Time Delay and Noise Explaining Cyclical Fluctuations in Prices of Commodities

This paper suggests to model jointly time delay and random effects in economics and finance. It proposes to explain the random and often cyclical fluctuations in commodity prices as a consequence of the interplay between external noise and time delays caused by the time between initiation of production and delivery. The proposed model is formulated as a stochastic delay differential equation. The typical behavior of a commodity price index under this model will be discussed. Methods for parameter estimation and the evaluation of functionals will be proposed.