How market structure drives commodity prices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Bin; Wong, K. Y. Michael; Chan, Amos H. M.; So, Tsz Yan; Heimonen, Hermanni; Wei, Junyi; Saad, David

2017-11-01

We introduce an agent-based model, in which agents set their prices to maximize profit. At steady state the market self-organizes into three groups: excess producers, consumers and balanced agents, with prices determined by their own resource level and a couple of macroscopic parameters that emerge naturally from the analysis, akin to mean-field parameters in statistical mechanics. When resources are scarce prices rise sharply below a turning point that marks the disappearance of excess producers. To compare the model with real empirical data, we study the relationship between commodity prices and stock-to-use ratios in a range of commodities such as agricultural products and metals. By introducing an elasticity parameter to mitigate noise and long-term changes in commodities data, we confirm the trend of rising prices, provide evidence for turning points, and indicate yield points for less essential commodities.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Goodsell, J.N.

Mexico's new president faces an economic crisis of high inflation, corruption, and overextended borrowing to finance an ambitious development program based on anticipated oil revenues. The decline of world oil prices in 1981 and the depressed prices of other export commodities led to extensive borrowing from foreign banks, which saw Mexico's oil riches as a good risk. Despite its overpopulation and related socio-economic problems, Mexico's oil resources will be the foundation of economic development even though the government must move first to restore public confidence and diversify the economy. (DCK)

Risk Modelling of Agricultural Products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nugrahani, E. H.

2017-03-01

In the real world market, agricultural commodity are imposed with fluctuating prices. This means that the price of agricultural products are relatively volatile, which means that agricultural business is a quite risky business for farmers. This paper presents some mathematical models to model such risks in the form of its volatility, based on certain assumptions. The proposed models are time varying volatility model, as well as time varying volatility with mean reversion and with seasonal mean equation models. Implementation on empirical data show that agricultural products are indeed risky.

Quantifiable impact on poverty in Trinidad And Tobago of the Uruguay Round Agreement On Agriculture.

PubMed

Pemberton, Carlisle; Ramnarine, Deokie

2006-09-01

The agreement on agriculture and the World Trade Organization were major outcomes of the 1986-1994 Uruguay Round (UR) negotiations within the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The measures under the UR were predicted to increase poverty in developing countries, a serious cause for concern since poverty alleviation is a major goal of developing countries. Thus this paper simulated the impact on poverty of the UR for a net food importing country, Trinidad and Tobago. The objectives of the study were to determine the changes in poverty levels in Trinidad and Tobago that we expected would result from changes in the price levels of food commodities after the removal of trade protection following the UR, and to examine recent trends in poverty in Trinidad and Tobago and the prices of major agricultural exports from the United States, its principal trading partner. A regression model (poverty model) was used to determine the relationship between poverty levels and the prices of sensitive imported food commodities (SIFCs) and other key economic variables. Impact models were used to project changes in world market prices of the SIFCs due to the UR, and these price changes were used to predict changes in poverty in Trinidad and Tobago. The results showed a positive elasticity between poverty and the prices of SIFCs. The study also predicted that the average projected increase in price levels of the SIFCs of less than 9% by the year 2000 would cause an increase in poverty in Trinidad and Tobago of less than 4%. There has been, in fact, a small decline in poverty in Trinidad and Tobago since 1996. The prices of major agricultural exports from the United States have also been falling since 1995. Thus, so far the UR has had no perceptible effects in increasing the prices of food exports from the United States. Also, so far the UR has had no perceptible effect on the poverty level in Trinidad and Tobago.

Trends in economic scarcity of U.S. timber commodities

Treesearch

K. E. Skog; C. D. Risbrudt

Prompted by continuing concern that timber-based commodities are becoming increasingly scarce, this paper presents information on changes in real prices (prices deflated by the general producer price index) of timber commodities as potential indicators of economic scarcity. Data updating previous studies are shown for sawlog stumpage, delivered sawlogs, and lumber;...

How Market Structure Drives Commodity Prices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Bin; Wong, K. Y. Michael; Chan, Amos H. M.; So, Tsz Yan; Heimonen, Hermanni; Saad, David

To understand how market structure drives commodity price trends with respect to resource availability we introduce an agent-based model, in which agents set their prices to maximize profit. At steady state the market self-organizes into three groups: excess producers, consumers and balanced agents. When resources are scarce prices rise sharply below a turning point marking the disappearance of excess producers. By introducing an elasticity parameter to mitigate noise and long-term changes in commodities data, we confirm the trend of rising prices, provide evidence for turning points, and indicate yield points for less essential commodities. This work is supported by Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Grant Numbers 604512, 605813, and 16322616) and the Leverhulme Trust RPG-2013-48.

7 CFR 5.3 - Selection of calendar year price data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... year price data. In computing the adjusted base price for those commodities for which calendar year price data are used, “* * * the average of the prices received by farmers for such commodity, at such... 7 Agriculture 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Selection of calendar year price data. 5.3 Section 5.3...

Design the price signal mechanism of suppliers' cost in the commercial procurement process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jinming, Huang; Wenjing, Li; Huazhen, Zhu

2016-06-01

In the process of commercial procurement, there exists information asymmetry between purchasers and suppliers in terms of commodity cost. The strike price is what purchasers care about, while the focus of suppliers is only the sales revenue. In order to achieve the relatively lower strike price, purchasers need to design a price signal mechanism, explicating the commodity cost of suppliers. In this article, we have designed a mechanism that purchasers can explicit the commodity cost price based on suppliers' choices by providing a variety of purchase contracts to suppliers.

Market interdependence among commodity prices based on information transmission on the Internet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ji, Qiang; Guo, Jian-Feng

2015-05-01

Human behaviour on the Internet has become a synchro-projection of real society. In this paper, we introduce the public concern derived from query volumes on the Web to empirically analyse the influence of information on commodity markets (e.g., crude oil, heating oil, corn and gold) using multivariate GARCH models based on dynamic conditional correlations. The analysis found that the changes of public concern on the Internet can well depict the changes of market prices, as the former has significant Granger causality effects on market prices. The findings indicate that the information of external shocks to commodity markets could be transmitted quickly, and commodity markets easily absorb the public concern of the information-sensitive traders. Finally, the conditional correlation among commodity prices varies dramatically over time.

Agriculture and Energy: Implications for Food Security, Water, and Land Use

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tokgoz, S.; Zhang, W.; Msangi, S.; Bhandary, P.

2011-12-01

Sustainable production of agricultural commodities and growth of international trade in these goods are challenged as never before by supply-side constraints (such as climate change, water and land scarcity, and environmental degradation) and by demand-side dynamics (volatility in food and energy markets, the strengthening food-energy linkage, population growth, and income growth). On the one hand, the rapidly expanding demand can potentially create new market opportunities for agriculture. On the other hand, there are many threats to a sufficient response by the supply side to meet this growing and changing demand. Agricultural production systems in many countries are neither resource-efficient, nor producing according to their full potential. The stock of natural resources such as land, water, nutrients, energy, and genetic diversity is shrinking relative to demand, and their use must become increasingly efficient in order to reduce environmental impacts and preserve the planet's productive capacity. World energy prices have increased rapidly in recent years. At the same time, agriculture has become more energy-intensive. Higher energy costs have pushed up the cost of producing, transporting and processing agricultural commodities, driving up commodity prices. Higher energy costs have also affected water use and availability through increased costs of water extraction, conveyance and desalinization, higher demand for hydroelectric power, and increased cost of subsidizing water services. In the meantime, the development of biofuels has diverted increasing amounts of agricultural land and water resources to the production of biomass-based renewable energy. This more "intensified" linkage between agriculture and energy comes at a time when there are other pressures on the world's limited resources. The related high food prices, especially those in the developing countries, have led to setbacks in the poverty alleviation effort among the global community with more population under hunger and poverty. In light of these threats and opportunities facing the global food system, the proposed study takes a long-term perspective and addresses the main medium and long- term drivers of agricultural markets using the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade developed by the Environment and Production Technology Division of IFPRI to project future production, consumption, and trade of key agricultural commodities. The main objective of the study is to analyze the link between energy and agricultural markets, focusing on the "new" role of agriculture as a supplier of energy for transportation through biofuels, and the subsequent impact on land use and demand for water from the agricultural sector. In this context, this study incorporates various scenarios of future energy demand and energy price impacts on global agricultural markets (food prices and food security), water use implications (irrigation water consumption by agricultural sector), and land use implications (changes in national and global crop area). The scenarios are designed to understand the impact of energy prices on biofuel production, cost of production for agricultural crops, conversion of rainfed area to irrigated area, and necessary levels of crop productivity growth to counter these effects.

Estimates of immediate effects on world markets of a hypothetical disruption to Russia’s supply of six mineral commodities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Safirova, Elena; Barry, James J.; Hastorun, Sinan; Matos, Grecia R.; Perez, Alberto Alexander; Bedinger, George M.; Bray, E. Lee; Jasinski, Stephen M.; Kuck, Peter H.; Loferski, Patricia J.

2017-05-18

The potential immediate effects of a hypothetical shock to Russia’s supply of selected mineral commodities on the world market and on individual countries were determined and monetized (in 2014 U.S. dollars). The mineral commodities considered were aluminum (refined primary), nickel (refined primary), palladium (refined) and platinum (refined), potash, and titanium (mill products), and the regions and countries of primary interest were the United States, the European Union (EU–28), and China. The shock is assumed to have infinite duration, but only the immediate effects, those limited by a 1-year period, are considered.A methodology for computing and monetizing the potential impacts was developed. Then the data pertaining to all six mineral commodities were collected and the most likely effects were computed. Because of the uncertainties associated with some of the data, sensitivity analyses were conducted to confirm the validity of the results.Results indicate that the impact on the United States arising from a shock to Russia’s supply, in terms of the value of net exports, would range from a gain of \\$336 million for titanium mill products to a loss of \\$237 million for potash; thus, the overall effect of a supply shock is likely to be quite modest. The study also demonstrates that, taken alone, Russia’s share in the world production of a particular commodity is not necessarily indicative of the size of potential impacts resulting from a supply shock; other factors, such as prices, domestic production, and the structure of international commodity flows were found to be important as well.

Capital dissipation minimization for a class of complex irreversible resource exchange processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, Shaojun; Chen, Lingen

2017-05-01

A model of a class of irreversible resource exchange processes (REPes) between a firm and a producer with commodity flow leakage from the producer to a competitive market is established in this paper. The REPes are assumed to obey the linear commodity transfer law (LCTL). Optimal price paths for capital dissipation minimization (CDM) (it can measure economic process irreversibility) are obtained. The averaged optimal control theory is used. The optimal REP strategy is also compared with other strategies, such as constant-firm-price operation and constant-commodity-flow operation, and effects of the amount of commodity transferred and the commodity flow leakage on the optimal REP strategy are also analyzed. The commodity prices of both the producer and the firm for the CDM of the REPes with commodity flow leakage change with the time exponentially.

75 FR 4143 - Federal Speculative Position Limits for Referenced Energy Contracts and Associated Regulations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-26

... the price of a commodity. In addition to identifying the affected energy contracts and the position... response to high prices and volatility in the energy markets and concerns regarding excessive speculation... position limits during spot months. From 2007 to mid 2008, commodity prices generally, and energy prices in...

76 FR 27665 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Consumer...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-12

... INFORMATION: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by... for OMB Review; Comment Request; Consumer Price Index Commodities and Services Survey ACTION: Notice...) sponsored information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Consumer Price Index Commodities and Services...

Empirical microeconomics action functionals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baaquie, Belal E.; Du, Xin; Tanputraman, Winson

2015-06-01

A statistical generalization of microeconomics has been made in Baaquie (2013), where the market price of every traded commodity, at each instant of time, is considered to be an independent random variable. The dynamics of commodity market prices is modeled by an action functional-and the focus of this paper is to empirically determine the action functionals for different commodities. The correlation functions of the model are defined using a Feynman path integral. The model is calibrated using the unequal time correlation of the market commodity prices as well as their cubic and quartic moments using a perturbation expansion. The consistency of the perturbation expansion is verified by a numerical evaluation of the path integral. Nine commodities drawn from the energy, metal and grain sectors are studied and their market behavior is described by the model to an accuracy of over 90% using only six parameters. The paper empirically establishes the existence of the action functional for commodity prices that was postulated to exist in Baaquie (2013).

Politics has strong say in who benefits from oil

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tippee, B.; Beck, R.J.

1995-04-03

Oil`s many values are more visible now than ever. Price information streams from financial and physical commodity markets around the world. A sophisticated array of analytical tools turns price data into nearly real-time indications of what a particular crude or petroleum product is worth to a particular type of trader in a particular market. Value, though, means something beyond price. Economic values ultimately must benefit someone. In a market that gushes price data, it`s much easier to measure oil values than it is to determine who benefits from them. The paper discusses new value gauges, where values flow, the trendmore » toward lower government take upstream, the decade-long trend in the decline of state takes, suppressing prices, political dimensions, the squeeze OPEC feels, taxing products, claim on values, and values in perspective.« less

Child mortality, commodity price volatility and the resource curse.

PubMed

Makhlouf, Yousef; Kellard, Neil M; Vinogradov, Dmitri

2017-04-01

Given many developing economies depend on primary commodities, the fluctuations of commodity prices may imply significant effects for the wellbeing of children. To investigate, this paper examines the relationship between child mortality and commodity price movements as reflected by country-specific commodity terms-of-trade. Employing a panel of 69 low and lower-middle income countries over the period 1970-2010, we show that commodity terms-of-trade volatility increases child mortality in highly commodity-dependent importers suggesting a type of 'scarce' resource curse. Strikingly however, good institutions appear able to mitigate the negative impact of volatility. The paper concludes by highlighting this tripartite relationship between child mortality, volatility and good institutions and posits that an effective approach to improving child wellbeing in low to lower-middle income countries will combine hedging, import diversification and improvement of institutional quality. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Speculation on commodities futures markets and destabilization of global food prices: exploring the connections.

PubMed

Ghosh, Jayati; Heintz, James; Pollin, Robert

2012-01-01

In December 2010, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Price Index surpassed its previous peak of June 2008, and prices remained at this level through September 2011. This pattern is creating justified fears of a renewal or intensification of the global food crisis. This paper reviews arguments and evidence to inform debates on how to regulate commodity futures markets in the face of such price volatility and sustained high prices. We focus on the relationship between market liquidity and price patterns in asset markets in general and in commodities futures markets in particular, as well as the relationship between spot and futures market prices for food. We find strong evidence supporting the need to limit huge increases in trading volume on futures markets through regulations. We find that arguments opposing regulation are not supported. We find no support for the claim that liquidity in futures markets stabilizes prices at "fundamental" values or that spot market prices are free of any significant influence from futures markets. Given these results, the most appropriate position for regulators is precautionary: they should enact and enforce policies capable of effectively dampening excessive speculative trading on the commodities markets for food.

Food Security and the Justification of Productivism in New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosin, Christopher

2013-01-01

The spike in food commodity prices in 2007-2008 is frequently represented as a crisis for the global food system. Interpreted as a failure to achieve the utopian imperative to feed the world, the crisis can potentially expose the distortions inherent to the productivist ideology framing the existing system. As a result, it can act as a shock that…

17 CFR 242.612 - Minimum pricing increment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Minimum pricing increment. 242.612 Section 242.612 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (CONTINUED...-Regulation of the National Market System § 242.612 Minimum pricing increment. (a) No national securities...

Marijuana and tobacco cigarettes: Estimating their behavioral economic relationship using purchasing tasks.

PubMed

Peters, Erica N; Rosenberry, Zachary R; Schauer, Gillian L; O'Grady, Kevin E; Johnson, Patrick S

2017-06-01

Although marijuana and tobacco are commonly coused, the nature of their relationship has not been fully elucidated. Behavioral economics has characterized the relationship between concurrently available commodities but has not been applied to marijuana and tobacco couse. U.S. adults ≥18 years who coused marijuana and tobacco cigarettes were recruited via Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing service by Amazon. Participants (N = 82) completed online purchasing tasks assessing hypothetical marijuana or tobacco cigarette puff consumption across a range of per-puff prices; 2 single-commodity tasks assessed these when only 1 commodity was available, and 2 cross-commodity tasks assessed these in the presence of a concurrently available fixed-price commodity. Purchasing tasks generated measures of demand elasticity, that is, sensitivity of consumption to prices. In single-commodity tasks, consumption of tobacco cigarette puffs (elasticity of demand: α = 0.0075; 95% confidence interval [0.0066, 0.0085], R² = 0.72) and of marijuana puffs (α = .0044; 95% confidence interval [0.0038, 0.0049], R² = 0.71) declined significantly with increases in price per puff. In cross-commodity tasks when both tobacco cigarette puffs and marijuana puffs were available, demand for 1 commodity was independent of price increases in the other commodity (ps > .05). Results revealed that, in this small sample, marijuana and tobacco cigarettes did not substitute for each other and did not complement each other; instead, they were independent of each other. These preliminary results can inform future studies assessing the economic relationship between tobacco and marijuana in the quickly changing policy climate in the United States. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Statistical microeconomics and commodity prices: theory and empirical results.

PubMed

Baaquie, Belal E

2016-01-13

A review is made of the statistical generalization of microeconomics by Baaquie (Baaquie 2013 Phys. A 392, 4400-4416. (doi:10.1016/j.physa.2013.05.008)), where the market price of every traded commodity, at each instant of time, is considered to be an independent random variable. The dynamics of commodity market prices is given by the unequal time correlation function and is modelled by the Feynman path integral based on an action functional. The correlation functions of the model are defined using the path integral. The existence of the action functional for commodity prices that was postulated to exist in Baaquie (Baaquie 2013 Phys. A 392, 4400-4416. (doi:10.1016/j.physa.2013.05.008)) has been empirically ascertained in Baaquie et al. (Baaquie et al. 2015 Phys. A 428, 19-37. (doi:10.1016/j.physa.2015.02.030)). The model's action functionals for different commodities has been empirically determined and calibrated using the unequal time correlation functions of the market commodity prices using a perturbation expansion (Baaquie et al. 2015 Phys. A 428, 19-37. (doi:10.1016/j.physa.2015.02.030)). Nine commodities drawn from the energy, metal and grain sectors are empirically studied and their auto-correlation for up to 300 days is described by the model to an accuracy of R(2)>0.90-using only six parameters. © 2015 The Author(s).

Estimating the impact of cannabis production on rural land prices in Humboldt County, CA

Treesearch

Benjamin Schwab; Van Butsic

2017-01-01

Amenity values, development potential, commodity prices and productive capacity largely determine rural land prices. For rural lands used in timber and agricultural production, capacity and expected future commodity prices play primary roles. For rural lands that are used as second homes or recreational properties, amenities— such as being near lakes or having scenic...

22 CFR 201.64 - Application of the price rules to commodities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... export freight), and other necessary costs customary in the trade. (b) Calculation of commodity prices...) and (e), USAID will subtract transportation cost as calculated by reference to the freight rate, for the type and flag of vessel on which the commodity was shipped, prevailing on the date the purchase...

22 CFR 201.64 - Application of the price rules to commodities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... export freight), and other necessary costs customary in the trade. (b) Calculation of commodity prices...) and (e), USAID will subtract transportation cost as calculated by reference to the freight rate, for the type and flag of vessel on which the commodity was shipped, prevailing on the date the purchase...

22 CFR 201.64 - Application of the price rules to commodities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... export freight), and other necessary costs customary in the trade. (b) Calculation of commodity prices...) and (e), USAID will subtract transportation cost as calculated by reference to the freight rate, for the type and flag of vessel on which the commodity was shipped, prevailing on the date the purchase...

22 CFR 201.64 - Application of the price rules to commodities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... export freight), and other necessary costs customary in the trade. (b) Calculation of commodity prices...) and (e), USAID will subtract transportation cost as calculated by reference to the freight rate, for the type and flag of vessel on which the commodity was shipped, prevailing on the date the purchase...

7 CFR 1412.53 - Counter-cyclical payment provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... the target price of the covered commodity or peanuts, respectively, as determined in accordance with... market price received by producers during the 12-month marketing year for the covered commodity or... the purposes of paragraphs (a) and (g) of this section, the target prices are as follows: (1) For the...

Economic aspects of virtual water trade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oki, Taikan; Yano, Shinjiro; Hanasaki, Naota

2017-04-01

Although water is rarely traded over long distances by itself, the total weight of the water consumed to produce traded commodities exceeds the weight of any other commodity traded in the world. This concept is known as virtual water trade. Although space-/time-/commodity-based quantification has been conducted extensively, the underlying causes of this peculiar feature have thus far received little exploration. Here, we use estimates of water consumption from a global hydrological model and statistical data related to food trade to elucidate three facts that explain the fundamental nature of virtual water trade with respect to alleviating water scarcity. First, we quantitatively illustrate the unique position of water among commodities based on its unit price and quantity of sales. Water has an extremely low unit price, and a tremendous volume of water is consumed per person each day. Second, we show that rich but water-scarce countries tend to reduce local water consumption by importing virtual water. Third, we demonstrate that nations characterized by net virtual water exports have higher water resources and income per capita and that no countries fall below a certain threshold with respect to both GDP and water resources. These points suggest that the virtual water trade is explained by economic characteristics of water and that sustainable development depends on promoting the co-development of poverty alleviation and water resource development.

How water is different from energy and food?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanasaki, N.; Oki, T.; Yano, S.

2017-12-01

Although water is rarely traded over long distances by itself, the total weight of the water consumed to produce traded commodities exceeds the weight of any other commodity traded in the world. This concept is known as virtual water trade. Although space-/time-/commodity-based quantification has been conducted extensively, the underlying causes of this peculiar feature have thus far received little exploration. Here, we use estimates of water consumption from a global hydrological model and statistical data related to food trade to elucidate three facts that explain the fundamental nature of virtual water trade with respect to alleviating water scarcity. First, we quantitatively illustrate the unique position of water among commodities based on its unit price and quantity of sales. Water has an extremely low unit price, and a tremendous volume of water is consumed per person each day. Second, we show that rich but water-scarce countries tend to reduce local water consumption by importing virtual water. Third, we demonstrate that nations characterized by net virtual water exports have higher water resources and income per capita and that no countries fall below a certain threshold with respect to both GDP and water resources. These points suggest that the virtual water trade is explained by economic characteristics of water and that sustainable development depends on promoting the co-development of poverty alleviation and water resource development.

On the dynamics of the world demographic transition and financial-economic crises forecasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akaev, A.; Sadovnichy, V.; Korotayev, A.

2012-05-01

The article considers dynamic processes involving non-linear power-law behavior in such apparently diverse spheres, as demographic dynamics and dynamics of prices of highly liquid commodities such as oil and gold. All the respective variables exhibit features of explosive growth containing precursors indicating approaching phase transitions/catastrophes/crises. The first part of the article analyzes mathematical models of demographic dynamics that describe various scenarios of demographic development in the post-phase-transition period, including a model that takes the limitedness of the Earth carrying capacity into account. This model points to a critical point in the early 2050s, when the world population, after reaching its maximum value may decrease afterward stabilizing then at a certain stationary level. The article presents an analysis of the influence of the demographic transition (directly connected with the hyperexponential growth of the world population) on the global socioeconomic and geopolitical development. The second part deals with the phenomenon of explosive growth of prices of such highly liquid commodities as oil and gold. It is demonstrated that at present the respective processes could be regarded as precursors of waves of the global financial-economic crisis that will demand the change of the current global economic and political system. It is also shown that the moments of the start of the first and second waves of the current global crisis could have been forecasted with a model of accelerating log-periodic fluctuations superimposed over a power-law trend with a finite singularity developed by Didier Sornette and collaborators. With respect to the oil prices, it is shown that it was possible to forecast the 2008 crisis with a precision up to a month already in 2007. The gold price dynamics was used to calculate the possible time of the start of the second wave of the global crisis (July-August 2011); note that this forecast has turned out to be quite correct.

Implications of Climate Volatility for Agricultural Commodity Markets in the Presence of Biofuel Mandates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verma, M.; Diffenbaugh, N. S.; Hertel, T. W.; Beckman, J.

2011-12-01

In presence of bio-fuels, link between energy and agricultural commodity markets has become more complex. An increase in ethanol production to minimum 15bn gallons a year - Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and current technically permissible maximum 10% blending limit - Blend Wall (BW); make the link even stronger. If oil prices in future do not rise significantly from their current levels, this minimum production requirement would likely be binding. In such a scenario any fluctuation in crop production will have to be absorbed by the non-ethanol usage of the crop and would translate into crop prices adjusting to clear the markets and therefore the commodity prices will be more volatile. At high oil prices it is possible that the BW may become binding, severing the link between oil prices and commodity prices as well, potentially leading to higher price volatility. Hertel and Beckman (2010) find that, with both RFS and BW simultaneously binding, corn price volatility due to supply side shocks (which could arise from extreme climate events) could be more than 50% as large as in the absence of bio-fuel policies. So energy markets are important determinants of agricultural commodity price volatility. This proposal intends to introduce the increased supply side volatility on account of climate change and volatility, in the framework. Global warming on account of increased GHG concentrations is expected to increase the intensity and frequency of hot extremes in US (Diffenbaugh et al. 2008) and therefore affect corn yields. With supply shocks expected to increase, binding RFS and BW will exacerbate the volatility, while if they are non-binding then the price changes could be cushioned. We propose to model the impacts of climate changes and volatility on commodity prices by linking three main components - a. Projections for change in temperature and precipitation using climate model b. A statistical model to predict impacts of change in climate variable on corn yields in US c. Computable General Equilibrium economic model that uses the results of the two above as inputs, to predict commodity prices under alternative energy price scenarios We start with the high resolution projections on temperature and precipitation for US corn-belt for years 2020-2040. A modified version of statistical relationship estimated by Schlenker and Roberts, is used to translate climate variables' change into yield changes for each. Shocks are sampled from this distribution to decipher the corresponding volatility in commodity prices. All else constant, the increased supply side variability should result in increased price volatility; high oil prices however give markets an incentive to produce more than 15bn gallons ethanol a year (non-binding RFS) and part of supply fluctuation in crop production can be borne by ethanol production and impact of climate change on crop prices would be less dramatic than it would have been if the entire adjustment was to come through non-ethanol usage. So impact of climate change clearly depends on energy markets and policy decisions and results should provide insights into impact of climate change on agricultural prices under different energy market scenarios.

12 CFR 966.8 - Conditions for issuance of consolidated obligations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... placed with any Bank. (d) If a Bank participates in any CO denominated in a currency other than U.S. Dollars or linked to equity or commodity prices, then the Bank shall meet the following requirements: (1) The relevant foreign exchange, equity price or commodity price risks associated with the CO must be...

12 CFR 966.8 - Conditions for issuance of consolidated obligations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... placed with any Bank. (d) If a Bank participates in any CO denominated in a currency other than U.S. Dollars or linked to equity or commodity prices, then the Bank shall meet the following requirements: (1) The relevant foreign exchange, equity price or commodity price risks associated with the CO must be...

A dual theory of price and value in a meso-scale economic model with stochastic profit rate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greenblatt, R. E.

2014-12-01

The problem of commodity price determination in a market-based, capitalist economy has a long and contentious history. Neoclassical microeconomic theories are based typically on marginal utility assumptions, while classical macroeconomic theories tend to be value-based. In the current work, I study a simplified meso-scale model of a commodity capitalist economy. The production/exchange model is represented by a network whose nodes are firms, workers, capitalists, and markets, and whose directed edges represent physical or monetary flows. A pair of multivariate linear equations with stochastic input parameters represent physical (supply/demand) and monetary (income/expense) balance. The input parameters yield a non-degenerate profit rate distribution across firms. Labor time and price are found to be eigenvector solutions to the respective balance equations. A simple relation is derived relating the expected value of commodity price to commodity labor content. Results of Monte Carlo simulations are consistent with the stochastic price/labor content relation.

17 CFR 37.3 - Requirements for underlying commodities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

...) Transfer of ownership of the cash commodity that is easily and readily accomplished at minimal cost; (vi) A pattern of cash market pricing that exhibits continuity and the absence of frequent, sharp price changes...

A black box optimization approach to parameter estimation in a model for long/short term variations dynamics of commodity prices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Santis, Alberto; Dellepiane, Umberto; Lucidi, Stefano

2012-11-01

In this paper we investigate the estimation problem for a model of the commodity prices. This model is a stochastic state space dynamical model and the problem unknowns are the state variables and the system parameters. Data are represented by the commodity spot prices, very seldom time series of Futures contracts are available for free. Both the system joint likelihood function (state variables and parameters) and the system marginal likelihood (the state variables are eliminated) function are addressed.

17 CFR 270.22c-1 - Pricing of redeemable securities for distribution, redemption and repurchase.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Pricing of redeemable securities for distribution, redemption and repurchase. 270.22c-1 Section 270.22c-1 Commodity and Securities... 1940 § 270.22c-1 Pricing of redeemable securities for distribution, redemption and repurchase. (a) No...

Budget Constraints Affect Male Rats’ Choices between Differently Priced Commodities

PubMed Central

Kalenscher, Tobias

2015-01-01

Demand theory can be applied to analyse how a human or animal consumer changes her selection of commodities within a certain budget in response to changes in price of those commodities. This change in consumption assessed over a range of prices is defined as demand elasticity. Previously, income-compensated and income-uncompensated price changes have been investigated using human and animal consumers, as demand theory predicts different elasticities for both conditions. However, in these studies, demand elasticity was only evaluated over the entirety of choices made from a budget. As compensating budgets changes the number of attainable commodities relative to uncompensated conditions, and thus the number of choices, it remained unclear whether budget compensation has a trivial effect on demand elasticity by simply sampling from a different total number of choices or has a direct effect on consumers’ sequential choice structure. If the budget context independently changes choices between commodities over and above price effects, this should become apparent when demand elasticity is assessed over choice sets of any reasonable size that are matched in choice opportunities between budget conditions. To gain more detailed insight in the sequential choice dynamics underlying differences in demand elasticity between budget conditions, we trained N=8 rat consumers to spend a daily budget by making a number of nosepokes to obtain two liquid commodities under different price regimes, in sessions with and without budget compensation. We confirmed that demand elasticity for both commodities differed between compensated and uncompensated budget conditions, also when the number of choices considered was matched, and showed that these elasticity differences emerge early in the sessions. These differences in demand elasticity were driven by a higher choice rate and an increased reselection bias for the preferred commodity in compensated compared to uncompensated budget conditions, suggesting a budget context effect on relative valuation. PMID:26053764

Budget Constraints Affect Male Rats' Choices between Differently Priced Commodities.

PubMed

van Wingerden, Marijn; Marx, Christine; Kalenscher, Tobias

2015-01-01

Demand theory can be applied to analyse how a human or animal consumer changes her selection of commodities within a certain budget in response to changes in price of those commodities. This change in consumption assessed over a range of prices is defined as demand elasticity. Previously, income-compensated and income-uncompensated price changes have been investigated using human and animal consumers, as demand theory predicts different elasticities for both conditions. However, in these studies, demand elasticity was only evaluated over the entirety of choices made from a budget. As compensating budgets changes the number of attainable commodities relative to uncompensated conditions, and thus the number of choices, it remained unclear whether budget compensation has a trivial effect on demand elasticity by simply sampling from a different total number of choices or has a direct effect on consumers' sequential choice structure. If the budget context independently changes choices between commodities over and above price effects, this should become apparent when demand elasticity is assessed over choice sets of any reasonable size that are matched in choice opportunities between budget conditions. To gain more detailed insight in the sequential choice dynamics underlying differences in demand elasticity between budget conditions, we trained N=8 rat consumers to spend a daily budget by making a number of nosepokes to obtain two liquid commodities under different price regimes, in sessions with and without budget compensation. We confirmed that demand elasticity for both commodities differed between compensated and uncompensated budget conditions, also when the number of choices considered was matched, and showed that these elasticity differences emerge early in the sessions. These differences in demand elasticity were driven by a higher choice rate and an increased reselection bias for the preferred commodity in compensated compared to uncompensated budget conditions, suggesting a budget context effect on relative valuation.

Cr, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, and Steel Price Drivers

USGS Publications Warehouse

Papp, John F.; Corathers, Lisa A.; Edelstein, Daniel L.; Fenton, Michael D.; Kuck, Peter H.; Magyar, Michael J.

2007-01-01

Summary This report contains the 55 slide images from a presentation made by the author at the meeting of the Metal Powder Industries Federation held in Denver, CO, on May 15, 2007. The Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) invited the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to speak at their annual meeting about the price drivers for chromium, copper, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, and steel. These metals are of interest to MPIF because the prices of these raw materials used by their industry were at historically high levels. Because the USGS closely monitors, yet neither buys nor sells, metal commodities, it is an unbiased source of metal price information and analysis. The authors used information about these and other metals collected and published by the USGS (U.S. production, trade, stocks, and prices) and about consumption and stocks internationally by country from industry organizations that publish such information, because metal markets are influenced by activities and events over the entire globe. By seeking a common cause for common behavior among the various metal commodities, the authors found that major price drivers on metal commodities were inflation, major international events such as wars and recessions, and major national events such as the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and economic growth in China, which started with the open door policy in the 1970s but did not have significant market impact until starting in the 1990s. Metal commodity prices also responded to commodity-specific events.

Kinetic market models with single commodity having price fluctuations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chatterjee, A.; Chakrabarti, B. K.

2006-12-01

We study here numerically the behavior of an ideal gas like model of markets having only one non-consumable commodity. We investigate the behavior of the steady-state distributions of money, commodity and total wealth, as the dynamics of trading or exchange of money and commodity proceeds, with local (in time) fluctuations in the price of the commodity. These distributions are studied in markets with agents having uniform and random saving factors. The self-organizing features in money distribution are similar to the cases without any commodity (or with consumable commodities), while the commodity distribution shows an exponential decay. The wealth distribution shows interesting behavior: gamma like distribution for uniform saving propensity and has the same power-law tail, as that of the money distribution, for a market with agents having random saving propensity.

A Study on Market Efficiency of Selected Commodity Derivatives Traded on NCDEX During 2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sajipriya, N.

2012-10-01

The study aims at testing the weak form of Efficient Market Hypothesis in the context of an emerging commodity market - National Commodity Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), which is considered as the prime commodity derivatives market in India. The study considered daily spot and futures prices of five selected commodities traded on NCDEX over 12 month period (the futures contracts originating and expiring during the period January 2011 to December 2011) The five commodities chosen are Pepper, Crude palm Oil, steel silver and Chana as they account for almost two-thirds of the value of agricultural commodity derivatives traded on NCDEX. The results of Run test indicate that both spot and futures prices are weak form efficient

World Trade Organization Seattle Ministerial: Outcomes and Lessons Learned

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-02-10

abandon its reliance on export subsidies. Export subsidies, however, are a key mechanism in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy . The Common... Agricultural Policy is intended to preserve farm incomes and rural economies by supporting high domestic prices for a wide variety of agricultural commodities...and products. EU member states have taken a very strong position on maintaining the Common Agricultural Policy , which is a central element in the

Metal prices in the United States through 2010

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

2013-01-01

This report, which updates and revises the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (1999) publication, “Metal Prices in the United States Through 1998,” presents an extended price history for a wide range of metals available in a single document. Such information can be useful for the analysis of mineral commodity issues, as well as for other purposes. The chapter for each mineral commodity includes a graph of annual current and constant dollar prices for 1970 through 2010, where available; a list of significant events that affected prices; a brief discussion of the metal and its history; and one or more tables that list current dollar prices. In some cases, the metal prices presented herein are for some alternative form of an element or, instead of a price, a value, such as the value for an import as appraised by the U.S. Customs Service. Also included are the prices for steel, steel scrap, and iron ore—steel because of its importance to the elements used to alloy with it, and steel scrap and iron ore because of their use in steelmaking. A few minor metals, such as calcium, potassium, sodium, strontium, and thorium, for which price histories were insufficient, were excluded. The annual prices given may be averages for the year, yearend prices, or some other price as appropriate for a particular commodity. Certain trade journals have been the source of much of this price information—American Metal Market, ICIS Chemical Business, Engineering and Mining Journal, Industrial Minerals, Metal Bulletin, Mining Journal, Platts Metals Week, Roskill Information Services Ltd. commodity reports, and Ryan’s Notes. Price information also is available in minerals information publications of the USGS (1880–1925, 1996–present) and the U.S. Bureau of Mines (1926–95), such as Mineral Commodity Summaries, Mineral Facts and Problems, Mineral Industry Surveys, and Minerals Yearbook. In addition to prices themselves, these journals and publications contain information relevant to prices, which has been helpful in the preparation of this publication. Prices in this report have been graphed in 1992 constant dollars to show the effects of inflation as measured by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, a widely used measure of overall inflation in the United States. These prices are not tabulated, but a table of the deflators used is given in an appendix. Constant dollar prices can be used to show how prices that producers receive would have less purchasing power.

17 CFR 270.22e-2 - Pricing of redemption requests in accordance with Rule 22c-1.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Pricing of redemption requests in accordance with Rule 22c-1. 270.22e-2 Section 270.22e-2 Commodity and Securities Exchanges....22e-2 Pricing of redemption requests in accordance with Rule 22c-1. An investment company shall not be...

Ukraine: The Lingering Soviet Headache and 25+ Years of Hybrid Rule

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-01

much time and money is invested by the United States and international organizations for the development of democracies around the world. The amount of...relationship between the government and economy. The intermingling of money and politics continues even after reforms accelerated in the 2000s, giving...prices for basic commodities. Ukraine’s economy is far from a free market model found in most well-developed democracies. As a result of this

17 CFR 32.3 - Unlawful commodity option transactions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Unlawful commodity option... REGULATION OF COMMODITY OPTION TRANSACTIONS § 32.3 Unlawful commodity option transactions. (a) On and after... extend credit in lieu thereof) from an option customer as payment of the purchase price in connection...

Nonlinear bivariate dependency of price-volume relationships in agricultural commodity futures markets: A perspective from Multifractal Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Ling-Yun; Chen, Shu-Peng

2011-01-01

Nonlinear dependency between characteristic financial and commodity market quantities (variables) is crucially important, especially between trading volume and market price. Studies on nonlinear dependency between price and volume can provide practical insights into market trading characteristics, as well as the theoretical understanding of market dynamics. Actually, nonlinear dependency and its underlying dynamical mechanisms between price and volume can help researchers and technical analysts in understanding the market dynamics by integrating the market variables, instead of investigating them in the current literature. Therefore, for investigating nonlinear dependency of price-volume relationships in agricultural commodity futures markets in China and the US, we perform a new statistical test to detect cross-correlations and apply a new methodology called Multifractal Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis (MF-DCCA), which is an efficient algorithm to analyze two spatially or temporally correlated time series. We discuss theoretically the relationship between the bivariate cross-correlation exponent and the generalized Hurst exponents for time series of respective variables. We also perform an empirical study and find that there exists a power-law cross-correlation between them, and that multifractal features are significant in all the analyzed agricultural commodity futures markets.

7 CFR 1424.8 - Payment amounts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... determines to be appropriate for the applicable commodity. (ii) For biodiesel made from: (A) Soybeans or soy...) Eligible commodities other than soybeans or soy oil that have a corresponding oil or grease market price... divided by the soy oil price published in the Agricultural Marketing Service's weekly “Soybean Crush...

7 CFR 1424.8 - Payment amounts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... determines to be appropriate for the applicable commodity. (ii) For biodiesel made from: (A) Soybeans or soy...) Eligible commodities other than soybeans or soy oil that have a corresponding oil or grease market price... divided by the soy oil price published in the Agricultural Marketing Service's weekly “Soybean Crush...

17 CFR 37.403 - Additional requirements for cash-settled swaps.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... requirements for cash-settled swaps. (a) For cash-settled swaps, the swap execution facility shall demonstrate that it monitors the pricing of the reference price used to determine cash flows or settlement; (b) For... cash-settled swaps. 37.403 Section 37.403 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING...

Pharmaceutical companies and global lack of access to medicines: strengthening accountability under the right to health.

PubMed

Grover, Anand; Citro, Brian; Mankad, Mihir; Lander, Fiona

2012-01-01

Many medicines currently available on the market are simply too expensive for millions around the world to afford. Many medicines available in the developing world are only available to a small percentage of the population due to economic inequities. The profit-seeking behavior of pharmaceutical companies exacerbates this problem. In most cases, the price reductions required to make drugs affordable to a broader class of people in the developing world are not offset by the resultant increase in sales volume. Simply stated, in most of the developing world, it is more profitable to sell drugs to the very wealthy at high prices than it is to sell cheaper drugs to a greater number of people. As a result, medicines remain unaffordable for the vast majority of people in many parts of the world. While this might be an acceptable outcome for certain commodities, such as luxury goods, it is completely unacceptable for life-saving medicines. Therefore, in order to effectively address the global lack of access to medicines, the role pharmaceutical companies play in the international intellectual property regime must be critically examined. © 2012 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

Preemption games: theory and experiment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anderson, Steven T.; Friedman, Daniel; Oprea, Ryan

2010-01-01

El Mutún, perhaps the world's largest remaining iron ore deposit, was opened to private investors in the 1980s but, due to the high cost of developing the remote Bolivian site, there were no takers for two decades. In late 2005, spurred by rising commodity prices, the Brazilian company EBX finally seized the opportunity, preempting rivals based in China and India. Numerous similar examples can be found in the annals of mining and oil companies (Raymond F. Mikesell et al. 1971).

17 CFR 229.1204 - (Item 1204) Oil and gas production, production prices and production costs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false (Item 1204) Oil and gas production, production prices and production costs. 229.1204 Section 229.1204 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION STANDARD INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILING FORMS UNDER SECURITIES ACT OF...

Managing commodity risks in highway contracts : quantifying premiums, accounting for correlations among risk factors, and designing optimal price-adjustment contracts.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-09-01

It is a well-known fact that macro-economic conditions, such as prices of commodities (e.g. oil, : cement and steel) affect the cost of construction projects. In a volatile market environment, highway : agencies often pass such risk to contractors us...

Commodity Tracker: Mobile Application for Food Security Monitoring in Haiti

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiu, M. T.; Huang, X.; Baird, J.; Gourley, J. R.; Morelli, R.; de Lanerolle, T. R.; Haiti Food Security Monitoring Mobile App Team

2011-12-01

Megan Chiu, Jason Baird, Xu Huang, Trishan de Lanerolle, Ralph Morelli, Jonathan Gourley Trinity College, Computer Science Department and Environmental Science Program, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106 megan.chiu@trincoll.edu, Jason.baird@trincoll.edu, xu.huang@trincoll.edu, trishan.delanerolle@trincoll.edu, ralph.morelli@trincoll.edu, jonathan.gourley@trincoll.edu Price data for Haiti commodities such as rice and potatoes have been traditionally recorded by hand on paper forms for many years. The information is then entered onto computer manually, thus making the process a long and arduous one. With the development of the Haiti Commodity Tracker mobile app, we are able to make this commodity price data recording process more efficient. Officials may use this information for making inferences about the difference in commodity prices and for food distribution during critical time after natural disasters. This information can also be utilized by governments and aid agencies on their food assistance programs. Agronomists record the item prices from several sample sites in a marketplace and compare those results from other markets across the region. Due to limited connectivity in rural areas, data is first saved to the phone's database and then retransmitted to a central server via SMS messaging. The mobile app is currently being field tested by an international NGO providing agricultural aid and support in rural Haiti.

China QIUSHI SEEKING TRUTH no 4, 16 August 1988

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-09-26

excessive rise of commodity prices, and the crux of the price problem lies in the prices food . The current imbal- ance in the market’s supply of and...income of the urban and rural residents has increased and their demand for food consumption has increased extremely rapidly. According to statistics...from 1979 to 1986, of the consumption outlay in the urban and rural residents’ daily life, that for food commodities increased by 200 percent

Landuse Carbon Implications of a Drawdown of Ethanol Production and an Increase in Well-Managed Pastures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hellwinckel, C. M.; Phillips, J.

2011-12-01

Over the past 10 years, commodity grain prices have doubled, and world commodity prices have reached their highest levels in over 30 years. The rise in prices culminated in the food price spikes of 2008 and 2011, where food riots erupted in 40 countries. Although studies have pointed to a number of factors leading to the increased food prices, the ethanol industry, whether deservingly or not, is seen as the major factor behind the price spikes. Several recent studies have contributed to the poor public opinion of ethanol by concluding that ethanol is neither a net energy source nor a net reducer of carbon emissions. The impact of these research reports combined with recent spikes in commodity prices has led to fierce political efforts to reduce or eliminate subsidies for ethanol. Opponents of ethanol subsidization won a significant battle with Congress recently voting to eliminate federal blender's tax credits and ethanol import tariffs. If another sharp spike in commodity prices occurs in the near future, some have speculated that ethanol production mandates could be scaled back or eliminated. In the span of less than three years the expected role of ethanol in the agricultural sector has gone from one of rapid growth and longevity, to one of which the societal benefits are being strongly questioned. In light of the rapidly changing expectations regarding the future of ethanol, we believe it is an appropriate time to evaluate the landuse and carbon implications of a scaling down of ethanol production and investigating permanent managed pasture as an alternative land use that could provide carbon benefits. Various USDA programs to promote conservation of, or conversion to, permanent pasture or grassland exist primarily based on the value of decreasing the potential for soil erosion as well as improving water quality. Although grazing systems have long been associated with land degradation in the arid and semi-arid west, new management approaches utilizing some form of rotational grazing are believed to reverse degradation and potentially lead to soil and pasture improvement if well managed, with implications for soil carbon storage. As the debate over societal subsidization of ethanol continues, the scientific communities should prepare for a potential drawdown of ethanol, and be aware of the potential land use impacts. An integrated biogeophysical socioeconomic model is used to evaluate three levels of potential reductions in ethanol production along with the possibility of conversion of non-profitable cropland to pasture management. The integrated model (POLYSYS) is driven by data on economics, terrestrial carbon dynamics, remotely-sensed land cover, and energy consumption. Preliminary results indicate that up to 10 million hectares of cropland could convert to pastureland, reducing agricultural land use emissions by nearly 10 teragrams carbon equivalent (TgCeq), a 36% decline in agricultural land use carbon equivalent emissions.

A game theory model for stabilizing price of chili: A case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wardayanti, Ari; Aviv, Afgan Suffan; Sutopo, Wahyudi; Hisjam, Muh.

2017-11-01

Chili is one of the important agricultural commodity in Indonesia because of its widely consumption by the Indonesian. Chili becomes one of the commodities that experience price fluctuations and important cause of yearly inflation in Indonesia. The unstable price of chili is affected by the scarcity of the commodity in some months and the difference of the harvest season. This study proposes a model to solve the problem by considering the substitution of fresh chilies with dried chili. We propose the cooperative of chili's farmer as entities that process fresh chili into dry ones. The existence of substitution products is expected to maintain the price stability chili. This research was conducted by taking a case study on chili commodity markets in Surakarta which consists of 19 traditional markets. This study aims to create a price stabilization scheme with product substitution using a game theory model. There are 4 strategies proposed in game theory model to describe the relationship between producers and consumers. In this case, the producers are the farmers and the consumers are the trade market. A mixed strategy of was chosen to determine the optimal value among 4 strategies. From the calculation results obtained optimal value when doing a mixed strategy of IDR 201,188,829,000.

Hardwood log grading and lumber value

Treesearch

Allen W. Bratton

1948-01-01

For practically every commodity - beef, wool, grains, hides, lard, milk, eggs, etc. - there are standard grades based on quality. A price based on these standards is a fairly accurate measure of value. A person who deals with one of these commodities can use such price quotations in his business operations; in fact, he must. These quality specifications are essential...

Price adjustment clauses : report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-10-01

Price adjustment mechanisms exist to account for fluctuations in commodity or labor prices and have : been used for highway construction in 47 states. They are useful in stabilizing bid prices in times of : economic uncertainty and preventing default...

A Space Commodities Futures Trading Exchange to Grow the Lunar Economy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cahan, B. B. C.

2017-10-01

This paper proposes to establish a Space Commodities Futures Trading Exchange in order to define and trade essential commodities that, when traded on an open exchange, improve availability, quality, price discovery, financeability, and equal access.

Measuring Price Changes: A Study of the Price Indexes. Fourth Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallace, William H.; Cullison, William E.

This three-part monograph examines the major price indexes used to measure the intensity of inflation. The first part discusses the recent behavior of prices as measured by the Consumer Price Index (commodities, goods, and services), the Producer Price Index (wholesale prices of crude materials, intermediate materials, supplies, components, and…

17 CFR 19.01 - Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

..., soybean meal or cotton. 19.01 Section 19.01 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING... MERCHANTS AND DEALERS IN COTTON § 19.01 Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat, corn, oats, soybeans, soybean oil, soybean meal or cotton. (a) Information...

17 CFR 19.01 - Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

..., soybean meal or cotton. 19.01 Section 19.01 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING... MERCHANTS AND DEALERS IN COTTON § 19.01 Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat, corn, oats, soybeans, soybean oil, soybean meal or cotton. (a) Information...

17 CFR 19.01 - Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

..., soybean meal or cotton. 19.01 Section 19.01 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING... MERCHANTS AND DEALERS IN COTTON § 19.01 Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat, corn, oats, soybeans, soybean oil, soybean meal or cotton. (a) Information...

17 CFR 19.01 - Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

..., soybean meal or cotton. 19.01 Section 19.01 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING... MERCHANTS AND DEALERS IN COTTON § 19.01 Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat, corn, oats, soybeans, soybean oil, soybean meal or cotton. (a) Information...

17 CFR 19.01 - Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

..., soybean meal or cotton. 19.01 Section 19.01 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING... MERCHANTS AND DEALERS IN COTTON § 19.01 Reports on stocks and fixed price purchases and sales pertaining to futures positions in wheat, corn, oats, soybeans, soybean oil, soybean meal or cotton. (a) Information...

A Descriptive Analysis of Supply Factors and Prices for USDA Foods in the National School Lunch Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Cora

2010-01-01

Purpose/Objectives: Schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) receive a portion of their annual federal funding as commodity entitlement foods--now called USDA Foods--rather than cash payments. Due to rising food prices in recent years, it has been recommended that schools compare the costs and benefits of commodity and…

Accurate market price formation model with both supply-demand and trend-following for global food prices providing policy recommendations

PubMed Central

Lagi, Marco; Bar-Yam, Yavni; Bertrand, Karla Z.; Bar-Yam, Yaneer

2015-01-01

Recent increases in basic food prices are severely affecting vulnerable populations worldwide. Proposed causes such as shortages of grain due to adverse weather, increasing meat consumption in China and India, conversion of corn to ethanol in the United States, and investor speculation on commodity markets lead to widely differing implications for policy. A lack of clarity about which factors are responsible reinforces policy inaction. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, we construct a dynamic model that quantitatively agrees with food prices. The results show that the dominant causes of price increases are investor speculation and ethanol conversion. Models that just treat supply and demand are not consistent with the actual price dynamics. The two sharp peaks in 2007/2008 and 2010/2011 are specifically due to investor speculation, whereas an underlying upward trend is due to increasing demand from ethanol conversion. The model includes investor trend following as well as shifting between commodities, equities, and bonds to take advantage of increased expected returns. Claims that speculators cannot influence grain prices are shown to be invalid by direct analysis of price-setting practices of granaries. Both causes of price increase, speculative investment and ethanol conversion, are promoted by recent regulatory changes—deregulation of the commodity markets, and policies promoting the conversion of corn to ethanol. Rapid action is needed to reduce the impacts of the price increases on global hunger. PMID:26504216

Accurate market price formation model with both supply-demand and trend-following for global food prices providing policy recommendations.

PubMed

Lagi, Marco; Bar-Yam, Yavni; Bertrand, Karla Z; Bar-Yam, Yaneer

2015-11-10

Recent increases in basic food prices are severely affecting vulnerable populations worldwide. Proposed causes such as shortages of grain due to adverse weather, increasing meat consumption in China and India, conversion of corn to ethanol in the United States, and investor speculation on commodity markets lead to widely differing implications for policy. A lack of clarity about which factors are responsible reinforces policy inaction. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, we construct a dynamic model that quantitatively agrees with food prices. The results show that the dominant causes of price increases are investor speculation and ethanol conversion. Models that just treat supply and demand are not consistent with the actual price dynamics. The two sharp peaks in 2007/2008 and 2010/2011 are specifically due to investor speculation, whereas an underlying upward trend is due to increasing demand from ethanol conversion. The model includes investor trend following as well as shifting between commodities, equities, and bonds to take advantage of increased expected returns. Claims that speculators cannot influence grain prices are shown to be invalid by direct analysis of price-setting practices of granaries. Both causes of price increase, speculative investment and ethanol conversion, are promoted by recent regulatory changes-deregulation of the commodity markets, and policies promoting the conversion of corn to ethanol. Rapid action is needed to reduce the impacts of the price increases on global hunger.

Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports.

PubMed

Swenson, Jennifer J; Carter, Catherine E; Domec, Jean-Christophe; Delgado, Cesar I

2011-04-19

Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for a single commodity and the ecosystem destruction resulting from commodity extraction, recorded by satellites for one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. We find that since 2003, recent mining deforestation in Madre de Dios, Peru is increasing nonlinearly alongside a constant annual rate of increase in international gold price (∼18%/yr). We detect that the new pattern of mining deforestation (1915 ha/year, 2006-2009) is outpacing that of nearby settlement deforestation. We show that gold price is linked with exponential increases in Peruvian national mercury imports over time (R(2) = 0.93, p = 0.04, 2003-2009). Given the past rates of increase we predict that mercury imports may more than double for 2011 (∼500 t/year). Virtually all of Peru's mercury imports are used in artisanal gold mining. Much of the mining increase is unregulated/artisanal in nature, lacking environmental impact analysis or miner education. As a result, large quantities of mercury are being released into the atmosphere, sediments and waterways. Other developing countries endowed with gold deposits are likely experiencing similar environmental destruction in response to recent record high gold prices. The increasing availability of satellite imagery ought to evoke further studies linking economic variables with land use and cover changes on the ground.

Multifactor valuation models of energy futures and options on futures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertus, Mark J.

The intent of this dissertation is to investigate continuous time pricing models for commodity derivative contracts that consider mean reversion. The motivation for pricing commodity futures and option on futures contracts leads to improved practical risk management techniques in markets where uncertainty is increasing. In the dissertation closed-form solutions to mean reverting one-factor, two-factor, three-factor Brownian motions are developed for futures contracts. These solutions are obtained through risk neutral pricing methods that yield tractable expressions for futures prices, which are linear in the state variables, hence making them attractive for estimation. These functions, however, are expressed in terms of latent variables (i.e. spot prices, convenience yield) which complicate the estimation of the futures pricing equation. To address this complication a discussion on Dynamic factor analysis is given. This procedure documents latent variables using a Kalman filter and illustrations show how this technique may be used for the analysis. In addition, to the futures contracts closed form solutions for two option models are obtained. Solutions to the one- and two-factor models are tailored solutions of the Black-Scholes pricing model. Furthermore, since these contracts are written on the futures contracts, they too are influenced by the same underlying parameters of the state variables used to price the futures contracts. To conclude, the analysis finishes with an investigation of commodity futures options that incorporate random discrete jumps.

Pricing commodity outpatient procedures assessing the impact.

PubMed

Cleverley, William O

2015-10-01

Hospitals should carefully consider all relevant factors before choosing to lower prices and payments for certain outpatient commodity services in an effort to remain competitive in their market. Key steps to take in the evaluation process include: Determining current profitability. Assessing profitability by payer class. Understanding overall cost positions. Assessing the relative payment terms of current commercial contracts. Determining the net revenue effect of proposed changes.

The inevitable commoditization of electric power markets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mango, B.; Woodley, J.A.C.

1994-11-01

As competition grows between electric suppliers it is inevitable that a spot market in electricity will evolve. The impetus is the market demand for greater asset productivity. With prices revealed, a commodity market will follow. With spot and commodity markets will come the power to reallocate risk and make capital investment more productive. Given price volatility, separate markets will develop for near- and long-term hedging instruments.

77 FR 77038 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Notice of Intent to Renew Collection, Futures Volume...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-31

... COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION Agency Information Collection Activities: Notice of Intent to Renew Collection, Futures Volume, Open Interest, Price, Deliveries and Exchange of Futures for Physicals AGENCY: Commodity Futures Trading Commission. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Commodity Futures Trading...

Trade in medicines and the public's health: a time series analysis of import disruptions during the 2015 India-Nepal border blockade.

PubMed

Sharma, Abhishek; Mishra, Shiva Raj; Kaplan, Warren A

2017-08-22

Nepal was struck by devastating earthquakes in April-May 2015, followed by the India-Nepal border blockade later that year. We used the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics (UN Comtrade) database to analyse exports of various health commodities from India to Nepal from January 2011-September 2016. We used time-series regressions of trading volume vs. unit price to ask how well Nepal's trading history with India prior to the earthquake and blockade was able to predict unit prices of health commodities imported into Nepal during and after the earthquake and the blockade. Regression residuals were used to quantify the extent to which the blockade impacted the price of healthcare commodities crossing into Nepal. During the blockade period (September 2015-early February 2016), the volume of all retail medicines traded across the India-Nepal border was reduced by 46.5% compared to same months in 2014-2015. For medical dressings, large volumes were exported from India to Nepal during and shortly after the earthquakes (May-June 2015), but decreased soon thereafter. During the earthquake, the difference between observed and predicted values of unit price (residuals) for all commodities show no statistical outliers. However, during the border blockade, Nepal paid USD 22.3 million more for retail medicines than one would have predicted based on its prior trading history with India, enough to provide healthcare to nearly half of Kathmandu's citizens for 1 year. The India-Nepal blockade was a geopolitical natural experiment demonstrating how a land-locked country is vulnerable to the vagaries of its primary trading partner. Although short-lived, the blockade had an immediate impact on traded medicine volumes and prices, and provided a large opportunity cost with implications for public health.

United States benefits of improved worldwide wheat crop information from a LANDSAT system overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

The value of improvements in worldwide information on wheat crops provided by LANDSAT was measured in the context of world wheat markets. These benefits were based on exiting LANDSAT technical goals and assumed that information would be made available to the United States and other countries at the same time. The benefits to the United States of such public LANDSAT information on wheat crops were found to be 174 million dollars a year on the average. The benefits from improved wheat crop information compare favorably with the annual system's cost of about $62 million. A detailed empirical sample demonstration of the effect of improved information was developed. The history of wheat commodity prices for 1971-72 was reconstructed and the price changes from improved vs. historical information were compared.

Quantum diffusion of prices and profits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piotrowski, Edward W.; Sładkowski, Jan

2005-01-01

We discuss the time evolution of quotations of stocks and commodities and show that corrections to the orthodox Bachelier model inspired by quantum mechanical time evolution of particles may be important. Our analysis shows that traders tactics can interfere as waves do and trader's strategies can be reproduced from the corresponding Wigner functions. The proposed interpretation of the chaotic movement of market prices imply that the Bachelier behaviour follows from short-time interference of tactics adopted (paths followed) by the rest of the world considered as a single trader and the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck corrections to the Bachelier model should qualitatively matter only for large time scales. The famous smithonian invisible hand is interpreted as a short-time tactics of whole the market considered as a single opponent. We also propose a solution to the currency preference paradox.

Assessing Unit-Price Related Remifentanil Choice in Rhesus Monkeys

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galuska, Chad M.; Winger, Gail; Woods, James H.; Hursh, Steven R.

2006-01-01

Given a commodity available at different prices, a unit-price account of choice predicts preference for the cheaper alternative. This experiment determined if rhesus monkeys preferred remifentanil (an ultra-short-acting [mu]-opioid agonist) delivered at a lower unit price over a higher-priced remifentanil alternative (Phases 1 and 3). Choice…

17 CFR 242.201 - Price test.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Price test. 242.201 Section...-Regulation of Short Sales § 242.201 Price test. Link to an amendment published at 75 FR 11323, Mar. 10, 2010. (a) No short sale price test, including any short sale price test of any self-regulatory organization...

Multifractal analysis of the Korean agricultural market

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Hongseok; Oh, Gabjin; Kim, Seunghwan

2011-11-01

We have studied the long-term memory effects of the Korean agricultural market using the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) method. In general, the return time series of various financial data, including stock indices, foreign exchange rates, and commodity prices, are uncorrelated in time, while the volatility time series are strongly correlated. However, we found that the return time series of Korean agricultural commodity prices are anti-correlated in time, while the volatility time series are correlated. The n-point correlations of time series were also examined, and it was found that a multifractal structure exists in Korean agricultural market prices.

Marketing and pricing strategies of online pharmacies.

PubMed

Levaggi, Rosella; Orizio, Grazia; Domenighini, Serena; Bressanelli, Maura; Schulz, Peter J; Zani, Claudia; Caimi, Luigi; Gelatti, Umberto

2009-10-01

Internet and e-commerce have profoundly changed society, the economy, and the world of health care. The web offers opportunities to improve health, but it may also represent a big health hazard since it is a basically unregulated market with very low consumer protection. In this paper we analyze marketing and pricing strategies of online pharmacies (OPs). Our analysis shows that OPs use strategies that would be more suitable for a commodity market than for drugs. These strategies differentiate according to variety (brand or generic), quality, quantity, and target group. OPs are well aware that the vacuum in the legislation allows them to reach a target of consumers that pharmacies cannot normally reach, such as those who would like to use the drug without consulting a physician (or, even worse, against the physician's advice). In this case, they usually charge a higher price, reassure the users by minimizing on the side effects, and induce them to bulk purchase through sensible price discounts. This analysis suggests that the selling of drugs via the Internet can turn into a "public health risk", as has been pointed out by the US Food and Drug Administration.

On the importance of commodity and energy price shocks for the macroeconomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edelstein, Paul S.

Although higher commodity prices are commonly thought to presage higher rates of inflation, the existing literature suggests that the predictive power of commodity prices for inflation has waned since the 1980s. In the first chapter, I show that this result can be overturned using state-of-the-art forecast combination methods. Moreover, commodity prices are shown to contain predictive information not contained in the leading principal components of a broad set of macroeconomic and financial variables. These improved inflation forecasts are of little value, however, for predicting actual Fed policy decisions. The remaining two chapters study the effect of energy price shocks on U.S. consumer and business expenditures. In the second chapter, I show that there is no statistical support for the presence of asymmetries in the response of real consumption to energy price increases and decreases. This finding has important implications for empirical and theoretical models of the transmission of energy price shocks. I then quantify the direct effect on real consumption of (1) unanticipated changes in discretionary income, (2) shifts in precautionary savings, and (3) changes in the operating cost of energy-using durables. Finally, I trace the declining importance of energy price shocks relative to the 1970s to changes in the composition of U.S. automobile production and the declining overall importance of the U.S. automobile sector. An alternative source of asymmetry is the response of nonresidential fixed investment to energy price shocks. In the third chapter, I show that the apparent asymmetry in the estimated responses of business fixed investment in equipment and structures is largely an artifact (1) of the aggregation of mining-related expenditures by the oil, natural gas, and coal mining industry and all other expenditures, and (2) of ignoring an exogenous shift in investment caused by the 1986 Tax Reform Act. Once symmetry is imposed and miningrelated expenditures are excluded, the estimated response of business fixed investment in equipment and structures tends to be small and mostly statistically insignificant. Historical decompositions show that energy price shocks have played a minor role in driving fluctuations in nonresidential fixed investment other than investment in mining.

Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon: Global Prices, Deforestation, and Mercury Imports

PubMed Central

Swenson, Jennifer J.; Carter, Catherine E.; Domec, Jean-Christophe; Delgado, Cesar I.

2011-01-01

Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for a single commodity and the ecosystem destruction resulting from commodity extraction, recorded by satellites for one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. We find that since 2003, recent mining deforestation in Madre de Dios, Peru is increasing nonlinearly alongside a constant annual rate of increase in international gold price (∼18%/yr). We detect that the new pattern of mining deforestation (1915 ha/year, 2006–2009) is outpacing that of nearby settlement deforestation. We show that gold price is linked with exponential increases in Peruvian national mercury imports over time (R2 = 0.93, p = 0.04, 2003–2009). Given the past rates of increase we predict that mercury imports may more than double for 2011 (∼500 t/year). Virtually all of Peru's mercury imports are used in artisanal gold mining. Much of the mining increase is unregulated/artisanal in nature, lacking environmental impact analysis or miner education. As a result, large quantities of mercury are being released into the atmosphere, sediments and waterways. Other developing countries endowed with gold deposits are likely experiencing similar environmental destruction in response to recent record high gold prices. The increasing availability of satellite imagery ought to evoke further studies linking economic variables with land use and cover changes on the ground. PMID:21526143

Stochastic processes in the social sciences: Markets, prices and wealth distributions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romero, Natalia E.

The present work uses statistical mechanics tools to investigate the dynamics of markets, prices, trades and wealth distribution. We studied the evolution of market dynamics in different stages of historical development by analyzing commodity prices from two distinct periods ancient Babylon, and medieval and early modern England. We find that the first-digit distributions of both Babylon and England commodity prices follow Benfords law, indicating that the data represent empirical observations typically arising from a free market. Further, we find that the normalized prices of both Babylon and England agricultural commodities are characterized by stretched exponential distributions, and exhibit persistent correlations of a power law type over long periods of up to several centuries, in contrast to contemporary markets. Our findings suggest that similar market interactions may underlie the dynamics of ancient agricultural commodity prices, and that these interactions may remain stable across centuries. To further investigate the dynamics of markets we present the analogy between transfers of money between individuals and the transfer of energy through particle collisions by means of the kinetic theory of gases. We introduce a theoretical framework of how the micro rules of trading lead to the emergence of income and wealth distribution. Particularly, we study the effects of different types of distribution of savings/investments among individuals in a society and different welfare/subsidies redistribution policies. Results show that while considering savings propensities the models approach empirical distributions of wealth quite well the effect of redistribution better captures specific features of the distributions which earlier models failed to do; moreover the models still preserve the exponential decay observed in empirical income distributions reported by tax data and surveys.

7 CFR 5.3 - Selection of calendar year price data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... payments as provided by section 301(a)(1)(B). For Maryland Tobacco, type 32, the price data for each... 7 Agriculture 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Selection of calendar year price data. 5.3 Section 5.3... year price data. In computing the adjusted base price for those commodities for which calendar year...

75 FR 41365 - Dairy Product Price Support Program and Dairy Indemnity Payment Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-16

...;Prices of new books are listed in the first FEDERAL REGISTER issue of each #0;week. #0; #0; #0; #0;#0... 0560-AH88 Dairy Product Price Support Program and Dairy Indemnity Payment Program AGENCY: Commodity... regulations for the Dairy Product Price Support Program (DPPSP), which has replaced the Price Support Program...

The substitutability of cigarettes and food: A behavioral economic comparison in normal weight and overweight or obese smokers.

PubMed

Murphy, Cara M; Owens, Max M; Sweet, Lawrence H; MacKillop, James

2016-12-01

Obesity and cigarette smoking contribute to a multitude of preventable deaths in the United States and eating and smoking behavior may influence each other. The field of behavioral economics integrates principles from psychology and economics and permits systematic examination of how commodities interrelate with one another. Using this framework, the current study evaluated the effects of rising food and cigarette prices on consumption to investigate their substitutability and their relationship to BMI and associated variables. Behavioral economics categorizes commodities as substitutable when the consumption of one increases as a function of a price increase in the other. Smokers (N = 86) completed a 2-part hypothetical task in which money was allocated to purchase cigarettes and fast-food-style reinforcers (e.g., hamburgers, ice cream) at various prices. Results indicated that food and cigarettes were not substitutes for one another (cross-price elasticity coefficients < .20). Food purchases were independent of cigarette price, whereas cigarette purchases decreased as food price rose. Cross-price elasticity coefficients were significantly associated with confidence in one's ability to control weight without smoking (rs = -.23 and .29), but not BMI (rs = .04 and .04) or postcessation weight concerns (rs = -.05 and .12). Perceived ability to manage weight without cigarettes may influence who substitutes food for cigarettes when quitting. In addition, given observed decreases in purchases of both commodities as food prices increased, these findings imply that greater taxation of fast-food-style reinforcers could potentially reduce consumption of these foods and also cigarettes among smokers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The Substitutability of Cigarettes and Food: A Behavioral Economic Comparison in Normal Weight and Overweight or Obese Smokers

PubMed Central

Murphy, Cara M.; Owens, Max M.; Sweet, Lawrence H.; MacKillop, James

2017-01-01

Obesity and cigarette smoking contribute to a multitude of preventable deaths in the US and eating and smoking behavior may influence each other. The field of behavioral economics integrates principles from psychology and economics and permits systematic examination of how commodities interrelate with one another. Using this framework, the current study evaluated the effects of rising food and cigarette prices on consumption to investigate their substitutability and their relationship to BMI and associated variables. Behavioral economics categorizes commodities as substitutable when the consumption of one increases as a function of a price increase in the other. Smokers (N = 86) completed a two-part hypothetical task in which money was allocated to purchase cigarettes and fast food-style reinforcers (e.g., hamburgers, ice cream) at various prices. Results indicated that food and cigarettes were not substitutes for one another (cross-price elasticity coefficients > .20). Food purchases were independent of cigarette price, whereas cigarette purchases decreased as food price rose. Cross-price elasticity coefficients were significantly associated with confidence in one’s ability to control weight without smoking (rs = −.23 and .29), but not BMI (rs = .04 and .04) or post-cessation weight concerns (rs = −.05 and .12). Perceived ability to manage weight without cigarettes may influence who substitutes food for cigarettes when quitting. In addition, given observed decreases in purchases of both commodities as food prices increased, these findings imply that greater taxation of fast food-style reinforcers could potentially reduce consumption of these foods and also cigarettes among smokers. PMID:27736143

7 CFR 1221.16 - Net market price.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SORGHUM PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND INFORMATION ORDER Sorghum Promotion, Research, and Information Order Definitions § 1221.16 Net market price... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Net market price. 1221.16 Section 1221.16 Agriculture...

7 CFR 1220.115 - Net market price.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOYBEAN PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND CONSUMER INFORMATION Soybean Promotion and Research Order Definitions § 1220.115 Net market price. The term... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Net market price. 1220.115 Section 1220.115...

76 FR 53533 - Notification of New Pricing Methodology

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-26

... gold coins to mitigate the effect that fluctuating gold commodity costs has on the pricing of these..., use of machinery, overhead expenses, marketing, and shipping). This pricing methodology will allow the... SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section, will go into effect on date of publication. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT...

Mitigation potential and global health impacts from emissions pricing of food commodities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Springmann, Marco; Mason-D'Croz, Daniel; Robinson, Sherman; Wiebe, Keith; Godfray, H. Charles J.; Rayner, Mike; Scarborough, Peter

2017-01-01

The projected rise in food-related greenhouse gas emissions could seriously impede efforts to limit global warming to acceptable levels. Despite that, food production and consumption have long been excluded from climate policies, in part due to concerns about the potential impact on food security. Using a coupled agriculture and health modelling framework, we show that the global climate change mitigation potential of emissions pricing of food commodities could be substantial, and that levying greenhouse gas taxes on food commodities could, if appropriately designed, be a health-promoting climate policy in high-income countries, as well as in most low- and middle-income countries. Sparing food groups known to be beneficial for health from taxation, selectively compensating for income losses associated with tax-related price increases, and using a portion of tax revenues for health promotion are potential policy options that could help avert most of the negative health impacts experienced by vulnerable groups, whilst still promoting changes towards diets which are more environmentally sustainable.

A sensitivity analysis of process design parameters, commodity prices and robustness on the economics of odour abatement technologies.

PubMed

Estrada, José M; Kraakman, N J R Bart; Lebrero, Raquel; Muñoz, Raúl

2012-01-01

The sensitivity of the economics of the five most commonly applied odour abatement technologies (biofiltration, biotrickling filtration, activated carbon adsorption, chemical scrubbing and a hybrid technology consisting of a biotrickling filter coupled with carbon adsorption) towards design parameters and commodity prices was evaluated. Besides, the influence of the geographical location on the Net Present Value calculated for a 20 years lifespan (NPV20) of each technology and its robustness towards typical process fluctuations and operational upsets were also assessed. This comparative analysis showed that biological techniques present lower operating costs (up to 6 times) and lower sensitivity than their physical/chemical counterparts, with the packing material being the key parameter affecting their operating costs (40-50% of the total operating costs). The use of recycled or partially treated water (e.g. secondary effluent in wastewater treatment plants) offers an opportunity to significantly reduce costs in biological techniques. Physical/chemical technologies present a high sensitivity towards H2S concentration, which is an important drawback due to the fluctuating nature of malodorous emissions. The geographical analysis evidenced high NPV20 variations around the world for all the technologies evaluated, but despite the differences in wage and price levels, biofiltration and biotrickling filtration are always the most cost-efficient alternatives (NPV20). When, in an economical evaluation, the robustness is as relevant as the overall costs (NPV20), the hybrid technology would move up next to BTF as the most preferred technologies. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Land Use Change Driven by Gold Mining; Peruvian Amazon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swenson, J. J.; Carter, C. E.; domec, J.; Delgado, C. I.

2011-12-01

Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for a single commodity and the ecosystem destruction resulting from commodity extraction, recorded by satellites for one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. We find that since 2003, recent mining deforestation in Madre de Dios, Peru is increasing nonlinearly alongside a constant annual rate of increase in international gold price (~18%/yr). We detect that the new pattern of mining deforestation (1915 ha/year, 2006-2009) is outpacing that of nearby settlement deforestation. We show that gold price is linked with exponential increases in Peruvian national mercury imports over time (R2 = 0.93, p = 0.04, 2003- 2009). Given the past rates of increase we predict that mercury imports may more than double for 2011 (~500 t/year). Virtually all of Peru's mercury imports are used in artisanal gold mining. Much of the mining increase is unregulated/ artisanal in nature, lacking environmental impact analysis or miner education. As a result, large quantities of mercury are being released into the atmosphere, sediments and waterways. Other developing countries endowed with gold deposits are likely experiencing similar environmental destruction in response to recent record high gold prices. The increasing availability of satellite imagery ought to evoke further studies linking economic variables with land use and cover changes on the ground.

Activities for Students: Predicting Future Gas Prices Using the Standards for Mathematical Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bismarck, Stephen F.; Zelkowski, Jeremy; Gleason, Jim

2014-01-01

Like many commodities, the price of gasoline continues to rise, and these price changes are readily observed in gas stations' signage. Moreover, algebraic methods are well suited to model price change and answer the student's question. Over the course of one ninety-minute block or two forty-five-minute classes, students build functions…

Multiple commodities in statistical microeconomics: Model and market

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baaquie, Belal E.; Yu, Miao; Du, Xin

2016-11-01

A statistical generalization of microeconomics has been made in Baaquie (2013). In Baaquie et al. (2015), the market behavior of single commodities was analyzed and it was shown that market data provides strong support for the statistical microeconomic description of commodity prices. The case of multiple commodities is studied and a parsimonious generalization of the single commodity model is made for the multiple commodities case. Market data shows that the generalization can accurately model the simultaneous correlation functions of up to four commodities. To accurately model five or more commodities, further terms have to be included in the model. This study shows that the statistical microeconomics approach is a comprehensive and complete formulation of microeconomics, and which is independent to the mainstream formulation of microeconomics.

The UN Commission on Life Saving Commodities 3 years on: global progress update and results of a multicountry assessment.

PubMed

Pronyk, Paul M; Nemser, Bennett; Maliqi, Blerta; Springstubb, Nora; Sera, Diana; Karimov, Rouslan; Katwan, Elizabeth; Walter, Benedicte; Bijleveld, Pascal

2016-04-01

In September, 2012, the UN Commission on Life Saving Commodities (UNCoLSC) outlined a plan to expand availability and access to 13 life saving commodities. We profile global and country progress against these recommendations between 2012 and 2015. For 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa that were off-track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child survival, we reviewed key documents and reference data, and conducted interviews with ministry staff and partners to assess the status of the UNCoLSC recommendations. The RMNCH fund provided short-term catalytic financing to support country plans to advance the commodity agenda, with activities coded by UNCoLSC recommendation. Our network of technical resource teams identified, addressed, and monitored progress against cross-cutting commodity-related challenges that needed coordinated global action. In 2014 and 2015, child and maternal health commodities had fewer bottlenecks than reproductive and neonatal commodities. Common bottlenecks included regulatory challenges (ten of 12 countries); poor quality assurance (11 of 12 countries); insufficient staff training (more than half of facilities on average); and weak supply chains systems (11 of 12 countries), with stock-outs of priority commodities in about 40% of facilities on average. The RMNCH fund committed US$175·7 million to 19 countries to support strategies addressing crucial gaps. $68·2 million (39·0%) of the funds supported systems-strengthening interventions with the remainder split across reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health. Health worker training ($88·6 million, 50·4%), supply chain ($53·3 million, 30·0%), and demand generation ($21·1 million, 12·0%) were the major topics of focus. All priority commodities are now listed in the WHO Essential Medicines List; appropriate price reductions were secured; quality manufacturing was improved; a fast-track registration mechanism for prequalified products was established; and methods were developed for advocacy, quantification, demand generation, supply chain, and provider training. Slower progress was evident around regulatory harmonisation and quality assurance. Much work is needed to achieve full implementation of the UNCoLSC recommendations. Coordinated efforts to secure price reductions beyond the 13 commodities and improve regulatory efficiency, quality, and supply chains are still needed alongside broader dissemination of work products. Governments of Norway (NORAD) and the UK (DFID). Copyright © 2015 World Health Organization; licensee Elsevier. This is an Open Access article published without any waiver of WHO's privileges and immunities under international law, convention, or agreement. This Article should not be reproduced for use in association with the promotion of commercial products, services, or any legal entity. There should be no suggestion that WHO endorses any specific organisation or products. The use of the WHO logo is not permitted. This notice should be preserved along with the Article's original URL.

Essays on Commodity Prices and Macroeconomic Performance of Developing and Resources Rich Economies: Evidence from Kazakhstan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bilgin, Ferhat I.

My dissertation consists of three essays in empirical macroeconomics. The objective of this research is to use rigorous time-series econometric analysis to investigate the impact of commodity prices on macroeconomic performance of a small, developing and resource-rich country, which is in the process of transition from a purely command and control economy to a market oriented one. Essay 1 studies the relationship between Kazakhstan's GDP, total government expenditure, real effective exchange rate and the world oil price. Specifically, I use the cointegrated vector autoregression (CVAR) and error correction modeling (ECM) approach to identify the long and short-run relations that may exist among these macroeconomic variables. I found a long-run relationship for Kazakhstan's GDP, which depends on government spending and the oil price positively, and on the real effective exchange rate negatively. In the short run, the growth rate of GDP depends on the growth rates of the oil price, investment and the magnitude of the deviation from the long-run equilibrium. Essay 2 studies the inflation process in Kazakhstan based on the analysis of price formation in the following sectors: monetary, external, labor and goods and services. The modeling is conducted from two different perspectives: the first is the monetary model of inflation framework and the second is the mark-up modeling framework. Encompassing test results show that the mark-up model performs better than the monetary model in explaining inflation in Kazakhstan. According to the mark-up inflation model, in the long run, the price level is positively related to unit labor costs, import prices and government administered prices as well the world oil prices. In the short run, the inflation is positively influenced by the previous quarter's inflation, the contemporaneous changes in the government administered prices, oil prices and by the changes of contemporaneous and lagged unit labor costs, and negatively affected by the previous quarter's mark-up. Essay 3 empirically examines the determinants of the trade balance for a small oil exporting country within the context of Kazakhstan. The dominant theory by Harberger-Lauren-Metzler (HML) predicts that positive terms of trade shocks will improve the trade balance in the short run, but will fade away in the long run. I estimate cointegrated vector autoregression (CVAR) and vector error correction model (VECM) to study the long-run and short-run impacts on the trade balance. The results suggest that, in the long run, an increase in the terms of trade has a positive effect on the trade balance, an increase in GDP and appreciation of the real effective exchange rate have negative effect on the trade balance. In the short run, the terms of trade has a direct positive impact on the trade balance, real income and real exchange rate. On the other hand, appreciation of the currency has a negative impact on the trade balance. The error correction term, which represents the deviation from the long- run equilibrium between the trade balance, real income, terms of trade and real exchange rate, has a negative effect on the growth rate of the trade balance. These results provide further evidence to the idea that, in the long run, the HML effect not only depends on the duration of the shock, but also depends on the structure of the economy.

Factors Affecting the Relationship between Crude Oil and Natural Gas Prices (released in AEO2010)

EIA Publications

2010-01-01

Over the 1995-2005 period, crude oil prices and U.S. natural gas prices tended to move together, which supported the conclusion that the markets for the two commodities were connected. Figure 26 illustrates the fairly stable ratio over that period between the price of low-sulfur light crude oil at Cushing, Oklahoma, and the price of natural gas at the Henry Hub on an energy-equivalent basis.

Local Staple Food Price Indices in the Age of Biofuels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Molly E.

2012-01-01

In many poor, food insecure regions, agriculture is a primary source of income and farmers are reliant both on their own production and on purchasing food in the market to feed their families. Large local food price increases over a short time period can be indicative of a deteriorating food security situation and may be the consequence of weather-related food production declines, Dr can simply be the result of price transmission from the international commodity market. Food price indices developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are used to monitor food price trends at a global level, but largely reflect supply and demand conditions in export markets far from the places where the chronically food insecure live. A much better understanding of how local staple food prices in isolated regions such as West Africa that grow most of the food they eat to better understand the impact of global commodity market transformations on sensitive communities at the margin. This information will also enable improved strategies for these farmers who are extraordinarily sensitive to climate change impacts on agricultural growing conditions.

JPRS Report China

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-07-06

particular, we cannot arbitrarily raise prices and thus increase the burden on consumers . Rather, we must rely on enterprises them- selves to tap...state, there is the possibility that due to the price differences in the means of produc- tion consumed by enterprises producing the same kind of... rationalize the prices of major commodities and production materials; improve all kinds of support measures; link prices on the domestic market with those on

7 CFR 5.6 - Revision of the parity price of a commodity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... continuing changes in demand and supply conditions which are reflected in market prices. Accordingly, only in... Administrative Law Judges or such other employee of the Department as the Secretary may designate for the purpose...

Spatial taxation effects on regional coal economic activities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, C.W.; Labys, W.C.

1982-01-01

Taxation effects on resource production, consumption and prices are seldom evaluated especially in the field of spatial commodity modeling. The most commonly employed linear programming model has fixed-point estimated demands and capacity constraints; hence it makes taxation effects difficult to be modeled. The second type of resource allocation model, the interregional input-output models does not include a direct and explicit price mechanism. Therefore, it is not suitable for analyzing taxation effects. The third type or spatial commodity model has been econometric in nature. While such an approach has a good deal of flexibility in modeling political and non-economic variables, itmore » treats taxation (or tariff) effects loosely using only dummy variables, and, in many cases, must sacrifice the consistency criterion important for spatial commodity modeling. This leaves model builders only one legitimate choice for analyzing taxation effects: the quadratic programming model which explicitly allows the interplay of regional demand and supply relations via a continuous spatial price constructed by the authors related to the regional demand for and supply of coal from Appalachian markets.« less

17 CFR 37.3 - Requirements for underlying commodities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... to minimize the threat of market abuses such as price manipulation and distortions, congestion, and... highly unlikely to be susceptible to the threat of manipulation; or (iii) No cash market; (2) Commodities... which the Commission has determined, based on the market characteristics and surveillance history, and...

Market structure in U.S. southern pine roundwood

Treesearch

Matthew F. Bingham; Jeffrey P. Prestemon; Douglas J. MacNair; Robert C. Abt

2003-01-01

Time series of commodity prices from multiple locations can behave as if responding to forces of spatial arbitrage. cvcn while such prices may instead be responding similarly to common factors aside from spatial arbitrage. Hence, while the Law of One Price may hold as a statistical concept, its acceptance is not sufficient to conclude market integration. We tested...

The Oil Industries Fake Abundance Story: Is Distortion of the Truth Ever Appropriate?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murray, J. W.

2014-12-01

The oil industries and their cornucopian supporters (press, politicians, energy agencies) promote the story that in the oil is abundant and oil production will increase. The reality is that 1) World crude oil production has been on a plateau since 2005, in spite of new technology (fracking), record high prices (Brent Oil > 100 per barrel) and record spending on exploration and development (5.4 trillion over the past six years) and 2) The price of oil has risen steadily from 1999 to present. Typically when commodities are abundant the price tends to fall. How is this reality being distorted? 1) Resources are being equated with reserves (both are amounts), neither of which can be equated with each other or with production (a rate). 2) Crude oil (the price or which is rigorously defined by API density) has been redefined as total liquids, which includes substances (lease condensates, natural gas liquids, biofuels, refinery gains) which can not be used in the same way oil is or sold for the same price as oil. If what you are selling cannot be sold on the world market as crude oil, then it is not crude oil. 3) The demand for oil remains high, but World production is stagnant and World net-export production has been decreasing since 2005. Thus the price remains high and will only increase in the future. Growth in Global GDP is impacted by high-priced oil. How do you know unethical behavior when you see it? It has to do with intentionality and motivation. "Advocacy science" often reports data to support their cause. Is that unethical? Where is the divide between being an "Issue Advocate" and "Advocacy Science"? If data are reported poorly, is it unethical or just "bad science"? Do the same ethical standards apply to businesses (when profits are involved) and politicians (when elections are at stake)? Why would the definition of oil include NGL, condensates and refinery gains if not trying to inflate the numbers. The standards should be the same, but when there are no reliable independent sources of data, different definitions and uncertainty in the data allow a range of interpretations. Within these limits it allows some to bend the truth for their needs. What is the solution? With so much at stake, why have the uncertainties in these issues been so poorly examined by the academic community? Doing so will encourage alternative sources of energy to be developed.

Stochastic modeling of economic injury levels with respect to yearly trends in price commodity.

PubMed

Damos, Petros

2014-05-01

The economic injury level (EIL) concept integrates economics and biology and uses chemical applications in crop protection only when economic loss by pests is anticipated. The EIL is defined by five primary variables: the cost of management tactic per production unit, the price of commodity, the injury units per pest, the damage per unit injury, and the proportionate reduction of injury averted by the application of a tactic. The above variables are related according to the formula EIL = C/VIDK. The observable dynamic alteration of the EIL due to its different parameters is a major characteristic of its concept. In this study, the yearly effect of the economic variables is assessed, and in particular the influence of the parameter commodity value on the shape of the EIL function. In addition, to predict the effects of the economic variables on the EIL level, yearly commodity values were incorporated in the EIL formula and the generated outcomes were further modelled with stochastic linear autoregressive models having different orders. According to the AR(1) model, forecasts for the five-year period of 2010-2015 ranged from 2.33 to 2.41 specimens per sampling unit. These values represent a threshold that is in reasonable limits to justify future control actions. Management actions as related to productivity and price commodity significantly affect costs of crop production and thus define the adoption of IPM and sustainable crop production systems at local and international levels. This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.

FUNGIBILITY AND CONSUMER CHOICE: EVIDENCE FROM COMMODITY PRICE SHOCKS.

PubMed

Hastings, Justine S; Shapiro, Jesse M

2013-11-01

We formulate a test of the fungibility of money based on parallel shifts in the prices of different quality grades of a commodity. We embed the test in a discrete-choice model of product quality choice and estimate the model using panel microdata on gasoline purchases. We find that when gasoline prices rise consumers substitute to lower octane gasoline, to an extent that cannot be explained by income effects. Across a wide range of specifications, we consistently reject the null hypothesis that households treat "gas money" as fungible with other income. We compare the empirical fit of three psychological models of decision-making. A simple model of category budgeting fits the data well, with models of loss aversion and salience both capturing important features of the time series.

FUNGIBILITY AND CONSUMER CHOICE: EVIDENCE FROM COMMODITY PRICE SHOCKS*

PubMed Central

Hastings, Justine S.; Shapiro, Jesse M.

2015-01-01

We formulate a test of the fungibility of money based on parallel shifts in the prices of different quality grades of a commodity. We embed the test in a discrete-choice model of product quality choice and estimate the model using panel microdata on gasoline purchases. We find that when gasoline prices rise consumers substitute to lower octane gasoline, to an extent that cannot be explained by income effects. Across a wide range of specifications, we consistently reject the null hypothesis that households treat “gas money” as fungible with other income. We compare the empirical fit of three psychological models of decision-making. A simple model of category budgeting fits the data well, with models of loss aversion and salience both capturing important features of the time series. PMID:26937053

17 CFR 230.501 - Definitions and terms used in Regulation D.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Definitions and terms used in Regulation D. 230.501 Section 230.501 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION... price attributable to cash received in a foreign currency shall be translated into United States...

7 CFR 17.5 - Contracts between commodity suppliers and importers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... substantial increase in freight costs to the participant; (B) For small quantities offered at additional... purposes of this section, “lowest landed cost” means the combination of commodity price and ocean freight... the quantity which must be shipped on privately owned U.S.-flag commercial vessels, as determined by...

7 CFR 17.5 - Contracts between commodity suppliers and importers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... substantial increase in freight costs to the participant; (B) For small quantities offered at additional... purposes of this section, “lowest landed cost” means the combination of commodity price and ocean freight... the quantity which must be shipped on privately owned U.S.-flag commercial vessels, as determined by...

7 CFR 17.5 - Contracts between commodity suppliers and importers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... substantial increase in freight costs to the participant; (B) For small quantities offered at additional... purposes of this section, “lowest landed cost” means the combination of commodity price and ocean freight... the quantity which must be shipped on privately owned U.S.-flag commercial vessels, as determined by...

7 CFR 17.5 - Contracts between commodity suppliers and importers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... substantial increase in freight costs to the participant; (B) For small quantities offered at additional... purposes of this section, “lowest landed cost” means the combination of commodity price and ocean freight... the quantity which must be shipped on privately owned U.S.-flag commercial vessels, as determined by...

A prospective analysis of Brazilian biofuel economy: Land use, infrastructure development and fuel pricing policies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nunez Amortegui, Hector Mauricio

Being the two largest ethanol producers in the world, transportation fuel policies in Brazil and the U.S. affect not only their domestic markets but also the global food and biofuel economy. Hence, the complex biofuel policy climate in these countries leaves the public with unclear conclusions about the prospects for supply and trade of agricultural commodities and biofuels. In this dissertation I develop a price endogenous mathematical programming model to simulate and analyze the impacts of biofuel policies in Brazil and the U.S. on land use in these countries, agricultural commodity and transportation fuel markets, trade, and global environment. The model maximizes the social surplus represented by the sum of producers' and consumers' surpluses, including selected agricultural commodity markets and fuel markets in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, China, and the Rest-of-the-World (ROW), subject to resource limitations, material balances, technical constraints, and policy restrictions. Consumers' surplus is derived from consumption of agricultural commodities and transportation fuels by vehicles that generate vehicle-kilometers-traveled (VKT). While in the other regional components aggregate supply and demand functions are assumed for the commodities included in the analysis, the agricultural supply component is regionally disaggregated for Brazil and the U.S., and the transportation fuel sector is regionally disaggregated for Brazil. The U.S. agricultural supply component includes production of fourteen major food/feed crops, including soybeans, corn and wheat, and cellulosic biofuel feedstocks. The Brazil component includes eight major annual crops, including soybeans, corn, wheat, and rice, and sugarcane as the energy crop. A particular emphasis is given to the beef-cattle production in Brazil and the potential for livestock semi-intensification in Brazilian pasture grazing systems as a prospective pathway for releasing new croplands. In the fuel sector of both country components, ethanol and gasoline are assumed to be perfect substitutes and combined in accordance with the specified blending regulations to generate VKT. For gasoline, an upward sloping supply function is assumed for the U.S., while in the case of Brazil a perfectly elastic supply function is used reflecting the pricing policy implemented in recent years. Consumers' driving behavior and fuel choice are determined by the model in accordance with the composition of the vehicle fleets in both countries. The model also simulates the economic impacts of transportation infrastructure developments in Brazil, specifically the recently launched ethanol pipeline project which is expected to affect not only the price, production, consumption and trade of ethanol but also the land use changes in the country. All these factors are combined to assess the impacts on economic surplus and total direct Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in the U.S. and Brazil. The model is calibrated for 2007 and markets conditions are projected to 2022 under different policy scenarios. Empirical results show that a free ethanol trade regime in the U.S. would reduce the domestic ethanol production, including both corn and cellulosic ethanol. The U.S. biofuel production would be consumed completely in the domestic market and part of the demand is met by imports. Brazil, on the other hand, would meet its domestic ethanol demand and export about half of its production to the U.S., China and the ROW to meet the biofuel mandates in those countries. With regards to the land use, the model results show that intensifying the current livestock systems in Brazil would release a significant amount of land for corn and soybean production, and sugarcane acreage would expand in the denominated "region of expansion". The livestock semi-intensification in Brazil, driven by the high world ethanol demand and considered as the only alternative to expand sugarcane area in this study, would reduce the aggregate GHG emissions. The ethanol transportation infrastructure development in Brazil, namely the three pipelines which will connect the ethanol supply regions to major consumption areas, would further increase the Brazilian total ethanol supply. Finally, the model results highlight how the fuel policy in Brazil is a sensitive issue. Given the flexibility of Brazilian fuel consumers to switch between gasohol and E100, decreasing the ethanol blending rates under an ethanol supply shortfall would harm the light-duty vehicle users. This increases the consumption of ethanol by flex fuel vehicles, due to price effect, and the consumption of gasoline by conventional vehicles due to a larger share of gasoline in the fuel mix. In contrast, reducing the gasoline tax rate would make drivers better off, due to the increased consumption of gasohol and VKT, but this would increase GHG emissions significantly making a very costly trade-off for society and global environment.

Voluntary medical male circumcision: logistics, commodities, and waste management requirements for scale-up of services.

PubMed

Edgil, Dianna; Stankard, Petra; Forsythe, Steven; Rech, Dino; Chrouser, Kristin; Adamu, Tigistu; Sakallah, Sameer; Thomas, Anne Goldzier; Albertini, Jennifer; Stanton, David; Dickson, Kim Eva; Njeuhmeli, Emmanuel

2011-11-01

The global HIV prevention community is implementing voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programs across eastern and southern Africa, with a goal of reaching 80% coverage in adult males by 2015. Successful implementation will depend on the accessibility of commodities essential for VMMC programming and the appropriate allocation of resources to support the VMMC supply chain. For this, the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, has developed a standard list of commodities for VMMC programs. This list of commodities was used to inform program planning for a 1-y program to circumcise 152,000 adult men in Swaziland. During this process, additional key commodities were identified, expanding the standard list to include commodities for waste management, HIV counseling and testing, and the treatment of sexually transmitted infections. The approximate costs for the procurement of commodities, management of a supply chain, and waste disposal, were determined for the VMMC program in Swaziland using current market prices of goods and services. Previous costing studies of VMMC programs did not capture supply chain costs, nor the full range of commodities needed for VMMC program implementation or waste management. Our calculations indicate that depending upon the volume of services provided, supply chain and waste management, including commodities and associated labor, contribute between US$58.92 and US$73.57 to the cost of performing one adult male circumcision in Swaziland. Experience with the VMMC program in Swaziland indicates that supply chain and waste management add approximately US$60 per circumcision, nearly doubling the total per procedure cost estimated previously; these additional costs are used to inform the estimate of per procedure costs modeled by Njeuhmeli et al. in "Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision: Modeling the Impact and Cost of Expanding Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention in Eastern and Southern Africa." Program planners and policy makers should consider the significant contribution of supply chain and waste management to VMMC program costs as they determine future resource needs for VMMC programs.

Crude oil prices: Speculation versus fundamentals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolodziej, Marek Krzysztof

Beginning in 2004, the price of crude oil fluctuates rapidly over a wide range. Large and rapid price increases have recessionary consequences and dampen long-term infrastructural investment. I investigate whether price changes are driven by market fundamentals or speculation. With regard to market fundamentals, I revisit econometric evidence for the importance of demand shocks, as proxied by dry maritime cargo rates, on oil prices. When I eliminate transportation costs from both sides of the equation, disaggregate OPEC and non-OPEC production, and allow for more than one cointegrating relation, I find that previous specifications are inconsistent with arguments that demand shocks play an important role. Instead, results confirm the importance of OPEC supply shocks. I investigate two channels by which speculation may affect oil prices; the direct effect of trader behavior and changes in oil from a commodity to a financial asset. With regard to trader behavior, I find evidence that trader positions are required to explain the spread between spot and futures prices of crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The inclusion of trader positions clarifies the process of equilibrium error correction, such that there is bidirectional causality between prices and trader positions. This creates the possibility of speculative bubbles. With regard to oil as a commodity and/or financial asset, I use a Kalman Filter model to estimate the time-varying partial correlation between returns to investments in equity and oil markets. This correlation changes from negative to positive at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. The low interest rates used to rescue the economy depress convenience yields, which reduces the benefits of holding oil as a commodity. Instead, oil becomes a financial asset (on net) as the oil market changed from contango to backwardation. Contradicting simple political narratives, my research suggests that both market fundamentals and speculation drive large oil prices. Chinese oil demand is not responsible for large increases in oil prices; nor are they caused by behavioral idiosyncrasies by oil traders. Finally, oil will be treated largely as a financial asset so long as interest rates are held near their all-time lows.

7 CFR 245.8 - Nondiscrimination practices for children eligible to receive free and reduced price meals and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

..., School Breakfast Program or Special Milk Program or of commodity only schools shall take all actions that... PROGRAMS DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR FREE AND REDUCED PRICE MEALS AND FREE MILK IN SCHOOLS § 245.8 Nondiscrimination practices for children eligible to receive free and reduced price meals and free milk. School Food...

7 CFR 245.8 - Nondiscrimination practices for children eligible to receive free and reduced price meals and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

..., School Breakfast Program or Special Milk Program or of commodity only schools shall take all actions that... PROGRAMS DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR FREE AND REDUCED PRICE MEALS AND FREE MILK IN SCHOOLS § 245.8 Nondiscrimination practices for children eligible to receive free and reduced price meals and free milk. School Food...

7 CFR 245.8 - Nondiscrimination practices for children eligible to receive free and reduced price meals and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

..., School Breakfast Program or Special Milk Program or of commodity only schools shall take all actions that... PROGRAMS DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR FREE AND REDUCED PRICE MEALS AND FREE MILK IN SCHOOLS § 245.8 Nondiscrimination practices for children eligible to receive free and reduced price meals and free milk. School Food...

Drivers of U.S. mineral demand

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sznopek, John L.

2006-01-01

Introduction: The word 'demand' has different meanings for different people. To some, it means their 'wants and needs,' to others it is what they consume. Yet, when considering economics, demand refers to the specific amounts of goods or services that individuals will purchase at various prices. Demand is measured over a given time period. It is determined by a number of factors including income, tastes, and the price of complementary and substitute goods. In this paper, the term consumption is used fairly synonymously with the term demand. Most mineral commodities, like iron ore, copper, zinc, and gravel, are intermediate goods, which means that they are used in the production of other goods, called final goods. Demand for intermediate goods is called derived demand because such demand is derived from the demand for final goods. When demand increases for a commodity, generally the price rises. With everything else held constant, this increases the profits for those who provide this commodity. Normally, this would increase profits of existing producers and attract new producers to the market. When demand for a commodity decreases, generally the price falls. Normally, this would cause profits to fall and, as a consequence, the least efficient firms may be forced from the industry. Demand changes for specific materials as final goods or production techniques are reengineered while maintaining or improving product performance, for example, the use of aluminum in the place of copper in long distance electrical transmission lines or plastic replacing steel in automobile bumpers. Substitution contributes to efficient material usage by utilizing cheaper or technically superior materials. In this way, it may also alleviate materials scarcity. If a material becomes relatively scarce (and thus more expensive), a more abundant (and less expensive) material generally replaces it (Wagner and others, 2003, p. 91).

7 CFR 1220.115 - Net market price.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOYBEAN PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND CONSUMER INFORMATION Soybean Promotion and Research Order Definitions § 1220.115 Net market price. The term... other value received by a producer for soybeans after adjustments for any premium or discount based on...

Economics and Maximum Entropy Production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lorenz, R. D.

2003-04-01

Price differentials, sales volume and profit can be seen as analogues of temperature difference, heat flow and work or entropy production in the climate system. One aspect in which economic systems exhibit more clarity than the climate is that the empirical and/or statistical mechanical tendency for systems to seek a maximum in production is very evident in economics, in that the profit motive is very clear. Noting the common link between 1/f noise, power laws and Self-Organized Criticality with Maximum Entropy Production, the power law fluctuations in security and commodity prices is not inconsistent with the analogy. There is an additional thermodynamic analogy, in that scarcity is valued. A commodity concentrated among a few traders is valued highly by the many who do not have it. The market therefore encourages via prices the spreading of those goods among a wider group, just as heat tends to diffuse, increasing entropy. I explore some empirical price-volume relationships of metals and meteorites in this context.

17 CFR 242.105 - Short selling in connection with a public offering.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... period: (1) Beginning five business days before the pricing of the offered securities and ending with... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Short selling in connection with a public offering. 242.105 Section 242.105 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND...

Modelling of cayenne production in Central Java using ARIMA-GARCH

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarno; Sudarno; Ispriyanti, Dwi; Suparti

2018-05-01

Some regencies/cities in Central Java Province are known as producers of horticultural crops in Indonesia, for example, Brebes which is the largest area of shallot producer in Central Java, while the others, such as Cilacap and Wonosobo are the areas of cayenne commodities production. Currently, cayenne is a strategic commodity and it has broad impact to Indonesian economic development. Modelling the cayenne production is necessary to predict about the commodity to meet the need for society. The needs fulfillment of society will affect stability of the concerned commodity price. Based on the reality, the decreasing of cayenne production will cause the increasing of society’s basic needs price, and finally it will affect the inflation level at that area. This research focused on autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modelling by considering the effect of autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARCH) to study about cayenne production in Central Java. The result of empirical study of ARIMA-GARCH modelling for cayenne production in Central Java from January 2003 to November 2015 is ARIMA([1,3],0,0)-GARCH(1,0) as the best model.

Global stocks of selected mineral-based commodities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilburn, David R.; Bleiwas, Donald I.; Karl, Nick A.

2016-12-05

IntroductionThe U.S. Geological Survey, National Minerals Information Center, analyzes mineral and metal supply chains by identifying and describing major components of mineral and material flows from ore extraction, through intermediate forms, to a final product. This report focuses on an important component of the world’s supply chain: the amounts and global distribution of major consumer, producer, and exchange stocks of selected mineral commodities. In this report, the term “stock” is used instead of “inventory” and refers to accumulations of mined ore, intermediate products, and refined mineral-based commodities that are in a form that meets the agreed-upon specifications of a buyer or processor of intermediate products. These may include certain ores such as bauxite, concentrates, smelter products, and refined metals. Materials sometimes referred to as inventory for accounting purposes, such as ore contained in a deposit or in a leach pile, or materials that need to be further processed before they can be shipped to a consumer, are not considered. Stocks may be held (owned) by consumers, governments, investors, producers, and traders. They may serve as (1) a means to achieve economic, social, and strategic goals through government policies; (2) a secure source of supply to meet demand and to mitigate potential shortages in the supply chain; (3) a hedge to mitigate price volatility; and (4) vehicles for speculative investment.The paucity and uneven reliability of data for stocks of ores and concentrates and for material held by producers, consumers, and merchants hinder the accurate estimating of the size and distribution of this portion of the supply chain for certain commodities. This paper reviews the more visible stocks held in commodity exchange warehouses distributed throughout the world.

Improving agricultural commodity supply-chain to promote economic activities in rural area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padjung, R.

2018-05-01

Long supply chain of agricultural commodities has become concern to governments particularly in large countries such as Indonesia as it causes high price disparity between farm-gate and retailer. Policies to overcome such problem are usually by shortening the chain, by which farmers sell the products directly to retailers. Using an action research in AEDEF (Aceh Economic Development Financing Facilities) Program, conducted in the province of Nangro Aceh Darussalam (NAD) Indonesia, the paper shows that shortening the commodity supply chain is not the best solution to such problem, as it causes loss of jobs in the villages. High price disparity between farm-gate and retailer is not necessary brought about by long supply-chain but by the efficiency of the chain instead. Efficiency of the chain can be improved by creating enabling business environment such that every actors and players work in a fair manner. This can be achieved by transparency in price and quality grade. With development achieved in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), having a good and reliable flow of such information is not difficult. In addition to information flow, the availability and quality of infrastructure to support flow of goods from farm-gate to end-user is of reasonably important.

More attention should be paid to making the U. S. less vulnerable to foreign oil price and supply decisions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Staats, E.B.

1978-01-03

A report is presented in which GAO recommends that the secretaries of State and Energy present to the Congress by July 1, 1978, a plan for improving security of U.S. imported oil supplies at reasonable prices by U.S. policy initiatives directed toward changes in access terms, incentives for production in other than OPEC countries, and bilateral and multilateral approaches to OPEC and other nations. Ultimately, this country, as well as the rest of the world, will become independent of oil. This is necessarily true because oil is a finite commodity and will run out someday. Accordingly, national attention ought tomore » be directed to truly responsible concerns about how to achieve an orderly transition to an economy based upon alternative resources of energy. Today's policies must buy time and provide the petroleum supplies needed while other energy sources are developed and put in operation to replace them.« less

7 CFR 1580.102 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... of the United States. Marketing year means the marketing season or year as defined by National... Administrator. National average price means the average price paid to producers for an agricultural commodity in a marketing year as determined by the Administrator. Net farm income means net farm profit or loss...

Relationship between financial speculation and food prices or price volatility: applying the principles of evidence-based medicine to current debates in Germany.

PubMed

Bozorgmehr, Kayvan; Gabrysch, Sabine; Müller, Olaf; Neuhann, Florian; Jordan, Irmgard; Knipper, Michael; Razum, Oliver

2013-10-16

There is an unresolved debate about the potential effects of financial speculation on food prices and price volatility. Germany's largest financial institution and leading global investment bank recently decided to continue investing in agricultural commodities, stating that there is little empirical evidence to support the notion that the growth of agricultural-based financial products has caused price increases or volatility. The statement is supported by a recently published literature review, which concludes that financial speculation does not have an adverse effect on the functioning of the agricultural commodities market. As public health professionals concerned with global food insecurity, we have appraised the methodological quality of the review using a validated and reliable appraisal tool. The appraisal revealed major shortcomings in the methodological quality of the review. These were particularly related to intransparencies in the search strategy and in the selection/presentation of studies and findings; the neglect of the possibility of publication bias; a lack of objective or rigorous criteria for assessing the scientific quality of included studies and for the formulation of conclusions. Based on the results of our appraisal, we conclude that it is not justified to reject the hypothesis that financial speculation might have adverse effects on food prices/price volatility. We hope to initiate reflections about scientific standards beyond the boundaries of disciplines and call for high quality, rigorous systematic reviews on the effects of financial speculation on food prices or price volatility.

77 FR 54355 - Amendments to Commodity Pool Operator and Commodity Trading Advisor Regulations Resulting From...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-05

... forex transaction, offset), exercised, expired (including, in the case of a retail forex transaction... activity (including retail forex and swap transactions) expected to be engaged in by the offered pool. (h...) Any costs or fees included in the spread between bid and asked prices for retail forex or, if known...

16 CFR 502.100 - “Cents-off” representations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... of the “cents-off” representation imprinted on the commodity package or label. (3) Each “cents-off” representation imprinted on the package or label is limited to a phrase which reflects that the price marked by..., designated as the “regular price”, clearly and conspicuously on the package or label of the commodity or on a...

17 CFR 240.10b-17 - Untimely announcements of record dates.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... distribution and if that security is a right or a warrant, the subscription price, (e) In any other property... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Untimely announcements of record dates. 240.10b-17 Section 240.10b-17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE...

75 FR 60411 - Request for Comment on Options for a Proposed Exemptive Order Relating to the Trading and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-30

... in the precious metals markets. \\28\\ See http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1459862... efficient exposure to commodity market price movements.\\4\\ These Precious Metal Commodity-Based ETFs have... conditions to the exemption orders) and that novel products may be introduced without undue delay for market...

7 CFR 1421.10 - Loan repayment rates.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... determined by the Secretary) that is calculated based on average market prices for the loan commodity during... and announce repayment rates under paragraphs (a)(2) and (a)(3) of this section based upon market prices at appropriate U.S. markets as determined by CCC and these repayment rates may be adjusted to...

7 CFR 1421.10 - Loan repayment rates.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... determined by the Secretary) that is calculated based on average market prices for the loan commodity during... and announce repayment rates under paragraphs (a)(2) and (a)(3) of this section based upon market prices at appropriate U.S. markets as determined by CCC and these repayment rates may be adjusted to...

7 CFR 1421.10 - Loan repayment rates.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... determined by the Secretary) that is calculated based on average market prices for the loan commodity during... and announce repayment rates under paragraphs (a)(2) and (a)(3) of this section based upon market prices at appropriate U.S. markets as determined by CCC and these repayment rates may be adjusted to...

22 CFR 201.60 - Purpose and applicability of this subpart.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... APPLICABLE TO COMMODITY TRANSACTIONS FINANCED BY USAID Price Provisions § 201.60 Purpose and applicability of... at the time of procurement adjusted for differences in the cost of transportation to destination... price prevailing in the United States at the time of purchase, adjusted for differences in the cost of...

17 CFR 34.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... decomposed into an option payout or payouts, is measured by the absolute net value of the put option premia with strike prices less than or equal to the reference price plus the absolute net value of the call... which a commodity-dependent payment becomes non-zero, or, in the case where two potential reference...

17 CFR 34.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... decomposed into an option payout or payouts, is measured by the absolute net value of the put option premia with strike prices less than or equal to the reference price plus the absolute net value of the call... which a commodity-dependent payment becomes non-zero, or, in the case where two potential reference...

17 CFR 34.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... decomposed into an option payout or payouts, is measured by the absolute net value of the put option premia with strike prices less than or equal to the reference price plus the absolute net value of the call... which a commodity-dependent payment becomes non-zero, or, in the case where two potential reference...

17 CFR 34.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... decomposed into an option payout or payouts, is measured by the absolute net value of the put option premia with strike prices less than or equal to the reference price plus the absolute net value of the call... which a commodity-dependent payment becomes non-zero, or, in the case where two potential reference...

17 CFR 34.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... decomposed into an option payout or payouts, is measured by the absolute net value of the put option premia with strike prices less than or equal to the reference price plus the absolute net value of the call... which a commodity-dependent payment becomes non-zero, or, in the case where two potential reference...

Essays on Mathematical Optimization for Residential Demand Response in the Energy Sector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palaparambil Dinesh, Lakshmi

In the electric utility industry, it could be challenging to adjust supply to match demand due to large generator ramp up times, high generation costs and insufficient in-house generation capacity. Demand response (DR) is a technique for adjusting the demand for electric power instead of the supply. Direct Load Control (DLC) is one of the ways to implement DR. DLC program participants sign up for power interruption contracts and are given financial incentives for curtailing electricity usage during peak demand time periods. This dissertation studies a DLC program for residential air conditioners using mathematical optimization models. First, we develop a model that determines what contract parameters to use in designing contracts between the provider and residential customers, when to turn which power unit on or off and how much power to cut during peak demand hours. The model uses information on customer preferences for choice of contract parameters such as DLC financial incentives and energy usage curtailment. In numerical experiments, the proposed model leads to projected cost savings of the order of 20%, compared to a current benchmark model used in practice. We also quantify the impact of factors leading to cost savings and study characteristics of customers picked by different contracts. Second, we study a DLC program in a macro economic environment using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. A CGE model is used to study the impact of external factors such as policy and technology changes on different economic sectors. Here we differentiate customers based on their preference for DLC programs by using different values for price elasticity of demand for electricity commodity. Consequently, DLC program customers could substitute demand for electricity commodity with other commodities such as transportation sector. Price elasticity of demand is calculated using a novel methodology that incorporates customer preferences for DLC contracts from the first model. The calculation of elasticity based on our methodology is useful since the prices of commodities are not only determined by aggregate demand and supply but also by customers' relative preferences for commodities. In addition to this we quantify the indirect substitution and rebound effects on sectoral activity levels, incomes and prices based on customer differences, when DLC is implemented.

Stochastic space interval as a link between quantum randomness and macroscopic randomness?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haug, Espen Gaarder; Hoff, Harald

2018-03-01

For many stochastic phenomena, we observe statistical distributions that have fat-tails and high-peaks compared to the Gaussian distribution. In this paper, we will explain how observable statistical distributions in the macroscopic world could be related to the randomness in the subatomic world. We show that fat-tailed (leptokurtic) phenomena in our everyday macroscopic world are ultimately rooted in Gaussian - or very close to Gaussian-distributed subatomic particle randomness, but they are not, in a strict sense, Gaussian distributions. By running a truly random experiment over a three and a half-year period, we observed a type of random behavior in trillions of photons. Combining our results with simple logic, we find that fat-tailed and high-peaked statistical distributions are exactly what we would expect to observe if the subatomic world is quantized and not continuously divisible. We extend our analysis to the fact that one typically observes fat-tails and high-peaks relative to the Gaussian distribution in stocks and commodity prices and many aspects of the natural world; these instances are all observable and documentable macro phenomena that strongly suggest that the ultimate building blocks of nature are discrete (e.g. they appear in quanta).

Agriculture and food systems in sub-Saharan Africa in a 4°C+ world.

PubMed

Thornton, Philip K; Jones, Peter G; Ericksen, Polly J; Challinor, Andrew J

2011-01-13

Agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa faces daunting challenges, which climate change and increasing climate variability will compound in vulnerable areas. The impacts of a changing climate on agricultural production in a world that warms by 4°C or more are likely to be severe in places. The livelihoods of many croppers and livestock keepers in Africa are associated with diversity of options. The changes in crop and livestock production that are likely to result in a 4°C+ world will diminish the options available to most smallholders. In such a world, current crop and livestock varieties and agricultural practices will often be inadequate, and food security will be more difficult to achieve because of commodity price increases and local production shortfalls. While adaptation strategies exist, considerable institutional and policy support will be needed to implement them successfully on the scale required. Even in the 2°C+ world that appears inevitable, planning for and implementing successful adaptation strategies are critical if agricultural growth in the region is to occur, food security be achieved and household livelihoods be enhanced. As part of this effort, better understanding of the critical thresholds in global and African food systems requires urgent research.

Relationship of mother and child food purchases as a function of price: a pilot study.

PubMed

Epstein, Leonard H; Dearing, Kelly K; Handley, Elizabeth A; Roemmich, James N; Paluch, Rocco A

2006-07-01

To our knowledge, there are no data on parental influences on child purchasing behavior of healthy or unhealthy foods. Mothers and children in ten families were given 5.00 US dollars to purchase portions of preferred fruits/vegetables and high energy-dense snack foods for each of ten trials of price manipulations. For five of the trials the price of the fruit/vegetable increased in price from 0.50 US dollars to 2.50 US dollars (in 0.50 US dollar increments), while the price of the energy-dense snack food remained constant at 1.00 US dollar. For the remaining five trials, the commodity that previously rose in price remained constant at 1.00 US dollars and the other commodity varied from 0.50 US dollars to 2.50 US dollars. Same-price elasticity was shown for both the child and parent purchases, and parent purchases were significantly related to child purchases of both healthy (regression estimate = 0.46, p < 0.001) and unhealthy (regression estimate = 0.12, p = 0.036) foods. Children's purchases of unhealthy snack food items were positively related to family socioeconomic status, and negatively related to child age. These results indicate that parental food choice and purchasing behaviors may play a role in the development of children's purchasing of both healthy and unhealthy foods.

Evaluating the impact of climate policies on regional food availability and accessibility using an Integrated Assessment Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilmore, E.; Cui, Y. R.; Waldhoff, S.

2015-12-01

Beyond 2015, eradicating hunger will remain a critical part of the global development agenda through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Efforts to limit climate change through both mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and land use policies may interact with food availability and accessibility in complex and unanticipated ways. Here, we develop projections of regional food accessibility to 2050 under the alternative futures outlined by the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and under different climate policy targets and structures. We use the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), an integrated assessment model (IAM), for our projections. We calculate food access as the weighted average of consumption of five staples and the portion of income spend on those commodities and extend the GCAM calculated universal global producer price to regional consumer prices drawing on historical relationships of these prices. Along the SSPs, food access depends largely on expectations of increases in population and economic status. Under a more optimistic scenario, the pressures on food access from increasing demand and rising prices can be counterbalanced by faster economic development. Stringent climate policies that increase commodity prices, however, may hinder vulnerable regions, namely Sub-Saharan Africa, from achieving greater food accessibility.

Driving factors of interactions between the exchange rate market and the commodity market: A wavelet-based complex network perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wen, Shaobo; An, Haizhong; Chen, Zhihua; Liu, Xueyong

2017-08-01

In traditional econometrics, a time series must be in a stationary sequence. However, it usually shows time-varying fluctuations, and it remains a challenge to execute a multiscale analysis of the data and discover the topological characteristics of conduction in different scales. Wavelet analysis and complex networks in physical statistics have special advantages in solving these problems. We select the exchange rate variable from the Chinese market and the commodity price index variable from the world market as the time series of our study. We explore the driving factors behind the behavior of the two markets and their topological characteristics in three steps. First, we use the Kalman filter to find the optimal estimation of the relationship between the two markets. Second, wavelet analysis is used to extract the scales of the relationship that are driven by different frequency wavelets. Meanwhile, we search for the actual economic variables corresponding to different frequency wavelets. Finally, a complex network is used to search for the transfer characteristics of the combination of states driven by different frequency wavelets. The results show that statistical physics have a unique advantage over traditional econometrics. The Chinese market has time-varying impacts on the world market: it has greater influence when the world economy is stable and less influence in times of turmoil. The process of forming the state combination is random. Transitions between state combinations have a clustering feature. Based on these characteristics, we can effectively reduce the information burden on investors and correctly respond to the government's policy mix.

17 CFR 16.01 - Trading volume, open contracts, prices, and critical dates.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Trading volume, open contracts... TRADING COMMISSION REPORTS BY REPORTING MARKETS § 16.01 Trading volume, open contracts, prices, and critical dates. (a) Trading volume and open contracts. Each reporting market shall record for each business...

17 CFR 16.01 - Trading volume, open contracts, prices, and critical dates.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Trading volume, open contracts... TRADING COMMISSION REPORTS BY REPORTING MARKETS § 16.01 Trading volume, open contracts, prices, and critical dates. (a) Trading volume and open contracts. Each reporting market shall record for each business...

12 CFR 932.5 - Market risk capital requirement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 932.5 Banks and Banking FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE BOARD FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK RISK MANAGEMENT AND..., commodity prices, and equity prices that could occur during periods of market stress, where the market value... options, to a comparable degree of stress for such factors as will be required for an internal market risk...

12 CFR 932.5 - Market risk capital requirement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 932.5 Banks and Banking FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE BOARD FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK RISK MANAGEMENT AND..., commodity prices, and equity prices that could occur during periods of market stress, where the market value... options, to a comparable degree of stress for such factors as will be required for an internal market risk...

12 CFR 932.5 - Market risk capital requirement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 932.5 Banks and Banking FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE BOARD FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK RISK MANAGEMENT AND..., commodity prices, and equity prices that could occur during periods of market stress, where the market value... options, to a comparable degree of stress for such factors as will be required for an internal market risk...

12 CFR 932.5 - Market risk capital requirement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 932.5 Banks and Banking FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE BOARD FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK RISK MANAGEMENT AND..., commodity prices, and equity prices that could occur during periods of market stress, where the market value... options, to a comparable degree of stress for such factors as will be required for an internal market risk...

7 CFR 1484.35 - Must Cooperators follow specific contracting procedures?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... HELP DEVELOP FOREIGN MARKETS FOR AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES Program Operations § 1484.35 Must Cooperators...; (5) Perform some form of price or cost analysis, such as a comparison of price quotations to market... the decision-making process. [64 FR 52630, Sept. 30, 1999. Redesignated and amended at 65 FR 9995, Feb...

17 CFR Appendix B to Part 36 - Guidance on, and Acceptable Practices in, Compliance With Core Principles

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... have clear procedures and guidelines for decision-making regarding emergency intervention in the market... COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION EXEMPT MARKETS Pt. 36, App. B Appendix B to Part 36—Guidance on, and... trading in significant price discovery contracts to prevent market manipulation, price distortion, and...

Framework for improved confidence in modeled nitrous oxide estimates for biofuel regulatory standards

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

There is a large variation in local commodity prices across the United States, with farmers receiving less for their soybeans produced on their farm, and paying more for meal to feed their livestock, thereby reducing their profitability. This price differential is due to a number of factors includin...

7 CFR 1580.203 - Determination of eligibility and certification by the Administrator.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... average price for the agricultural commodity for the marketing year under review is less than 80 percent of the average of the national average prices for the 5 marketing years preceding the most recent marketing year, and (2) Increases in imports of articles like or directly competitive with the agricultural...

7 CFR 1494.601 - Acceptance of offers by CCC.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Acceptance of offers by CCC. 1494.601 Section 1494....601 Acceptance of offers by CCC. (a) Establishment of acceptable sales prices and CCC bonuses. For each Invitation, CCC will establish sales prices for the eligible commodity and CCC bonus amounts which...

7 CFR 1494.601 - Acceptance of offers by CCC.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Acceptance of offers by CCC. 1494.601 Section 1494....601 Acceptance of offers by CCC. (a) Establishment of acceptable sales prices and CCC bonuses. For each Invitation, CCC will establish sales prices for the eligible commodity and CCC bonus amounts which...

7 CFR 1494.601 - Acceptance of offers by CCC.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Acceptance of offers by CCC. 1494.601 Section 1494... Program Operations § 1494.601 Acceptance of offers by CCC. (a) Establishment of acceptable sales prices and CCC bonuses. For each Invitation, CCC will establish sales prices for the eligible commodity and...

7 CFR 1494.601 - Acceptance of offers by CCC.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Acceptance of offers by CCC. 1494.601 Section 1494....601 Acceptance of offers by CCC. (a) Establishment of acceptable sales prices and CCC bonuses. For each Invitation, CCC will establish sales prices for the eligible commodity and CCC bonus amounts which...

7 CFR 1494.601 - Acceptance of offers by CCC.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Acceptance of offers by CCC. 1494.601 Section 1494... Program Operations § 1494.601 Acceptance of offers by CCC. (a) Establishment of acceptable sales prices and CCC bonuses. For each Invitation, CCC will establish sales prices for the eligible commodity and...

Global Phosphorus Fertilizer Market and National Policies: A Case Study Revisiting the 2008 Price Peak.

PubMed

Khabarov, Nikolay; Obersteiner, Michael

2017-01-01

The commodity market super-cycle and food price crisis have been associated with rampant food insecurity and the Arab spring. A multitude of factors were identified as culprits for excessive volatility on the commodity markets. However, as it regards fertilizers, a clear attribution of market drivers explaining the emergence of extreme price events is still missing. In this paper, we provide a quantitative assessment of the price spike of the global phosphorus fertilizer market in 2008 focusing on diammonium phosphate (DAP). We find that fertilizer market policies in India, the largest global importer of phosphorus fertilizers and phosphate rock, turned out to be a major contributor to the global price spike. India doubled its import of P-fertilizer in 2008 at a time when prices doubled. The analysis of a wide set of factors pertinent to the 2008 price spike in phosphorus fertilizer market leads us to the discovery of a price spike magnification and triggering mechanisms. We find that the price spike was magnified on the one hand by protective trade measures of fertilizer suppliers leading to a 19% drop in global phosphate fertilizer export. On the other hand, the Indian fertilizer subsidy scheme led to farmers not adjusting their demand for fertilizer. The triggering mechanism appeared to be the Indian production outage of P-fertilizer resulting in the additional import demand for DAP in size of about 20% of annual global supply. The main conclusion is that these three factors have jointly caused the spike, underscoring the need for ex ante improvements in fertilizer market regulation on both national and international levels.

Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision: Logistics, Commodities, and Waste Management Requirements for Scale-Up of Services

PubMed Central

Edgil, Dianna; Stankard, Petra; Forsythe, Steven; Rech, Dino; Chrouser, Kristin; Adamu, Tigistu; Sakallah, Sameer; Thomas, Anne Goldzier; Albertini, Jennifer; Stanton, David; Dickson, Kim Eva; Njeuhmeli, Emmanuel

2011-01-01

Background The global HIV prevention community is implementing voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programs across eastern and southern Africa, with a goal of reaching 80% coverage in adult males by 2015. Successful implementation will depend on the accessibility of commodities essential for VMMC programming and the appropriate allocation of resources to support the VMMC supply chain. For this, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, has developed a standard list of commodities for VMMC programs. Methods and Findings This list of commodities was used to inform program planning for a 1-y program to circumcise 152,000 adult men in Swaziland. During this process, additional key commodities were identified, expanding the standard list to include commodities for waste management, HIV counseling and testing, and the treatment of sexually transmitted infections. The approximate costs for the procurement of commodities, management of a supply chain, and waste disposal, were determined for the VMMC program in Swaziland using current market prices of goods and services. Previous costing studies of VMMC programs did not capture supply chain costs, nor the full range of commodities needed for VMMC program implementation or waste management. Our calculations indicate that depending upon the volume of services provided, supply chain and waste management, including commodities and associated labor, contribute between US$58.92 and US$73.57 to the cost of performing one adult male circumcision in Swaziland. Conclusions Experience with the VMMC program in Swaziland indicates that supply chain and waste management add approximately US$60 per circumcision, nearly doubling the total per procedure cost estimated previously; these additional costs are used to inform the estimate of per procedure costs modeled by Njeuhmeli et al. in “Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision: Modeling the Impact and Cost of Expanding Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention in Eastern and Southern Africa.” Program planners and policy makers should consider the significant contribution of supply chain and waste management to VMMC program costs as they determine future resource needs for VMMC programs. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary PMID:22140363

Trends in procurement costs for HIV commodities: a 7-year retrospective analysis of global fund data across 125 countries.

PubMed

Wafula, Francis; Agweyu, Ambrose; Macintyre, Kate

2014-04-01

Nearly 40% of Global Fund money goes toward procurement. However, no analyses have been published to show how costs vary across regions and time, despite the availability of procurement data collected through the Global Fund's price and quality reporting system. We analyzed data for the 3 most widely procured commodities for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of HIV. These were male condoms, HIV rapid tests, and the antiretroviral (ARV) combination of lamivudine/nevirapine/zidovudine. The compared costs, first across time (2005-2012), then across regions, and finally, between individual procurement reported through the price and quality reporting and pooled procurement reported through the Global Fund's voluntary pooled procurement system. All costs were adjusted for inflation and reported in US dollars. There were 2337 entries from 578 grants in 125 countries. The procurement cost for the ARV dropped substantially over the period, whereas those for condoms and HIV tests remained relatively stable. None of the commodity prices increased. Regional variations were pronounced for HIV tests, but minimal for condoms and the ARV. The unit cost for the 3-table ARV combination, for instance, varied between US$0.15 and US$0.23 in South Asia and the Eastern Europe/Central Asia regions, respectively, compared with a range of $0.23 (South Asia)-$1.50 (Eastern Europe/Central Asia) for a single diagnostic test. Pooled procurement lowered costs for condoms but not the other commodities. We showed how global procurement costs vary by region and time. Such analyses should be done more often to identify and correct market insufficiencies.

Food Price Volatility and Decadal Climate Variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, M. E.

2013-12-01

The agriculture system is under pressure to increase production every year as global population expands and more people move from a diet mostly made up of grains, to one with more meat, dairy and processed foods. Weather shocks and large changes in international commodity prices in the last decade have increased pressure on local food prices. This paper will review several studies that link climate variability as measured with satellite remote sensing to food price dynamics in 36 developing countries where local monthly food price data is available. The focus of the research is to understand how weather and climate, as measured by variations in the growing season using satellite remote sensing, has affected agricultural production, food prices and access to food in agricultural societies. Economies are vulnerable to extreme weather at multiple levels. Subsistence small holders who hold livestock and consume much of the food they produce are vulnerable to food production variability. The broader society, however, is also vulnerable to extreme weather because of the secondary effects on market functioning, resource availability, and large-scale impacts on employment in trading, trucking and wage labor that are caused by weather-related shocks. Food price variability captures many of these broad impacts and can be used to diagnose weather-related vulnerability across multiple sectors. The paper will trace these connections using market-level data and analysis. The context of the analysis is the humanitarian aid community, using the guidance of the USAID Famine Early Warning Systems Network and the United Nation's World Food Program in their response to food security crises. These organizations have worked over the past three decades to provide baseline information on food production through satellite remote sensing data and agricultural yield models, as well as assessments of food access through a food price database. Econometric models and spatial analysis are used to describe the connection between shocks and food prices, and to demonstrate the importance of these metrics in overall outcomes in food-insecure communities.

Rebound from steep drop in demand amid simmering global trade issues : markets for paper, paperboard and woodpulp, 2009-2010

Treesearch

Peter J. Ince; Eduard L. Akim; Bernard Lombard; Tomas Parik

2010-01-01

Paper and paperboard consumption declined sharply in 2009 by 9% in Europe and 10% in the United States relative to 2008; just a fraction of that decline was recovered by early 2010. Pulp and paper commodity prices fell in 2009, dropping well below 2008 price levels, but prices began to stabilize by mid-year, and in some cases fully recovered by early 2010. A wave of...

Paper, paperboard and woodpulp markets, 2010-2011

Treesearch

Peter Ince; Eduard Akim; Bernard Lombard; Tomas Parik; Anastasia Tolmatsova

2011-01-01

Paper and paperboard output rebounded along with overall industrial production in both Europe and the United States, but has not yet fully recovered to the peak levels of 2007-2008. Generally more robust market conditions prevailed from 2010 to early 2011, with higher consumption and prices for most pulp, paper and paperboard commodities. Prices reached a plateau by...

Coal Markets

EIA Publications

2017-01-01

Summarizes spot coal prices by coal commodity regions (i.e., Central Appalachia (CAP), Northern Appalachia (NAP), Illinois Basin (ILB), Power River Basin (PRB), and Uinta Basin (UIB)) in the United States.

Exploration

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilburn, D.R.

2002-01-01

Exploration budgets fell for a fourth successive year in 2001. These decreases reflected low mineral commodity prices, mineral-market investment reluctance, company failures and a continued trend of company mergers and takeovers.

Agricultural Productivity Forecasts for Improved Drought Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Limaye, Ashutosh; McNider, Richard; Moss, Donald; Alhamdan, Mohammad

2010-01-01

Water stresses on agricultural crops during critical phases of crop phenology (such as grain filling) has higher impact on the eventual yield than at other times of crop growth. Therefore farmers are more concerned about water stresses in the context of crop phenology than the meteorological droughts. However the drought estimates currently produced do not account for the crop phenology. US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have developed a drought monitoring decision support tool: The U.S. Drought Monitor, which currently uses meteorological droughts to delineate and categorize drought severity. Output from the Drought Monitor is used by the States to make disaster declarations. More importantly, USDA uses the Drought Monitor to make estimates of crop yield to help the commodities market. Accurate estimation of corn yield is especially critical given the recent trend towards diversion of corn to produce ethanol. Ethanol is fast becoming a standard 10% ethanol additive to petroleum products, the largest traded commodity. Thus the impact of large-scale drought will have dramatic impact on the petroleum prices as well as on food prices. USDA's World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) serves as a focal point for economic intelligence and the commodity outlook for U.S. WAOB depends on Drought Monitor and has emphatically stated that accurate and timely data are needed in operational agrometeorological services to generate reliable projections for agricultural decision makers. Thus, improvements in the prediction of drought will reflect in early and accurate assessment of crop yields, which in turn will improve commodity projections. We have developed a drought assessment tool, which accounts for the water stress in the context of crop phenology. The crop modeling component is done using various crop modules within Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). DSSAT is an agricultural crop simulation system, which integrates the effects of soil, crop phenotype, weather, and management options. It has been in use for more than 15 years by researchers, growers and has become a de-facto standard in crop modeling communities spanning over 100 countries. The meteorological forcings to DSSAT are provided by NASA s National Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) datasets. NLDAS is a framework that incorporates atmospheric forcing and land parameter values along with land surface models to diagnose and predict the state of the land surface.

Global Phosphorus Fertilizer Market and National Policies: A Case Study Revisiting the 2008 Price Peak

PubMed Central

Khabarov, Nikolay; Obersteiner, Michael

2017-01-01

The commodity market super-cycle and food price crisis have been associated with rampant food insecurity and the Arab spring. A multitude of factors were identified as culprits for excessive volatility on the commodity markets. However, as it regards fertilizers, a clear attribution of market drivers explaining the emergence of extreme price events is still missing. In this paper, we provide a quantitative assessment of the price spike of the global phosphorus fertilizer market in 2008 focusing on diammonium phosphate (DAP). We find that fertilizer market policies in India, the largest global importer of phosphorus fertilizers and phosphate rock, turned out to be a major contributor to the global price spike. India doubled its import of P-fertilizer in 2008 at a time when prices doubled. The analysis of a wide set of factors pertinent to the 2008 price spike in phosphorus fertilizer market leads us to the discovery of a price spike magnification and triggering mechanisms. We find that the price spike was magnified on the one hand by protective trade measures of fertilizer suppliers leading to a 19% drop in global phosphate fertilizer export. On the other hand, the Indian fertilizer subsidy scheme led to farmers not adjusting their demand for fertilizer. The triggering mechanism appeared to be the Indian production outage of P-fertilizer resulting in the additional import demand for DAP in size of about 20% of annual global supply. The main conclusion is that these three factors have jointly caused the spike, underscoring the need for ex ante improvements in fertilizer market regulation on both national and international levels. PMID:28660192

7 CFR 1427.25 - Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. 1427.25 Section 1427.25 Agriculture Regulations of the..., PURCHASES, AND OTHER OPERATIONS COTTON Nonrecourse Cotton Loan and Loan Deficiency Payments § 1427.25 Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. (a) CCC will...

7 CFR 1427.25 - Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. 1427.25 Section 1427.25 Agriculture Regulations of the..., PURCHASES, AND OTHER OPERATIONS COTTON Nonrecourse Cotton Loan and Loan Deficiency Payments § 1427.25 Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. (a) CCC will...

7 CFR 1427.25 - Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. 1427.25 Section 1427.25 Agriculture Regulations of the..., PURCHASES, AND OTHER OPERATIONS COTTON Nonrecourse Cotton Loan and Loan Deficiency Payments § 1427.25 Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. (a) CCC will...

7 CFR 1427.25 - Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. 1427.25 Section 1427.25 Agriculture Regulations of the..., PURCHASES, AND OTHER OPERATIONS COTTON Nonrecourse Cotton Loan and Loan Deficiency Payments § 1427.25 Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. (a) CCC will...

7 CFR 1427.25 - Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. 1427.25 Section 1427.25 Agriculture Regulations of the..., PURCHASES, AND OTHER OPERATIONS COTTON Nonrecourse Cotton Loan and Loan Deficiency Payments § 1427.25 Determination of the prevailing world market price and the adjusted world price for upland cotton. (a) CCC will...

Tunisia.

PubMed

1987-02-01

In 1986, Tunisia's population was 7,424,000, with an annual growth rate of 2.5%. The infant mortality rate was 90/1000 and life expectancy averages 58 years. The work force of 1,810,000 is distributed as follows: agriculture, 30.5%; manufacturing, 16.5%; services, 15.0%; construction and mining, 11.4%; and other, 26.6%. The gross domestic product was US$8.35 billion in 1985, with a per capita income (1986) of $1163. The Destourian Socialist Party has been the governing party in Tunisia since independence. Tunisia is a leader in the Arab world in the promotion of equal status for women under the law and the government supports an active family planning program. Tunisia's economy depends on oil, agriculture, phosphates, worker remittances, and tourism for economic growth. In response to an economic crisis in 1985-86, measures to restructure the economy were instituted, including basic commodity price increases, limits on wage increases, import liberalization, and price control modifications. Unemployment, aggravated by a rapidly growing work force, is a major problem in Tunisia. An estimated 50% of the potential work force is unemployed or underemployed.

Dynamics of a durable commodity market involving trade at disequilibrium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panchuk, A.; Puu, T.

2018-05-01

The present work considers a simple model of a durable commodity market involving two agents who trade stocks of two different types. Stock commodities, in contrast to flow commodities, remain on the market from period to period and, consequently, there is neither unique demand function nor unique supply function exists. We also set up exact conditions for trade at disequilibrium, the issue being usually neglected, though a fact of reality. The induced iterative system has infinite number of fixed points and path dependent dynamics. We show that a typical orbit is either attracted to one of the fixed points or eventually sticks at a no-trade point. For the latter the stock distribution always remains the same while the price displays periodic or chaotic oscillations.

Effects of exchange rate volatility on export volume and prices of forest products

Treesearch

Sijia Zhang; Joseph Buongiorno

2010-01-01

The relative value of currencies varies considerably over time. These fluctuations bring uncertainty to international traders. As a result, the volatility in exchange rate movements may influence the volume and the price of traded commodities. The volatility of exchange rates was measured by the variance of residuals in a GARCH(1,1) model of the exchange rate. We...

Google matrix analysis of the multiproduct world trade network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ermann, Leonardo; Shepelyansky, Dima L.

2015-04-01

Using the United Nations COMTRADE database [United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, available at: http://comtrade.un.org/db/. Accessed November (2014)] we construct the Google matrix G of multiproduct world trade between the UN countries and analyze the properties of trade flows on this network for years 1962-2010. This construction, based on Markov chains, treats all countries on equal democratic grounds independently of their richness and at the same time it considers the contributions of trade products proportionally to their trade volume. We consider the trade with 61 products for up to 227 countries. The obtained results show that the trade contribution of products is asymmetric: some of them are export oriented while others are import oriented even if the ranking by their trade volume is symmetric in respect to export and import after averaging over all world countries. The construction of the Google matrix allows to investigate the sensitivity of trade balance in respect to price variations of products, e.g. petroleum and gas, taking into account the world connectivity of trade links. The trade balance based on PageRank and CheiRank probabilities highlights the leading role of China and other BRICS countries in the world trade in recent years. We also show that the eigenstates of G with large eigenvalues select specific trade communities.

[Research progress on standards of commodity classes of Chinese materia medica and discussion on several key problems].

PubMed

Yang, Guang; Zeng, Yan; Guo, Lan-Ping; Huang, Lu-Qi; Jin, Yan; Zheng, Yu-Guang; Wang, Yong-Yan

2014-05-01

Standards of commodity classes of Chinese materia medica is an important way to solve the "Lemons Problem" of traditional Chinese medicine market. Standards of commodity classes are also helpful to rebuild market mechanisms for "high price for good quality". The previous edition of commodity classes standards of Chinese materia medica was made 30 years ago. It is no longer adapted to the market demand. This article researched progress on standards of commodity classes of Chinese materia medica. It considered that biological activity is a better choice than chemical constituents for standards of commodity classes of Chinese materia medica. It is also considered that the key point to set standards of commodity classes is finding the influencing factors between "good quality" and "bad quality". The article also discussed the range of commodity classes of Chinese materia medica, and how to coordinate standards of pharmacopoeia and commodity classes. According to different demands, diversiform standards can be used in commodity classes of Chinese materia medica, but efficacy is considered the most important index of commodity standard. Decoction pieces can be included in standards of commodity classes of Chinese materia medica. The authors also formulated the standards of commodity classes of Notoginseng Radix as an example, and hope this study can make a positive and promotion effect on traditional Chinese medicine market related research.

A decentralized mechanism for improving the functional robustness of distribution networks.

PubMed

Shi, Benyun; Liu, Jiming

2012-10-01

Most real-world distribution systems can be modeled as distribution networks, where a commodity can flow from source nodes to sink nodes through junction nodes. One of the fundamental characteristics of distribution networks is the functional robustness, which reflects the ability of maintaining its function in the face of internal or external disruptions. In view of the fact that most distribution networks do not have any centralized control mechanisms, we consider the problem of how to improve the functional robustness in a decentralized way. To achieve this goal, we study two important problems: 1) how to formally measure the functional robustness, and 2) how to improve the functional robustness of a network based on the local interaction of its nodes. First, we derive a utility function in terms of network entropy to characterize the functional robustness of a distribution network. Second, we propose a decentralized network pricing mechanism, where each node need only communicate with its distribution neighbors by sending a "price" signal to its upstream neighbors and receiving "price" signals from its downstream neighbors. By doing so, each node can determine its outflows by maximizing its own payoff function. Our mathematical analysis shows that the decentralized pricing mechanism can produce results equivalent to those of an ideal centralized maximization with complete information. Finally, to demonstrate the properties of our mechanism, we carry out a case study on the U.S. natural gas distribution network. The results validate the convergence and effectiveness of our mechanism when comparing it with an existing algorithm.

Will Commodity Properties Affect Seller's Creditworthy: Evidence in C2C E-commerce Market in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Hui; Ling, Min

This paper finds out that the credit rating level shows significant difference among different sub-commodity markets in E-commerce, which provides room for sellers to get higher credit rating by entering businesses with higher average credit level before fraud. In order to study the influence of commodity properties on credit rating, this paper analyzes how commodity properties affect average crediting rating through the degree of information asymmetry, returns and costs of fraud, credibility perception and fraud tolerance. Empirical study shows that Delivery, average trading volume, average price and complaint possibility have decisive impacts on credit performance; brand market share, the degree of standardization and the degree of imitation also have a relatively less significant effect on credit rating. Finally, this paper suggests that important commodity properties should be introduced to modify reputation system, for preventing credit rating arbitrage behavior where sellers move into low-rating commodity after being assigned high credit rating.

Price competition and equilibrium analysis in multiple hybrid channel supply chain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuang, Guihua; Wang, Aihu; Sha, Jin

2017-06-01

The amazing boom of Internet and logistics industry prompts more and more enterprises to sell commodity through multiple channels. Such market conditions make the participants of multiple hybrid channel supply chain compete each other in traditional and direct channel at the same time. This paper builds a two-echelon supply chain model with a single manufacturer and a single retailer who both can choose different channel or channel combination for their own sales, then, discusses the price competition and calculates the equilibrium price under different sales channel selection combinations. Our analysis shows that no matter the manufacturer and retailer choose same or different channel price to compete, the equilibrium price does not necessarily exist the equilibrium price in the multiple hybrid channel supply chain and wholesale price change is not always able to coordinate supply chain completely. We also present the sufficient and necessary conditions for the existence of equilibrium price and coordination wholesale price.

Experimental Studies of Bargaining as Analogues of Civil Disputes,

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-11-01

reported; thus it is worthy of further attention. Bilateral Monopoly Games The Bilateral Monopoly game is a simulation of an economic market with two...a Hoyer and Seller in a wholesale market must agree on prices tor three commodities: -33- iron, sulphur, and coal. The commodities have differing...Conflict of Interest on I)ispute Resolution," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 42, pp. b65-672. Homans, G.C., (1961) Social Beharior

13 CFR 126.613 - How does a price evaluation preference affect the bid of a qualified HUBZone SBC in full and open...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... evaluation preference is not applied to change an offer and benefit a non-HUBZone SBC. Example 3: In a full... be awarded that is not greater than 25% of the total volume being procured for each commodity in a... than 25%, but not greater than 40%, of the total volume being procured for each commodity in a single...

10 CFR 626.4 - General acquisition strategy.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... the potential for negative impacts from market participation, DOE shall review the following factors...) Futures market price differentials for crude oil and related commodities; and (9) Any other factor the...

Agribusiness Industry Study Final Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

increase in commodity prices. The 1996 Farm Act significantly changed agricultural policy by doing away with target prices and most production...Young, C. Edwin., “Overview of U.S. Agricultural Policy ,” Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a presentation to the...73 Young, C. Edwin., “Overview of U.S. Agricultural Policy ,” Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a

The commodity terms of trade, unit roots, and nonlinear alternatives: a smooth transition approach

Treesearch

Barry K. Goodwin; Matthew T. Holt; Jeffrey P. Prestemon

2008-01-01

Market price dynamics for North American oriented strand board markets are examined.  Specifically, the role of transactions costs are examined vis-a-vis the law of one price. Weekly data for the January 3rd, 1995 through April 14th, 2006 period are used in the analysis. Nonlinearities induced by unobservable transactions costs are modelled by estimating smooth...

JPRS Report, China

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-09-14

prices are also affected by many other factors, for example, by the value of commodities, by supply and demand, by taxation, by foreign exchange rates and... exchange rates may directly or indirectly cause product value to fluctuate up or down. Thus, only by adjusting prices in a timely manner can we ensure...changes in materialized and live labor, improvements in production technology, changes in natural-resource supply and fluctuations in foreign

Impacts of renewable fuel regulation and production on agriculture, energy, and welfare

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McPhail, Lihong Lu

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the impact of U.S. federal renewable fuel regulations on energy and agriculture commodity markets and welfare. We consider two federal ethanol policies: the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) contained in the Energy Security and Independence Act of 2007 and tax credits to ethanol blenders contained in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. My first essay estimates the distribution of short-run impacts of changing federal ethanol policies on U.S. energy prices, agricultural commodity prices, and welfare through a stochastic partial equilibrium model of U.S. corn, ethanol, and gasoline markets. My second essay focuses on studying the price behavior of the renewable fuel credit (RFC) market, which is the mechanism developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to meet the RFS. RFCs are a tradable, bankable, and borrowable accounting mechanism to ensure that all obligated parties use a mandated level of renewable fuel. I first develop a conceptual framework to understand how the market works and then apply stochastic dynamic programming to simulate prices for RFCs, examine the sensitivity of prices to relevant shocks, and estimate RFC option premiums. My third essay assesses the impact of policy led U.S. ethanol on the markets of global crude oil and U.S. gasoline using a structural Vector Auto Regression model of global crude oil, U.S. gasoline and ethanol markets.

Time series ARIMA models for daily price of palm oil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ariff, Noratiqah Mohd; Zamhawari, Nor Hashimah; Bakar, Mohd Aftar Abu

2015-02-01

Palm oil is deemed as one of the most important commodity that forms the economic backbone of Malaysia. Modeling and forecasting the daily price of palm oil is of great interest for Malaysia's economic growth. In this study, time series ARIMA models are used to fit the daily price of palm oil. The Akaike Infromation Criterion (AIC), Akaike Infromation Criterion with a correction for finite sample sizes (AICc) and Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) are used to compare between different ARIMA models being considered. It is found that ARIMA(1,2,1) model is suitable for daily price of crude palm oil in Malaysia for the year 2010 to 2012.

Influence of market factors on the pricing of exchange traded metals in the medium term

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bogdanov, S. V.; Shevelev, I. M.; Chernyi, S. A.

2017-06-01

On the basis of comparison of the influence of the stock exchange factors on the pricing of nonferrous metals for medium term with similar results for short term, it has been established that the main attention should be paid to the changes in the pricing environment on the metal market as a function of the prices of exchange traded metals. The situation on the market of energy carriers (hydrocarbons) and the European, American, and Asian stock exchanges can be based on parity and even significantly influence the variation of the metal prices. In the medium term, constructive development of metal trade should be reasonably promoted by changing the elasticity of supply with regard to prices for exchange traded metals and by applying the stock exchange factors that positively influence the pricing on commodity and stock markets.

Prevent Unfair Manipulation of Prices Act of 2009

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Rep. Stupak, Bart [D-MI-1

2009-05-14

House - 06/22/2010 Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

17 CFR 35.2 - Exemption.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... manipulation of the market price of any commodity in interstate commerce or for future delivery on or subject to the rules of any contract market), provided the following terms and conditions are met: (a) The...

Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act of 2011

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Rep. Grimm, Michael G. [R-NY-13

2011-04-15

House - 05/11/2011 Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Evidence of infinite and finite jump processes in commodity futures prices: Crude oil and natural gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Wenbin; Guernsey, Scott B.; Linn, Scott C.

2018-07-01

We examine the frequency and character of price jumps in front month oil and natural gas futures prices. Prices are sampled every five seconds over the period 2006-2014. Our test results indicate that jumps in crude oil and natural gas futures prices can be decomposed into an infinite activity jump diffusion process and a less frequent but larger jump process. We also find that we cannot reject the hypothesis that Brownian motion is also present in both return series. The results are based on a battery of tests that are "model free". We further find that jumps account for respectively 36 and 41 percent of the realized variances of the crude oil and the natural gas returns.

Information pricing based on trusted system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Zehua; Zhang, Nan; Han, Hongfeng

2018-05-01

Personal information has become a valuable commodity in today's society. So our goal aims to develop a price point and a pricing system to be realistic. First of all, we improve the existing BLP system to prevent cascading incidents, design a 7-layer model. Through the cost of encryption in each layer, we develop PI price points. Besides, we use association rules mining algorithms in data mining algorithms to calculate the importance of information in order to optimize informational hierarchies of different attribute types when located within a multi-level trusted system. Finally, we use normal distribution model to predict encryption level distribution for users in different classes and then calculate information prices through a linear programming model with the help of encryption level distribution above.

Impact of alcohol fuel production on agricultural markets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gardiner, W.H.

1986-01-01

Production of alcohol from biomass feedstocks, such as corn, was given Federal and State support which resulted in alcohol production rising from 20 million gallons in 1979 to 430 million gallons in 1984. This study estimates the impacts of alcohol production from corn on selected agricultural markets. The tool of analysis was a three region (United States, the European Community and the rest of the world) econometric model of the markets for corn, soybeans, soybean meal, soybean oil, wheat and corn byproduct feeds. Three alternative growth paths for alcohol production (totalling 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0 billion gallons) were analyzed withmore » the model in the context of three different trade environments. The results of this analysis indicate that alcohol production of 1.1 billion gallons by 1980 would have caused moderate adjustments to commodity markets while 3.0 billion gallons would have caused major adjustments. Corn prices rose sharply with increased alcohol production as did wheat prices but to a somewhat lesser extent. The substitution of corn for soybeans on the supply side was not sufficient to offset the demand depressing effects of corn byproduct feeds on soybean meal which translated into slightly lower soybean prices. A quota limiting imports of corn gluten feed into the EC to three million tons annually would cause reductions in export earnings for corn millers.« less

Imported Oil and U.S. National Security

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-01-01

reducing some subsidies and devaluing the currency so as to restore fiscal balance. Chavez has provided campaign financing for presidential candidates in...arbitrage, the markets’ influence on Figure 2.6 Price Per Barrel of West Texas Intermediate in Current and Year 2000 Dollars SOURCES: IMF (undated...security whose price is dependent on or derived from one or more underlying assets, such as stocks, bonds, commodities, or currencies . Its value is

17 CFR 4.13 - Exemption from registration as a commodity pool operator.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

...) The aggregate initial margin, premiums, and required minimum security deposit for retail forex... contract), by the strike price per unit, for each such retail forex transaction, by calculating the value...

17 CFR 4.13 - Exemption from registration as a commodity pool operator.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

...) The aggregate initial margin, premiums, and required minimum security deposit for retail forex... contract), by the strike price per unit, for each such retail forex transaction, by calculating the value...

7 CFR 29.9405 - Issuance of marketing area opening date and selling schedules by the Secretary.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... COMMODITY STANDARDS AND STANDARD CONTAINER REGULATIONS TOBACCO INSPECTION Policy Statement and Regulations Governing Availability of Tobacco Inspection and Price Support Services to Flue-Cured Tobacco on Designated...

Preliminary analysis on hybrid Box-Jenkins - GARCH modeling in forecasting gold price

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yaziz, Siti Roslindar; Azizan, Noor Azlinna; Ahmad, Maizah Hura; Zakaria, Roslinazairimah; Agrawal, Manju; Boland, John

2015-02-01

Gold has been regarded as a valuable precious metal and the most popular commodity as a healthy return investment. Hence, the analysis and prediction of gold price become very significant to investors. This study is a preliminary analysis on gold price and its volatility that focuses on the performance of hybrid Box-Jenkins models together with GARCH in analyzing and forecasting gold price. The Box-Cox formula is used as the data transformation method due to its potential best practice in normalizing data, stabilizing variance and reduces heteroscedasticity using 41-year daily gold price data series starting 2nd January 1973. Our study indicates that the proposed hybrid model ARIMA-GARCH with t-innovation can be a new potential approach in forecasting gold price. This finding proves the strength of GARCH in handling volatility in the gold price as well as overcomes the non-linear limitation in the Box-Jenkins modeling.

Reducing the Cost of System Administration of a Disk Storage System Built from Commodity Components

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-05-01

quickly by using checkpointing and roll-forward logs. Microsoft Tiger is a video server built from commodity PCs which they call “cubs” [ BBD +96, BFD97...20 cents per megabyte using street prices of components. 3.2.2 Redundancy In designing the TD prototype, we have taken care to ensure it does not have... Td /GridPix/, 1999. [ATP99] Satoshi Asami, Nisha Talagala, and David Patterson. Designing a self-maintaining storage system. In Proceedings of the

Case for Deploying Complex Systems Utilizing Commodity Components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryant, Barry S.; Pitts, R. Lee; Ritter, George

2003-01-01

This viewgraph representation presents a study of the transition of computer networks and software engineering at the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) from a client/server UNIX based system to a client/server system based on commodity priced and open system components. Topics covered include: an overview of HOSC ground support systems, an analysis for changes to the existing ground support system, an analysis of options considered for the transition to a new system, and a consideration of goals for a new system.

Historical statistics for mineral and material commodities in the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kelly, Thomas; Matos, Grecia; with Buckingham, David; DiFrancesco, Carl; Porter, Kenneth; Berry, Cyrus; Crane, Melissa; Goonan, Thomas; Sznopek, John

2005-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides information to the public and to policy-makers concerning the current use and flow of minerals and materials in the United States economy. The USGS collects, analyzes, and disseminates minerals information on most nonfuel mineral commodities.This USGS digital database is an online compilation of historical U.S. statistics on mineral and material commodities. The database contains information on approximately 90 mineral commodities, including production, imports, exports, and stocks; reported and apparent consumption; and unit value (the real and nominal price in U.S. dollars of a metric ton of apparent consumption). For many of the commodities, data are reported as far back as 1900. Each commodity file includes a document that describes the units of measure, defines terms, and lists USGS contacts for additional information End-use tables complement these statistics by supplying, for most of these commodities, information about the distribution of apparent consumption.This publication draws on more than 125 years of minerals information experience. At the request of the 47th Congress of the United States (1882; 22 Stat. 329), the U.S. Government began the collection and public distribution of these types of data. The Federal agencies responsible for the collection of the data have changed through time. For the years 1882-1924, the USGS collected and published these data; the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) performed these tasks from 1925-95; and in 1996, the responsibilities once again passed to the USGS (following the closure of the USBM) (Mlynarski, 1998).The USGS collects data on a monthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual basis from more than 18,000 minerals-related producer and consumer establishments that cooperate with the USGS. These companies voluntarily complete about 40,000 canvass forms that survey production, consumption, recycling, stocks, shipments, and other essential information. Data are also gathered from site visits, memberships on domestic and international minerals-related committees, and coordination with other government organizations and trade associations.The USGS makes this information available through published products, including monthly, quarterly, and annual Mineral Industry Surveys, the annual Minerals Yearbook (MYB), the annual Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS), and special mineral commodity studies, including the history of metal prices and materials flow studies. 

Econometrics as evidence? Examining the 'causal' connections between financial speculation and commodities prices.

PubMed

Williams, James W; Cook, Nikolai M

2016-10-01

One of the lasting legacies of the financial crisis of 2008, and the legislative energies that followed from it, is the growing reliance on econometrics as part of the rulemaking process. Financial regulators are increasingly expected to rationalize proposed rules using available econometric techniques, and the courts have vacated several key rules emanating from Dodd-Frank on the grounds of alleged deficiencies in this evidentiary effort. The turn toward such econometric tools is seen as a significant constraint on and challenge to regulators as they endeavor to engage with such essential policy questions as the impact of financial speculation on food security. Yet, outside of the specialized practitioner community, very little is known about these techniques. This article examines one such econometric test, Granger causality, and its role in a pivotal Dodd-Frank rulemaking. Through an examination of the test for Granger causality and its attempts to distill the causal connections between financial speculation and commodities prices, the article argues that econometrics is a blunt but useful tool, limited in its ability to provide decisive insights into commodities markets and yet yielding useful returns for those who are able to wield it.

Economic models for management of resources in peer-to-peer and grid computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buyya, Rajkumar; Stockinger, Heinz; Giddy, Jonathan; Abramson, David

2001-07-01

The accelerated development in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Grid computing has positioned them as promising next generation computing platforms. They enable the creation of Virtual Enterprises (VE) for sharing resources distributed across the world. However, resource management, application development and usage models in these environments is a complex undertaking. This is due to the geographic distribution of resources that are owned by different organizations or peers. The resource owners of each of these resources have different usage or access policies and cost models, and varying loads and availability. In order to address complex resource management issues, we have proposed a computational economy framework for resource allocation and for regulating supply and demand in Grid computing environments. The framework provides mechanisms for optimizing resource provider and consumer objective functions through trading and brokering services. In a real world market, there exist various economic models for setting the price for goods based on supply-and-demand and their value to the user. They include commodity market, posted price, tenders and auctions. In this paper, we discuss the use of these models for interaction between Grid components in deciding resource value and the necessary infrastructure to realize them. In addition to normal services offered by Grid computing systems, we need an infrastructure to support interaction protocols, allocation mechanisms, currency, secure banking, and enforcement services. Furthermore, we demonstrate the usage of some of these economic models in resource brokering through Nimrod/G deadline and cost-based scheduling for two different optimization strategies on the World Wide Grid (WWG) testbed that contains peer-to-peer resources located on five continents: Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

The magic of money and the illusion of biofuels: toward an interdisciplinary understanding of technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hornborg, Alf

2017-02-01

For several centuries, the dominant worldview in industrial societies has held that various problems -such as those recently identified as relating to sustainability- can be solved through technological progress. Technological progress has been conceived as the fruits of engineering science, new knowledge, and innovation. While knowledge of the principles of physics is certainly a necessary condition for technological development, it is not a sufficient condition. Technology is not only a product of engineering, but, ultimately, also of asymmetric transfers of biophysical resources. In other words, the feasibility of technological progress is contingent on world market prices. The history of technology has been written from the perspective of advancing ingenuity, rather than that of unequal global exchange. The implicit world view underlying dominant historiography and economic science ignores the deepening global inequalities which are prerequisite to what some sectors of world society can celebrate as technological progress, including visions of replacing fossil fuels with biofuels and other renewable energy sources. This observation should prompt us to conceptualize technological progress as an inherently unequal capacity to locally save time and space at the expense of human time and natural space lost elsewhere. It implies that the physical agency of technology ultimately rests on prices, i.e. subjective human conceptions about the value of market commodities, and thus finally on the magical artifact we know as money. The purpose of this article is to show how current deliberations on biofuels illustrate the insufficiencies of mainstream understandings of the phenomenon of technology, and to indicate why an adequate understanding of technology must be interdisciplinary, combining insights on both Nature and Society.

Evaluating the effects of climate change on US agricultural systems: sensitivity to regional impact and trade expansion scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, Justin S.; Havlík, Petr; Beach, Robert; Leclère, David; Schmid, Erwin; Valin, Hugo; Cole, Jefferson; Creason, Jared; Ohrel, Sara; McFarland, James

2018-06-01

Agriculture is one of the sectors that is expected to be most significantly impacted by climate change. There has been considerable interest in assessing these impacts and many recent studies investigating agricultural impacts for individual countries and regions using an array of models. However, the great majority of existing studies explore impacts on a country or region of interest without explicitly accounting for impacts on the rest of the world. This approach can bias the results of impact assessments for agriculture given the importance of global trade in this sector. Due to potential impacts on relative competitiveness, international trade, global supply, and prices, the net impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector in each region depend not only on productivity impacts within that region, but on how climate change impacts agricultural productivity throughout the world. In this study, we apply a global model of agriculture and forestry to evaluate climate change impacts on US agriculture with and without accounting for climate change impacts in the rest of the world. In addition, we examine scenarios where trade is expanded to explore the implications for regional allocation of production, trade volumes, and prices. To our knowledge, this is one of the only attempts to explicitly quantify the relative importance of accounting for global climate change when conducting regional assessments of climate change impacts. The results of our analyses reveal substantial differences in estimated impacts on the US agricultural sector when accounting for global impacts vs. US-only impacts, particularly for commodities where the United States has a smaller share of global production. In addition, we find that freer trade can play an important role in helping to buffer regional productivity shocks.

Conceptual Model of Supply Chain Structure Mapping - A Case of Subsidized LPG Commodity in Yogyakarta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sulistio, Joko; Thoif, Afifuddin; Fitri Alindira, Aulia

2016-01-01

— In 2007, the government launched a conversion program of kerosene to LPG by issuing a Presidential Regulation No. 104/2007 on Supply, Distribution and Pricing LPG 3 Kg. Article 2 on the regulation says that setting the supply, distribution, and pricing of LPG 3 Kg include planning an annual sales volume of enterprises, the reference price and the retail price and conditions of export and import of LPG 3 Kg in order to reduce subsidies Kerosene especially to divert the use of kerosene according to government policy. In principle, the purpose of this policy is to reduce energy subsidies on commodities, especially Kerosene. Although the government claimed the conversion program is success, there are few problems arising from conversion program. In 2014, many scarcity and high price of LPG 3 Kg were reported. In this case, Pertamina was given full authority to manage all supply chain and distribution. Because the root of the problem of scarcity that occurred in the supply chain system has not been explained, the proposed solutions will also be partial and not comprehensive. Thus, this research will build a structural map of the causes of supply chain system LPG 3 Kg, as well as providing a comprehensive picture of system dynamics of LPG 3 Kg supply chain system which applied in Indonesia. And the result is expected as in form of Causal Loop Diagram of supply chain system.

Cross-correlations between RMB exchange rate and international commodity markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Xinsheng; Li, Jianfeng; Zhou, Ying; Qian, Yubo

2017-11-01

This paper employs multifractal detrended analysis (MF-DFA) and multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis (MF-DCCA) to study cross-correlation behaviors between China's RMB exchange rate market and four international commodity markets, using a comprehensive set of data covering the period from 22 July 2005 to 15 March 2016. Our empirical results from MF-DFA indicate that the RMB exchange rate is the most inefficient among the 4 selected markets. The results from quantitative analysis have testified the existence of cross-correlations and the result from MF-DCCA have further confirmed a strong multifractal behavior between RMB exchange rate and international commodity markets. We also demonstrate that the recent financial crisis has significant impact on the cross-correlated behavior. Through the rolling window analysis, we find that the RMB exchange rates and international commodity prices are anti-persistent cross-correlated. The main sources of multifractality in the cross-correlations are long-range correlations between RMB exchange rate and the aggregate commodity, energy and metals index.

Basic Economic Principles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tideman, T. N.

1972-01-01

An economic approach to design efficient transportation systems involves maximizing an objective function that reflects both goals and costs. A demand curve can be derived by finding the quantities of a good that solve the maximization problem as one varies the price of that commodity, holding income and the prices of all other goods constant. A supply curve is derived by applying the idea of profit maximization of firms. The production function determines the relationship between input and output.

Quantum-like Viewpoint on the Complexity and Randomness of the Financial Market

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choustova, Olga

In economics and financial theory, analysts use random walk and more general martingale techniques to model behavior of asset prices, in particular share prices on stock markets, currency exchange rates and commodity prices. This practice has its basis in the presumption that investors act rationally and without bias, and that at any moment they estimate the value of an asset based on future expectations. Under these conditions, all existing information affects the price, which changes only when new information comes out. By definition, new information appears randomly and influences the asset price randomly. Corresponding continuous time models are based on stochastic processes (this approach was initiated in the thesis of [4]), see, e.g., the books of [33] and [37] for historical and mathematical details.

Comparison of Online Agricultural Information Services.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reneau, Fred; Patterson, Richard

1984-01-01

Outlines major online agricultural information services--agricultural databases, databases with agricultural services, educational databases in agriculture--noting services provided, access to the database, and costs. Benefits of online agricultural database sources (availability of agricultural marketing, weather, commodity prices, management…

7 CFR 5.4 - Commodities for which parity prices shall be calculated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... the provisions of subsections (g) and (h) of section 359 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 as..., Ladino clover, lespedeza, orchard grass, red clover, timothy, and hairy vetch. sugar crops Sugar beets...

7 CFR 5.4 - Commodities for which parity prices shall be calculated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... the provisions of subsections (g) and (h) of section 359 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 as..., Ladino clover, lespedeza, orchard grass, red clover, timothy, and hairy vetch. sugar crops Sugar beets...

Bio-physical vs. Economic Uncertainty in the Analysis of Climate Change Impacts on World Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hertel, T. W.; Lobell, D. B.

2010-12-01

Accumulating evidence suggests that agricultural production could be greatly affected by climate change, but there remains little quantitative understanding of how these agricultural impacts would affect economic livelihoods in poor countries. The recent paper by Hertel, Burke and Lobell (GEC, 2010) considers three scenarios of agricultural impacts of climate change, corresponding to the fifth, fiftieth, and ninety fifth percentiles of projected yield distributions for the world’s crops in 2030. They evaluate the resulting changes in global commodity prices, national economic welfare, and the incidence of poverty in a set of 15 developing countries. Although the small price changes under the medium scenario are consistent with previous findings, their low productivity scenario reveals the potential for much larger food price changes than reported in recent studies which have hitherto focused on the most likely outcomes. The poverty impacts of price changes under the extremely adverse scenario are quite heterogeneous and very significant in some population strata. They conclude that it is critical to look beyond central case climate shocks and beyond a simple focus on yields and highly aggregated poverty impacts. In this paper, we conduct a more formal, systematic sensitivity analysis (SSA) with respect to uncertainty in the biophysical impacts of climate change on agriculture, by explicitly specifying joint distributions for global yield changes - this time focusing on 2050. This permits us to place confidence intervals on the resulting price impacts and poverty results which reflect the uncertainty inherited from the biophysical side of the analysis. We contrast this with the economic uncertainty inherited from the global general equilibrium model (GTAP), by undertaking SSA with respect to the behavioral parameters in that model. This permits us to assess which type of uncertainty is more important for regional price and poverty outcomes. Finally, we undertake a combined SSA, wherein climate change-induced productivity shocks are permitted to interact with the uncertain economic parameters. This permits us to examine potential interactions between the two sources of uncertainty.

Crop Monitoring as a Tool for Modelling the Genesis of Millet Prices in Senegal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacques, D.; Marinho, E.; Defourny, P.; Waldner, F.; d'Andrimont, R.

2015-12-01

Food security in Sahelian countries strongly relies on the ability of markets to transfer staplesfrom surplus to deficit areas. Market failures, leading to the inefficient geographical allocation of food,are expected to emerge from high transportation costs and information asymmetries that are commonin moderately developed countries. As a result, important price differentials are observed betweenproducing and consuming areas which damages both poor producers and food insecure consumers. Itis then vital for policy makers to understand how the prices of agricultural commodities are formed byaccounting for the existing market imperfections in addition to local demand and supply considerations. To address this issue, we have gathered an unique and diversified set of data for Senegal andintegrated it in a spatially explicit model that simulates the functioning of agricultural markets, that isfully consistent with the economic theory. Our departure point is a local demand and supply modelaround each market having its catchment areas determined by the road network. We estimate the localsupply of agricultural commodities from satellite imagery while the demand is assumed to be a functionof the population living in the area. From this point on, profitable transactions between areas with lowprices to areas with high prices are simulated for different levels of per kilometer transportation costand information flows (derived from call details records i.e. mobile phone data). The simulated prices are then comparedwith the actual millet prices. Despite the parsimony of the model that estimates only two parameters, i.e. the per kilometertransportation cost and the information asymmetry resulting from low levels of mobile phone activitybetween markets, it impressively explains more than 80% of the price differentials observed in the 40markets included in the analysis. In one hand these results can be used in the assessment of the socialwelfare impacts of the further development of both road and mobile phone networks in the country. Onthe other hand, the model could be further developed as a precious tool for the prediction of futurestaple prices in the country.

Applications of GARCH models to energy commodities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Humphreys, H. Brett

This thesis uses GARCH methods to examine different aspects of the energy markets. The first part of the thesis examines seasonality in the variance. This study modifies the standard univariate GARCH models to test for seasonal components in both the constant and the persistence in natural gas, heating oil and soybeans. These commodities exhibit seasonal price movements and, therefore, may exhibit seasonal variances. In addition, the heating oil model is tested for a structural change in variance during the Gulf War. The results indicate the presence of an annual seasonal component in the persistence for all commodities. Out-of-sample volatility forecasting for natural gas outperforms standard forecasts. The second part of this thesis uses a multivariate GARCH model to examine volatility spillovers within the crude oil forward curve and between the London and New York crude oil futures markets. Using these results the effect of spillovers on dynamic hedging is examined. In addition, this research examines cointegration within the oil markets using investable returns rather than fixed prices. The results indicate the presence of strong volatility spillovers between both markets, weak spillovers from the front of the forward curve to the rest of the curve, and cointegration between the long term oil price on the two markets. The spillover dynamic hedge models lead to a marginal benefit in terms of variance reduction, but a substantial decrease in the variability of the dynamic hedge; thereby decreasing the transactions costs associated with the hedge. The final portion of the thesis uses portfolio theory to demonstrate how the energy mix consumed in the United States could be chosen given a national goal to reduce the risks to the domestic macroeconomy of unanticipated energy price shocks. An efficient portfolio frontier of U.S. energy consumption is constructed using a covariance matrix estimated with GARCH models. The results indicate that while the electric utility industry is operating close to the minimum variance position, a shift towards coal consumption would reduce price volatility for overall U.S. energy consumption. With the inclusion of potential externality costs, the shift remains away from oil but towards natural gas instead of coal.

Three Essays Examining Household Energy Demand and Behavior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murray, Anthony G.

This dissertation consists of three essays examining household energy decisions and behavior. The first essay examines the adoption of energy efficient Energy Star home appliances by U.S. households. Program effectiveness requires that consumers be aware of the labeling scheme and also change their purchase decisions based on label information. The first essay examines the factors associated with consumer awareness of the Energy Star label of recently purchased major appliances and the factors associated with the choice of Energy Star labeled appliances. The findings suggest that eliminating identified gaps in Energy Star appliance adoption would result in house electricity cost savings of $164 million per year and associated carbon emission reductions of about 1.1 million metric tons per year. The second essay evaluates household energy security and the effectiveness of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the single largest energy assistance program available to poor households within the United States. Energy security is conceptually akin to the well-known concept of food security. Rasch models and household responses to energy security questions in the 2005 Residential Energy Consumption Survey are used to generate an energy insecurity index that is consistent with those found in the food insecurity literature. Participating in LIHEAP is found to significantly reduce household energy insecurity score in the index. Further, simulations show that the elimination of the energy assistance safety net currently available to households increases the number of energy insecure house- holds by over 16 percent. The third essay develops a five equation demand system to estimate household own-price, cross-price and income elasticities between electricity, natural gas, food at home, food away from home, and non-durable commodity groups. Household cross-price elasticities between energy and food commodities are of particular importance. Energy price shocks reduce food expenditures for low-income households, as indicated by negative cross-price elasticity estimates for food and energy commodities. Additionally, low-income households reduce energy expenditures more than other households, further indicating "heat or eat" behavior. Results from all three essays provide policy makers with helpful information to shape future federal energy programs.

Real Time Business Analytics for Buying or Selling Transaction on Commodity Warehouse Receipt System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djatna, Taufik; Teniwut, Wellem A.; Hairiyah, Nina; Marimin

2017-10-01

The requirement for smooth information such as buying and selling is essential for commodity warehouse receipt system such as dried seaweed and their stakeholders to transact for an operational transaction. Transactions of buying or selling a commodity warehouse receipt system are a risky process due to the fluctuations in dynamic commodity prices. An integrated system to determine the condition of the real time was needed to make a decision-making transaction by the owner or prospective buyer. The primary motivation of this study is to propose computational methods to trace market tendency for either buying or selling processes. The empirical results reveal that feature selection gain ratio and k-NN outperforms other forecasting models, implying that the proposed approach is a promising alternative to the stock market tendency of warehouse receipt document exploration with accurate level rate is 95.03%.

Palm oil price forecasting model: An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamid, Mohd Fahmi Abdul; Shabri, Ani

2017-05-01

Palm oil price fluctuated without any clear trend or cyclical pattern in the last few decades. The instability of food commodities price causes it to change rapidly over time. This paper attempts to develop Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model in modeling and forecasting the price of palm oil. In order to use ARDL as a forecasting model, this paper modifies the data structure where we only consider lagged explanatory variables to explain the variation in palm oil price. We then compare the performance of this ARDL model with a benchmark model namely ARIMA in term of their comparative forecasting accuracy. This paper also utilize ARDL bound testing approach to co-integration in examining the short run and long run relationship between palm oil price and its determinant; production, stock, and price of soybean as the substitute of palm oil and price of crude oil. The comparative forecasting accuracy suggests that ARDL model has a better forecasting accuracy compared to ARIMA.

JPRS Report, Soviet Union Kommunist No 13, September 1987.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-12-10

fast and decisive forward movement, with the risk of all sorts of disadvantages and defeats" (vol 24, p 138). Under such most difficult circumstances...local. On each individual occasion and at different times they applied to commodities produced by individual sectors: wholesale prices in industry ...of self-support and self-financing. The level of wholesale prices in industry was raised after 1955 by a factor of 2.7 in coal mining, 3.8 in

7 CFR 1207.342 - Assessments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Expenses and Assessments § 1207.342 Assessments. (a) The funds to... the immediate past ten calendar years United States average price received for potatoes by growers as...

7 CFR 5.2 - Marketing season average price data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... Nonbasic Commodities Tung nuts; honey, wholesale extracted. Wool and Mohair Wool and mohair. Other Nonbasic... market Artichokes, asparagus, snap beans, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, celery..., spinach, tomatoes, and watermelons. vegetables for processing Asparagus, lima beans, snap beans, beets...

7 CFR 5.2 - Marketing season average price data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Nonbasic Commodities Tung nuts; honey, wholesale extracted. Wool and Mohair Wool and mohair. Other Nonbasic... market Artichokes, asparagus, snap beans, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, celery..., spinach, tomatoes, and watermelons. vegetables for processing Asparagus, lima beans, snap beans, beets...

7 CFR 1216.60 - Reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PEANUT PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND INFORMATION ORDER Peanut Promotion, Research, and Information Order Reports, Books, and Records § 1216.60... following: (1) Number of pounds of peanuts produced or handled; (2) Price paid to producers (entry in value...

7 CFR 1207.342 - Assessments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Expenses and Assessments § 1207.342 Assessments. (a) The funds to... the immediate past ten calendar years United States average price received for potatoes by growers as...

7 CFR 1207.342 - Assessments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Expenses and Assessments § 1207.342 Assessments. (a) The funds to... the immediate past ten calendar years United States average price received for potatoes by growers as...

7 CFR 1207.342 - Assessments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Expenses and Assessments § 1207.342 Assessments. (a) The funds to... the immediate past ten calendar years United States average price received for potatoes by growers as...

7 CFR 1207.342 - Assessments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Expenses and Assessments § 1207.342 Assessments. (a) The funds to... the immediate past ten calendar years United States average price received for potatoes by growers as...

Climatic crystal balls

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

What do anchovy and coffee prices have in common? They both are influenced by weather patterns. And so are a lot of other industries in the world of commodities. A new report from the National Research Council says it's time to protect these economic interests. The report outlines a new 15-year global research program that would help scientists make better seasonal and interannual climate predictions. Called the Global Ocean-Atmosphere-Land System or GOALS, the new program would be an extension of the decade-long international Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program, which comes to an end this year. Besides studying the climatic effects of tropical phenomena such as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, the program would expand these types of studies to Earth's higher latitudes and to additional physical processes, such as the effects of changes in upper ocean currents, soil moisture, vegetation, and land, snow, and sea-ice cover, among others.

Climate Change Impacts on Worldwide Coffee Production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foreman, T.; Rising, J. A.

2015-12-01

Coffee (Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora) plays a vital role in many countries' economies, providing necessary income to 25 million members of tropical countries, and supporting a $81 billion industry, making it one of the most valuable commodities in the world. At the same time, coffee is at the center of many issues of sustainability. It is vulnerable to climate change, with disease outbreaks becoming more common and suitable regions beginning to shift. We develop a statistical production model for coffee which incorporates temperature, precipitation, frost, and humidity effects using a new database of worldwide coffee production. We then use this model to project coffee yields and production into the future based on a variety of climate forecasts. This model can then be used together with a market model to forecast the locations of future coffee production as well as future prices, supply, and demand.

Alcohol: no ordinary commodity--a summary of the second edition.

PubMed

2010-05-01

This article summarizes the contents of Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity (2nd edn). The first part of the book describes why alcohol is not an ordinary commodity, and reviews epidemiological data that establish alcohol as a major contributor to the global burden of disease, disability and death in high-, middle- and low-income countries. This section also documents how international beer and spirits production has been consolidated recently by a small number of global corporations that are expanding their operations in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the second part of the book, the scientific evidence for strategies and interventions that can prevent or minimize alcohol-related harm is reviewed critically in seven key areas: pricing and taxation, regulating the physical availability of alcohol, modifying the drinking context, drink-driving countermeasures, restrictions on marketing, education and persuasion strategies, and treatment and early intervention services. Finally, the book addresses the policy-making process at the local, national and international levels and provides ratings of the effectiveness of strategies and interventions from a public health perspective. Overall, the strongest, most cost-effective strategies include taxation that increases prices, restrictions on the physical availability of alcohol, drink-driving countermeasures, brief interventions with at risk drinkers and treatment of drinkers with alcohol dependence.

76 FR 80433 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE Arca, Inc.; Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change To List...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-23

... commodities portion of the Index consists of multiple commodity sectors (e.g., Energy, Industrial Metals) and... component weight. Weightings of the Commodities Futures Contracts are based on generally known world production levels, as adjusted to limit the impact of the energy sector. Weightings of the Financials Futures...

Military and Private Sector Commodity Outlets: A Retail Price Comparison

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-02-01

II where it is noted that some PXs carry only the glass bowl Sunbeam Mixmaser, at $69.95, while off-base outlets such as K-Mart carry the steel bowl...by comparing Table Bl with Tables B2 through B6. 11. The only difference between the two models is that the higher priced model included a glass ...Arrow Charcoal Briquets, 10 lb. Bag 9. Atra Shaving Cartridges, Pack of 10 10. Westinghouse Softlite Lightbulbs , 60 W, pack of 4 11. Kiwi Black Shoe

Applications of statistical physics to technology price evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McNerney, James

Understanding how changing technology affects the prices of goods is a problem with both rich phenomenology and important policy consequences. Using methods from statistical physics, I model technology-driven price evolution. First, I examine a model for the price evolution of individual technologies. The price of a good often follows a power law equation when plotted against its cumulative production. This observation turns out to have significant consequences for technology policy aimed at mitigating climate change, where technologies are needed that achieve low carbon emissions at low cost. However, no theory adequately explains why technology prices follow power laws. To understand this behavior, I simplify an existing model that treats technologies as machines composed of interacting components. I find that the power law exponent of the price trajectory is inversely related to the number of interactions per component. I extend the model to allow for more realistic component interactions and make a testable prediction. Next, I conduct a case-study on the cost evolution of coal-fired electricity. I derive the cost in terms of various physical and economic components. The results suggest that commodities and technologies fall into distinct classes of price models, with commodities following martingales, and technologies following exponentials in time or power laws in cumulative production. I then examine the network of money flows between industries. This work is a precursor to studying the simultaneous evolution of multiple technologies. Economies resemble large machines, with different industries acting as interacting components with specialized functions. To begin studying the structure of these machines, I examine 20 economies with an emphasis on finding common features to serve as targets for statistical physics models. I find they share the same money flow and industry size distributions. I apply methods from statistical physics to show that industries cluster the same way according to industry type. Finally, I use these industry money flows to model the price evolution of many goods simultaneously, where network effects become important. I derive a prediction for which goods tend to improve most rapidly. The fastest-improving goods are those with the highest mean path lengths in the money flow network.

Review and outlook for the world oil market. World Bank discussion paper

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Streifel, S.S.

1995-12-01

The objectives of the study are: (1) to review historical developments in world oil and energy markets; (2) review past and recent forecasts of oil prices and oil markets; and (3) project world oil demand, supply and prices to 2010. A major aim of the study is to take a view on long term oil prices rather than present several alternative scenarios. A basic conclusion of the paper is that significantly higher or lower real oil prices are less likely than a continuance of present price levels, although there is a fairly wide band in which oil prices could reasonablymore » be expected to fluctuate or be sustained, i.e., the low `teens` to the the low $20s per barrel range. OPEC is expected to continue to limit output to keep oil prices well above the long term competitive costs of productions. Consequently the oil market is expected to remain volatile and unstable, although somewhat more stable than during the early 1980s when oil prices were far too high to be sustained. Although upward oil price shocks are likely, a greater risk to the forecast in the near-to-medium term is for a further decline in real oil prices. (Copyright (c) 1995 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.)« less

Yield and Economic Responses of Peanut to Crop Rotation Sequence

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

National Peanut Research Laboratory, Dawson, GA 39842. Proper crop rotation is essential to maintaining high peanut yield and quality. However, the economic considerations of maintaining or altering crop rotation sequences must incorporate the commodity prices, production costs, and yield responses...

Economics and Migration: NAFTA’s Impact on Mexico

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-28

immigrants to the U.S. 1 No nation was ever ruined by trade, even seemingly the most disadvantageous . -Benjamin...NAFTA forced rural farmers to cultivate marginal land due to lost income caused by falling commodity prices, leading to extensive deforestation in

7 CFR 1220.310 - Assessments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOYBEAN PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND... market price per bushel assessment on soybeans marketed shall be paid by the producer of the soybeans in... the soybeans marketed, each such producer is obligated to pay that portion of the assessments which is...

7 CFR 1220.310 - Assessments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOYBEAN PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND... market price per bushel assessment on soybeans marketed shall be paid by the producer of the soybeans in... the soybeans marketed, each such producer is obligated to pay that portion of the assessments which is...

7 CFR 6.41 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... the Secretary of Agriculture IMPORT QUOTAS AND FEES Price-Undercutting of Domestic Cheese by Quota Cheeses § 6.41 Definitions. (a) Complainant means the person who has filed with the Investigating..., Livestock and Poultry Division, Commodity Programs, Foreign Agricultural Service. (e) Quota cheese means the...

U.S National cropland soil moisture monitoring using SMAP

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Crop condition information is critical for public and private sector decision making that concerns agricultural policy, food production, food security, and food commodity prices. Crop conditions change quickly due to various growing condition events, such as temperature extremes, soil moisture defic...

Comparing Exponential and Exponentiated Models of Drug Demand in Cocaine Users

PubMed Central

Strickland, Justin C.; Lile, Joshua A.; Rush, Craig R.; Stoops, William W.

2016-01-01

Drug purchase tasks provide rapid and efficient measurement of drug demand. Zero values (i.e., prices with zero consumption) present a quantitative challenge when using exponential demand models that exponentiated models may resolve. We aimed to replicate and advance the utility of using an exponentiated model by demonstrating construct validity (i.e., association with real-world drug use) and generalizability across drug commodities. Participants (N = 40 cocaine-using adults) completed Cocaine, Alcohol, and Cigarette Purchase Tasks evaluating hypothetical consumption across changes in price. Exponentiated and exponential models were fit to these data using different treatments of zero consumption values, including retaining zeros or replacing them with 0.1, 0.01, 0.001. Excellent model fits were observed with the exponentiated model. Means and precision fluctuated with different replacement values when using the exponential model, but were consistent for the exponentiated model. The exponentiated model provided the strongest correlation between derived demand intensity (Q0) and self-reported free consumption in all instances (Cocaine r = .88; Alcohol r = .97; Cigarette r = .91). Cocaine demand elasticity was positively correlated with alcohol and cigarette elasticity. Exponentiated parameters were associated with real-world drug use (e.g., weekly cocaine use), whereas these correlations were less consistent for exponential parameters. Our findings show that selection of zero replacement values impact demand parameters and their association with drug-use outcomes when using the exponential model, but not the exponentiated model. This work supports the adoption of the exponentiated demand model by replicating improved fit and consistency, in addition to demonstrating construct validity and generalizability. PMID:27929347

Comparing exponential and exponentiated models of drug demand in cocaine users.

PubMed

Strickland, Justin C; Lile, Joshua A; Rush, Craig R; Stoops, William W

2016-12-01

Drug purchase tasks provide rapid and efficient measurement of drug demand. Zero values (i.e., prices with zero consumption) present a quantitative challenge when using exponential demand models that exponentiated models may resolve. We aimed to replicate and advance the utility of using an exponentiated model by demonstrating construct validity (i.e., association with real-world drug use) and generalizability across drug commodities. Participants (N = 40 cocaine-using adults) completed Cocaine, Alcohol, and Cigarette Purchase Tasks evaluating hypothetical consumption across changes in price. Exponentiated and exponential models were fit to these data using different treatments of zero consumption values, including retaining zeros or replacing them with 0.1, 0.01, or 0.001. Excellent model fits were observed with the exponentiated model. Means and precision fluctuated with different replacement values when using the exponential model but were consistent for the exponentiated model. The exponentiated model provided the strongest correlation between derived demand intensity (Q0) and self-reported free consumption in all instances (Cocaine r = .88; Alcohol r = .97; Cigarette r = .91). Cocaine demand elasticity was positively correlated with alcohol and cigarette elasticity. Exponentiated parameters were associated with real-world drug use (e.g., weekly cocaine use) whereas these correlations were less consistent for exponential parameters. Our findings show that selection of zero replacement values affects demand parameters and their association with drug-use outcomes when using the exponential model but not the exponentiated model. This work supports the adoption of the exponentiated demand model by replicating improved fit and consistency and demonstrating construct validity and generalizability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

7 CFR 1427.19 - Repayment of loans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... loan level and charges, plus interest determined for such bales; or (ii) The adjusted world price, as... announce the adjusted world price for each crop of upland cotton on a weekly basis. (e) The difference.... Eastern Standard time the next workday until an announcement of the adjusted world price for the...

7 CFR 1427.19 - Repayment of loans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... loan level and charges, plus interest determined for such bales; or (ii) The adjusted world price, as... announce the adjusted world price for each crop of upland cotton on a weekly basis. (e) The difference.... Eastern Standard time the next workday until an announcement of the adjusted world price for the...

Yield and Economic Responses of Peanut to Crop Rotation Sequence

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Proper crop rotation is essential to maintaining high peanut yield and quality. However, the economic considerations of maintaining or altering crop rotation sequences must incorporate the commodity prices, production costs, and yield responses of all crops in, or potentially in, the crop rotation ...

7 CFR 29.9407 - Records and reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Records and reports. 29.9407 Section 29.9407..., Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE COMMODITY STANDARDS AND STANDARD CONTAINER... and Price Support Services to Flue-Cured Tobacco on Designated Markets § 29.9407 Records and reports...

7 CFR 29.9407 - Records and reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 2 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Records and reports. 29.9407 Section 29.9407..., Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE COMMODITY STANDARDS AND STANDARD CONTAINER... and Price Support Services to Flue-Cured Tobacco on Designated Markets § 29.9407 Records and reports...

17 CFR 1.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... that directly or indirectly controls such individual, partnership, corporation or association; or (viii) A business affiliate that, directly or indirectly is controlled by or is under common control with... equivalent of fixed-price sales of the cash products and by-products of such commodity by the same person...

7 CFR 5.4 - Commodities for which parity prices shall be calculated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... market Artichokes, asparagus, snap beans, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloups, carrots, cauliflower, celery..., spinach, tomatoes, and watermelons. vegetables for processing Asparagus, lima beans, snap beans, beets...; tobacco, Types 61 and 62; barley; beans, dry edible; cottonseed; peas, dry field; flaxseed; hay, all baled...

7 CFR 5.4 - Commodities for which parity prices shall be calculated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... market Artichokes, asparagus, snap beans, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloups, carrots, cauliflower, celery..., spinach, tomatoes, and watermelons. vegetables for processing Asparagus, lima beans, snap beans, beets...; tobacco, Types 61 and 62; barley; beans, dry edible; cottonseed; peas, dry field; flaxseed; hay, all baled...

7 CFR 5.4 - Commodities for which parity prices shall be calculated.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... market Artichokes, asparagus, snap beans, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloups, carrots, cauliflower, celery..., spinach, tomatoes, and watermelons. vegetables for processing Asparagus, lima beans, snap beans, beets...; tobacco, Types 61 and 62; barley; beans, dry edible; cottonseed; peas, dry field; flaxseed; hay, all baled...

From floor sweepings to fish flesh: Phytase superdosing in the US catfish industry

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Market competition, rising commodity prices, and a push towards sustainability are dictating higher inclusion rates of plant-based feedstuffs in aquaculture feeds worldwide. Such shifts bring with them many challenges, including recognizing and quantifying losses in digestibility and performance du...

Market analysis of construction materials with recommendations for the future of the industry : final report, January 14, 2010.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-01-14

Due to the volatility of current highway construction commodity prices, owners, contractors, and designers are facing serious challenges in both short-term estimating and long-term planning. Among these challenges is significant uncertainty about the...

"Photographing money" task pricing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, Zhongxiang

2018-05-01

"Photographing money" [1]is a self-service model under the mobile Internet. The task pricing is reasonable, related to the success of the commodity inspection. First of all, we analyzed the position of the mission and the membership, and introduced the factor of membership density, considering the influence of the number of members around the mission on the pricing. Multivariate regression of task location and membership density using MATLAB to establish the mathematical model of task pricing. At the same time, we can see from the life experience that membership reputation and the intensity of the task will also affect the pricing, and the data of the task success point is more reliable. Therefore, the successful point of the task is selected, and its reputation, task density, membership density and Multiple regression of task positions, according to which a nhew task pricing program. Finally, an objective evaluation is given of the advantages and disadvantages of the established model and solution method, and the improved method is pointed out.

The role of storage dynamics in annual wheat prices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schewe, Jacob; Otto, Christian; Frieler, Katja

2017-05-01

Identifying the drivers of global crop price fluctuations is essential for estimating the risks of unexpected weather-induced production shortfalls and for designing optimal response measures. Here we show that with a consistent representation of storage dynamics, a simple supply-demand model can explain most of the observed variations in wheat prices over the last 40 yr solely based on time series of annual production and long term demand trends. Even the most recent price peaks in 2007/08 and 2010/11 can be explained by additionally accounting for documented changes in countries’ trade policies and storage strategies, without the need for external drivers such as oil prices or speculation across different commodity or stock markets. This underlines the critical sensitivity of global prices to fluctuations in production. The consistent inclusion of storage into a dynamic supply-demand model closes an important gap when it comes to exploring potential responses to future crop yield variability under climate and land-use change.

Smart Computer-Assisted Markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCabe, Kevin A.; Rassenti, Stephen J.; Smith, Vernon L.

1991-10-01

The deregulation movement has motivated the experimental study of auction markets designed for interdependent network industries such as natural gas pipelines or electric power systems. Decentralized agents submit bids to buy commodity and offers to sell transportation and commodity to a computerized dispatch center. Computer algorithms determine prices and allocations that maximize the gains from exchange in the system relative to the submitted bids and offers. The problem is important, because traditionally the scale and coordination economies in such industries were thought to require regulation. Laboratory experiments are used to study feasibility, limitations, incentives, and performance of proposed market designs for deregulation, providing motivation for new theory.

A world of minerals in your mobile device

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jenness, Jane E.; Ober, Joyce A.; Wilkins, Aleeza M.; Gambogi, Joseph

2016-09-15

Mobile phones and other high-technology communications devices could not exist without mineral commodities. More than one-half of all components in a mobile device—including its electronics, display, battery, speakers, and more—are made from mined and semiprocessed materials (mineral commodities). Some mineral commodities can be recovered as byproducts during the production and processing of other commodities. As an example, bauxite is mined for its aluminum content, but gallium is recovered during the aluminum production process. The images show the ore minerals (sources) of some mineral commodities that are used to make components of a mobile device. On the reverse side, the map and table depict the major source countries producing these mineral commodities along with how these commodities are used in mobile devices. For more information on minerals, visit http://minerals.usgs.gov.

The role of internal reference prices in consumers' willingness to pay judgments: Thaler's Beer Pricing Task revisited.

PubMed

Ranyard, R; Charlton, J P; Williamson, J

2001-02-01

Alternative reference prices, either displayed in the environment (external) or recalled from memory (internal) are known to influence consumer judgments and decisions. In one line of previous research, internal reference prices have been defined in terms of general price expectations. However, Thaler (Marketing Science 4 (1985) 199; Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 12 (1999) 183) defined them as fair prices expected from specific types of seller. Using a Beer Pricing Task, he found that seller context had a substantial effect on willingness to pay, and concluded that this was due to specific internal reference prices evoked by specific contexts. In a think aloud study using the same task (N = 48), we found only a marginal effect of seller context. In a second study using the Beer Pricing Task and seven analogous ones (N = 144), general internal reference prices were estimated by asking people what they normally paid for various commodities. Both general internal reference prices and seller context influenced willingness to pay, although the effect of the latter was again rather small. We conclude that general internal reference prices have a greater impact in these scenarios than specific ones, because of the lower cognitive load involved in their storage and retrieval.

17 CFR 4.34 - General disclosures required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... the commodity trading advisor may engage in retail forex transactions pursuant to the offered trading... pursuant to such program (including retail forex and swap transactions, if any). (h) Trading program. A... difference between bid and asked prices on retail forex or swap transactions, the trading advisor must...

17 CFR 4.34 - General disclosures required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... the commodity trading advisor may engage in retail forex transactions pursuant to the offered trading... pursuant to such program (including retail forex and swap transactions, if any). (h) Trading program. A... difference between bid and asked prices on retail forex or swap transactions, the trading advisor must...

22 CFR 201.66 - Side payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Side payments. 201.66 Section 201.66 Foreign Relations AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RULES AND PROCEDURES APPLICABLE TO COMMODITY TRANSACTIONS FINANCED BY USAID Price Provisions § 201.66 Side payments. Any payment which an importer makes to a...

22 CFR 201.66 - Side payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Side payments. 201.66 Section 201.66 Foreign Relations AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RULES AND PROCEDURES APPLICABLE TO COMMODITY TRANSACTIONS FINANCED BY USAID Price Provisions § 201.66 Side payments. Any payment which an importer makes to a...

22 CFR 201.66 - Side payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Side payments. 201.66 Section 201.66 Foreign Relations AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RULES AND PROCEDURES APPLICABLE TO COMMODITY TRANSACTIONS FINANCED BY USAID Price Provisions § 201.66 Side payments. Any payment which an importer makes to a...

22 CFR 201.66 - Side payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Side payments. 201.66 Section 201.66 Foreign Relations AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RULES AND PROCEDURES APPLICABLE TO COMMODITY TRANSACTIONS FINANCED BY USAID Price Provisions § 201.66 Side payments. Any payment which an importer makes to a...

22 CFR 201.66 - Side payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Side payments. 201.66 Section 201.66 Foreign Relations AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RULES AND PROCEDURES APPLICABLE TO COMMODITY TRANSACTIONS FINANCED BY USAID Price Provisions § 201.66 Side payments. Any payment which an importer makes to a...

The Giffen Effect: A Note on Economic Purposes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, William D.

1990-01-01

Describes the Giffen effect: demand for a commodity increases as price increases. Explains how applying control theory eliminates the paradox that the Giffen effect presents to classic economics supply and demand theory. Notes the differences in how conventional demand theory and control theory treat consumer behavior. (CH)

Air Force Commodity Councils: A Template for Future Implementation Comparing Successful and Failed Approaches

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-12-01

Northwest QantasLink 67 References Mankiw , N. Gregory, Essentials of Economics , Chapter 13 Weinstein, David E; Yafeh...Purchasing, Transaction Cost Analysis, Transaction Cost Economics , Air Force, Supply Chain Management, Procurement, Transformation 16. PRICE CODE 17...SOURCING .............................................................................7 C. TRANSACTION COST ECONOMICS

7 CFR 1412.76 - Payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... with the highest and lowest yields, using National Agricultural Statistics Service data to the extent..., after the end of the applicable marketing year for the covered commodity or peanuts. (a) CCC will make... national average market price received by producers during the 12-month marketing year for the covered...

75 FR 76139 - Real-Time Public Reporting of Swap Transaction Data

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-12-07

... Transaction Data; Proposed Rule #0;#0;Federal Register / Vol. 75 , No. 234 / Tuesday, December 7, 2010...-Time Public Reporting of Swap Transaction Data AGENCY: Commodity Futures Trading Commission. ACTION...-time public reporting of swap transaction and pricing data for all swap transactions. Additionally, the...

Energy environment study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strangways, R.

1981-01-01

The international demand for and supply of oil between the years 1980 and 2000 is assessed and future world oil prices and their implications for the price of jet fuel are estimated. Three critical questions are investigated: (1) how long will the world supply of oil continue to keep pace with its demand under likely trends in its use and discovery; (2) at what price will demand and supply clear the world oil market; (3) what does the analysis imply about the price of jet fuel. Projection of oil price is based upon supply and demand, which is consistent with microeconomic analysis.

No Free Lunch - Trading Away Ecosystem Services from Agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaks, D.; Foley, J.

2008-12-01

In the age of globalization, many crops and animal products are transported across the long distances for consumption elsewhere. The alteration of water, soil and climate systems from agricultural practices can be attributed to both exporting and importing countries. Quantities of water, carbon and nutrients (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorus) can be tracked throughout the production process and be aggregated from field to table. The synthesis of this data can be used to inform markets to appropriately price the most ecologically efficient production.While agricultural land is undergoing changes around the world, the Brazilian Amazon has seen a dramatic conversion of forest and grassland due to the expanding agricultural frontier, and intense growth in the future has been predicted in the region. As a proof of concept, I plan to study the flow of ecosystem services from the Amazon rainforest basin to the world market. Cattle and soybeans are the two main agricultural products of the region and are produced for both internal consumption and for export. This work quantifies agricultural production and its associated ecosystem services using socio-economic and commodity trade data, numerical ecosystem models and remote sensing products.

Crop plants versus energy plants--on the international food crisis.

PubMed

Schmitz, P M; Kavallari, A

2009-06-15

The recent price explosion of important agricultural commodities has lead to an international food crisis. The price rise is attributed to fundamental factors, such as the rising demand for dairy and meat products in China and the development of the bioenergy branch as well as on short-term factors such as the behaviour of speculators. Mobilising the worldwide supply can held to overcome the demand driven shortage of food this can be achieved through a proper design of the agricultural policy both in developed and developing countries.

A Proposed Legislative Bill to Economically Index the Small Purchase Thresholds Within the Federal Government Procurement System

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-12-01

to others. IF, For example, avocados are two dollars each, a consumer may choose to have cucumber, at twenty-Five cents each, in his salad instead...in 1986, after the revision of the home ownership aspect of the CPI in 1983. The CPI is a Familiar index and despite its overly general market basket...loans by the government to enable producers to continue to produce items whose market price is less than the production price. In other words, commodity

An evaluation of federal order reform.

PubMed

Bailey, K; Tozer, P

2001-04-01

The Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 required the Secretary of Agriculture to reform federal milk marketing orders. The Secretary carried out this task and issued a final rule on March 31, 1999, that was eventually approved by dairy farmers in a national referendum. However, a temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued on September 28, 1999, that halted the reform process. The TRO was effectively overturned and the reform process restarted when President Bill Clinton signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2000 on November 29, 1999. The final rule as amended consolidates the number of orders, develops a multiple component pricing system that determines new formulas for class prices, and provides a new system for pricing fluid milk based on county-level price differentials. The impact of these changes is to provide more transparency in pricing and improved market signals to farmers. But the new system is also much more vulnerable to changes in dairy commodity prices. The objective of this report is to provide a comprehensive overview of federal order reform and to analyze the impact of recent changes in class price formulas.

Stochastic modeling of stock price process induced from the conjugate heat equation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paeng, Seong-Hun

2015-02-01

Currency can be considered as a ruler for values of commodities. Then the price is the measured value by the ruler. We can suppose that inflation and variation of exchange rate are caused by variation of the scale of the ruler. In geometry, variation of the scale means that the metric is time-dependent. The conjugate heat equation is the modified heat equation which satisfies the heat conservation law for the time-dependent metric space. We propose a new model of stock prices by using the stochastic process whose transition probability is determined by the kernel of the conjugate heat equation. Our model of stock prices shows how the volatility term is affected by inflation and exchange rate. This model modifies the Black-Scholes equation in light of inflation and exchange rate.

Costs of food waste along the value chain: evidence from South Africa.

PubMed

Nahman, Anton; de Lange, Willem

2013-11-01

In a previous paper (Nahman et al., 2012), the authors estimated the costs of household food waste in South Africa, based on the market value of the wasted food (edible portion only), as well as the costs of disposal to landfill. In this paper, we extend the analysis by assessing the costs of edible food waste throughout the entire food value chain, from agricultural production through to consumption at the household level. First, food waste at each stage of the value chain was quantified in physical units (tonnes) for various food commodity groups. Then, weighted average representative prices (per tonne) were estimated for each commodity group at each stage of the value chain. Finally, prices were multiplied by quantities, and the resulting values were aggregated across the value chain for all commodity groups. In this way, the total cost of food waste across the food value chain in South Africa was estimated at R61.5 billion per annum (approximately US$7.7 billion); equivalent to 2.1% of South Africa's annual gross domestic product. The bulk of this cost arises from the processing and distribution stages of the fruit and vegetable value chain, as well as the agricultural production and distribution stages of the meat value chain. These results therefore provide an indication of where interventions aimed at reducing food waste should be targeted. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of benchmark crudes in crude oil pricing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wildblood, P.

1993-12-31

Most of the world`s oil, whether sold on a spot basis or as part of a term contract, will be priced on a relationship with one or other of a small number of marker crude oils. Generally, the markers used are West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Alaskan North Slope (ANS) for crude oil coming into North and South America; Dubai or Oman for crudes being delivered into the Far Eastern markets; and Brent for any crude being delivered into Europe. For a variety of reasons, over the laster two years, Brent blend has become more predominant in the pricing processmore » for crude oils throughout the world. This has resulted in the fact that, directly or indirectly, Brent is now used to price approximately 65% of the world`s crude oil. So why is it that a crude oil with a comparatively small production base of around 700,000 barrels per day has now come to dominate the pricing of the lion`s share of the world`s crude oil? The answer to this question is discussed.« less

7 CFR 766.104 - Borrower eligibility requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... economic conditions such as low commodity prices; (iv) Damage or destruction of property essential to the farming operation; or (v) Loss of, or reduction in, the borrower or spouse's essential non-farm income. (2) The borrower does not have non-essential assets for which the net recovery value is sufficient to...

78 FR 38416 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; Miami International Securities Exchange LLC; Notice of Filing and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-26

..., without limitation, options, equities, futures, derivatives, indexes, exchange traded funds, exchange...., equity and ETF, index, derivatives, futures, foreign currency, and even commodities products... low as $0.05).\\13\\ \\13\\ As an example, per the CME Web site, strike prices for options on futures may...

Climate Change and Food Security: The View from Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Molly E.

2012-01-01

Global satellite data provides information on land use, rainfall, soil moisture, vegetation vigor and crop yields. Process-based products allows transformation of these data into information that can be used to assess impact of weather on commodity prices and local economic health. Trends and impact of climate change

Nonwovens manufacturing technologies and cotton’s realistic scope in nonwovens

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Cotton commodity continues to be under pressure from its low and depressed prices for decades, geo and political factors, competition with manufactured fibers, and, very importantly, its gradual decline in consumption by the U.S. domestic mills. In fact, the current domestic consumption of virgin co...

Preparation of Jojoba Oil Ester Derivatives for Biodiesel Evaluation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

As a result of the increase in commodity vegetable oil prices, it is imperative that non-food oils should be considered as alternative feedstocks for biodiesel production. Jojoba oil is unusual in that it is comprised of wax esters as opposed to the triglycerides found in typical vegetable oils. A...

22 CFR 201.69 - Cooperating country taxes and fees.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Cooperating country taxes and fees. 201.69 Section 201.69 Foreign Relations AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RULES AND PROCEDURES APPLICABLE TO COMMODITY TRANSACTIONS FINANCED BY USAID Price Provisions § 201.69 Cooperating country taxes and fees. USAID...

75 FR 24641 - Order Finding That the HSC1

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-05

... commercial market (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)--(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or the ``Act... (``Reauthorization Act'') \\4\\ significantly broadened the CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price...

Application of genomics-assisted breeding for generation of climate resilient crops: progress and prospects

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Climate change affects agricultural productivity worldwide. Increased prices of food commodities are the initial indication of drastic edible yield loss, which is expected to increase further due to global warming. This situation has compelled plant scientists to develop climate change-resilient cro...

12 CFR 614.4530 - Special loans, production credit associations and agricultural credit associations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... ADMINISTRATION FARM CREDIT SYSTEM LOAN POLICIES AND OPERATIONS Special Lending Programs § 614.4530 Special loans, production credit associations and agricultural credit associations. Under policies approved by the bank... associations may make the following special types of loans on commodities covered by price support programs...

REACTT: an algorithm for solving spatial equilibrium problems.

Treesearch

D.J. Brooks; J. Kincaid

1987-01-01

The problem of determining equilibrium prices and quantities in spatially separated markets is reviewed. Algorithms that compute spatial equilibria are discussed. A computer program using the reactive programming algorithm for solving spatial equilibrium problems that involve multiple commodities is presented, along with detailed documentation. A sample data set,...

Substitution effects in a generalized token economy with pigeons.

PubMed

Andrade, Leonardo F; Hackenberg, Timothy D

2017-01-01

Pigeons made repeated choices between earning and exchanging reinforcer-specific tokens (green tokens exchangeable for food, red tokens exchangeable for water) and reinforcer-general tokens (white tokens exchangeable for food or water) in a closed token economy. Food and green food tokens could be earned on one panel; water and red water tokens could be earned on a second panel; white generalized tokens could be earned on either panel. Responses on one key produced tokens according to a fixed-ratio schedule, whereas responses on a second key produced exchange periods, during which all previously earned tokens could be exchanged for the appropriate commodity. Most conditions were conducted in a closed economy, and pigeons distributed their token allocation in ways that permitted food and water consumption. When the price of all tokens was equal and low, most pigeons preferred the generalized tokens. When token-production prices were manipulated, pigeons reduced production of the tokens that increased in price while increasing production of the generalized tokens that remained at a fixed price. The latter is consistent with a substitution effect: Generalized tokens increased and were exchanged for the more expensive reinforcer. When food and water were made freely available outside the session, token production and exchange was sharply reduced but was not eliminated, even in conditions when it no longer produced tokens. The results join with other recent data in showing sustained generalized functions of token reinforcers, and demonstrate the utility of token-economic methods for assessing demand for and substitution among multiple commodities in a laboratory context. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

SUBSTITUTION EFFECTS IN A GENERALIZED TOKEN ECONOMY WITH PIGEONS

PubMed Central

Andrade, Leonardo F.; Hackenberg, Timothy D.

2016-01-01

Pigeons made repeated choices between earning and exchanging reinforcer-specific tokens (green tokens exchangeable for food, red tokens exchangeable for water) and reinforcer-general tokens (white tokens exchangeable for food or water) in a closed token economy. Food and green food tokens could be earned on one panel; water and red water tokens could be earned on a second panel; white generalized tokens could be earned on either panel. Responses on one key produced tokens according to a fixed-ratio schedule, whereas responses on a second key produced exchange periods, during which all previously earned tokens could be exchanged for the appropriate commodity. Most conditions were conducted in a closed economy, and pigeons distributed their token allocation in ways that permitted food and water consumption. When the price of all tokens was equal and low, most pigeons preferred the generalized tokens. When token-production prices were manipulated, pigeons reduced production of the tokens that increased in price while increasing production of the generalized tokens that remained at a fixed price. The latter is consistent with a substitution effect: Generalized tokens increased and were exchanged for the more expensive reinforcer. When food and water were made freely available outside the session, token production and exchange was sharply reduced but was not eliminated, even in conditions when it no longer produced tokens. The results join with other recent data in showing sustained generalized functions of token reinforcers, and demonstrate the utility of token-economic methods for assessing demand for and substitution among multiple commodities in a laboratory context. PMID:28000221

Globally sourced mineral commodities used in U.S. Navy SEAL gear—An illustration of U.S. net import reliance

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brainard, Jamie; Nassar, Nedal T.; Gambogi, Joseph; Baker, Michael S.; Jarvis, Michael T.

2018-01-25

A U.S. Navy SEAL (an acronym for sea, air, land) carries gear containing at least 23 nonfuel mineral commodities for which the United States is greater than 50 percent net import reliant. The graphics display the leading world producers of selected nonfuel mineral commodities used to manufacture U.S. Navy SEAL gear. SEALs are members of the U.S. Navy's special operations forces.

The impact of oil price on Malaysian sector indices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ismail, Mohd Tahir; Luan, Yeap Pei; Ee, Ong Joo

2015-12-01

In this paper, vector error correction model (VECM) has been utilized to model the dynamic relationships between world crude oil price and the sector indices of Malaysia. The sector indices have been collected are covering the period Jan 1998 to Dec 2013. Surprisingly, our investigations show that oil price changes do not Granger-cause any of the sectors in all of Malaysia. However, sector indices of Food Producer and Utilities are found to be the cause of the changes in world crude oil prices. Furthermore, from the results of variance decomposition, very high percentage of shocks is explained by world crude oil price itself over the 12 months and small impact from other sector indices.

Does Integration Help Adapt to Climate Change? Case of Increased US Corn Yield Volatility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verma, M.; Diffenbaugh, N. S.; Hertel, T. W.

2012-12-01

In absence of of new crop varieties or significant shifts in the geography of corn production, US national corn yields variation could double by the year 2040 as a result of climate change and without adaptation this could lead the variability in US corn prices to quadruple (Diffenbaugh et al. 2012). In addition to climate induced price changes, analysis of recent commodity price spikes suggests that interventionist trade policies are partly to blame. Assuming we cannot much influence the future climate outcome, what policies can we undertake to adapt better? Can we use markets to blunt this edge? Diffenbaugh et al. find that sale of corn- ethanol for use in liquid fuel, when governed by quotas such as US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), could make US corn prices even more variable; in contrast the same food-fuel market link (we refer to it as intersectoral link) may well dampen price volatility when the sale of corn to ethanol industry is driven by higher future oil prices. The latter however comes at the cost of exposing corn prices to the greater volatility in oil markets. Similarly intervention in corn trade can make US corn prices less or more volatile by distorting international corn price transmission. A negative US corn yield shock shows that domestic corn supply falls and domestic prices to go up irrespective of whether or not markets are integrated. How much the prices go up depends on how much demand adjusts to accommodate the supply shock. Based on the forgoing analysis, one should expect that demand would adjust more readily when markets are integrated and therefore reduce the resulting price fluctuation. Simulation results confirm this response of corn markets. In terms of relative comparisons however a policy driven intersectoral integration is least effective and prices rise much more. Similarly, a positive world oil price shock makes the US oil imports expensive and with oil being used to produce gasoline blends, it increases the price of gasoline and reduces its demand. In the presence of domestic integration, ethanol production rises to substitute oil in the gasoline blend and thereby increases the corn demand and prices. However if one takes into account increase in corn price due to increased production costs (increase in oil price increases fertilizer prices - a major input into corn production) and reduced corn prices due to reduced fuel demand and therefore reduced ethanol additive demand; the prices can go either way. Our initial simulations show that they do in fact go down with mandate driven integration. This raises some more general questions: Whether integration (intersectoral and international) can be an effective strategy for adapting to climate change? And which of the four adaptation options - RFS or oil price driven domestic integration, full corn tariff liberalization or restricting tariff manipulation by partners - would be more effective in comparison to other adaptation (including no adaptation) scenarios? We implement the alternative adaptation strategies, while sampling from the same corn yield and oil price distributions and compare the resulting corn price variations to the base case where no such adaptation has been undertaken. Our initial results suggest that intersectoral integration is more effective form of adaptation than international one, but only if driven by market forces and not mandates.

47 CFR 73.788 - Service; commercial or sponsored programs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... commodity, utility or service, or attraction advertised. (2) In case of advertising a commodity, the... of advertising an international attraction (such as a world fair, resort, spa, etc.) to prospective tourists or visitors to the United States, the oral continuity concerning such attraction is consistent...

17 CFR 23.205 - Real-time public reporting.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Real-time public reporting. 23... Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants § 23.205 Real-time public reporting. (a) Real-time public... information and swap transaction and pricing data required to be reported in accordance with the real-time...

17 CFR 23.205 - Real-time public reporting.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Real-time public reporting. 23... Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants § 23.205 Real-time public reporting. (a) Real-time public... information and swap transaction and pricing data required to be reported in accordance with the real-time...

17 CFR 4.13 - Exemption from registration as a commodity pool operator.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

...) The aggregate initial margin, premiums, and required minimum security deposit for retail forex... specified in the contract), by the strike price per unit, and for each such retail forex transaction, by... retail forex transaction, by calculating the value in U.S. Dollars of such transaction, at the time the...

17 CFR 151.8 - Foreign boards of trade.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Foreign boards of trade. 151.8... LIMITS FOR FUTURES AND SWAPS § 151.8 Foreign boards of trade. The aggregate position limits in § 151.4... a foreign board of trade, provided that: (a) Such Referenced Contracts settle against any price...

17 CFR 151.8 - Foreign boards of trade.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Foreign boards of trade. 151.8... FUTURES AND SWAPS § 151.8 Foreign boards of trade. The aggregate position limits in § 151.4 shall apply to... board of trade, provided that: (a) Such Referenced Contracts settle against any price (including the...

17 CFR 151.8 - Foreign boards of trade.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Foreign boards of trade. 151.8... FUTURES AND SWAPS § 151.8 Foreign boards of trade. The aggregate position limits in § 151.4 shall apply to... board of trade, provided that: (a) Such Referenced Contracts settle against any price (including the...

30 CFR 1206.301 - Value basis for royalty computation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

...) The gross value for royalty purposes shall be the sale or contract unit price times the number of units sold, Provided, however, That where the authorized officer determines: (1) That a contract of sale... whole or in part upon considerations other than the value of the commodities, or (2) That no bona fide...

30 CFR 1206.301 - Value basis for royalty computation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

...) The gross value for royalty purposes shall be the sale or contract unit price times the number of units sold, Provided, however, That where the authorized officer determines: (1) That a contract of sale... whole or in part upon considerations other than the value of the commodities, or (2) That no bona fide...

30 CFR 1206.301 - Value basis for royalty computation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

...) The gross value for royalty purposes shall be the sale or contract unit price times the number of units sold, Provided, however, That where the authorized officer determines: (1) That a contract of sale... whole or in part upon considerations other than the value of the commodities, or (2) That no bona fide...

17 CFR 31.23 - Limited right to rescind first leverage contract.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Limited right to rescind first... COMMISSION LEVERAGE TRANSACTIONS § 31.23 Limited right to rescind first leverage contract. (a) A leverage... pursuant to the following provisions: (1) Such customer may be assessed actual price losses accruing to the...

17 CFR Appendix B to Part 38 - Guidance on, and Acceptable Practices in, Compliance With Core Principles

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... markets, it is more appropriate to pay attention to the availability and pricing of the commodity making... decision-making regarding emergency intervention in the market, including procedures and guidelines to avoid conflicts of interest while carrying out such decision-making. A contract market should also have...

17 CFR Appendix B to Part 36 - Guidance on, and Acceptable Practices in, Compliance With Core Principles

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION EXEMPT MARKETS Pt. 36, App. B Appendix B to Part 36—Guidance on, and... contracts to prevent market manipulation, price distortion, and disruptions of the delivery of cash-settlement process through market surveillance, compliance and disciplinary practices and procedures...

17 CFR Appendix B to Part 36 - Guidance on, and Acceptable Practices in, Compliance With Core Principles

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION EXEMPT MARKETS Pt. 36, App. B Appendix B to Part 36—Guidance on, and... contracts to prevent market manipulation, price distortion, and disruptions of the delivery of cash-settlement process through market surveillance, compliance and disciplinary practices and procedures...

17 CFR Appendix B to Part 38 - Guidance on, and Acceptable Practices in, Compliance With Core Principles

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... markets, it is more appropriate to pay attention to the availability and pricing of the commodity making... decision-making regarding emergency intervention in the market, including procedures and guidelines to avoid conflicts of interest while carrying out such decision-making. A contract market should also have...

17 CFR 1.34 - Monthly record, “point balance”.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... REGULATIONS UNDER THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE ACT Recordkeeping § 1.34 Monthly record, “point balance”. (a) Each... statement commonly known as a “point balance,” which accrues or brings to the official closing price, or... contracts long and short in the customers' accounts are in balance with those in the carrying futures...

17 CFR 1.34 - Monthly record, “point balance”.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... REGULATIONS UNDER THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE ACT Recordkeeping § 1.34 Monthly record, “point balance”. (a) Each... statement commonly known as a “point balance,” which accrues or brings to the official closing price, or... contracts long and short in the customers' accounts are in balance with those in the carrying futures...

Plan Your Marketing: Enhance Profits and Reduce Risk.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, William; And Others

This marketing unit was developed to help farm families formulate a step-by-step plan for marketing their commodities in order to help remove much of the guesswork and anxiety from the process. The unit is organized in the following eight sections: introduction; sources of risk; pricing alternatives; developing a plan (10 steps); summary;…

Non-Market Valuation

Treesearch

Thomas P. Holmes

2003-01-01

In addition to commodities such as timber, forest ecosystems provide an array of goods and services that are not priced in markets but maintain, to a large degree, the characteristics of public goods (non-rivalry and non-excludability). Markets do not recognize scarcity of non-market resources and cannot be relied upon to allocate these resources to their highest and...

Demographic characteristics and motivations of Michigan agritourists

Treesearch

Deborah Che; Ann Veeck; Gregory Veeck

2007-01-01

Michigan agricultural producers, faced with declining commodity prices, rising production costs, and increased global competition, have looked at agritourism as a way to save the farm as well as provide customers with personalized service; high-quality, fresh food; and farm, nature, and family experiences. While previous research on agritourism indicates that it taps...

Financial methods in competitive electricity markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, Shijie

The restructuring of electric power industry has become a global trend. As reforms to the electricity supply industry spread rapidly across countries and states, many political and economical issues arise as a result of people debating over which approach to adopt in restructuring the vertically integrated electricity industry. This dissertation addresses issues of transmission pricing, electricity spot price modeling, as well as risk management and asset valuation in a competitive electricity industry. A major concern in the restructuring of the electricity industries is the design of a transmission pricing scheme that will ensure open-access to the transmission networks. I propose a priority-pricing scheme for zonal access to the electric power grid that is uniform across all buses in each zone. The Independent System Operator (ISO) charges bulk power traders a per unit ex ante transmission access fee based on the expected option value of the generated power with respect to the random zonal spot prices. The zonal access fee depends on the injection zone and a self-selected strike price determining the scheduling priority of the transaction. Inter zonal transactions are charged (or credited) with an additional ex post congestion fee that equals the zonal spot price difference. The unit access fee entitles a bulk power trader to either physical injection of one unit of energy or a compensation payment that equals to the difference between the realized zonal spot price and the selected strike price. The ISO manages congestion so as to minimize net compensation payments and thus, curtailment probabilities corresponding to a particular strike price may vary by bus. The rest of the dissertation deals with the issues of modeling electricity spot prices, pricing electricity financial instruments and the corresponding risk management applications. Modeling the spot prices of electricity is important for the market participants who need to understand the risk factors in pricing electricity financial instruments such as electricity forwards, options and cross-commodity derivatives. It is also essential for the analysis of financial risk management, asset valuation, and project financing. In the setting of diffusion processes with multiple types of jumps, I examine three mean-reversion models for modeling the electricity spot prices. I impose some structure on the coefficients of the diffusion processes, which allows me to easily compute the prices of contingent claims (or, financial instruments) on electricity by Fourier methods. I derive the pricing formulas for various electricity derivatives and examine how the prices vary with different modeling assumptions. I demonstrate a couple of risk management applications of the electricity financial instruments. I also construct a real options approach to value electric power generation and transmission assets both with and without accounting for the operating characteristics of the assets. The implications of the mean-reversion jump-diffusion models on financial risk management and real asset valuation in competitive electricity markets are illustrated. With a discrete trinomial lattice modeling the underlying commodity prices, I estimate the effects of operational characteristics on the asset valuation by means of numerical examples that incorporate these aspects using stochastic dynamic programming. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Solar/hydrogen systems assessment. Volume 1: Solar/hydrogen systems for the 1985 - 2000 time frame

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Foster, R. W.; Tison, R. R.; Escher, W. J. D.; Hanson, J. A.

1980-01-01

Opportunities for commercialization of systems capable of producing hydrogen from solar energy were studied. The hydrogen product costs that might be achieved by the four selected candidate systems was compared with the pricing structure and practices of the commodity gas market. Subsequently, product cost and market price match was noted to exist in the small user sector of the hydrogen marketplace. Barriers to and historical time lags in, commercialization of new technologies are reviewed. Recommendations for development and demonstration programs designed to accelerate the commercialization of the candidate systems are presented.

Solar/hydrogen systems assessment. Volume 1: Solar/hydrogen systems for the 1985 - 2000 time frame

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foster, R. W.; Tison, R. R.; Escher, W. J. D.; Hanson, J. A.

1980-06-01

Opportunities for commercialization of systems capable of producing hydrogen from solar energy were studied. The hydrogen product costs that might be achieved by the four selected candidate systems was compared with the pricing structure and practices of the commodity gas market. Subsequently, product cost and market price match was noted to exist in the small user sector of the hydrogen marketplace. Barriers to and historical time lags in, commercialization of new technologies are reviewed. Recommendations for development and demonstration programs designed to accelerate the commercialization of the candidate systems are presented.

Food Security Under Shifting Economic, Demographic, and Climatic Conditions (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naylor, R. L.

2013-12-01

Global demand for food, feed, and fuel will continue to rise in a more populous and affluent world. Meeting this demand in the future will become increasingly challenging with global climate change; when production shocks stemming from climate variability are added to the new mean climate state, food markets could become more volatile. This talk will focus on the interacting market effects of demand and supply for major food commodities, with an eye on climate-related supply trends and shocks. Lessons from historical patterns of climate variability (e.g., ENSO and its global teleconnections) will be used to infer potential food security outcomes in the event of abrupt changes in the mean climate state. Domestic food and trade policy responses to crop output and price volatility in key producing and consuming nations, such as export bans and import tariffs, will be discussed as a potentially major destabilizing force, underscoring the important influence of uncertainty in achieving--or failing to achieve--food security.

Cross-commodity delay discounting of alcohol and money in alcohol users

PubMed Central

Moody, Lara N.; Tegge, Allison N.; Bickel, Warren K.

2017-01-01

Despite real-world implications, the pattern of delay discounting in alcohol users when the commodities now and later differ has not been well characterized. In this study, 60 participants on Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) to assess severity of use and completed four delay discounting tasks between hypothetical, equivalent amounts of alcohol and money available at five delays. The tasks included two cross-commodity (alcohol now-money later and money now-alcohol later) and two same-commodity (money now-money later and alcohol now-alcohol later) conditions. Delay discounting was significantly associated with clinical cutoffs of the AUDIT for both of the cross-commodity conditions but not for either of the same-commodity delay discounting tasks. The cross-commodity discounting conditions were related to severity of use wherein heavy users discounted future alcohol less and future money more. The change in direction of the discounting effect was dependent on the commodity that was distally available suggesting a distinctive pattern of discounting across commodities when comparing light and heavy alcohol users. PMID:29056767

Cross-commodity delay discounting of alcohol and money in alcohol users.

PubMed

Moody, Lara N; Tegge, Allison N; Bickel, Warren K

2017-06-01

Despite real-world implications, the pattern of delay discounting in alcohol users when the commodities now and later differ has not been well characterized. In this study, 60 participants on Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) to assess severity of use and completed four delay discounting tasks between hypothetical, equivalent amounts of alcohol and money available at five delays. The tasks included two cross-commodity (alcohol now-money later and money now-alcohol later) and two same-commodity (money now-money later and alcohol now-alcohol later) conditions. Delay discounting was significantly associated with clinical cutoffs of the AUDIT for both of the cross-commodity conditions but not for either of the same-commodity delay discounting tasks. The cross-commodity discounting conditions were related to severity of use wherein heavy users discounted future alcohol less and future money more. The change in direction of the discounting effect was dependent on the commodity that was distally available suggesting a distinctive pattern of discounting across commodities when comparing light and heavy alcohol users.

A Framework for Using Rural Markets to Analyze Local Food Shortage Resilience and Mitigation Potential in sub-Saharan Africa based on Evidence from Zambia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montgomery, M. J.; Baylis, K.; Evans, T. P.

2016-12-01

Climate change is predicted to have negative impacts on agriculture and food security in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Regional and temporal climate variability will disburse these effects, creating opportunities to mitigate food shortages through well-studied international, regional, and national food flows and associated food prices. However, most food products consumed and traded by rural smallhold farmers rely on local market exchanges that take place outside the scope of prevalent regional and national market analysis. There is little empirical evidence on these rural markets outside of their potential for smallholder agribusiness. However, they offer an unopened window into local food supply and the nuances of food movements in rural areas. Our research explores how to analyze the cost and availability of food products in rural markets and their connection with each other, as well as with nearby households' food security. This new approach of using food markets as a unit of analysis necessitates a new framework that groups markets based on a hierarchy of variables relevant to their role as food movers and suppliers. In our research, we collected price and source data for 22 commodities bought and sold within 52 rural markets in 12 districts spatially distributed throughout Zambia. We continue to collect data via phone interviews with 206 traders and market managers within these markets each month. We used this data to develop a typology of stationary rural food markets based on their size in terms of traders and buyers, the diversity of commodities available year-round and seasonally, their price transmission with other markets, and their trading scheme and governance. The result is a dynamic framework with varying weights on each variable that classifies which characteristic of markets under which conditions increase their potential for local food shortage resilience and mitigation. We also allocate for commodity-specific scenarios to allow for modeling under climate conditions conducive to different crops.

Response of corn markets to climate volatility under alternative energy futures.

PubMed

Diffenbaugh, Noah S; Hertel, Thomas W; Scherer, Martin; Verma, Monika

2012-07-01

Recent price spikes(1,2) have raised concern that climate change could increase food insecurity by reducing grain yields in the coming decades(3,4). However, commodity price volatility is also influenced by other factors(5,6), which may either exacerbate or buffer the effects of climate change. Here we show that US corn price volatility exhibits higher sensitivity to near-term climate change than to energy policy influences or agriculture-energy market integration, and that the presence of a biofuels mandate enhances the sensitivity to climate change by more than 50%. The climate change impact is driven primarily by intensification of severe hot conditions in the primary corn-growing region of the US, which causes US corn price volatility to increase sharply in response to global warming projected over the next three decades. Closer integration of agriculture and energy markets moderates the effects of climate change, unless the biofuels mandate becomes binding, in which case corn price volatility is instead exacerbated. However, in spite of the substantial impact on US corn price volatility, we find relatively small impact on food prices. Our findings highlight the critical importance of interactions between energy policies, energy-agriculture linkages, and climate change.

Response of corn markets to climate volatility under alternative energy futures

PubMed Central

Diffenbaugh, Noah S.; Hertel, Thomas W.; Scherer, Martin; Verma, Monika

2012-01-01

Recent price spikes1,2 have raised concern that climate change could increase food insecurity by reducing grain yields in the coming decades3,4. However, commodity price volatility is also influenced by other factors5,6, which may either exacerbate or buffer the effects of climate change. Here we show that US corn price volatility exhibits higher sensitivity to near-term climate change than to energy policy influences or agriculture-energy market integration, and that the presence of a biofuels mandate enhances the sensitivity to climate change by more than 50%. The climate change impact is driven primarily by intensification of severe hot conditions in the primary corn-growing region of the US, which causes US corn price volatility to increase sharply in response to global warming projected over the next three decades. Closer integration of agriculture and energy markets moderates the effects of climate change, unless the biofuels mandate becomes binding, in which case corn price volatility is instead exacerbated. However, in spite of the substantial impact on US corn price volatility, we find relatively small impact on food prices. Our findings highlight the critical importance of interactions between energy policies, energy-agriculture linkages, and climate change. PMID:23243468

Maximizing profit on New England organic dairy farms: an economic comparison of 4 total mixed rations for organic Holsteins and Jerseys.

PubMed

Marston, S P; Clark, G W; Anderson, G W; Kersbergen, R J; Lunak, M; Marcinkowski, D P; Murphy, M R; Schwab, C G; Erickson, P S

2011-06-01

The objective of these experiments was to compare 4 total mixed rations fed to USDA-certified organic dairy cows in New England. Forty-eight Jersey cows from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and 64 Holstein cows from the University of Maine (UMaine) were assigned to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments testing the main effects of corn silage versus grass silage as the forage base and commodity concentrates versus a complete pelleted concentrate mixture. Treatment diets were fed as a total mixed ration for 8 wk during the winter and spring months of 2007, 2008, and 2009. Milk yield, component, and quality data were recorded and used to calculate the value of the milk produced for each cow. The dry matter intake (DMI) was recorded and used to calculate the average cost per cow per day of each diet. Income over feed costs were calculated for each diet using milk value and feed cost data. Feed cost and income over feed cost data were resampled using bootstrap methodology to examine potential patterns. Milk yield, milk fat and true protein concentrations, and SCC were similar among treatments. Cows at UNH fed corn silage tended to have higher DMI and lower milk urea nitrogen than did cows fed grass silage, whereas cows fed pellets had higher DMI than cows fed commodities. Cows at UNH fed commodities tended to have higher body condition scores than those fed pellets. Cows at UMaine fed commodities tended to have higher DMI than did cows fed pellets, and cows fed corn silage had lower milk urea nitrogen than did cows fed grass silage. Body weights and body condition scores were not different for cows at UMaine. Feed costs were significantly higher for corn silage diets and diets at UNH containing pellets, but not at UMaine. The calculated value of the milk and income over feed costs did not differ among treatments at either university. Bootstrap replications indicated that the corn silage with commodities diet generally had the highest feed cost at both UNH and UMaine, whereas grass silage diets containing commodities generally had the lowest cost. In contrast, the grass silage with commodities diets had the highest income over feed cost in the majority of the replications at both UNH and UMaine replications, whereas the corn silage with commodities diets had the lowest rank. Similar results were observed when forage prices were increased or decreased by 5, 10, and 25% above or below the actual feed price. Feeding a grass silage-based diet supplemented with commodity concentrates may have an economic advantage for dairy producers in New England operating under an organic system of production. Copyright © 2011 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A loaf of bread: Price and value.

PubMed

Pearn, J

1998-03-01

In the Western world, the basic staple of nutrition is bread. It evolved, from Neolithic times in Mesopotamia and the Levant, from flour made from natural hybrids of emmer and einkorn. Its form has changed from that of a dark, coarse and heavy loaf, baked in the ashes, to the enriched artistic breads of the late twentieth century. Its variety of forms conferred status on those who ate its refined and whitened form. The wheel of fashion and nutrition has turned full circle to the quality-controlled, vitamin and mineral-enriched wholemeal loaf of the new millennium to come. Bread has changed from a staple not simply of nutrition itself, but to that of a 'functional food' whose fibre confers protection against preventible disease. The bread of the new century thus will be both a food and a medicine. So fundamental to Western life is bread, that its price has long been the last item to remain controlled, when all else is left to the dictates of a free market economy. Bread is the fundamental unit of exchange and forms the last link in a chain of commodities which starts from items of luxury to those of survival itself. The price of bread can thus be used as a currency datum. As such, the price of a loaf of bread, and the minutes of labour needed to produce it, can be used to measure the economy, and to give a measured perspective of its influence on a community's history. Costs, throughout history, can be expressed in 'bread units'. As such, the latter forms an absolute index of the worth of other items, particularly a person's labour. As such, bread and its value forms a partly independent measure of inflationary and other social influences. Bread remains a fundamental part not only of nutrition, but of life itself.

World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators 2. Section 5. Raw Data File: Fractionalization and Concentration Measures and Inequality Indices

DTIC Science & Technology

1970-01-01

Haiti 041 234 HAI v Columbia 100 246 COL ^, Dominican Republic ’Jamaica 042 051 233 235 DOM JAM -" Venezuela Guyana -"’Ecuador 101 110...Language Groups, United Nations Export Commodities Export Receiving Countries Distribution of Votes by Party Distribution of Seats in the Lower House...indicates that the entry is a total of that variable group for a country, with the exception of export commodities. The export commodity total

75 FR 50847 - Cotton Program Changes for Upland Cotton, Adjusted World Price, and Active Shipping Orders

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-18

... Cotton Program Changes for Upland Cotton, Adjusted World Price, and Active Shipping Orders AGENCY... previous final rule that implemented the 2008 Farm Bill provisions for the cotton program. The correction removes definitions that are no longer used concerning Northern Europe prices for cotton. CCC is also...

Taxation of smokeless tobacco in India.

PubMed

Rout, S K; Arora, M

2014-12-01

The role of fiscal policy, especially taxation, though has been proved to be an effective instrument of tobacco control, its application is limited in India due to several reasons. This paper examines the tax structure, price and affordability of SLT products in order to provide evidence on how to strengthen the role of fiscal policy in tobacco control. Secondary data on tax structure and revenue from tobacco products were collected from the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. In order to measure the rise of prices corresponding to the increase in tax rate, the retail price index (RPI) and Whole Price Index (WPI) of SLT products were compared with the price index for all commodities for the period 2006-2012. The affordability of tobacco products is calculated by dividing prices of tobacco products by per capita income. During the last 6 years, the tax rate on SLT has gone up leading to a rise in the prices of SLT products more than the general price rise. However, the price rise is less than the per capita income growth indicating increasing affordability. The study observed a decline in the consumption of zarda and kahini due to the price increase during 2008-2013. However, the decline in the consumption of zarda is less compared with khaini due to a very low rise in its price. The prices should be raised more than the growth in income to influence consumption. Tax administration is a major challenge for SLT products and strengthening it could enhance revenue collection from SLT products.

U.S. energy outlook and future energy impacts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamburger, Randolph John

2011-12-01

Energy markets were not immune to the 2007 financial crisis. Growth in the Indian and Chinese economies is placing strains on global energy supplies that could force a repeat of the 2008 price spike of $145/bbl for crude oil. Emerging market growth coupled with inefficiencies, frictions, and speculation in the energy markets has the potential to create drastic economic shocks throughout the world. The 2007 economic crisis has pushed back investment in energy projects where a low-growth scenario in world GDP could create drastic price increases in world energy prices. Without a long-term energy supply plan, the U.S. is destined to see growth reduced and its trade imbalances continue to deteriorate with increasing energy costs. Analysis of the U.S. natural gas futures markets and the impact of financial speculation on natural gas market pricing determined that financial speculation adds to price movements in the energy markets, which could cause violent swings in energy prices.

Can Dentistry Have Two Contracts with the Public?

PubMed

Nash, David A

2015-01-01

The social contract is an implicit agreement between parts of society and society as a whole. Since the Middle Ages, the learned professions, recently including dentistry, have had a covenantal relationship with the public based on trust, exchanging monopoly privileges for benefiting the public good. Unlike commercial trade in commodities, professional relationships are grounded in ensuring an adequate level of oral health to all. A second contract is emerging where dentists relate to society as business operators, exchanging commodity services for a price. Recent actions by the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Supreme Court make it unlikely that dentistry will be able to enjoy only selected aspects of each contract while avoiding obligations that it finds unfavorable.

7 CFR 400.705 - Contents required for a new submission or changes to a previously approved submission.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... information from market research, producers or producer groups, agents, lending institutions, and other... reliability of the data; (5) An analysis of the results of simulations or modeling showing the performance of proposed rates and commodity prices, as applicable, based on one or more of the following (Such simulations...

7 CFR 400.705 - Contents required for a new submission or changes to a previously approved submission.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... information from market research, producers or producer groups, agents, lending institutions, and other... reliability of the data; (5) An analysis of the results of simulations or modeling showing the performance of proposed rates and commodity prices, as applicable, based on one or more of the following (Such simulations...

7 CFR 400.705 - Contents required for a new submission or changes to a previously approved submission.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... information from market research, producers or producer groups, agents, lending institutions, and other... reliability of the data; (5) An analysis of the results of simulations or modeling showing the performance of proposed rates and commodity prices, as applicable, based on one or more of the following (Such simulations...

7 CFR 400.705 - Contents required for a new submission or changes to a previously approved submission.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... information from market research, producers or producer groups, agents, lending institutions, and other... reliability of the data; (5) An analysis of the results of simulations or modeling showing the performance of proposed rates and commodity prices, as applicable, based on one or more of the following (Such simulations...

Net farm income and land use under a U.S. greenhouse gas cap and trade

Treesearch

Justin S. Baker; Bruce A. McCarl; Brian C. Murray; Steven K. Rose; Ralph J. Alig; Darius Adams; Greg Latta; Robert Beach; Adam Daigneault

2010-01-01

During recent years, the U.S. agricultural sector has experienced high prices for energy related inputs and commodities, and a rapidly developing bioenergy market. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation would further alter agricultural markets and increase land competition in forestry and agriculture by shifting input costs, creating an agricultural GHG abatement...

Building on Tradition--Tribal Colleges Can Lead the Way to Food Sovereignty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, John

2011-01-01

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation's food system typifies that of many rural communities. Most food is grown and processed hundreds or thousands of miles away and transported long distances before it reaches the local grocery shelf. Like oil and gas, food prices are largely determined by international commodity markets driven by global supply,…

30 CFR 1206.301 - Value basis for royalty computation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... royalty computation. (a) The gross value for royalty purposes shall be the sale or contract unit price...) That a contract of sale or other business arrangement between the lessee and a purchaser of some or all... because it is based in whole or in part upon considerations other than the value of the commodities, or (2...

Student Tuition Models in Private and Public Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weathersby, George B.

This paper presents a mathematical model for use in determining student tuition charges at public and private institutions. This model treats higher education as an economic commodity, with the price to the consumer--in the form of tuition--as an algebraic function of supply, demand, and quality. The model provides one set of solutions to such…

75 FR 23679 - Order Finding That the ICE Malin Financial Basis Contract Traded on the IntercontinentalExchange...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-04

... commercial market (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or the ``Act...\\ significantly broadened the CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price discovery contracts (``SPDCs...

75 FR 24586 - Order Finding That the San Juan Financial Basis Contract Traded on the IntercontinentalExchange...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-05

... (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or the ``Act''), performs a...\\ significantly broadened the CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price discovery contracts (``SPDCs...

75 FR 23686 - Order Finding That the Carbon Financial Instrument Contract Offered for Trading on the Chicago...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-04

... commercial market (``ECM'') under Section 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or the ``Act... (``Reauthorization Act'') \\2\\ significantly broadened the CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price...

17 CFR 155.2 - Trading standards for floor brokers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... TRADING STANDARDS § 155.2 Trading standards for floor brokers. Each contract market shall adopt rules which shall, at a minimum, with respect to each member of the contract market acting as a floor broker... option, or (3) sale of any put option, in the same commodity which is executable at the market price or...

17 CFR 155.2 - Trading standards for floor brokers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... (CONTINUED) TRADING STANDARDS § 155.2 Trading standards for floor brokers. Each contract market shall adopt rules which shall, at a minimum, with respect to each member of the contract market acting as a floor... option, or (3) sale of any put option, in the same commodity which is executable at the market price or...

12 CFR Appendix C to Part 325 - Risk-Based Capital for State Non-Member Banks: Market Risk

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... commodity prices. (2) Specific risk means changes in the market value of specific positions due to factors... its risk measurement and risk management systems at least annually. (c) Market risk factors. The bank's internal model must use risk factors sufficient to measure the market risk inherent in all covered...

75 FR 67258 - Position Reports for Physical Commodity Swaps

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-02

... Cattle. CME Milk Class III. Comex (``CMX'') Copper Grade 1. CMX Gold. CMX Silver. ICE Futures US (``ICUS... Oats. CME Butter. CME Cheese. CME Dry Whey. CME Hardwood Pulp. CME Lean Hogs. CME Non Fat Dry Milk. CME... contract--The ICE WTI Average Price Option is indirectly linked to a 20.2 listed futures contract because...

17 CFR 240.17a-2 - Recordkeeping requirements relating to stabilizing activities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

.... (a) Scope of section. This section shall apply to any person who effects any purchase of a security... engages in, “stabilizing,” as defined in § 242.100 of this chapter, the price of any security; or effects... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Recordkeeping requirements...

7 CFR Exhibit A to Subpart A of... - Memorandum of Understanding Between Commodity Credit Corporation and Farmers Home Administration...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... SERVICE, RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE SERVICE, RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, AND FARM SERVICE AGENCY, DEPARTMENT... against the loan(s) secured by such lien: 1. When an FHA County Supervisor learns that an FHA borrower has... peanut producer cooperative marketing associations through which CCC makes price support available to...

Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon: Global Prices, Deforestation, and Mercury Imports

Treesearch

Jennifer J Swenson; Catherine E Carter; Jean-Christophe Domec; Cesar I Delgado

2011-01-01

Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for a single commodity...

17 CFR 32.12 - Exemption from suspension of commodity option transactions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... net worth of at least $1,000,000; (2) Under the express contractual terms of each option offered by... price and premium and a transaction identification number; (6) Each person who is offering and selling...) [Reserved] (e) In the event that any provision of this section or the application thereof to any person or...

Figuring Home: The Role of Commodities in the Transnational Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penman, Christine; Omar, Maktoba

2011-01-01

This article proposes to investigate the role played by material goods in the transnational experience. Previous research has shown that the movement of people across the world comes with a corollary of cultural flows which find their expression in multiple ways. This article looks more specifically at the kind of commodities that international…

Mineral commodity summaries 2013

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

2013-01-01

Each chapter of the 2013 edition of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS) includes information on events, trends, and issues for each mineral commodity as well as discussions and tabular presentations on domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, 5-year salient statistics, and world production and resources. The MCS is the earliest comprehensive source of 2012 mineral production data for the world. More than 90 individual minerals and materials are covered by two-page synopses. For mineral commodities for which there is a Government stockpile, detailed information concerning the stockpile status is included in the two-page synopsis. Abbreviations and units of measure, and definitions of selected terms used in the report, are in Appendix A and Appendix B, respectively. “Appendix C—Reserves and Resources” includes “Part A—Resource/Reserve Classification for Minerals” and “Part B—Sources of Reserves Data.” A directory of USGS minerals information country specialists and their responsibilities is Appendix D. The USGS continually strives to improve the value of its publications to users. Constructive comments and suggestions by readers of the MCS 2013 are welcomed.

Mineral commodity summaries 2014

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

2014-01-01

Each chapter of the 2014 edition of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS) includes information on events, trends, and issues for each mineral commodity as well as discussions and tabular presentations on domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, 5-year salient statistics, and world production and resources. The MCS is the earliest comprehensive source of 2013 mineral production data for the world. More than 90 individual minerals and materials are covered by two-page synopses. For mineral commodities for which there is a Government stockpile, detailed information concerning the stockpile status is included in the two-page synopsis. Abbreviations and units of measure, and definitions of selected terms used in the report, are in Appendix A and Appendix B, respectively. “Appendix C—Reserves and Resources” includes “Part A—Resource/Reserve Classification for Minerals” and “Part B—Sources of Reserves Data.” A directory of USGS minerals information country specialists and their responsibilities is Appendix D. The USGS continually strives to improve the value of its publications to users. Constructive comments and suggestions by readers of the MCS 2014 are welcomed.

The demand for distilled spirits: an empirical investigation.

PubMed

McCornac, D C; Filante, R W

1984-03-01

Economic and social factors that explain variations in the consumption of distilled spirits among political jurisdictions are examined. Particular emphasis is placed on the economic roles of price and the unemployment rate. Using multivariate-analysis regression, equations are estimated for three separate time periods of 1970-1975. In addition, a pooled cross-sectional time-series analysis is undertaken for the entire time period. The dependent variable is the apparent per capita consumption of distilled spirits. The independent variables include price, availability and socioeconomic factors that determine consumption patterns. The results indicate that the price elasticity of demand for distilled spirits inelastic, and implies that a 1% change in price will result in a less than 1% change in the amount purchased, everything else being equal. A rise in price will increase total revenue. Thus, a tax increase on the commodity will generate an increase in tax revenue. The unemployment rate is shown to have a significant impact on the consumption of distilled spirits. The results suggest that further study into the relationship between unemployment and the consumption of distilled spirits is desirable.

Estimation of Value-at-Risk for Energy Commodities via CAViaR Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiliang, Zhao; Xi, Zhu

This paper uses the Conditional Autoregressive Value at Risk model (CAViaR) proposed by Engle and Manganelli (2004) to evaluate the value-at-risk for daily spot prices of Brent crude oil and West Texas Intermediate crude oil covering the period May 21th, 1987 to Novermber 18th, 2008. Then the accuracy of the estimates of CAViaR model, Normal-GARCH, and GED-GARCH was compared. The results show that all the methods do good job for the low confidence level (95%), and GED-GARCH is the best for spot WTI price, Normal-GARCH and Adaptive-CAViaR are the best for spot Brent price. However, for the high confidence level (99%), Normal-GARCH do a good job for spot WTI, GED-GARCH and four kind of CAViaR specifications do well for spot Brent price. Normal-GARCH does badly for spot Brent price. The result seems suggest that CAViaR do well as well as GED-GARCH since CAViaR directly model the quantile autoregression, but it does not outperform GED-GARCH although it does outperform Normal-GARCH.

Research on the factors influencing the price of commercial housing based on support vector machine (SVM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiaoyang, Zhong; Hong, Ren; Jingxin, Gao

2018-03-01

With the gradual maturity of the real estate market in China, urban housing prices are also better able to reflect changes in market demand and the commodity property of commercial housing has become more and more obvious. Many scholars in our country have made a lot of research on the factors that affect the price of commercial housing in the city and the number of related research papers increased rapidly. These scholars’ research results provide valuable wealth to solve the problem of urban housing price changes in our country. However, due to the huge amount of literature, the vast amount of information is submerged in the library and cannot be fully utilized. Text mining technology has been widely concerned and developed in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences in recent years. But through the text mining technology to obtain the influence factors on the price of urban commercial housing is still relatively rare. In this paper, the research results of the existing scholars were excavated by text mining algorithm based on support vector machine in order to further make full use of the current research results and to provide a reference for stabilizing housing prices.

Risks, prices, and positions: A social network analysis of illegal drug trafficking in the world-economy.

PubMed

Boivin, Rémi

2014-03-01

Illegal drug prices are extremely high, compared to similar goods. There is, however, considerable variation in value depending on place, market level and type of drugs. A prominent framework for the study of illegal drugs is the "risks and prices" model (Reuter & Kleiman, 1986). Enforcement is seen as a "tax" added to the regular price. In this paper, it is argued that such economic models are not sufficient to explain price variations at country-level. Drug markets are analysed as global trade networks in which a country's position has an impact on various features, including illegal drug prices. This paper uses social network analysis (SNA) to explain price markups between pairs of countries involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs between 1998 and 2007. It aims to explore a simple question: why do prices increase between two countries? Using relational data from various international organizations, separate trade networks were built for cocaine, heroin and cannabis. Wholesale price markups are predicted with measures of supply, demand, risks of seizures, geographic distance and global positioning within the networks. Reported prices (in $US) and purchasing power parity-adjusted values are analysed. Drug prices increase more sharply when drugs are headed to countries where law enforcement imposes higher costs on traffickers. The position and role of a country in global drug markets are also closely associated with the value of drugs. Price markups are lower if the destination country is a transit to large potential markets. Furthermore, price markups for cocaine and heroin are more pronounced when drugs are exported to countries that are better positioned in the legitimate world-economy, suggesting that relations in legal and illegal markets are directed in opposite directions. Consistent with the world-system perspective, evidence is found of coherent world drug markets driven by both local realities and international relations. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nanotechnology - An emerging technology

USGS Publications Warehouse

Buckingham, D.

2007-01-01

The science of nanotechnology is still in its infancy. However, progress is being made in research and development of potential beneficial properties of nanomaterials that could play an integral part in the development of new and changing uses for mineral commodities. Nanotechnology is a kind of toolbox that allows industry to make nanomaterials and nanostructures with special properties. New nanotechnology applications of mineral commodities in their nanoscale form are being discovered, researched and developed. At the same time, there is continued research into environmental, human health and safety concerns that inherently arise from the development of a new technology. Except for a few nanomaterials (CNTs, copper, silver and zinc oxide), widespread applications are hampered by processing and suitable commercial-scale production techniques, high manufacturing costs, product price, and environmental, and human health and safety concerns. Whether nanotechnology causes a tidal wave of change or is a long-term evolutionary process of technology, new applications of familiar mineral commodities will be created. As research and development continues, the ability to manipulate matter at the nanoscale into increasingly sophisticated nanomaterials will improve and open up new possibilities for industry that will change the flow and use of mineral commodities and the materials and products that are used.

CLUB FORMATION MECHANISM FOR TRANSPORT-COMMUNITY CREDIT CARDS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Yue; Kobayashi, Kiyoshi; Nishida, Junji; Yoshida, Mamoru

In this paper, the roles of transport-community cards jointly issued by a public transport firm and retails are investigated as a means to vitalize an obsolescence shopping center located in a middle of a city. When both the price of goods supplied by the retails and the transport fares affect the consumers' behavior, there exist pecuniary externality between the behaviors of the retails and transport firms. The introduction of a transport-community cards system enables to integrate a basket of goods and transport service into a single commodity; thus, the pecuniary externality can be internalized by price coordination. In addition, the paper clarifies theoretically that the transport firm initiatively decides the price of the transportation service and the retails transfer their incomes to the transport firm so that they are induced to jointly issue the transport-community cards.

77 FR 18891 - Expediting Review of Pipeline Projects From Cushing, Oklahoma, to Port Arthur, Texas, and Other...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-28

...-quarters of gasoline prices, the most important driver of the price here at home is the world oil price... efficiency in our buildings, and facilitating the safe and responsible development of our natural gas... production, more efficient cars and trucks, and a world-class refining sector that last year was a net...

The Study of Attachment between Distribution Pattern of Land Price and Apartments Price (Case Study: Vertical Housing Development in Administration City of South Jakarta)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sugiyantoro; Christian, B.; Arianto, R.

2018-05-01

Land and it’s utilization on housing development undoubtedly have become an essential issue in various studies. The comprehension on each locations of the case has allowed several important studies of particular patterns related to the capacity of land and housing market. Especially Jakarta as the most promising area for property business, also has the highest lands and apartments price in Indonesia. Land and apartment are considered as the most unique commodities, highly profitable. But since 2014, there has been lots of warnings about possibility of apartments oversupply; stagnation of apartment sales also has been indicated in locations at the edge of this city, which will enable the demand’s transition from landed house to apartment, as form of vertical housing. Based on fundamental theories of land and apartment pricing, the research presumes that apartment development is considered as an effort of land intensifications, to trigger the enhancement of land prices in particular locations. Therefore, this research means to comprehend the correlation of distribution pattern of lands price with apartments price. The location’s selection is based on expansion of the urban development of Jakarta Metropolitan Area to southern region which has become a general tendency.

Wisconsin Radio and Television Agricultural Market News Programming. Wisconsin Agricultural Extension Service Research Report No. R2615, April 1974.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kroupa, Eugene A.; Walker, Douglas K.

The study determined what Wisconsin's 102 AM, 107 FM, and 21 television stations were providing as agricultural market information programming and documented the amount, timing, frequency, and completeness of broadcast agricultural market news reports. Data were collected on the sources of market price information, types of commodity and price…

Challenges for Children and Women in the 1990s: Eastern and Southern Africa in Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Children's Fund, Nairobi (Kenya). Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office.

This report profiles conditions in the lives of children and women in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), and attempts to identify and analyze trends and issues which are emerging in ESA and which have particular significance for UNICEF activities. During the 1980s, ESA experienced unprecedented economic decline due to falling commodity prices and…

75 FR 24626 - Order Finding That the TETCO-M3 Financial Basis Contract Traded on the IntercontinentalExchange...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-05

... (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or the ``Act''), performs a...\\ significantly broadened the CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price discovery contracts (``SPDCs...

75 FR 38478 - Orders Finding That the Mid-C Financial Peak Daily Contract and Mid-C Financial Off-Peak Daily...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-02

... exempt commercial market (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or... (``Reauthorization Act'') \\4\\ significantly broadened the CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price...

75 FR 24612 - Order Finding That the Zone 6-NY Financial Basis Contract Traded on the IntercontinentalExchange...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-05

... (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or the ``Act''), performs a... (``Reauthorization Act'') \\2\\ significantly broadened the CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price...

75 FR 24592 - Order Finding that the TETCO-M3 Financial Basis Contract Traded on the IntercontinentalExchange...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-05

... (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or the ``Act''), performs a... (``Reauthorization Act'') \\2\\ significantly broadened the CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price...

75 FR 42411 - Orders Finding That the SP-15 Financial Day-Ahead LMP Peak Daily Contract; SP-15 Financial Day...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-21

...''), an exempt commercial market (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA... (``Reauthorization Act'') \\5\\ significantly broadened the CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price...

75 FR 23718 - Orders Finding That the Henry Financial Basis Contract, Henry Financial Index Contract and Henry...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-04

... exempt commercial market (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or... with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price discovery contracts (``SPDCs'') are traded--and treating ECMs in that category...

75 FR 38469 - Orders Finding That the Mid-C Financial Peak Contract and Mid-C Financial Off-Peak Contract...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-02

... market (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or the ``Act... CFTC's regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price discovery contracts (``SPDCs'') are traded--and treating...

An Interactive Microcomputer Program for Teaching the Impacts of Alternative Policy Sets in the Market for a Single Commodity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Elton; Stoecker, Arthur

1995-01-01

Describes a computer software program where students define alternative policy sets and compare their effects on the welfare of consumers, producers, and the public sector. Policy sets may be a single tax or quota or a mix of taxes, subsidies, and/or price supports implemented in the marketing chain. (MJP)

A Policy Option To Provide Sufficient Funding For Massive-Scale Sequestration of CO2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kithil, P. W.

2007-12-01

Global emissions of CO2 now are nearly 30 billion tons per year, and are growing rapidly due to strong economic growth. Atmospheric levels of CO2 have reached 380 ppm and recent reports suggest the rate of increase has gone from 1% per year in the 1990's to 3% per year now - with potential to cross 550ppm in the 2020 decade. Without stabilization of atmospheric CO2 below 550ppm, climate models predict unacceptably higher average temperatures with significant risk of runaway global warming this century. While there is much talk about reducing CO2 emissions by switching to non-fossil energy sources, imposing energy efficiency, and a host of other changes, there are no new large-scale energy sources on the horizon. The options are to impose draconian cuts in fossil energy consumption that will keep us below 550ppm (devastating the global economy) - or to adopt massive-scale sequestration of CO2. Three approaches are feasible: biological ocean sequestration, geologic sequestration, and biological terrestrial sequestration. Biological sequestration is applicable to all CO2 sources, whereas geologic sequestration is limited to fossil-fuel power plants and some large point-source emitters such as cement plants and large industrial facilities. Sequestration provides a direct mechanism for reducing atmospheric levels of CO2, whereas offsetting technologies such as wind power or improved efficiency, reduce the need for more fossil fuels but do not physically remove CO2 from the environment. The primary geologic technique, carbon capture & sequestration (CCS), prevents CO2 from entering the atmosphere but likewise does not reduce existing levels of atmospheric CO2. Biological sequestration (ocean or terrestrial) physically removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Since we cannot shut down our global economy, urgent action is needed to counteract CO2 emissions, and avoid catastrophic climate change. Given the long lead time and/or small impact of offsetting energy sources, sequestration is the only way to achieve near and medium-term reductions in atmospheric CO2 levels. To finance massive-scale sequestration of CO2, we propose the World Trade Organization (WTO) become an active player in the sequestration market. Given the WTO's role as overseer of international trade agreements annually representing 30 trillion in imports and exports of goods and services, it is by far the largest global economic force and therefore offers the broadest economic base. Absent a real solution to CO2 emissions, the global economy - and world trade - will shrink dramatically. The WTO can jumpstart the market for CO2 sequestration by issuing long term contracts to purchase bona fide sequestration-derived CO2 credits. Under this proposal, an initial price of 100 per ton which steps-down by 5% per year could bring forth the sequestration investment needed to achieve upwards of 10 billion tons sequestered CO2 per year by 2025 (seven billion tons from biological ocean sequestration and at least three billion tons from geologic and terrestrial sequestration). Assuming a contract term of 40 years, and a parallel commodity market continues to develop for CO2 credits, at some time in the future the WTO's contractual price will be less than the commodity market price - and the WTO begins to recover its investment. Under one set of assumptions, the net WTO annual subsidy would peak at $86 billion by 2022, equal to an across-the-board WTO tariff on imports and exports of about 1.01%, then become positive a few years later as the market price climbed above WTO's contracted price. Under this proposal, the WTO effectively subsidizes CO2 sequestration in the near to medium term and then recoups its investment and reaps large profits over the long term.

Food commodity pipeline management in transitional settings: challenges and lessons learned from the first USAID food development program in South Sudan

PubMed Central

Tappis, Hannah; Doocy, Shannon; Amoako, Stephen

2013-01-01

ABSTRACT Despite decades of support for international food assistance programs by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Food for Peace, relatively little is known about the commodity pipeline and management issues these programs face in post-conflict and politically volatile settings. Based on an audit of the program's commodity tracking system and interviews with 13 key program staff, this case study documents the experiences of organizations implementing the first USAID-funded non-emergency (development) food assistance program approved for Sudan and South Sudan. Key challenges and lessons learned in this experience about food commodity procurement, transport, and management may help improve the design and implementation of future development food assistance programs in a variety of complex, food-insecure settings around the world. Specifically, expanding shipping routes in complex political situations may facilitate reliable and timely commodity delivery. In addition, greater flexibility to procure commodities locally, rather than shipping U.S.-procured commodities, may avoid unnecessary shipping delays and reduce costs. PMID:25276532

Multinetwork of international trade: A commodity-specific analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barigozzi, Matteo; Fagiolo, Giorgio; Garlaschelli, Diego

2010-04-01

We study the topological properties of the multinetwork of commodity-specific trade relations among world countries over the 1992-2003 period, comparing them with those of the aggregate-trade network, known in the literature as the international-trade network (ITN). We show that link-weight distributions of commodity-specific networks are extremely heterogeneous and (quasi) log normality of aggregate link-weight distribution is generated as a sheer outcome of aggregation. Commodity-specific networks also display average connectivity, clustering, and centrality levels very different from their aggregate counterpart. We also find that ITN complete connectivity is mainly achieved through the presence of many weak links that keep commodity-specific networks together and that the correlation structure existing between topological statistics within each single network is fairly robust and mimics that of the aggregate network. Finally, we employ cross-commodity correlations between link weights to build hierarchies of commodities. Our results suggest that on the top of a relatively time-invariant “intrinsic” taxonomy (based on inherent between-commodity similarities), the roles played by different commodities in the ITN have become more and more dissimilar, possibly as the result of an increased trade specialization. Our approach is general and can be used to characterize any multinetwork emerging as a nontrivial aggregation of several interdependent layers.

Panel discussion on vaccine development to meet U.S. and international needs. Strategies for reducing the disincentives to HIV vaccine development: description of a successful public-private sector international collaboration.

PubMed

Bronnenkant, L

1994-01-01

A representative of Finishing Enterprises, the world's largest manufacturer of intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs), discusses how to alter the balance of incentives-disincentives to expedite the development of HIV vaccines for international evaluation. Three main disincentives exist for private manufacturers in the United States to develop a new HIV vaccine to be used in developing countries, outside the profitable North American and western European markets: 1) low profit margin because of limited money, time, and resources. Medium and large-sized corporations are more concerned with a high return on their investment owing to stockholder pressure than with the human benefit of that investment. 2) Lengthy regulatory approval process. The current regulatory process in the US is tedious, time-consuming, and costly. 3) Liability risk. The United States is the most litigious society in the world. Suits filed against US corporations involved in drug manufacture incur legal defence costs, which make an already low profit margin HIV vaccine even lower. Finishing Enterprises' IUD program aimed at providing the safest and most effective IUD at an affordable price in a socially responsible way. The Population Council developed the Copper T and retained the patent rights. They and other international health authorities, such as the World Health Organization, conducted or monitored international clinical trials to determine safety and efficacy. Private foundations and public donor agencies funded these activities. When donor agencies committed to volume purchases for their commodity programs, Finishing Enterprises could commit to volume pricing. Whenever high-margin private sector sales occur, Population Council receives a royalty payment. Thus, the disincentives were overcome: 1) Low profit margin was less an issue for a small, private company created specifically to manufacture IUDs and guaranteed volume orders. 2) Lengthy regulatory approval processes were avoided by various international clinical trials, generating international interest in the product. 3) Liability risk was minimized by the variety of safety tests the product underwent.

Impacts of El Niño-Southern Oscillation on the wheat market: A global dynamic analysis

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Although the widespread influence of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) occurrences on crop yields of the main agricultural commodities is well known, the global socio-economic consequences of ENSO still remain uncertain. Given the global importance of wheat for global consumption by providing 20% of global calories and nourishment, the monitoring and prediction of ENSO-induced variations in the worldwide wheat market are essential for allowing national governments to manage the associated risks and to ensure the supplies of wheat for consumers, including the underprivileged. To this end, we propose a global dynamic model for the analysis of ENSO impacts on wheat yield anomalies, export prices, exports and stock-to-use ratios. Our framework focuses on seven countries/regions: the six main wheat-exporting countries—the United States, Argentina, Australia, Canada, the EU, and the group of the main Black Sea export countries, i.e. Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan—plus the rest of the world. The study shows that La Niña exerts, on average, a stronger and negative impact on wheat yield anomalies, exports and stock-to-use ratios than El Niño. In contrast, wheat export prices are positively related to La Niña occurrences evidencing, once again, its steady impact in both the short and long run. Our findings emphasize the importance of the two ENSO extreme phases for the worldwide wheat market. PMID:28594886

Climbing the walls

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Duey, R.

1997-07-01

{open_quotes}Integrated solutions{close_quotes} has become such a buzzword in the business world that it`s beginning to lose its semantic impact. But when the business is oil and gas and the integrated solutions revolve around information technology, the impact is very great indeed. A recent Cambridge Energy Research Associates study called the use of information technology within the petroleum industry a {open_quotes}quiet revolution.{close_quotes} The technology has been {open_quotes}a powerful, enabling factor in the survival and rebirth{close_quotes} of the industry since the price collapse of 1986, the report states, adding, {open_quotes}It will be even more important to the industry`s future, shaping business strategymore » and competitive advantage-- and company structure.{close_quotes} Like many other industries, oil and gas companies are moving away from hierarchical structures, relying on asset teams and other interdisciplinary approaches to maximize profits in an era of downsizing, volatile prices and stiff competition. {open_quotes}I think in the past the energy industry had a commodity mindset,{close_quotes} says Robert Shaw, senior vice president and head of the worldwide sector for Oracle Energy. {open_quotes}The industry was fairly controlled, stable and regulated, and there was a feeling that there wasn`t much to do except find oil, own reserves, refine as much as they can, run the pipe full, dispose of as much as they can and hopefully make a lot of money{close_quotes}.« less

Impacts of El Niño-Southern Oscillation on the wheat market: A global dynamic analysis.

PubMed

Gutierrez, Luciano

2017-01-01

Although the widespread influence of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) occurrences on crop yields of the main agricultural commodities is well known, the global socio-economic consequences of ENSO still remain uncertain. Given the global importance of wheat for global consumption by providing 20% of global calories and nourishment, the monitoring and prediction of ENSO-induced variations in the worldwide wheat market are essential for allowing national governments to manage the associated risks and to ensure the supplies of wheat for consumers, including the underprivileged. To this end, we propose a global dynamic model for the analysis of ENSO impacts on wheat yield anomalies, export prices, exports and stock-to-use ratios. Our framework focuses on seven countries/regions: the six main wheat-exporting countries-the United States, Argentina, Australia, Canada, the EU, and the group of the main Black Sea export countries, i.e. Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan-plus the rest of the world. The study shows that La Niña exerts, on average, a stronger and negative impact on wheat yield anomalies, exports and stock-to-use ratios than El Niño. In contrast, wheat export prices are positively related to La Niña occurrences evidencing, once again, its steady impact in both the short and long run. Our findings emphasize the importance of the two ENSO extreme phases for the worldwide wheat market.

Essays in the Application of Linear and Non-linear Bayesian VAR Models to the Macroeconomic Impacts of Energy Price Shocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Bao H.

This thesis is a collection of five self contained empirical macroeconomic papers on the asymmetric effects of energy price shocks on various economies. Chapter 1 formally determines the number of regime changes in the US natural gas market by employing a MS-VAR model. Estimated using Bayesian methods, three regimes are identified for the period 1980 - 2016, namely, before the Decontrol Act, after the Decontrol Act and the Recession. The results show that the natural gas market tends to be much more sensitive to market fundamental shocks occurring in a Recession regime than in the other regimes. Augmenting the model by incorporating the price of crude oil, the results reveal that the impacts of oil price shocks on natural gas prices are relatively small. Chapter 2 provides new empirical evidence on the asymmetric reactions of the U.S. natural gas market and the U.S. economy to its market fundamental shocks in different phases of the business cycle. To this end, we employ a ST-VAR model to capture the asymmetric responses depending on economic conditions. Our results indicate that in contrast to the prediction made by a linear VAR model, the STVAR model provides a plausible explanation to the behavior of the U.S. natural gas market, which asymmetrically reacts in bad times and good times. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between China's economic growth and global oil market fluctuations between 1992Q1 and 2015Q3. We find that: (1) the time varying parameter VAR with stochastic volatility provides a better fit as compared to it's constant counterparts; (2) the impacts of intertemporal global oil price shocks on China's output are often small and temporary in nature; (3) oil supply and specific oil demand shocks generally produce negative movements in China's GDP growth whilst oil demand shocks tend to have positive effects; (4) domestic output shocks have no significant impact on price or quantity movements within the global oil market. Chapter 4 examines the effects of world energy price shocks on China's macroeconomy. We propose a new index of primary commodity energy prices which accurately reflects both the structure of China's energy expenditure shares, as well as intertemporal fluctuations in international energy prices. The index is then in employed a sufficiently rich set of time varying BVARs, identified by a new set of agnostic sign restrictions. Uniformly sized positive energy price shocks are shown to consistently generate economic stagflation over the past two decades. Chapter 5 compares the macroeconomic effects of global oil and iron ore price shocks on the Australian economy. The main results suggest that, over the period 1990Q1 to 2014Q4, the oil shock has a relative larger impact than that of the iron ore shock on output and inflation while the iron ore shock is the dominant source of interest and exchange rate movements. The effects crucially depend on the underlying sources of oil or iron ore price shifts.

Motor fuels : California gasoline price behavior

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-04-01

Retail gasoline prices in the United States have risen sharply since early 1999, mostly in response to sharply rising world crude oil prices. Although gasoline prices have, in general, been relatively low for U.S. consumers-compared with both histori...

A MODEL FOR THE DEMAND FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1919-64.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CAMPBELL, ROBERT; SIEGEL, BARRY N.

STATISTICAL DEMAND ANALYSIS, WHICH EMPHASIZES THE INFLUENCE OF RELATIVE PRICES AND REAL INCOME UPON THE DEMAND FOR A COMMODITY, WAS USED TO DEVELOP A MODEL OF THE DEMAND FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. THE STUDY IS BASED ON THE FACT THAT COLLEGE ENROLLMENT REPRESENTS THE PURCHASE OF BOTH A PRODUCER AND CONSUMER DURABLE, AND IS AN ACT OF INVESTMENT.…

75 FR 42390 - Orders Finding That the PJM WH Real Time Peak Contract and PJM WH Real Time Off-Peak Contract...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-21

... commercial market (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or the ``Act... with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price discovery contracts (``SPDCs'') are traded--and treating ECMs in that category...

75 FR 42380 - Orders Finding That the SP-15 Financial Day-Ahead LMP Peak Contract and SP-15 Financial Day-Ahead...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-21

...Exchange, Inc. (``ICE''), an exempt commercial market (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity... with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price discovery contracts (``SPDCs'') are traded--and treating ECMs in that category...

75 FR 42399 - Orders Finding That the PJM WH Real Time Peak Daily Contract, PJM WH Real Time Off-Peak Daily...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-21

...Exchange, Inc. (``ICE''), an exempt commercial market (``ECM'') under sections 2(h)(3)-(5) of the Commodity... regulatory authority with respect to ECMs by creating, in section 2(h)(7) of the CEA, a new regulatory category--ECMs on which significant price discovery contracts (``SPDCs'') are traded--and treating ECMs in...

JPRS Report China.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-06-23

as this is done, reorder prices step by step, establish a better system of macroscopic control, enliven the microeconomy , open up markets and...and invigorating the little realm (i.e., the microeconomy ) involve expanding the autonomy of state enterprises so that they become commodity pro...we can establish a better system of macro- scopic control (plan regulation); how, with such a system, we can invigorate the microeconomy ; how we can

Ready for supply inflation?

PubMed

Larkin, Howard

2006-03-01

Hurricane Katrina was expected to provoke major hikes in the prices that hospitals pay for supplies and commodities. But other forces--global demand for raw materials and for access to shipping, in particular--are having an even bigger impact on everything from heating oil to synthetic gloves. Hospitals are using old strategies and creating new ones to try to manage risk and blunt the effect of this inflationary spiral.

17 CFR 240.15c1-8 - Sales at the market.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Sales at the market. 240.15c1... Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Rules Relating to Over-The-Counter Markets § 240.15c1-8 Sales at the market... securities exchange that such security is being offered to such customer “at the market” or at a price...

Stochastic Modeling and Analysis of Energy Commodity Spot Price Processes

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-27

Eurocurrency data set [129] collected from Forex database . Table 10: Estimates m̂k, βm̂k,k, µm̂k,k, δm̂k,k, σm̂k,k, γm̂k,k for U. S. Treasury Bill...U. S. Eurocurrency rateUS dollar Eurocurrency data set January 1990-December 2004, Forex Database . [130] U. S. Energy Information Administration

Food price seasonality in Africa: Measurement and extent.

PubMed

Gilbert, Christopher L; Christiaensen, Luc; Kaminski, Jonathan

2017-02-01

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 can yield substantial upward bias. This can be partially circumvented using trigonometric and sawtooth models, which are more parsimonious. Among staple crops, seasonality is highest for maize (33 percent on average) and lowest for rice (16½ percent). This is two and a half to three times larger than in the international reference markets. Seasonality varies substantially across market places but maize is the only crop in which there are important systematic country effects. Malawi, where maize is the main staple, emerges as exhibiting the most acute seasonal differences. Reaching the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger requires renewed policy attention to seasonality in food prices and consumption.

Escalation: How Much is Enough?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butts, Glenn

2007-01-01

Determining the escalation percentage to an estimate is often the subject of fierce debate. Cost increases are determined by dynamic relati onships between many factors, including acts of nature, interest rate s, oil prices, global commodity markets, wars, wage rates, and the ov erall health of the economy, as well as supply and demand for the required goods or services. How much escalation is enough? Are the recen t price increases temporary aberrations, or will they continue to pla gue us? This paper examines historical escalation rates, as well as i ndications of trends. Various analysis methods -- Monte Carlo simulations, neural networks, trend impact analysis, and the Delphi method -- are examined in an attempt to determine future trends.

Franchise medicine: how I avoid being a commodity in a global market.

PubMed

Constantinides, Minas

2010-02-01

As facial plastic surgery becomes more global, pressures for practices to become commoditized will increase. Commoditized practices are those in which price drives the quality of the product. Franchised surgical practices have also recently increased within the United States and abroad. These are always commoditized by their corporate philosophies. There are better ways to create value than to lower price to compete with a neighboring practice. By establishing a Transcendent Relationship of growth, both the surgeon and the patient are more satisfied with their facial plastic surgical experiences. Key tools helpful in predicting future directions for a practice, the Four Compass Points and the Average Best Patient, will be introduced. Thieme Medical Publishers.

Future resources and world development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rogers, P.

1976-01-01

The aim of this book is to examine some of the longer-term implications of the use of global resources on prospects for world development and on relations between the developed and less-developed countries of the world. Part I consists of papers prepared especially for this volume. It begins with a contribution from Anthony Vam on ''The Global Ecosystem and Human Activity'' which gives an ecological perspective to trends in energy and mineral resource utilization. This is followed by a detailed case study of the one dominating example of producer power, oil; this is entitled ''Oil Prices, OPEC and the Poormore » Oil Consuming Countries'' and is by Dr. Biplab Dasgupta. Following this, Paul Rogers contributes a paper on ''The Role of Less-Developed Countries in World Resource Use'' which includes a consideration of the potential development of producer power for a number of primary commodities. This is followed by a paper by Dr. E. E. Banks entitled ''Problems of Mineral Supply'' which concentrates attention on two important minerals, copper and aluminum. Robert Dickson and Paul Rogers then contribute a discussion on the possible effects of producer power on relations between developed and less-developed countries. The editors then conclude with a summary of the views expressed in the preceding papers placed in the context of recent developments on the international scene. Part II of this book consists of a number of important documents, statements, and speeches that appeared over the period September 1973 to May 1975. This was the crucial period for the development of producer power and the contributions help to show exactly how the process has developed.« less

A generalized approach to wheat yield forecasting using earth observations: Data considerations, application and relevance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker-Reshef, Inbal

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the demand for timely, comprehensive global agricultural intelligence. The issue of food security has rapidly risen to the top of government agendas around the world as the recent lack of food access led to unprecedented food prices, hunger, poverty, and civil conflict. Timely information on global crop production is indispensable for combating the growing stress on the world's crop production, for stabilizing food prices, developing effective agricultural policies, and for coordinating responses to regional food shortages. Earth Observations (EO) data offer a practical means for generating such information as they provide global, timely, cost-effective, and synoptic information on crop condition and distribution. Their utility for crop production forecasting has long been recognized and demonstrated across a wide range of scales and geographic regions. Nevertheless it is widely acknowledged that EO data could be better utilized within the operational monitoring systems and thus there is a critical need for research focused on developing practical robust methods for agricultural monitoring. Within this context this dissertation focused on advancing EO-based methods for crop yield forecasting and on demonstrating the potential relevance for adopting EO-based crop forecasts for providing timely reliable agricultural intelligence. This thesis made contributions to this field by developing and testing a robust EO-based method for wheat production forecasting at state to national scales using available and easily accessible data. The model was developed in Kansas (KS) using coarse resolution normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series data in conjunction with out-of-season wheat masks and was directly applied in Ukraine to assess its transferability. The model estimated yields within 7% in KS and 10% in Ukraine of final estimates 6 weeks prior to harvest. The relevance of adopting such methods to provide timely reliable information to crop commodity markets is demonstrated through a 2010 case study.

Market Impacts of Reducing the Prevalence of Bovine Respiratory Disease in United States Beef Cattle Feedlots

PubMed Central

Johnson, Kamina Keiko; Pendell, Dustin L.

2017-01-01

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a common endemic disease among North American feedlot cattle. BRD can lead to significant economic losses for individual beef cattle feedlot producers through mortality and morbidity. With promising new management and technology research that could reduce BRD prevalence, this study evaluates the potential impacts of a reduction of BRD in the US beef cattle feedlot sector. Using a multi-market, multi-commodity partial equilibrium economic model of the US agricultural industry, we evaluate the market impacts of reduced BRD to producers from various livestock, meat, and feedstuffs industries. We find that as morbidity and mortality is reduced, beef cattle producers experience losses due to increased supplies (lower beef cattle prices) and increased demand for feedstuff (higher feedstuff prices). Beef cattle processors see gains as the price of beef cattle is lower, whereas feedstuff producers gain from higher feedstuff prices. Producers in the allied industries (pork, lamb, poultry, and eggs) see a small reduction in returns as consumers substitute with less expensive beef products. Consumers see gains in welfare as the increase in beef cattle supply results in lower beef prices. These lower beef prices more than offset the small increases in pork, lamb, poultry, and egg prices. Overall, the potential economic welfare change due to management and technologies that reduce BRD is a net gain for the US society as a whole. PMID:29170739

Market Impacts of Reducing the Prevalence of Bovine Respiratory Disease in United States Beef Cattle Feedlots.

PubMed

Johnson, Kamina Keiko; Pendell, Dustin L

2017-01-01

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a common endemic disease among North American feedlot cattle. BRD can lead to significant economic losses for individual beef cattle feedlot producers through mortality and morbidity. With promising new management and technology research that could reduce BRD prevalence, this study evaluates the potential impacts of a reduction of BRD in the US beef cattle feedlot sector. Using a multi-market, multi-commodity partial equilibrium economic model of the US agricultural industry, we evaluate the market impacts of reduced BRD to producers from various livestock, meat, and feedstuffs industries. We find that as morbidity and mortality is reduced, beef cattle producers experience losses due to increased supplies (lower beef cattle prices) and increased demand for feedstuff (higher feedstuff prices). Beef cattle processors see gains as the price of beef cattle is lower, whereas feedstuff producers gain from higher feedstuff prices. Producers in the allied industries (pork, lamb, poultry, and eggs) see a small reduction in returns as consumers substitute with less expensive beef products. Consumers see gains in welfare as the increase in beef cattle supply results in lower beef prices. These lower beef prices more than offset the small increases in pork, lamb, poultry, and egg prices. Overall, the potential economic welfare change due to management and technologies that reduce BRD is a net gain for the US society as a whole.

Market penetration of biodiesel and ethanol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szulczyk, Kenneth Ray

This dissertation examines the influence that economic and technological factors have on the penetration of biodiesel and ethanol into the transportation fuels market. This dissertation focuses on four aspects. The first involves the influence of fossil fuel prices, because biofuels are substitutes and have to compete in price. The second involves biofuel manufacturing technology, principally the feedstock-to-biofuel conversion rates, and the biofuel manufacturing costs. The third involves prices for greenhouse gas offsets. The fourth involves the agricultural commodity markets for feedstocks, and biofuel byproducts. This dissertation uses the Forest and Agricultural Sector Optimization Model-Greenhouse Gas (FASOM-GHG) to quantitatively examine these issues and calculates equilibrium prices and quantities, given market interactions, fossil fuel prices, carbon dioxide equivalent prices, government biofuel subsidies, technological improvement, and crop yield gains. The results indicate that for the ranges studied, gasoline prices have a major impact on aggregate ethanol production but only at low prices. At higher prices, one runs into a capacity constraint that limits expansion on the capacity of ethanol production. Aggregate biodiesel production is highly responsive to gasoline prices and increases over time. (Diesel fuel price is proportional to the gasoline price). Carbon dioxide equivalent prices expand the biodiesel industry, but have no impact on ethanol aggregate production when gasoline prices are high again because of refinery capacity expansion. Improvement of crop yields shows a similar pattern, expanding ethanol production when the gasoline price is low and expanding biodiesel. Technological improvement, where biorefinery production costs decrease over time, had minimal impact on aggregate ethanol and biodiesel production. Finally, U.S. government subsidies have a large expansionary impact on aggregate biodiesel production. Finally, U.S. government subsidies have a large expansionary impact on aggregate biodiesel production, but only expand the ethanol industry at low gasoline prices. All of these factors increase agricultural welfare with most expanding producer surplus and mixed effects on consumers.

Oil and the American Way of Life: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

ScienceCinema

Kaufmann, Robert [Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

2018-04-19

In the coming decades, US consumers will face a series of important decisions about oil. To make effective decisions, consumers must confront some disturbing answers to questions they would rather not ask. These questions include: is the US running out of oil, is the world running out of oil, is OPEC increasing its grip on prices, is the US economy reducing its dependence on energy, and will the competitive market address these issues in a timely fashion? Answers to these questions indicate that the market will not address these issues: the US has already run out of inexpensive sources of oil such that rising prices no longer elicit significant increases in supply. The US experience implies that within a couple of decades, the world oil market will change from increasing supply at low prices to decreasing supply at higher prices. As the world approaches this important turning point, OPEC will strengthen its grip on world oil prices. Contrary to popular belief, the US economy continues to be highly dependent on energy, especially inexpensive sources of energy. Together, these trends threaten to undermine the basic way in which the US economy generates a high standard of living.

Assessment of the safety of aquatic animal commodities for international trade: the OIE Aquatic Animal Health code.

PubMed

Oidtmann, B; Johnston, C; Klotins, K; Mylrea, G; Van, P T; Cabot, S; Martin, P Rosado; Ababouch, L; Berthe, F

2013-02-01

Trading of aquatic animals and aquatic animal products has become increasingly globalized during the last couple of decades. This commodity trade has increased the risk for the spread of aquatic animal pathogens. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) is recognized as the international standard-setting organization for measures relating to international trade in animals and animal products. In this role, OIE has developed the Aquatic Animal Health Code, which provides health measures to be used by competent authorities of importing and exporting countries to avoid the transfer of agents pathogenic for animals or humans, whilst avoiding unjustified sanitary barriers. An OIE ad hoc group developed criteria for assessing the safety of aquatic animals or aquatic animal products for any purpose from a country, zone or compartment not declared free from a given disease 'X'. The criteria were based on the absence of the pathogenic agent in the traded commodity or inactivation of the pathogenic agent by the commercial processing used to produce the commodity. The group also developed criteria to assess the safety of aquatic animals or aquatic animal products for retail trade for human consumption from potentially infected areas. Such commodities were assessed considering the form and presentation of the product, the expected volume of waste tissues generated by the consumer and the likely presence of viable pathogenic agent in the waste. The ad hoc group applied the criteria to commodities listed in the individual disease chapters of the Aquatic Animal Health Code (2008 edition). Revised lists of commodities for which no additional measures should be required by the importing countries regardless of the status for disease X of the exporting country were developed and adopted by the OIE World Assembly of Delegates in May 2011. The rationale of the criteria and their application will be explained and demonstrated using examples. © 2012 Crown Copyright. Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office and Cefas, Aquatic Animal Disease Group.

Global integration of European tuna markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiménez-Toribio, Ramòn; Guillotreau, Patrice; Mongruel, Rémi

2010-07-01

This paper evaluates the degree of integration between the world market and the major European marketplaces of frozen and canned tuna through both vertical and horizontal price relationships. Spatial linkages are investigated horizontally in order to estimate the connection between the European market and the world-wide market on the primary stage of the value chain. One of the key results is the high level of market integration at the ex-vessel stage, and the price leadership of yellowfin tuna over skipjack tuna. The same approach is applied at the ex-factory level. Basically, the European market for final goods appears to be segmented between the Northern countries consuming low-priced canned skipjack tuna imported from Asia (mainly Thailand) and the Southern countries (Italy, Spain) processing and importing yellowfin-based products sold at higher prices. France appears to be an intermediate market where both products are consumed. The former market is found to be well integrated to the world market and can be considered to be competitive, but there is a suspicion of market power being exercised on the latter. Price relationships are therefore tested vertically between the price of frozen tuna paid by the canneries and the price of canned fish in both Italy and France. The two species show an opposite pattern in prices transmission along the value chain: price changes along the chain are far better transmitted for the “global” skipjack tuna than for the more “European” yellowfin tuna. The results are discussed, along with their implications for the fishing industry.

Prices and mark-ups on antimalarials: evidence from nationally representative studies in six malaria-endemic countries

PubMed Central

Palafox, Benjamin; Patouillard, Edith; Tougher, Sarah; Goodman, Catherine; Hanson, Kara; Kleinschmidt, Immo; Torres Rueda, Sergio; Kiefer, Sabine; O’Connell, Kate; Zinsou, Cyprien; Phok, Sochea; Akulayi, Louis; Arogundade, Ekundayo; Buyungo, Peter; Mpasela, Felton; Poyer, Stephen; Chavasse, Desmond

2016-01-01

The private for-profit sector is an important source of treatment for malaria. However, private patients face high prices for the recommended treatment for uncomplicated malaria, artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), which makes them more likely to receive cheaper, less effective non-artemisinin therapies (nATs). This study seeks to better understand consumer antimalarial prices by documenting and exploring the pricing behaviour of retailers and wholesalers. Using data collected in 2009–10, we present survey estimates of antimalarial retail prices, and wholesale- and retail-level price mark-ups from six countries (Benin, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia), along with qualitative findings on factors affecting pricing decisions. Retail prices were lowest for nATs, followed by ACTs and artemisinin monotherapies (AMTs). Retailers applied the highest percentage mark-ups on nATs (range: 40% in Nigeria to 100% in Cambodia and Zambia), whereas mark-ups on ACTs (range: 22% in Nigeria to 71% in Zambia) and AMTs (range: 22% in Nigeria to 50% in Uganda) were similar in magnitude, but lower than those applied to nATs. Wholesale mark-ups were generally lower than those at retail level, and were similar across antimalarial categories in most countries. When setting prices wholesalers and retailers commonly considered supplier prices, prevailing market prices, product availability, product characteristics and the costs related to transporting goods, staff salaries and maintaining a property. Price discounts were regularly used to encourage sales and were sometimes used by wholesalers to reward long-term customers. Pricing constraints existed only in Benin where wholesaler and retailer mark-ups are regulated; however, unlicensed drug vendors based in open-air markets did not adhere to the pricing regime. These findings indicate that mark-ups on antimalarials are reasonable. Therefore, improving ACT affordability would be most readily achieved by interventions that reduce commodity prices for retailers, such as ACT subsidies, pooled purchasing mechanisms and cost-effective strategies to increase the distribution coverage area of wholesalers. PMID:25944705

Southeast Asia Report

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-05-08

they are aware that the fall in commodity prices is not the fault of their leaders. He told the people at the meeting, also attended by Mr Ibrahim Ali...chairman of the Malaysian Fishing Progress Society and by Dr Ibrahim Saad, chairman of State Agriculture, that government leaders are seriously...the Sabah United Party (PBS), denied that the PBS had come to an agreement with the DAP [Democratic Action party] to prevent UMNO [United Malay

JPRS Report China

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-11-23

general trend, in recent years inflation of consumption funds has not yet spent its full force in its effect on commodity prices. For some considerable...launch policy and theory studies on the administration of the financial market and institutions to guide the financial work more effectively . To...the effective study of Chinese, on the one hand, and the right of the national minorities to use their own spoken and written language, on the other

7 CFR Exhibit B to Subpart A of... - Memorandum of Understanding and Blanket Commodity Lien Waiver

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... conducts price support programs. FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 will try to furnish... of FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 shall be subordinated to the rights of CCC... right to that of FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 and that, on purchase of a...

7 CFR Exhibit B to Subpart A of... - Memorandum of Understanding and Blanket Commodity Lien Waiver

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... conducts price support programs. FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 will try to furnish... of FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 shall be subordinated to the rights of CCC... right to that of FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 and that, on purchase of a...

7 CFR Exhibit B to Subpart A of... - Memorandum of Understanding and Blanket Commodity Lien Waiver

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... conducts price support programs. FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 will try to furnish... of FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 shall be subordinated to the rights of CCC... right to that of FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 and that, on purchase of a...

7 CFR Exhibit B to Subpart A of... - Memorandum of Understanding and Blanket Commodity Lien Waiver

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... conducts price support programs. FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 will try to furnish... of FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 shall be subordinated to the rights of CCC... right to that of FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 and that, on purchase of a...

China Report: Economic Affairs. No. 335.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-05-06

Urged (SICHUAN RIBAO, 2k Jan 83) Sichuan Government Seeks To Strengthen Management of Market , Commodity Prices _ (SICHUAN RIBAO, 24 Jan 83...TRADE Role of State-Run Commercial Enterprises Discussed (Guo Dongluo; JIEFANG RIBAO, 23 Feb 83) k3 Ten Major Changes in Liaoning’s Market ...8 Ways To Handle Individual Traffic Discussed (Hao Zhixin; JINGJI RIBAO, 31 Jan 83) 50 Brisk Buying, Selling in Fujian’s Markets

Your practice is not your pension fund.

PubMed

Jennings, Niall J

2005-01-01

I believe that in the not too distant future--in 10 to 20 years--the single-handed practice as we know it today will cease to exist. Even in today's market, 25% of practices have either closed due to an unsaleable commodity or have taken two to three years to sell and at a seriously reduced price. This thought alone should refocus the mind as we continue into the 21st century.

Migration, Urbanization, and Political Power in Africa

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-07-01

population bore the costs of retrenchment of the public sector , new collections of tax, and an ending to favorable prices for commodities.25 In addition...regimes use state resources to court rivals, and those same resources to strategically plan the distribution of public and private (e.g. ministry...Many of the present difficulties can be attributed to support for deregulation and privatization that proved inadequate for the needs at hand.59

Structural adjustment: the wrong prescription for Africa?

PubMed

Logie, D E; Woodroffe, J

1993-07-03

The medical and social consequences and the wide effects of the African structural adjustment program (SAP), specifically for women and children, and examples of the impact in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Senegal, are discussed. Structural adjustment is defined and the history of its inception is provided. Significant economic and social welfare improvement occurred during the 1960s and 1970s, and considerable decline occurred during the 1980s. The present reality is that Africa,m contrary to popular myths about being a "bottomless pit of Western charity," transfers $10 billion/year to the rich North. Debtor countries are 61% more indebted in 1990 than they were in 1982. During the 1980s, oil prices and interest rates rose dramatically, African export prices dropped, and industrialized countries set up protectionist policies. In addition, there was civil war, drought, poor leadership which put military spending before poverty reduction, and the AIDS epidemic. The Western response was to restructure debt payments in return for implementation of SAPs. Structural adjustment involved a package of trade liberalization, devaluation, removal of government subsidies and price controls, privatization, credit shortages, higher interest rates, and "cost recovery" in health and education. The theory is that economic growth will "ultimately" lead to poverty reduction. A critical view is that SAP insures debt repayment, export of cheap raw materials to the North, and may not sustain longterm economic growth. The results for the poor have been high prices for food, transportation, school and medical fees, and a decline in wages and unemployment. Land is used for exports. A solution is to reduce the debt burden, to place the needs of the poor as a top priority in SAPs, and to put pressure on the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and governments to consider health outcomes. Other alternatives noted in the African Framework to SAPs are to place well being and self-reliance as development goals and outcome as a product of the society's value system. Education and training and food self-sufficiency need to be assured fully. The poor need better access to land and employment opportunities. The environment must be managed effectively. Economic development must expand beyond the export of cheap primary commodities.

19 CFR 351.511 - Provision of goods or services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... available world market price, the Secretary will average such prices to the extent practicable, making due... normally seek to measure the adequacy of remuneration by comparing the government price to a market..., imported, or auctioned; and other factors affecting comparability. (ii) Actual market-determined price...

19 CFR 351.511 - Provision of goods or services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... available world market price, the Secretary will average such prices to the extent practicable, making due... normally seek to measure the adequacy of remuneration by comparing the government price to a market..., imported, or auctioned; and other factors affecting comparability. (ii) Actual market-determined price...

19 CFR 351.511 - Provision of goods or services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... available world market price, the Secretary will average such prices to the extent practicable, making due... normally seek to measure the adequacy of remuneration by comparing the government price to a market..., imported, or auctioned; and other factors affecting comparability. (ii) Actual market-determined price...

19 CFR 351.511 - Provision of goods or services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... available world market price, the Secretary will average such prices to the extent practicable, making due... normally seek to measure the adequacy of remuneration by comparing the government price to a market..., imported, or auctioned; and other factors affecting comparability. (ii) Actual market-determined price...

19 CFR 351.511 - Provision of goods or services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... available world market price, the Secretary will average such prices to the extent practicable, making due... normally seek to measure the adequacy of remuneration by comparing the government price to a market..., imported, or auctioned; and other factors affecting comparability. (ii) Actual market-determined price...

Food Prices and Climate Extremes: A Model of Global Grain Price Variability with Storage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Otto, C.; Schewe, J.; Frieler, K.

2015-12-01

Extreme climate events such as droughts, floods, or heat waves affect agricultural production in major cropping regions and therefore impact the world market prices of staple crops. In the last decade, crop prices exhibited two very prominent price peaks in 2007-2008 and 2010-2011, threatening food security especially for poorer countries that are net importers of grain. There is evidence that these spikes in grain prices were at least partly triggered by actual supply shortages and the expectation of bad harvests. However, the response of the market to supply shocks is nonlinear and depends on complex and interlinked processes such as warehousing, speculation, and trade policies. Quantifying the contributions of such different factors to short-term price variability remains difficult, not least because many existing models ignore the role of storage which becomes important on short timescales. This in turn impedes the assessment of future climate change impacts on food prices. Here, we present a simple model of annual world grain prices that integrates grain stocks into the supply and demand functions. This firstly allows us to model explicitly the effect of storage strategies on world market price, and thus, for the first time, to quantify the potential contribution of trade policies to price variability in a simple global framework. Driven only by reported production and by long--term demand trends of the past ca. 40 years, the model reproduces observed variations in both the global storage volume and price of wheat. We demonstrate how recent price peaks can be reproduced by accounting for documented changes in storage strategies and trade policies, contrasting and complementing previous explanations based on different mechanisms such as speculation. Secondly, we show how the integration of storage allows long-term projections of grain price variability under climate change, based on existing crop yield scenarios.

Implications of Peak Oil for Industrialized Societies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McPherson, Guy R.; Weltzin, Jake F.

2008-01-01

The world passed the halfway point of oil supply in 2005. World demand for oil likely will severely outstrip supply in 2008, leading to increasingly higher oil prices. Consequences are likely to include increasing gasoline prices, rapidly increasing inflation, and subsequently a series of increasingly severe recessions followed by a worldwide…

"Price-quakes" shaking the world's stock exchanges.

PubMed

Andersen, Jørgen Vitting; Nowak, Andrzej; Rotundo, Giulia; Parrott, Lael; Martinez, Sebastian

2011-01-01

Systemic risk has received much more awareness after the excessive risk taking by major financial instituations pushed the world's financial system into what many considered a state of near systemic failure in 2008. The IMF for example in its yearly 2009 Global Financial Stability Report acknowledged the lack of proper tools and research on the topic. Understanding how disruptions can propagate across financial markets is therefore of utmost importance. Here, we use empirical data to show that the world's markets have a non-linear threshold response to events, consistent with the hypothesis that traders exhibit change blindness. Change blindness is the tendency of humans to ignore small changes and to react disproportionately to large events. As we show, this may be responsible for generating cascading events--pricequakes--in the world's markets. We propose a network model of the world's stock exchanges that predicts how an individual stock exchange should be priced in terms of the performance of the global market of exchanges, but with change blindness included in the pricing. The model has a direct correspondence to models of earth tectonic plate movements developed in physics to describe the slip-stick movement of blocks linked via spring forces. We have shown how the price dynamics of the world's stock exchanges follows a dynamics of build-up and release of stress, similar to earthquakes. The nonlinear response allows us to classify price movements of a given stock index as either being generated internally, due to specific economic news for the country in question, or externally, by the ensemble of the world's stock exchanges reacting together like a complex system. The model may provide new insight into the origins and thereby also prevent systemic risks in the global financial network.

“Price-Quakes” Shaking the World's Stock Exchanges

PubMed Central

Andersen, Jørgen Vitting; Nowak, Andrzej; Rotundo, Giulia; Parrott, Lael; Martinez, Sebastian

2011-01-01

Background Systemic risk has received much more awareness after the excessive risk taking by major financial instituations pushed the world's financial system into what many considered a state of near systemic failure in 2008. The IMF for example in its yearly 2009 Global Financial Stability Report acknowledged the lack of proper tools and research on the topic. Understanding how disruptions can propagate across financial markets is therefore of utmost importance. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, we use empirical data to show that the world's markets have a non-linear threshold response to events, consistent with the hypothesis that traders exhibit change blindness. Change blindness is the tendency of humans to ignore small changes and to react disproportionately to large events. As we show, this may be responsible for generating cascading events—pricequakes—in the world's markets. We propose a network model of the world's stock exchanges that predicts how an individual stock exchange should be priced in terms of the performance of the global market of exchanges, but with change blindness included in the pricing. The model has a direct correspondence to models of earth tectonic plate movements developed in physics to describe the slip-stick movement of blocks linked via spring forces. Conclusions/Significance We have shown how the price dynamics of the world's stock exchanges follows a dynamics of build-up and release of stress, similar to earthquakes. The nonlinear response allows us to classify price movements of a given stock index as either being generated internally, due to specific economic news for the country in question, or externally, by the ensemble of the world's stock exchanges reacting together like a complex system. The model may provide new insight into the origins and thereby also prevent systemic risks in the global financial network. PMID:22073168

The impact of food price increases on caloric intake in China

PubMed Central

Jensen, Robert T.; Miller, Nolan H.

2011-01-01

World food prices have increased dramatically in recent years. We use panel data from 2006 to examine the impact of these increases on the consumption and nutrition of poor households in two Chinese provinces. We find that households in Hunan suffered no nutrition declines. Households in Gansu experienced a small decline in calories, though the decline is on par with usual seasonal effects. The overall nutritional impact of the world price increase was small because households were able to substitute to cheaper foods and because the domestic prices of staple foods remained low due to government intervention in grain markets. PMID:21625411

World Oil Prices and Production Trends in AEO2010 (released in AEO2010)

EIA Publications

2010-01-01

In Annual Energy Outlook 2010, the price of light, low-sulfur (or "sweet") crude oil delivered at Cushing, Oklahoma, is tracked to represent movements in world oil prices. The Energy Information Administration makes projections of future supply and demand for "total liquids,"" which includes conventional petroleum liquids -- such as conventional crude oil, natural gas plant liquids, and refinery gain -- in addition to unconventional liquids, which include biofuels, bitumen, coal-to-liquids (CTL), gas-to-liquids (GTL), extra-heavy oils, and shale oil.

Mineral production and mining trends for selected non-fuel commodities in Idaho and Montana, 1905-2001

USGS Publications Warehouse

Larsen, Jeremy C.; Long, Keith R.; Assmus, Kenneth C.; Zientek, Michael L.

2004-01-01

Idaho and Montana state mining statistics were obtained from historical mineral production records and compiled into a continuous record from 1905 through 2001. To facilitate comparisons, the mineral production data were normalized by converting the units of measure to metric tons for all included commodities. These standardized statistical data include production rates for principal non-fuel mineral commodities from both Idaho and Montana, as well as the production rates of similar commodities for the U.S. and the world for contrast. Data are presented here in both tabular and bar chart format. Moreover, the tables of standardized mineral production data are also provided in digital format as, commodity_production.xls. Some significant historical events pertaining to the mining industry are described as well. When taken into account with the historical production data, this combined information may to help explain both specific fluctuations and general tendencies in the overall trends in the rates of mineral resource production over time.

Social accounting matrix and the effects of economic reform on health price index and household expenditures: Evidence from Iran.

PubMed

Keshavarz, Khosro; Najafi, Behzad; Andayesh, Yaghob; Rezapour, Aziz; Abolhallaj, Masoud; Sarabi Asiabar, Ali; Hashemi Meshkini, Amir; Sanati, Ehsan; Mirian, Iman; Nikfar, Shekoofeh; Lotfi, Farhad

2017-01-01

Background: Socioeconomic indicators are the main factors that affect health outcome. Health price index (HPI) and households living costs (HLC) are affected by economic reform. This study aimed at examining the effect of subsidy targeting plan (STP) on HPI and HLC. Methods: The social accounting matrix was used to study the direct and indirect effects of STP. We chose 11 health related goods and services including insurance, compulsory social security services, hospital services, medical and dental services, other human health services, veterinary services, social services, environmental health services, laundry& cleaning and dyeing services, cosmetic and physical health services, and pharmaceutical products in the social accounting matrix to examine the health price index. Data were analyzed by the I-O&SAM software. Results: Due to the subsidy release on energy, water, and bread prices, we found that (i) health related goods and services groups' price index rose between 33.43% and 77.3%, (ii) the living cost index of urban households increased between 48.75% and 58.21%, and (iii) the living cost index of rural households grew between 53.51% and 68.23%. The results demonstrated that the elimination of subsidy would have negative effects on health subdivision and households' costs such that subsidy elimination increased the health prices index and the household living costs, especially among low-income families. The STP had considerable effects on health subdivision price index. Conclusion: The elimination or reduction of energy carriers and basic commodities subsidies have changed health price and households living cost index. Therefore, the policymakers should consider controlling the price of health sectors, price fluctuations and shocks.

Guns and Butter: Security and the New Global Agenda

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-01-01

relationship. Admittedly, the entire Third World was unified and inspired by OPEC’s success in rearranging the terms of trade for a Third World export . Still... exports at high levels, debt rescheduling or moratorium, greater access to Western technology and Western markets, indexation to maintain parity between...the prices they get for their exports and the prices they pay for imports from the First World, greater flows of development aid, or changes in

Comments on "International Development Perspectives for the 90s".

PubMed

Klein, L R

1991-01-01

Comments on the UN paper on the Development Decade of the 1980s and the next decade of the 1990s by Gamani Corea are presented. Corea's statements about the future are considered fair, but negative and lacking in quantitative input. As an econometrician and a quantitative economist, the author feels that the shortterm and mediumterm economic prospects are that 1988 was a good year, 1989 all right, and 1990 was recessionary for some countries. Recovery is anticipated by 1992. The Gulf crisis of 1990-91 caused fluctuations in energy prices and uncertainty or fear in people, which is hoped to be transitory and without major impact on economic matters. Positive expansion in the world economy after 1992 is anticipated, in spite of the recessions in the UK and some Nordic countries. Western Europe slowed, but the advent of the Single Market is favorable to an upswing. The Asia/Pacific arena is strong, and achievements in South Korea are considerable. Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and Chile are promising. Other economic problems in Latin America are only temporary. South Asia has done well. The Middle East and North Africa may have more lasting consequences of the Gulf war. Sub-Saharan Africa is in trouble with the race between population growth and food supplies, and negative or near zero growth rates/capita. Developing countries are experiencing severe recessionary adjustment periods in world economic malaise. With the collapse of socialism, there is no viable "Second World," and there are industrialized and developing countries. Eastern Europe and the USSR have a skilled population with the potential for producing world class goods and services. Primary commodity markets are expected to rise again which will strengthen export earnings in the developing world. Macroeconomic visions of hope are based on contingencies: financial fragility, issues related to the Gulf crisis, poor financial conditions in the US and to a certain extent in Japan and other financial centers. Trade negotiations in the Uruguay Round are in difficulty, which restricts free trade, and dilutes strong and vigorous activity which helps development. The economic restructuring of Europe is moving more slowly, but the Arms race is still extant in Third World countries such as Iraq. Price stabilization efforts may be futile attempts when underlying behavior patterns of production and consumption take over. Europe is the primary growth area. The Peace Dividend has been reduced because of Iraq's postures. South/South trade may be an option for developing countries. There is potential for expansion in e.g., and electronics, medical care, telecommunications, bioengineering, metallurgy, software construction. Technology and economics and international cooperation and coordination are hopeful prospects for the future.

Feeding a hungry world: the challenge of developing safe and effective methods of food preservation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Preventing the loss of harvested commodities due to either postharvest diseases or physiological breakdown (uncontrolled ripening) offers a significant approach to providing the increased yields of food that will be needed to feed the world population in the 21st century (Wilson 2013). Activities ...

Mapping large-area landscape suitability for honey bees to assess the influence of land-use change on sustainability of national pollination services.

PubMed

Gallant, Alisa L; Euliss, Ned H; Browning, Zac

2014-01-01

Pollination is a critical ecosystem service affected by various drivers of land-use change, such as policies and programs aimed at land resources, market values for crop commodities, local land-management decisions, and shifts in climate. The United States is the world's most active market for pollination services by honey bees, and the Northern Great Plains provide the majority of bee colonies used to meet the Nation's annual pollination needs. Legislation requiring increased production of biofuel crops, increasing commodity prices for crops of little nutritional value for bees in the Northern Great Plains, and reductions in government programs aimed at promoting land conservation are converging to alter the regional landscape in ways that challenge beekeepers to provide adequate numbers of hives for national pollination services. We developed a spatially explicit model that identifies sites with the potential to support large apiaries based on local-scale land-cover requirements for honey bees. We produced maps of potential apiary locations for North Dakota, a leading producer of honey, based on land-cover maps representing (1) an annual time series compiled from existing operational products and (2) a realistic scenario of land change. We found that existing land-cover products lack sufficient local accuracy to monitor actual changes in landscape suitability for honey bees, but our model proved informative for evaluating effects on suitability under scenarios of land change. The scenario we implemented was aligned with current drivers of land-use change in the Northern Great Plains and highlighted the importance of conservation lands in landscapes intensively and extensively managed for crops.

Mapping large-area landscape suitability for honey bees to assess the influence of land-use change on sustainability of national pollination services

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gallant, Alisa L.; Euliss, Ned H.; Browning, Zac

2014-01-01

Pollination is a critical ecosystem service affected by various drivers of land-use change, such as policies and programs aimed at land resources, market values for crop commodities, local land-management decisions, and shifts in climate. The United States is the world's most active market for pollination services by honey bees, and the Northern Great Plains provide the majority of bee colonies used to meet the Nation's annual pollination needs. Legislation requiring increased production of biofuel crops, increasing commodity prices for crops of little nutritional value for bees in the Northern Great Plains, and reductions in government programs aimed at promoting land conservation are converging to alter the regional landscape in ways that challenge beekeepers to provide adequate numbers of hives for national pollination services. We developed a spatially explicit model that identifies sites with the potential to support large apiaries based on local-scale land-cover requirements for honey bees. We produced maps of potential apiary locations for North Dakota, a leading producer of honey, based on land-cover maps representing (1) an annual time series compiled from existing operational products and (2) a realistic scenario of land change. We found that existing land-cover products lack sufficient local accuracy to monitor actual changes in landscape suitability for honey bees, but our model proved informative for evaluating effects on suitability under scenarios of land change. The scenario we implemented was aligned with current drivers of land-use change in the Northern Great Plains and highlighted the importance of conservation lands in landscapes intensively and extensively managed for crops.

Mapping Large-Area Landscape Suitability for Honey Bees to Assess the Influence of Land-Use Change on Sustainability of National Pollination Services

PubMed Central

Gallant, Alisa L.; Euliss, Ned H.; Browning, Zac

2014-01-01

Pollination is a critical ecosystem service affected by various drivers of land-use change, such as policies and programs aimed at land resources, market values for crop commodities, local land-management decisions, and shifts in climate. The United States is the world's most active market for pollination services by honey bees, and the Northern Great Plains provide the majority of bee colonies used to meet the Nation's annual pollination needs. Legislation requiring increased production of biofuel crops, increasing commodity prices for crops of little nutritional value for bees in the Northern Great Plains, and reductions in government programs aimed at promoting land conservation are converging to alter the regional landscape in ways that challenge beekeepers to provide adequate numbers of hives for national pollination services. We developed a spatially explicit model that identifies sites with the potential to support large apiaries based on local-scale land-cover requirements for honey bees. We produced maps of potential apiary locations for North Dakota, a leading producer of honey, based on land-cover maps representing (1) an annual time series compiled from existing operational products and (2) a realistic scenario of land change. We found that existing land-cover products lack sufficient local accuracy to monitor actual changes in landscape suitability for honey bees, but our model proved informative for evaluating effects on suitability under scenarios of land change. The scenario we implemented was aligned with current drivers of land-use change in the Northern Great Plains and highlighted the importance of conservation lands in landscapes intensively and extensively managed for crops. PMID:24919181

The Price of Sex: Condom Use and the Determinants of the Price of Sex Among Female Sex Workers in Eastern Zimbabwe

PubMed Central

Elmes, Jocelyn; Nhongo, Kundai; Ward, Helen; Hallett, Timothy; Nyamukapa, Constance; White, Peter J.; Gregson, Simon

2014-01-01

Background. Higher prices for unprotected sex threaten the high levels of condom use that contributed to the decline in Zimbabwe's human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic. To improve understanding of financial pressures competing against safer sex, we explore factors associated with the price of commercial sex in rural eastern Zimbabwe. Methods. We collected and analyzed cross-sectional data on 311 women, recruited during October–December 2010, who reported that they received payment for their most-recent or second-most-recent sex acts in the past year. Zero-inflated negative binomial models with robust standard errors clustered on female sex worker (FSW) were used to explore social and behavioral determinants of price. Results. The median price of sex was $10 (interquartile range [IQR], $5–$20) per night and $10 (IQR, $5–$15) per act. Amounts paid in cash and commodities did not differ significantly. At the most-recent sex act, more-educated FSWs received 30%–74% higher payments. Client requests for condom use significantly predicted protected sex (P < .01), but clients paid on average 42.9% more for unprotected sex. Conclusions. Within a work environment where clients' preferences determine condom use, FSWs effectively use their individual capital to negotiate the terms of condom use. Strengthening FSWs' preferences for protected sex could help maintain high levels of condom use. PMID:25381377

Food prices, household income, and resource allocation: socioeconomic perspectives on their effects on dietary quality and nutritional status.

PubMed

Bouis, Howarth E; Eozenou, Patrick; Rahman, Aminur

2011-03-01

The recent rise in agricultural commodity prices has been dramatic, and food prices are likely to follow an upward trend, at least in the medium-term. Moreover, the recent financial crisis has also lowered incomes and increased food prices. Not only does this reduce dietary quality, but expenditures for health, sanitation, and education will decline, all of which will have a detrimental effect on health and nutrition outcomes. To provide some perspectives on the role of major socioeconomic factors in driving health and nutrition outcomes. We use demand elasticity parameters estimated from household-level survey data to simulate an increase in food prices, which is then mapped into energy and nutrient intakes. Furthermore, we also use household-level data to analyze the implications of unequal intrahousehold distribution of food for the nutritional status of adult women and female children. A 50% increase in food prices results in a decrease in energy intake of 5% to 15% and in a decrease in iron intake of 10% to 30%, depending on the strength of the induced income effect. In a country like the Philippines, this would be equivalent to an increase of 25 percentage points in the proportion of women not meeting their requirements for iron intake. Increasing food prices will make fighting micronutrient malnutrition in developing countries more difficult. In societies where preference is given to males in the intrahousehold distribution of nonstaple foods, this objective will be even more challenging.

Welfare Impact of Virtual Trading on Wholesale Electricity Markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giraldo, Juan S.

Virtual bidding has become a standard feature of multi-settlement wholesale electricity markets in the United States. Virtual bids are financial instruments that allow market participants to take financial positions in the Day-Ahead (DA) market that are automatically reversed/closed in the Real-Time (RT) market. Most U.S. wholesale electricity markets only have two types of virtual bids: a decrement bid (DEC), which is virtual load, and an increment offer (INC), which is virtual generation. In theory, financial participants create benefits by seeking out profitable bidding opportunities through arbitrage or speculation. Benefits have been argued to take the form of increased competition, price convergence, increased market liquidity, and a more efficient dispatch of generation resources. Studies have found that price convergence between the DA and RT markets improved following the introduction of virtual bidding into wholesale electricity markets. The improvement in price convergence was taken as evidence that market efficiency had increased and many of the theoretical benefits realized. Persistent price differences between the DA and RT markets have led to calls to further expand virtual bidding as a means to address remaining market inefficiencies. However, the argument that price convergence is beneficial is extrapolated from the study of commodity and financial markets and the role of futures for increasing market efficiency in that context. This viewpoint largely ignores details that differentiate wholesale electricity markets from other commodity markets. This dissertation advances the understanding of virtual bidding by evaluating the impact of virtual bidding based on the standard definition of economic efficiency which is social welfare. In addition, an examination of the impacts of another type of virtual bid, up-to-congestion (UTC) transactions is presented. This virtual product significantly increased virtual bidding activity in the PJM interconnection market since it became available to be used by financial traders in September 2010. Stylized models are used to determine the optimal bidding strategy for the different virtual bids under different scenarios. The welfare analysis shows that the main impact of virtual bidding is surplus reallocation and that the impact on market efficiency is small by comparison. The market structure is such that it is more likely to see surplus transfers from consumers to producers. The results also show that outcomes with greater price convergence as a result of virtual bidding activity were not necessarily more efficient, nor do they always correct surplus distribution distortions that result from bias in the DA expectation of RT load. Compared to INCs and DECs, the UTC analysis showed that UTCs do not have the same self-corrective incentives towards price convergence and are less likely to lead to nodal price convergence or correct for surplus distribution distortions caused by uncertainty and bias in the DA expectation of RT load. Additionally, the analysis showed that UTCs allow financial traders to engage in low risk high volume trading strategies that, while profitable, may have little to no impact on price convergence or market efficiency.

Modeling commodity salam contract between two parties for discrete and continuous time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hisham, Azie Farhani Badrol; Jaffar, Maheran Mohd

2017-08-01

In order for Islamic finance to remain competitive as the conventional, there needs a new development of Islamic compliance product such as Islamic derivative that can be used to manage the risk. However, under syariah principles and regulations, all financial instruments must not be conflicting with five syariah elements which are riba (interest paid), rishwah (corruption), gharar (uncertainty or unnecessary risk), maysir (speculation or gambling) and jahl (taking advantage of the counterparty's ignorance). This study has proposed a traditional Islamic contract namely salam that can be built as an Islamic derivative product. Although a lot of studies has been done on discussing and proposing the implementation of salam contract as the Islamic product however they are more into qualitative and law issues. Since there is lack of quantitative study of salam contract being developed, this study introduces mathematical models that can value the appropriate salam price for a commodity salam contract between two parties. In modeling the commodity salam contract, this study has modified the existing conventional derivative model and come out with some adjustments to comply with syariah rules and regulations. The cost of carry model has been chosen as the foundation to develop the commodity salam model between two parties for discrete and continuous time series. However, the conventional time value of money results from the concept of interest that is prohibited in Islam. Therefore, this study has adopted the idea of Islamic time value of money which is known as the positive time preference, in modeling the commodity salam contract between two parties for discrete and continuous time series.

Negative impact on calorie intake associated with the 2006-08 food price crisis in Latin America.

PubMed

Iannotti, Lora; Robles, Miguel

2011-06-01

From 2006 to 2008, there were sharp increases in the prices of major food commodities globally, including maize, rice, and wheat. Few studies have contributed empirical evidence of the nutritional impacts of this food price crisis. To assess changes in energy intake in response to food price shocks and in relation to calorie adequacy levels in seven Latin American countries. Data were drawn from nationally representative household budget surveys. The quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) model characterized change patterns in consumption for six food groups and one nonfood group under two scenarios: actual change in food prices by country, and standardized 10% increase in prices across all countries. Energy intakes before and after the crisis were determined once calories were assigned to food items from the ProPAN and US Department of Agriculture food composition databases. Energy intakes were reduced by 8.0% (range, 0.95% to 15.1%) from precrisis levels across all countries. Ecuador and Panama were the worst affected, followed by Haiti and Nicaragua. There was a consistent, direct relationship between wealth quintile and change in energy intake. Rural areas were affected to the same extent as or a greater extent than urban areas. High positive increases in calorie consumption were found in the richest wealth quintile, exceeding 10% of previous levels in five countries. Policies and programs targeting the poorest households in both rural and urban areas may be needed to offset the energy deficits associated with food price increases. More research is needed on the effect of food prices and micronutrient nutrition.

Multiplexity and multireciprocity in directed multiplexes.

PubMed

Gemmetto, Valerio; Squartini, Tiziano; Picciolo, Francesco; Ruzzenenti, Franco; Garlaschelli, Diego

2016-10-01

Real-world multilayer networks feature nontrivial dependencies among links of different layers. Here we argue that if links are directed, then dependencies are twofold. Besides the ordinary tendency of links of different layers to align as the result of "multiplexity," there is also a tendency to antialign as a result of what we call "multireciprocity," i.e., the fact that links in one layer can be reciprocated by opposite links in a different layer. Multireciprocity generalizes the scalar definition of single-layer reciprocity to that of a square matrix involving all pairs of layers. We introduce multiplexity and multireciprocity matrices for both binary and weighted multiplexes and validate their statistical significance against maximum-entropy null models that filter out the effects of node heterogeneity. We then perform a detailed empirical analysis of the world trade multiplex (WTM), representing the import-export relationships between world countries in different commodities. We show that the WTM exhibits strong multiplexity and multireciprocity, an effect which is, however, largely encoded into the degree or strength sequences of individual layers. The residual effects are still significant and allow us to classify pairs of commodities according to their tendency to be traded together in the same direction and/or in opposite ones. We also find that the multireciprocity of the WTM is significantly lower than the usual reciprocity measured on the aggregate network. Moreover, layers with low (high) internal reciprocity are embedded within sets of layers with comparably low (high) mutual multireciprocity. This suggests that, in the WTM, reciprocity is inherent to groups of related commodities rather than to individual commodities. We discuss the implications for international trade research focusing on product taxonomies, the product space, and fitness and complexity metrics.

Behavioral economic substitutability of e-cigarettes, tobacco cigarettes, and nicotine gum.

PubMed

Johnson, Matthew W; Johnson, Patrick S; Rass, Olga; Pacek, Lauren R

2017-07-01

The public health impact of e-cigarettes may depend on their substitutability for tobacco cigarettes. Dual users of e-cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes completed purchasing tasks in which they specified daily use levels under hypothetical conditions that varied the availability and price of e-cigarettes, tobacco cigarettes, and nicotine gum (for those with nicotine gum experience). When either e-cigarettes or tobacco cigarettes were the only available commodity, as price per puff increased, purchasing decreased, revealing similar reinforcement profiles. When available concurrently, as the price of tobacco puffs increased, purchasing of tobacco puffs decreased while purchasing of fixed-price e-cigarette puffs increased. Among those with nicotine gum experience, when the price of tobacco puffs was closest to the actual market value of tobacco puffs, e-cigarette availability decreased median tobacco puff purchases by 44% compared to when tobacco was available alone. In contrast, nicotine gum availability caused no decrease in tobacco puff purchases. E-cigarettes may serve as a behavioral economic substitute for tobacco cigarettes, and may be a superior substitute compared to nicotine gum in their ability to decrease tobacco use. Although important questions remain regarding the health impacts of e-cigarettes, these data are consistent with the possibility that e-cigarettes may serve as smoking cessation/reduction aids.

Estimation of Bid Curves in Power Exchanges using Time-varying Simultaneous-Equations Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ofuji, Kenta; Yamaguchi, Nobuyuki

Simultaneous-equations model (SEM) is generally used in economics to estimate interdependent endogenous variables such as price and quantity in a competitive, equilibrium market. In this paper, we have attempted to apply SEM to JEPX (Japan Electric Power eXchange) spot market, a single-price auction market, using the publicly available data of selling and buying bid volumes, system price and traded quantity. The aim of this analysis is to understand the magnitude of influences to the auctioned prices and quantity from the selling and buying bids, than to forecast prices and quantity for risk management purposes. In comparison with the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation where the estimation results represent average values that are independent of time, we employ a time-varying simultaneous-equations model (TV-SEM) to capture structural changes inherent in those influences, using State Space models with Kalman filter stepwise estimation. The results showed that the buying bid volumes has that highest magnitude of influences among the factors considered, exhibiting time-dependent changes, ranging as broad as about 240% of its average. The slope of the supply curve also varies across time, implying the elastic property of the supply commodity, while the demand curve remains comparatively inelastic and stable over time.

Manufacturing process design for multi commodities in agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prasetyawan, Yudha; Santosa, Andrian Henry

2017-06-01

High-potential commodities within particular agricultural sectors should be accompanied by maximum benefit value that can be attained by both local farmers and business players. In several cases, the business players are small-medium enterprises (SMEs) which have limited resources to perform added value process of the local commodities into the potential products. The weaknesses of SMEs such as the manual production process with low productivity, limited capacity to maintain prices, and unattractive packaging due to conventional production. Agricultural commodity is commonly created into several products such as flour, chips, crackers, oil, juice, and other products. This research was initiated by collecting data by interview method particularly to obtain the perspectives of SMEs as the business players. Subsequently, the information was processed based on the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to determine House of Quality from the first to fourth level. A proposed design as the result of QFD was produced and evaluated with Technology Assessment Model (TAM) and continued with a revised design. Finally, the revised design was analyzed with financial perspective to obtain the cost structure of investment, operational, maintenance, and workers. The machine that performs manufacturing process, as the result of revised design, was prototyped and tested to determined initial production process. The designed manufacturing process offers IDR 337,897, 651 of Net Present Value (NPV) in comparison with the existing process value of IDR 9,491,522 based on similar production input.

A review on aflatoxin contamination and its implications in the developing world: a sub-Saharan African perspective.

PubMed

Gnonlonfin, G J B; Hell, K; Adjovi, Y; Fandohan, P; Koudande, D O; Mensah, G A; Sanni, A; Brimer, L

2013-01-01

Mycotoxins contamination in some agricultural food commodities seriously impact human and animal health and reduce the commercial value of crops. Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi that contaminate agricultural commodities pre- or postharvest. Africa is one of the continents where environmental, agricultural and storage conditions of food commodities are conducive of Aspergillus fungi infection and aflatoxin biosynthesis. This paper reviews the commodity-wise aetiology and contamination process of aflatoxins and evaluates the potential risk of exposure from common African foods. Possible ways of reducing risk for fungal infection and aflatoxin development that are relevant to the African context. The presented database would be useful as benchmark information for development and prioritization of future research. There is need for more investigations on food quality and safety by making available advanced advanced equipments and analytical methods as well as surveillance and awareness creation in the region.

Financial states of world financial and commodities markets around sovereign debt crisis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nobi, Ashadun; Lee, Jae Woo

2017-11-01

We applied a threshold method to construct a complex network from cross-correlations coefficients of 46 daily time series comprised of 23 global indices and 23 commodity futures from 2010 - 2014. We identify financial states of both global indices and commodity futures based on the change of the network structure. The trend of the average correlation is decreasing except sharp peak during crises during the study period. The threshold networks are generated at a threshold value of θ = 0.1 and the change of degrees of each node over time is used to identify the financial state for each index. We observe that commodity futures, such as EU CO2 emission, live cattle, natural gas as well as the financial indices of Jakarta and Indonesia stock exchange (JKSE) and Kuala Lumpur stock exchange (KLSE) change states frequently. By the average change in links we identify the indices which are more reactive to crises.

Legal and policy foundations for global generic competition: Promoting affordable drug pricing in developing societies.

PubMed

Zapatero Miguel, Pablo

2015-01-01

The so-called 'TRIPS flexibilities' restated in 2001 by the World Trade Organization's Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health offer a variety of policy avenues for promoting global price-based competition for essential medicines, and thus for improving access to affordable medicines in the developing world. In recent years, developing countries and international organisations alike have begun to explore the potentialities of global generic markets and competition generally, and also of using compulsory licensing to remedy anti-competitive practices (e.g. excessive pricing) through TRIPS-compatible antitrust enforcement. These and other 'pro-competitive' TRIPS flexibilities currently available provide the critical leverage and policy space necessary to improve access to affordable medicines in the developing world.

Interdependence between crude oil and world food prices: A detrended cross correlation analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pal, Debdatta; Mitra, Subrata K.

2018-02-01

This article explores the changing interdependence between crude oil and world food prices at varying time scales using detrended cross correlation analysis that would answer whether the interdependence (if any) differed significantly between pre and post-crisis period. Unlike the previous studies that exogenously imposed break dates for dividing the time series into sub-samples, we tested whether the mean of the crude oil price changed over time to find evidence for structural changes in the crude oil price series and endogenously determine three break dates with minimum Bayesian information criterion scores. Accordingly, we divided the entire study period in four sample periods - January 1990 to October 1999, November 1999 to February 2005, March 2005 to September 2010, and October 2010 to July 2016, where the third sample period coincided with the period of food crisis and enabled us to compare the fuel-food interdependence across pre-crisis, during the crisis, and post-crisis periods. The results of the detrended cross correlation analysis extended corroborative evidence for increasing positive interdependence between the crude oil price and world food price index along with its sub-categories, namely dairy, cereals, vegetable oil, and sugar. The article ends with the implications of these results in the domain of food policy and the financial sector.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Erfle, Stephen; Pound, John; Kalt, Joseph

An analysis of the response of American markets to supply crises in world oil markets is presented. It addresses four main issues: the efficiency of the operation of American oil markets during oil supply crises; the problems of both economic efficiency and social equity which arise during the American adaptation process; the propriety of the Federal government's past policy responses to these problems; and the relationship between perceptions of the problems caused by world oil crises and the real economic natures of these problems. Specifically, Chapter 1 presents a theoretical discussion of the effects of a world supply disruption onmore » the price level and supply availability of the world market oil to any consuming country including the US Chapter 2 provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the efficiency of the adaptations of US oil product markets to higher world oil prices. Chapter 3 examines the responses of various groups of US oil firms to the alterations observed in world markets, while Chapter 4 presents a theoretical explanation for the price-lagging behavior exhibited by firms in the US oil industry. Chapter 5 addresses the nature of both real and imagined oil market problems in the US during periods of world oil market transition. (MCW)« less

World oilseed situation and U. S. export opportunities, December 1983. Foreign agriculture circular

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1983-12-01

A slight increase in world oilseed production above last month's forecast, to 163.0 million tons, still leaves 1983/84 production over 9 percent below last year. Forecast utilization of oilseeds and products remain essentially unchanged from last month. Despite the relatively unchanged world oilseed and product balance, prices have weakened in recent weeks, raising expectations that additional price strength will be needed to bring about the required rationing of reduced world supplies. The other major element of uncertainty is Southern Hemisphere oilseed production, especially the Brazilian and Argentine 1984 soybean crops.

Agent Based Model of Livestock Movements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miron, D. J.; Emelyanova, I. V.; Donald, G. E.; Garner, G. M.

The modelling of livestock movements within Australia is of national importance for the purposes of the management and control of exotic disease spread, infrastructure development and the economic forecasting of livestock markets. In this paper an agent based model for the forecasting of livestock movements is presented. This models livestock movements from farm to farm through a saleyard. The decision of farmers to sell or buy cattle is often complex and involves many factors such as climate forecast, commodity prices, the type of farm enterprise, the number of animals available and associated off-shore effects. In this model the farm agent's intelligence is implemented using a fuzzy decision tree that utilises two of these factors. These two factors are the livestock price fetched at the last sale and the number of stock on the farm. On each iteration of the model farms choose either to buy, sell or abstain from the market thus creating an artificial supply and demand. The buyers and sellers then congregate at the saleyard where livestock are auctioned using a second price sealed bid. The price time series output by the model exhibits properties similar to those found in real livestock markets.

An Analysis of the Efficiency of Sourcing Knowledge-Based Services in the United States Air Force

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-30

those cost drivers that are unnecessary in order to cut costs. In 1996 , Coopers and Lybrand identified over 120 mandated cost drivers that contributed...to an 18% price premium for federally procured commodities and services (GAO, 1996 ). The top 10 cost drivers listed in this study (GAO, 1996 ) were... Peterson , 2011). The assessment collected data from 119 organizations over 25 industries to establish the baseline for current and future research

An Analysis of the Efficiency of Sourcing Knowledge-based Services in the United States Air Force

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-01

costs. In 1996 , Coopers and Lybrand identified over 120 mandated cost drivers that contributed to an 18% price premium for federally procured...commodities and services (GAO, 1996 ). The top 10 cost drivers listed in this study (GAO, 1996 ) were  DoD quality program requirements,  the Truth in...assessment conducted by CAPS Research indicated 22 tenets of strategic sourcing (Monczka & Peterson , 2011). The assessment collected data 42 from 119

Prices and mark-ups on antimalarials: evidence from nationally representative studies in six malaria-endemic countries.

PubMed

Palafox, Benjamin; Patouillard, Edith; Tougher, Sarah; Goodman, Catherine; Hanson, Kara; Kleinschmidt, Immo; Torres Rueda, Sergio; Kiefer, Sabine; O'Connell, Kate; Zinsou, Cyprien; Phok, Sochea; Akulayi, Louis; Arogundade, Ekundayo; Buyungo, Peter; Mpasela, Felton; Poyer, Stephen; Chavasse, Desmond

2016-03-01

The private for-profit sector is an important source of treatment for malaria. However, private patients face high prices for the recommended treatment for uncomplicated malaria, artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), which makes them more likely to receive cheaper, less effective non-artemisinin therapies (nATs). This study seeks to better understand consumer antimalarial prices by documenting and exploring the pricing behaviour of retailers and wholesalers. Using data collected in 2009-10, we present survey estimates of antimalarial retail prices, and wholesale- and retail-level price mark-ups from six countries (Benin, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia), along with qualitative findings on factors affecting pricing decisions. Retail prices were lowest for nATs, followed by ACTs and artemisinin monotherapies (AMTs). Retailers applied the highest percentage mark-ups on nATs (range: 40% in Nigeria to 100% in Cambodia and Zambia), whereas mark-ups on ACTs (range: 22% in Nigeria to 71% in Zambia) and AMTs (range: 22% in Nigeria to 50% in Uganda) were similar in magnitude, but lower than those applied to nATs. Wholesale mark-ups were generally lower than those at retail level, and were similar across antimalarial categories in most countries. When setting prices wholesalers and retailers commonly considered supplier prices, prevailing market prices, product availability, product characteristics and the costs related to transporting goods, staff salaries and maintaining a property. Price discounts were regularly used to encourage sales and were sometimes used by wholesalers to reward long-term customers. Pricing constraints existed only in Benin where wholesaler and retailer mark-ups are regulated; however, unlicensed drug vendors based in open-air markets did not adhere to the pricing regime. These findings indicate that mark-ups on antimalarials are reasonable. Therefore, improving ACT affordability would be most readily achieved by interventions that reduce commodity prices for retailers, such as ACT subsidies, pooled purchasing mechanisms and cost-effective strategies to increase the distribution coverage area of wholesalers. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The drivers of tropical deforestation: a comprehensive review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanford, T. J.; Boucher, D.; Elias, P.; Lininger, K.; May-Tobin, C.; Roquemore, S.; Saxon, E.; Martin, J.; Mulik, K.

2011-12-01

Tropical forests are disappearing around the world. This clearing causes around 15% of global carbon emissions, leads to the rapid loss of biodiversity, and destroys the livelihoods of many indigenous peoples. We comprehensively reviewed the literature on drivers of tropical deforestation and found a number of trends. While deforestation was predominately driven by small farmers and government action in the 1970s and 1980s, since the 1990s most deforestation has been driven by large scale commercial agriculture. In Latin America, and Brazil in particular, forest clearing has mostly been due to expansion of cattle pastures and for a period in the late 1990s and early 2000s soy bean expansion. In Southeast Asia, deforestation has mainly been due to expansion of oil palm plantations and timber harvesting. In Africa small farmers and wood fuel collection still play a role, although deforestation rates are considerably lower there than in other regions. Additionally, increased urbanization and trends toward a diet based on meat, particularly beef, have help drive deforestation. Biofuels policies around the world are also adding demand, both directly for vegetable oil, and by expanding demand for competing crops such as corn. We examine the extent to which biofuels demand directly and indirectly acts as a driver of deforestation, and the policies that can mitigate this problem by analyzing alternative scenarios of biofuel expansion and their impact on land use change, commodity prices and green house gas emissions.

Trade and investment liberalization and Asia's noncommunicable disease epidemic: a synthesis of data and existing literature.

PubMed

Baker, Phillip; Kay, Adrian; Walls, Helen

2014-09-12

Trade and investment liberalization (trade liberalization) can promote or harm health. Undoubtedly it has contributed, although unevenly, to Asia's social and economic development over recent decades with resultant gains in life expectancy and living standards. In the absence of public health protections, however, it is also a significant upstream driver of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes through facilitating increased consumption of the 'risk commodities' tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods, and by constraining access to NCD medicines. In this paper we describe the NCD burden in Asian countries, trends in risk commodity consumption and the processes by which trade liberalization has occurred in the region and contributed to these trends. We further establish pressing questions for future research on strengthening regulatory capacity to address trade liberalization impacts on risk commodity consumption and health. A semi-structured search of scholarly databases, institutional websites and internet sources for academic and grey literature. Data for descriptive statistics were sourced from Euromonitor International, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the World Trade Organization. Consumption of tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods was prevalent in the region and increasing in many countries. We find that trade liberalization can facilitate increased trade in goods, services and investments in ways that can promote risk commodity consumption, as well as constrain the available resources and capacities of governments to enact policies and programmes to mitigate such consumption. Intellectual property provisions of trade agreements may also constrain access to NCD medicines. Successive layers of the evolving global and regional trade regimes including structural adjustment, multilateral trade agreements, and preferential trade agreements have enabled transnational corporations that manufacture, market and distribute risk commodities to increasingly penetrate and promote consumption in Asian markets. Trade liberalization is a significant driver of the NCD epidemic in Asia. Increased participation in trade agreements requires countries to strengthen regulatory capacity to ensure adequate protections for public health. How best to achieve this through multilateral, regional and unilateral actions is a pressing question for ongoing research.

Application and opportunities of pulses in food system: a review.

PubMed

Asif, Muhammad; Rooney, Lloyd W; Ali, Rashida; Riaz, Mian N

2013-01-01

Pulses are highly nutritious seeds of pod-bearing leguminous plants, specifically dry peas, lentils, and chickpeas. US farmers harvest about 2.6 million pounds of pulses every year but 75% of this is being exported internationally because of its increased consumption in the developing countries. In the current scenario, increasing costs of production, bad economy, and fluctuating food commodity prices have made a strong case for US producers to seek opportunities to increase domestic consumption of pulses through value-added products. Pulses are the richest sources of plant proteins and provide approximately 10% of the total dietary requirements of the proteins world over. Pulses are also high in dietary fibers and complex carbohydrates leading to low GI (glycemic index) foods. Pulses help to lower cholesterol and triglycerides as leguminous fibers are hypoglycosuria because of consisting more amylose than amylopectin. Pulses provide tremendous opportunities to be utilized in the processed foods such as bakery products, bread, pasta, snack foods, soups, cereal bar filing, tortillas, meat, etc. These show excellent opportunities in frozen dough foods either as added flour or as fillings. Pulses in view of their nutrient profile, seem to be ideal for inclusion in designing snack foods, baby, and sports foods.

Benin.

PubMed

1989-03-01

In 1988, Benin had a population of 4 million and an annual growth rate of 3.6%. Life expectancy was 49 years, and infant mortality stood at 116/1000 live births. Primary school enrollment is about 65%, with 6 years of compulsory education, and the adult literacy rate is only 11%. Of the labor force of 1.9 million, 72% are engaged in agriculture. Benin's gross domestic product was US$1497 million in 1987, with an annual growth rate of 7.1% and a per capita income of $374. Despite the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the Kerekou Government, many government-controlled sectors of the economy are being privatized and private foreign firms have been authorized to operate in Benin's transport sector. These changes have been necessitated by heavy losses suffered by nationalized industries and the worsening economic situation. Benin's economy, heavily dependent on regional trade and the export of cotton and crude oil, has been severely affected by ineffective government policies, regional recession, the collapse of world commodity prices, heavy external debt, balance of payment deficits, and very low foreign exchange reserves and liguidity. The 5-Year Plan (1983-88) emphasized the development of agriculture and the goal of becoming a supplier of basic foodstuffs to the region.

The alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies in the European Union.

PubMed

Hodge, Ian; Hauck, Jennifer; Bonn, Aletta

2015-08-01

Europe is a region of relatively high population density and productive agriculture subject to substantial government intervention under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Many habitats and species of high conservation interest have been created by the maintenance of agricultural practices over long periods. These practices are often no longer profitable, and nature conservation initiatives require government support to cover the cost for them to be continued. The CAP has been reformed both to reduce production of agricultural commodities at costs in excess of world prices and to establish incentives for landholders to adopt voluntary conservation measures. A separate nature conservation policy has established an extensive series of protected sites (Natura 2000) that has, as yet, failed to halt the loss of biodiversity. Additional broader scale approaches have been advocated for conservation in the wider landscape matrix, including the alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies, which remains a challenge. Possibilities for alignment include further shifting of funds from general support for farmers toward targeted payments for biodiversity goals at larger scales and adoption of an ecosystem approach. The European response to the competing demands for land resources may offer lessons globally as demands on rural land increase. © 2015 Society for Conservation Biology.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Holt, E.; Bird, L.

Renewable energy certificates (RECs) represent the attributes of electricity generated from renewable energy sources. These attributes are unbundled from the physical electricity, and the two products-the attributes embodied in the certificates and the commodity electricity-may be sold or traded separately. RECs are quickly becoming the currency of renewable energy markets because of their flexibility and the fact that they are not subject to the geographic and physical limitations of commodity electricity. RECs are currently used by utilities and marketers to supply renewable energy products to end-use customers as well as to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements, such as renewable energymore » mandates. The purpose of this report is to describe and analyze the emerging market for renewable energy certificates. It describes how RECs are marketed, examines RECs markets including scope and prices, and identifies and describes the key challenges facing the growth and success of RECs markets.« less

Gender and sexual economics: do women view sex as a female commodity?

PubMed

Rudman, Laurie A; Fetterolf, Janell C

2014-07-01

In the study reported here, data from implicit and behavioral choice measures did not support sexual economics theory's (SET's) central tenet that women view female sexuality as a commodity. Instead, men endorsed sexual exchange more than women did, which supports the idea that SET is a vestige of patriarchy. Further, men's sexual advice, more than women's, enforced the sexual double standard (i.e., men encouraged men more than women to have casual sex)-a gender difference that was mediated by hostile sexism, but also by men's greater implicit investment in sexual economics. That is, men were more likely to suppress female sexuality because they resisted female empowerment and automatically associated sex with money more than women did. It appears that women are not invested in sexual economics, but rather, men are invested in patriarchy, even when it means raising the price of sexual relations. © The Author(s) 2014.

The impact of tax reforms designed to encourage healthier grain consumption.

PubMed

Nordström, Jonas; Thunström, Linda

2009-05-01

In this paper, we simulate the effects of tax reforms aimed at encouraging healthier grain consumption. We use a rich data set on household grain consumption in 2003 from the market research institute GfK Sweden, combined with information on the nutritional content of the consumption. We estimate behavioral parameters, which are used to simulate the impact on the average household of tax reforms entailing either a subsidy on commodities particularly rich in fiber or a subsidy of the fiber density in grain products. Our results suggest that to direct the fiber intake towards nutritional recommendations, reforms with a substantial impact on consumer prices are required. Regardless of the type of subsidy implemented, the increase in the intake of fiber is accompanied by unwanted increases in nutrients that are often overconsumed: fat, salt and sugar. Funding the subsidies by taxing these nutrients, or less healthy commodities, helps to counteract such developments.

A speculative look at the future of the American Petroleum Industry based on a full-cycle analysis of the American Whale Oil Industry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Coleman, J.L. Jr.

1995-09-01

A full-cycle, industry-scale look at the American whaling industry of the 19th century suggests a number of comparisons with the American petroleum industry of the 20th century. Using the King Hubbert production profile for extraction industries as a guide, both industries show a similar business life span. An understanding of the history of American whaling will, perhaps, gives us a more complete understanding of the history of the American petroleum industry. The rise of the American whaling industry to the premier investment opportunity of its day is little known to most in today`s oil and gas industry. Yet, we allmore » know that abundant and inexpensive crude oil was a key factor in its demise. From a careful study of the history of the American whaling industry a set of factors (or stages of transition), common to similar extraction industries, can be developed, which may help investors and workers determine the state of health of our industry: (1) defection of highly skilled personnel to other, comparable, technical industries; (2) discovery and initial development of a replacement commodity; (3) major calamity, which adversely affects the industry in terms of significant loss of working capital and/or resources; (4) loss of sufficient investment capital to continue resource addition; (5) rapid development of a replacement commodity with attendant decrease in per unit price to a position lower than the primary commodity; (6) significant loss of market share by the primary commodity; and (7) end of the primary commodity as a major economic force.« less

Improving access to malaria medicine through private-sector subsidies in seven African countries.

PubMed

Tougher, Sarah; Mann, Andrea G; Ye, Yazoume; Kourgueni, Idrissa A; Thomson, Rebecca; Amuasi, John H; Ren, Ruilin; Willey, Barbara A; Ansong, Daniel; Bruxvoort, Katia; Diap, Graciela; Festo, Charles; Johanes, Boniface; Kalolella, Admirabilis; Mallam, Oumarou; Mberu, Blessing; Ndiaye, Salif; Nguah, Samual Blay; Seydou, Moctar; Taylor, Mark; Wamukoya, Marilyn; Arnold, Fred; Hanson, Kara; Goodman, Catherine

2014-09-01

Improving access to quality-assured artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) is an important component of malaria control in low- and middle-income countries. In 2010 the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria launched the Affordable Medicines Facility--malaria (AMFm) program in seven African countries. The goal of the program was to decrease malaria morbidity and delay drug resistance by increasing the use of ACTs, primarily through subsidies intended to reduce costs. We collected data on price and retail markups on antimalarial medicines from 19,625 private for-profit retail outlets before and 6-15 months after the program's implementation. We found that in six of the AMFm pilot programs, prices for quality-assured ACTs decreased by US$1.28-$4.34, and absolute retail markups on these therapies decreased by US$0.31-$1.03. Prices and markups on other classes of antimalarials also changed during the evaluation period, but not to the same extent. In all but two of the pilot programs, we found evidence that prices could fall further without suppliers' losing money. Thus, concerns may be warranted that wholesalers and retailers are capturing subsidies instead of passing them on to consumers. These findings demonstrate that supranational subsidies can dramatically reduce retail prices of health commodities and that recommended retail prices communicated to a wide audience may be an effective mechanism for controlling the market power of private-sector antimalarial retailers and wholesalers. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

The price of sex: condom use and the determinants of the price of sex among female sex workers in eastern Zimbabwe.

PubMed

Elmes, Jocelyn; Nhongo, Kundai; Ward, Helen; Hallett, Timothy; Nyamukapa, Constance; White, Peter J; Gregson, Simon

2014-12-01

Higher prices for unprotected sex threaten the high levels of condom use that contributed to the decline in Zimbabwe's human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic. To improve understanding of financial pressures competing against safer sex, we explore factors associated with the price of commercial sex in rural eastern Zimbabwe. We collected and analyzed cross-sectional data on 311 women, recruited during October-December 2010, who reported that they received payment for their most-recent or second-most-recent sex acts in the past year. Zero-inflated negative binomial models with robust standard errors clustered on female sex worker (FSW) were used to explore social and behavioral determinants of price. The median price of sex was $10 (interquartile range [IQR], $5-$20) per night and $10 (IQR, $5-$15) per act. Amounts paid in cash and commodities did not differ significantly. At the most-recent sex act, more-educated FSWs received 30%-74% higher payments. Client requests for condom use significantly predicted protected sex (P < .01), but clients paid on average 42.9% more for unprotected sex. Within a work environment where clients' preferences determine condom use, FSWs effectively use their individual capital to negotiate the terms of condom use. Strengthening FSWs' preferences for protected sex could help maintain high levels of condom use. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Historical price trends of nonconiferous tropical logs and sawnwood imported to the United States, Europe, and Japan

Treesearch

C. Denise Ingram

1993-01-01

This report reviews historical price trends of nonconiferous and tropical sawlogs and tropical sawnwood imports to several major consuming regions of the world. Data on real prices for imports from Africa, Asia, and Latin America to the United States, Europe, and Japan are presented as a reference for policymakers interested in the relative price movements of tropical...

Multifractal spectrum analysis of nonlinear dynamical mechanisms in China’s agricultural futures markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shu-Peng; He, Ling-Yun

2010-04-01

Based on Partition Function and Multifractal Spectrum Analysis, we investigated the nonlinear dynamical mechanisms in China’s agricultural futures markets, namely, Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE for short) and Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE for short), where nearly all agricultural futures contracts are traded in the two markets. Firstly, we found nontrivial multifractal spectra, which are the empirical evidence of the existence of multifractal features, in 4 representative futures markets in China, that is, Hard Winter wheat (HW for short) and Strong Gluten wheat (SG for short) futures markets from ZCE and Soy Meal (SM for short) futures and Soy Bean No.1 (SB for short) futures markets from DCE. Secondly, by shuffling the original time series, we destroyed the underlying nonlinear temporal correlation; thus, we identified that long-range correlation mechanism constitutes major contributions in the formation in the multifractals of the markets. Thirdly, by tracking the evolution of left- and right-half spectra, we found that there exist critical points, between which there are different behaviors, in the left-half spectra for large price fluctuations; but for the right-hand spectra for small price fluctuations, the width of those increases slowly as the delay t increases in the long run. Finally, the dynamics of large fluctuations is significantly different from that of the small ones, which implies that there exist different underlying mechanisms in the formation of multifractality in the markets. Our main contributions focus on that we not only provided empirical evidence of the existence of multifractal features in China agricultural commodity futures markets; but also we pioneered in investigating the sources of the multifractality in China’s agricultural futures markets in current literature; furthermore, we investigated the nonlinear dynamical mechanisms based on spectrum analysis, which offers us insights into the underlying dynamical mechanisms in China’s agricultural futures markets.

The Benefits and Risks of Virtual Bidding in Multi-Settlement Markets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Isemonger, Alan G.

2006-11-15

While it is possible that multi-settlement markets can exist without virtual trading, it is equally clear that virtual trading can provide many market benefits. The main one: In the absence of explicit virtual bidding (EVB), the price arbitrage trades that are benign in other commodity markets affect the reliability of the underlying electricity markets, resulting in a situation where EVB is most useful when it neutralizes the deleterious reliability effects of implicit virtual bidding and physical arbitrage. (author)

To Amend the National School Lunch Act. Hearing Before the General Subcommittee on Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Ninety-Third Congress, Second Session on H.R. 13168.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. House Committee on Education and Labor.

This is a comprehensive record of a hearing held before the General Subcommittee on Education on April 22, 1974. Its purpose was to hear testimony on H.R. 13168, a proposed amendment to the National School Lunch Act that would authorize continued purchase of commodities at market price for distribution to schools, domestic relief agencies, and…

Granma: Cuban News and Propaganda Analysis for the Period, 1-31 January 1985.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-01-01

qua brarse, puesto que Satielan- firms del exterior, ambas refe- con el agua que norialmente no es rico, 4no ec.01MoI ridas a plantas de trataniento...goverment announced price increases in basic commodities. " During the war in the Falkland Islands, a secret agreement between Great Britian and Chile ...death and destruction of pro- perty. 0 Chile declined an invitation to attend the inauguration of the Presi- dent elect of Brazil. e Many people in

Crude oil price dynamics: A study on effects of market expectation and strategic supply on price movements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Xin

Recent years have seen dramatic fluctuations in crude oil prices. This dissertation attempts to better understand price behavior. The first chapter studies the behavior of crude oil spot and futures prices. Oil prices, particularly spot and short-term futures prices, appear to have switched from I(0) to I(1) in early 2000s. To better understand this apparent change in persistence, a factor model of oil prices is proposed, where the prices are decomposed into long-term and short-term components. The change in the persistence behavior can be explained by changes in the relative volatility of the underlying components. Fitting the model to weekly data on WTI prices, the volatility of the persistent shocks increased substantially relative to other shocks. In addition, the risk premiums in futures prices have changed their signs and become more volatile. The estimated net marginal convenience yield using the model also shows changes in its behavior. These observations suggest that a dramatic fundamental change occurred in the period from 2002 to 2004 in the dynamics of the crude oil market. The second chapter explores the short-run price-inventory dynamics in the presence of different shocks. Classical competitive storage model states that inventory decision considers both current and future market condition, and thus interacts with spot and expected future spot prices. We study competitive storage holding in an equilibrium framework, focusing on the dynamic response of price and inventory to different shocks. We show that news shock generates response profile different from traditional contemporaneous shocks in price and inventory. The model is applied to world crude oil market, where the market expectation is estimated to experience a sharp change in early 2000s, together with a persisting constrained supply relative to demand. The expectation change has limited effect on crude oil spot price though. The world oil market structure has been studied extensively but no consensus has been reached on OPEC strategic behavior. In the third chapter, we are interested in the effects of supply-side market power on oil price dynamics in face of different demand shocks, and model the oil market as composed of a strategic dominant firm and several competitive fringe producers. In each period, the dominant firm makes decision while taking fringe's response into consideration. We consider two alternative pricing strategies for the dominant firm. Our results show that this dynamic strategic model improves the potential of dominant firm-competitive fringe model in fitting and explaining real world data. A regime switch after a permanent demand increase generates a time path for price that looks like the price movements in the recent years.

Phosphate Mines, Jordan

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-04-21

Jordan leading industry and export commodities are phosphate and potash, ranked in the top three in the world. These are used to make fertilizer. This image was acquired by NASA Terra satellite on September 17, 2005.

D-brane solutions under market panic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pincak, Richard

The relativistic quantum mechanic approach is used to develop stock market dynamics. The relativistic is conceptional here as the meaning of big external volatility or volatility shock on a financial market. We used a differential geometry approach with the parallel transport of prices to obtain a direct shift of the stock price movement. The prices are represented here as electrons with different spin orientation. Up and down orientations of the spin particle are likened here to an increase or a decrease of stock prices. The parallel transport of stock prices is enriched by Riemann curvature, which describes some arbitrage opportunities in the market. To solve the stock-price dynamics, we used the Dirac equation for bispinors on the spherical brane-world. We found out that when a spherical brane is abbreviated to the disk on the equator, we converge to the ideal behavior of financial market where Black-Scholes as well as semi-classical equations are sufficient. Full spherical brane-world scenarios can describe non-equilibrium market behavior where all arbitrage opportunities as well as transaction costs are taken into account. Real application of the model to the option pricing was done. The model developed in this paper brings quantitative different results of option pricing dynamics in the case of nonzero Riemann curvature.

Accelerating adoption of genetically modified crops in Africa through a trade liability regime.

PubMed

Smyth, Stuart J; Kerr, William A; Phillips, Peter W B

2013-06-01

Given the apparently unbridgeable divide that has developed between the 25 odd countries that grow and trade GM crops and the evolving EU regulatory hurdles, it may be time to consider alternative strategies for realizing a global market for agricultural products. Africa is one area of the world where the battle over GM agriculture is being played out, yet it is the continent where GM could have the greatest positive impact. Numerous African nations, given their long-standing trade connections to European nations, fear that allowing the commercialization of GM crops could lead to comingling of GM and conventional products and, hence, the loss of export opportunities to the EU. These are legitimate concerns. One potential solution that warrants serious consideration would be to establish a pool of funds that could be accessed by African agricultural commodity exporters in instances where exports to Europe are rejected. A production levy could be imposed in leading industrial adopting nations (i.e., Australia, Canada and the United States). The revenue raised would provide an endowment fund that could be used to offset the costs arising from import refusals. African-sourced shipments rejected by the EU will most certainly have alternate markets, but could receive a reduced price or incur higher costs associated with serving alternate markets. The intent of the fund would be to compensate for the real difference between the net returns contracted with European importers and the final market price received. This article examines the feasibility of establishing such a fund and discusses the funding options. © 2013 Society for Experimental Biology, Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Using Cotton Model Simulations to Estimate Optimally Profitable Irrigation Strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mauget, S. A.; Leiker, G.; Sapkota, P.; Johnson, J.; Maas, S.

2011-12-01

In recent decades irrigation pumping from the Ogallala Aquifer has led to declines in saturated thickness that have not been compensated for by natural recharge, which has led to questions about the long-term viability of agriculture in the cotton producing areas of west Texas. Adopting irrigation management strategies that optimize profitability while reducing irrigation waste is one way of conserving the aquifer's water resource. Here, a database of modeled cotton yields generated under drip and center pivot irrigated and dryland production scenarios is used in a stochastic dominance analysis that identifies such strategies under varying commodity price and pumping cost conditions. This database and analysis approach will serve as the foundation for a web-based decision support tool that will help producers identify optimal irrigation treatments under specified cotton price, electricity cost, and depth to water table conditions.

Availability, prices and affordability of the World Health Organization's essential medicines for children in Guatemala.

PubMed

Anson, Angela; Ramay, Brooke; de Esparza, Antonio Ruiz; Bero, Lisa

2012-07-02

Several World Health Organization (WHO) initiatives aim to improve the accessibility of safe and effective medicines for children. A first step in achieving this goal is to obtain a baseline measure of access to essential medicines. The objective of this project was to measure the availability, prices, and affordability of children's medicines in Guatemala. An adaption of the standardized methodology developed by the World Health Organization and Health Action International (HAI) was used to conduct a cross sectional survey to collect data on availability and final patient prices of medicines in public and private sector medicine outlets during April and May of 2010. A subset of the public sector, Programa de Accesibilidad a los Medicamentos (PROAM), had the lowest average availability (25%) compared to the private sector (35%). In the private sector, highest and lowest priced medicines were 22.7 and 10.7 times more expensive than their international reference price comparison. Treatments were generally unaffordable, costing as much as 15 days wages for a course of ceftriaxone. Analysis of the procurement, supply and distribution of specific medicines is needed to determine reasons for lack of availability. Improvements to accessibility could be made by developing an essential medicines list for children and including these medicines in national purchasing lists.

Meeting the food, energy, and water demands of nine billion people: Will climate change add a new dimension?

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Climate change will add a new stress to our ability to produce food and supply water and energy for the expanding population. There is an emerging gap between the current production trends in food commodities around the world and the projected needs to meet the demands for the world population. This...