OTC derivatives markets. (Note that this Primer is followed by a short list of key definitions used to describe OTC derivatives marke...

Recent IT research has analyzed how the performance of IT-enabled markets may differ from conventional markets. This literature has made two unexpected empirical findings. First, ITenabled markets for commodity goods exhibit significant price dispersion. Second, well-known retailers in these markets appear to cooperate to set high prices. This paper presents an analytic model, and confirmatory ...

The commodity markets have been bidding for acreage due to biofuels creating increased demand for corn and soybeans. Currently, the major decision facing producers is determining the enterprise mix for 2008 in the midst of higher commodity prices. This memo compares the Return over Variable Costs for cotton and peanuts and analyzes the breakeven yields and prices for non-irrigated and irrigated...

The commodity markets have been bidding for acreage due to increased corn and soybean demand for biofuels. Currently, the major decision facing producers is determining the enterprise mix for 2008 in the midst of higher commodity prices. This memo compares the Return over Variable Costs for soybeans and peanuts and analyzes the break-even yields and prices for non-irrigated and irrigated produc...

This paper offers an alternative to the conventional explanation of the 2007-08 food price crisis in terms of escalating demand or dwindling supply. Instead, its focus is on the legalinstitutional structure of commodity futures markets, which has witnessed a drastic alteration in the role of speculators. These have transformed from “market makers” (that keep commodity futures markets liquid by ...

In this paper, we propose to identify the dependence structure that exists between returns on equity and commodity futures and its development over the past 20 years. The key point is that we do not impose any dependence structure, but let the data select it. To do so, we model the dependence between commodity (metal, agriculture and energy) and stock markets using a flexible approach that allo...

Indicators to assess sustainable land development often focus on either economic or ecologic aspects of landscape use. The concept of multifunctional land use helps merging those two focuses by emphasising on the rule that economic action is per se accompanied by ecological utility: commodity outputs (CO, e.g., yields) are paid for on the market, but non-commodity outputs (NCO, e.g., landscape ...