We consider how aluminium transactions prices have been affected by the development of futures trading in aluminium. Using a series for transactions prices constructed from a trade journal, we establish that both this series and the exchange cash price may be regarded as error-ridden measures of...

Liberalization of tropical agricultural markets has brought globalization, in the sense that all producers now face world rather than domestic prices. Producer prices have tended to rise as a share of fob prices as intermediation costs and tax has declined. However, in conjunction with inelastic...

We consider the modelling of volatility on closely related markets. Univariate fractional volatility (FIGARCH) models are now standard, as are multivariate GARCH models. In this paper we adopt a combination of the two methodologies. There is as yet little consensus on the methodology for testing...

Everyone knows about seasonality. But what exactly do we know? This study systematically measures seasonal price gaps at 193 markets for 13 food commodities in seven African countries. It shows that the commonly used dummy variable or moving average deviation methods to estimate the seasonal gap...

This paper revisits the extent of seasonality in African livelihoods. It uses 19 years of monthly food prices from 20 markets and three years of nationally representative household panel surveys from Tanzania. Trigonometric specifications are introduced to measure the seasonal gap. When samples...

This paper revisits the extent of seasonality in African livelihoods, which has disappeared from Africa's development debate. Through econometric analysis of monthly food price series across 100 locations in three countries during 2000-12, it is shown that seasonal movements in maize wholesale...