Storage and Commodity Markets

This book deals with the capability to store surplus commodities and the impact of stockpiles on prices and production.

Jeffrey C. Williams (Author), Brian D. Wright (Author)

9780521326162, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 March 1991

520 pages
24 x 16.1 x 3.7 cm, 0.93 kg

"This book is of major significance in the analysis of commodity markets. It will be required reading for all students of agricultural economics; and will also be widely read by those working on metals markets and the oil market." Economic Journal

Storage and Commodity Markets is primarily a work of economic theory, concerned with how the capability to store a surplus affects the prices and production of commodities. Its focus on the behaviour, over time, of aggregate stockpiles provides insights into such questions as how much a country should store out of its current supply of food considering the uncertainty in future harvests. Related topics covered include whether storage or international trade is a more effective buffer and whether stockpiles are more useful in raw or processed form. Several chapters are devoted to analysing such government programmes as price bands, buffer stocks, and strategic reserves. This material is in the domain of applied welfare analysis with public finance. Because the theory presented is sufficiently general, it should be of interest to macroeconomists studying aggregate inventories or savings and to those in operations research studying inventory and pricing policies of large firms.

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Part I. The Basic Model: 2. Competitive equilibrium with storage
3. Solving for the storage equilibrium Appendix: Numerical solution of the storage model
4. The effects of storage on production, consumption, and prices
5. Convergence to the steady state
Part II. Implications Of Storage For Reasearch On Time Series: 6. Time-series properties due to storage
7. Test of rationality
Part III. Extensions Of The Model: 8. The market's reaction to news
9. The interaction of storage and trade
10. Inventories of raw materials, finished goods, and goods in process
11. Market power and storage
Part IV. Public Interventions: 12. Welfare analysis of market stabilization
13. Floor-price schemes
14. Public storage under price bands and price pegs
15. Public policies to supplement private storage
Part V. Epilogue: 16. Lessons about commodity markets and modeling strategies
References
Author index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA]