This paper utilizes transaction-specific data on forward trading in the international petroleum market to test directly predictions from the theory of normal backwardation against information-based predictions of trader performance. With the ability to identify buyers and sellers, the authors...

This paper analyzes price adjustment in markets where trade takes place through both spot-market and long-term-contract transactions. The authors develop a model illustrating the role of the resulting two-price system in describing price adjustment to transitory shocks; persistence effects of...

This article examines product markets in which long-term contracts and spot transactions coexist. Such markets are characterized by "multiple-price systems," wherein adjustment to supply and demand shocks occurs through spot prices, while contract prices are fixed or adjust slowly. The authors...

Recent years have seen recurring international financial crises, as well as a tremendous rise in trading and speculation. How are the two related? Are speculators and trading responsible for market volatility? This paper presents a study of the Gulf Crisis of 1990–1991, examining the behavior...

This paper investigates the effect of resource nationalism on the value of petroleum (crude oil and natural gas) reserves. We develop a framework for treating resource nationalism as political risk, and utilize data on reserve transactions (from John S. Herold) and political risk ratings (from...

I examine the variation in the extent of intellectual property (IP) protection across countries. Combining insights from the ‘old’ and ‘new’ institutional perspectives, I argue that global pressures stemming from commitments to the World Trade Organization influence IP protection, but...

Bilateral investment treaties (BITs), agreements that provide extensive rights and protection to foreign investors, were first adopted in the 1960s, proliferated in the late 1980s and 1990s, especially among developing countries, and seemingly fell out of fashion after 2001. To explain this life...