Increased volatility of agricultural commodity prices as well as market linkages between the agricultural and energy markets expose producers to different types of systematic price risk. Producers that operate on margins involving both input and output price uncertainty are perhaps the most adversely affected by these volatility changes. The beef cattle feeding industry is one such example. This research focuses on how expected margins in the beef cattle backgrounding and finishing stages are affected by output and input price uncertainty.

Chapter 1 ---Does the party of government influence the amount and type of inward foreign investment? The results of a number of correlational studies provide inconsistent evidence. However none of these studies - for any level of government or any jurisdiction - have used methods that allow them to speak to causal effects. Regression discontinuity (RD) method is applied to a set of narrow-margin US gubernatorial elections. Over the course of a four-year term the election of a Republican governor causes a 21% boost in the growth of manufacturing-oriented FDI stock, compared to a Democrat. This effect is robust to a series of challenges. However, the same approach provides no evidence that partisanship matters for the overall level of FDI. Chapter 2 ---Does an economic shock open a window of opportunity for reform, and if it does, how does the institution of a state play a role? The paper investigates how economic shocks affect the structural reforms in various institutions. This paper addresses this issue by using the exogenous variation in the international price of large commodity goods to generate the exogenous change in national income. The analysis relies on a unique mapping between new annual data from 1962 to 2005 on economic shocks from commodity prices and structural reforms in 111 countries. I find significant heterogeneous effects across sectors in autocratic countries. In autocracies, positive economic shocks promote reforms in real sectors, but deter reforms in financial sectors. However the impact of economic shocks on structural reform in democratic countries is nil. Chapter 3 ---The deregulation of branch banking across the United States substantially increased the availability of credit to existing borrowers and others who has previously been excluded. Exploiting the staggered timing of changes across states for identification it is estimated that deregulation caused a 3.3% increase in rates of suicide and a 4.7% increase in rates of divorce. This is consistent with a large body of evidence linking excess debt to various measures of individual and relationship distress. Results are in most cases statistically significant at levels much higher than 1%, and prove resilient in a battery of robustness checks and falsification exercises.

The study focuses on tariff-linked (or commodity-linked) agreements entered into between a power utility and commodity producers. The main purpose of these types of agreements is to link electricity tariff payable by commodity producers to the price of the commodity produced thereby transferring a certain level of commodity price risk to the power utility. The study looks at risk management practices of a power utility company with a particular reference to tariff-linked agreements. Also, the study critically analyses risk hedging mechanisms put in place by the power utility. The report makes practical recommendations, where applicable, in dealing with these risks. Risk management continuously evolve to meet the challenges of complex financial world. Despite the latest sophisticated risk management tools available commodity producers still encounter difficulties to hedge the price risk. The challenge for the power utility is the application of new risk management tools to effectively manage price risk. / Business Management / M.Com. (Business Economics)

The study focuses on tariff-linked (or commodity-linked) agreements entered into between a power utility and commodity producers. The main purpose of these types of agreements is to link electricity tariff payable by commodity producers to the price of the commodity produced thereby transferring a certain level of commodity price risk to the power utility. The study looks at risk management practices of a power utility company with a particular reference to tariff-linked agreements. Also, the study critically analyses risk hedging mechanisms put in place by the power utility. The report makes practical recommendations, where applicable, in dealing with these risks. Risk management continuously evolve to meet the challenges of complex financial world. Despite the latest sophisticated risk management tools available commodity producers still encounter difficulties to hedge the price risk. The challenge for the power utility is the application of new risk management tools to effectively manage price risk. / Business Management / M.Com. (Business Economics)

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 using fixed-price contracts. In turn, the contractors respond by adding premiums in bid prices. If the contractors overprice the risk, the price of fixed-price contract could exceed the price of the contract with adjustment clauses. Consequently, highway agencies have the opportunity to design a contract that not only reduces the future risk of exposure, but also reduces the initial contract price. The main goal of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of commodity price risk on construction cost and the optimal risk hedging of such risks using price adjustment clauses. More specifically, the objective of the dissertation is to develop models that can help highway agencies manage commodity price risks. In this dissertation, a weighted least square regression model is used to estimate the risk premium; both univariate and vector time series models are estimated and applied to simulate changes in commodity prices over time, including the effect of correlation; while the genetic algorithm is used as a solution approach to a multi-objective optimization formulation. The data set used in this dissertation consists of TxDOT bidding data, market-based data including New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) future options data, and Engineering News-Record (ENR) material cost index data. The results of this dissertation suggest that the optimal risk mitigation actions are conditional on owners' risk preferences, correlation among the prices of commodities, and volatility of the market.

La globalisation est probablement la caractéristique principale de l'économie mondiale du 21e siècle. Elle se traduit notamment par l'intégration par les canaux commerciaux, financiers et les marchés de matières premières. Si un tel contexte affecte de manière très significative tous les types d'économies, il convient de souligner que les petites économies ouvertes dépendantes des exportations de matières premières, et ouvertes aux marchés financiers globaux, sont en général les plus exposées. L'économie chilienne possède toutes ces caractéristiques. C’est dans ce contexte que cette thèse explore l'efficacité de la politique budgétaire chilienne et les effets des prix des matières premières et des chocs financiers internationaux sur le PIB chilien et d'autres variables macro-économiques importantes. A cette fin, on utilise une approche empirique basée sur des modèles vectoriels autorégressifs. / The economic globalization is probably the main feature of the 21st century world economy, with economic integration and interdependence of national economies across the world particularly common in commodity and financial markets. Such a context greatly affect all types of economies though those small, dependent on commodity exports, and open to global financial markets are usually the most exposed. Having in mind this scenario, in this Ph.D. dissertation we explore the effectiveness of the Chilean fiscal policy and the effects of commodity prices and foreign financial shocks, on the Chilean GDP and other macroeconomic fundamentals using an empirical approach based on alternative vector autoregressive models.To understand the effectiveness of the country’s fiscal policy aiming at guarantying macroeconomic stability, in the Chapter 1 of this Ph.D. dissertation we study the dynamic effects of fiscal policy on the Chilean macroeconomic fundamentals and the size of fiscal multipliers. Chapter 2 examines how shocks to commodity prices affect the Chilean economic output, fiscal accounts and private consumption, based on correlations analysis and vector autoregression models. In the Chapter 3 of this Ph.D. dissertation we study the effect of foreign financial shocks on the Chilean real economy.

Since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canadian dollar has come to be regarded as a petro-currency. Consequently, rising prices of oil and gas (as well as other natural resources) would increase capital inflows that would lead to a higher exchange rate and contribute to the decimation of the export-oriented Canadian manufacturing sector by making Canadian products less competitive internationally. Some have argued that the Canadian economy has started to show symptoms related to the Dutch Disease. One important symptom is the slow rate of productivity growth, which consequently leads to the theory that Canada’s productivity performance depends significantly on the foreign exchange value of the domestic currency. This dissertation attempts to address these issues and seeks to solve the question of whether the Canadian economy is suffering from the Dutch Disease, as well as whether or not movements of the Canadian dollar are responsible for the low Canadian productivity growth since the 1990s.

Since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canadian dollar has come to be regarded as a petro-currency. Consequently, rising prices of oil and gas (as well as other natural resources) would increase capital inflows that would lead to a higher exchange rate and contribute to the decimation of the export-oriented Canadian manufacturing sector by making Canadian products less competitive internationally. Some have argued that the Canadian economy has started to show symptoms related to the Dutch Disease. One important symptom is the slow rate of productivity growth, which consequently leads to the theory that Canada’s productivity performance depends significantly on the foreign exchange value of the domestic currency. This dissertation attempts to address these issues and seeks to solve the question of whether the Canadian economy is suffering from the Dutch Disease, as well as whether or not movements of the Canadian dollar are responsible for the low Canadian productivity growth since the 1990s.

Since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canadian dollar has come to be regarded as a petro-currency. Consequently, rising prices of oil and gas (as well as other natural resources) would increase capital inflows that would lead to a higher exchange rate and contribute to the decimation of the export-oriented Canadian manufacturing sector by making Canadian products less competitive internationally. Some have argued that the Canadian economy has started to show symptoms related to the Dutch Disease. One important symptom is the slow rate of productivity growth, which consequently leads to the theory that Canada’s productivity performance depends significantly on the foreign exchange value of the domestic currency. This dissertation attempts to address these issues and seeks to solve the question of whether the Canadian economy is suffering from the Dutch Disease, as well as whether or not movements of the Canadian dollar are responsible for the low Canadian productivity growth since the 1990s.

本篇主要為原物料指數與總體經濟物價間動態關聯性的研究。由於近年來糧食價格高漲，本研究選取CRB現貨指數（Commodity Research Bureau）、CCI期貨指數（Continuous Commodity Index），與CRB農產品指數為原物料指數以觀察原物料價格對總體面物價影響的程度；研究期間為2001年10月至2011年3月；總經物價指標選擇生產者物價指數（PPI）、消費者物價指數（CPI）、再加上國內生產毛額（GDP）；選取的國家為美國、臺灣與中國。本研究以Johansen共整合、向量自我迴歸模型、向量誤差修正模型、Granger因果關係檢定及衝擊反應分析等方法，探討三項原物料指數與總體經濟指標的互動關係。 研究結果顯示，原物料指數與總體指標之間的長期均衡關係不明顯。因果檢定顯示，CCI指數在因果檢定上領先CRB指數與CRB農產品指數；除了美國的GDP之外，CCI指數也領先各項總體經濟指標，但不論是CRB現貨指數或CRB農產品指數，對總經物價指標的領先-落後關係都不明顯，表示在CCI指數為較佳的預測指標。由衝擊反應分析的結果顯示，除了有共整合關係的變數間相互影響為長期性之外，受影響的物價指標僅在短期內會受到原物料價格變動的影響：總體物價指標面對原物料價格波動的反應約3期之後反應便逐漸消失，顯示原物料價格與總體物價指數之間的短期失衡期間並不長。 / This paper investigates the relationship between the commodity indexes and macroeconomic price indexes. Due to the sharp increase of food price in recent years, we add CRB index (Commodity Research Bureau), CCI index (Continuous Commodity Index), and CRB foodstuffs index in the research to see the magnitude of commodity price indexes to macroeconomic price indexes. This paper selects United State, Taiwan and China as samples and manages to find out the relationship of commodity indexes and macroeconomic price indexes by applying monthly data from October 2001 to March 2011. Macroeconomic price indexes are PPI (Producer Price Index), CPI( Consumer Price Index) and plus GDP Index. This paper tries to get the answer by applying Johansen Cointegration Test, Vector Autoregression Model(VAR), Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), Granger causality test and Impulse Response Analysis. The result does not show obvious long-term relationship between commodity price indexes and macroeconomic price indexes; and Granger causality test exhibits that CCI index takes the lead in the change of time. But we do not get consistent result between CRB index, CRB foodstuffs index and macroeconomic price indexes in Granger causality test which means commodity spot indexes do not necessarily lead in the change of time. This result implies that CCI index a better indicator in forecasting. According to Impulse Response Analysis, macroeconomic price indexes are influenced by commodity index only in a short period of time and this result tells us that the disequilibrium between commodity indexes and macroeconomic price indexes will not last long.