Cover -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. Biologist to the Rescue -- 2. Dreams and Fears of Growth -- 3. Listening to Cassandra -- 4. The Triumph of Optimism -- 5. Polarizing Politics -- 6. Betting the Future of the Planet -- NOTES -- SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D --...

As commodity markets have continued their expansion an extensive and complex financial industry has developed to service them. This industry includes hundreds of participating firms, including asset managers, brokers, consultants, verification agencies and a myriad of other institutions....

In 1980, the iconoclastic economist Julian Simon challenged celebrity biologist Paul Ehrlich to a bet. Their wager on the future prices of five metals captured the public’s imagination as a test of coming prosperity or doom. Ehrlich, author of the landmark book The Population Bomb, predicted...

We explore whether there are common factors in the cross-section of individual commodity futures returns. We test various asset pricing models which have been employed for the equities market as well as models motivated by commodity pricing theories. The use of these families of models allows us...