Commodity exchanges historically have served as private organizations that govern contractual relations between market participants. Their functions have included commodity measurement, contract enforcement, the policing of theft and fraud, and the mitigation of information asymmetries. In...

The theory of storage implies that inventory and demand conditions affect (1) the variances and correlations of commodity spot and forward prices and (2) the spread between spot and forward prices. For four industrial metals and one precious metal over the 1986-92 period, the observed relations...

Influential economists argue that government regulation of manipulative practices in financial markets is unnecessary because exchanges have incentives to take nearly first-best precautions against the exercise of market power. This article shows that the theoretical arguments underlying this...

An analysis of the futures market delivery 'end game' specifies necessary and sufficient conditions for long and short traders to manipulate futures prices at contract expiration. The empirical and welfare implications of manipulation are derived as well. Manipulation is most likely to occur in...