We examine the volatility dynamics of NYMEX natural gas futures prices via the partially overlapping time‐series model of Smith (2005. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 20, 405–422). We show that volatility exhibits two important features: (1) volatility is greater in the winter than in the...

This study compares two approaches to modeling a term structure of commodity prices. The first approach specifies the stochastic process of the underlying spot price and derives from the stipulated spot price dynamics valuation formulas of futures and other derivative contracts through no...

This study examines bias in a term-structure model of commodity prices in specifying the true stochastic dynamics of underlying spot price. The bias is quantified by comparing the model estimated by the conventional method of estimating all model parameters simultaneously with a panel of futures...

Sprint finishes in professional cycling are fast, furious, and dangerous. A “red flag rule†(RFR) seeks to moderate the chaos of these finishes, but may induce moral hazard by removing the time penalty associated with crashing. To test for moral hazard, the authors use a 2005 rule...

The availability of immigrant farm-workers from Mexico is a critical factor affecting the fresh fruit and vegetable sector in the United States. This paper uses a retrospective panel data set from rural Mexico to examine the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Immigration...

Climate models predict more weather extremes in the coming decades. Weather shocks can directly reduce crop production, but their effect on food markets is partly buffered by storage and supply responses that can be complex and nuanced. We explore how inter-hemispheric trade and supply responses...

In 2008, wheat futures prices spiked and then crashed along with prices for other agricultural and nonagricultural commodities. Market observers offered several theories to explain this common movement, or comovement, in prices, and have proposed policies to address the perceived problem of...

Periodically, the global economy experiences great commodity booms and busts, characterized by a broad and sharp comovement of commodity prices. There have been two such episodes since the Korean War. The first event peaked in 1974 and the second in 2008, 34 years apart. Both created major...

We use nonparametric dimension-reduction methods to extract from a set of 15 macroeconomic variables the risk factors that are priced in the stock market. The dominant factor moves with the business cycle but, because it is a nonlinear function of observed macroeconomic variables, it captures a...