The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union has been in a process of reform since the early 1990s. As a result of reforms, agricultural market regulations have become more liberal and direct payments have been introduced which are to a large extent decoupled from production. In...

The economic, political and climatic conditions in which farmers around the world have to make their production and investment decisions are changing dramatically. This study analyses the driving forces of changes in agricultural world markets and their implications for European Union...

This paper has benefited greatly from a discussion of an earlier version with the participants of the first Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture in Davos, Switzerland in March 2009. Research has been made possible in part by a research grant from BASF SE - The Chemical Company. The first two...

For quite some time long-only index funds have been suspected of being responsible for price increases in agricultural futures markets. This suspicion has prompted demands to drastically limit long-only index fundsʼ scope of activity. Such demands and their underlying diagnoses, however,...

For quite some time long-only index funds have been suspected of being responsible for price increases in agricultural futures markets. This suspicion has prompted demands to drastically limit long-only index funds' scope of activity. Such demands and their underlying diagnoses, however,...

Long-only-Indexfonds stehen seit geraumer Zeit unter Verdacht, für die Preisanstiege an landwirtschaftlichen Warenterminmärkten verantwortlich zu sein. Hieraus wird die Forderung abgleitet, den Aktivitätsradius dieser Indexfonds drastisch einzuschränken. Allerdings stehen solche Forderungen...