Masters of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Jeffrey M. Peterson / The expansion of the biofuels industry, world demand, and various other factors are having a historic impact on the price of grains. These high prices have been creating a large increase in production of many water intensive crops such as corn. As corn is among the most input-intensive crops, this extra production has raised concerns about environmental impacts and pressures on water resources in particular. While water quality has been a longstanding concern in the cornbelt, much of the new production is in nontraditional corn regions including the southeast, the High Plains, and the western states. In these areas, there is mounting concern over depletion of already stressed water supplies. In the High Plains, the chief water source is the Ogallala aquifer, one of the largest water resources in the world that underlies eight states from South Dakota to Texas. The Ogallala has enabled many agricultural industries, such as irrigated crops, cattle feeding, and meat processing, to establish themselves in areas that would not be possible otherwise. A consequence is that the economy of this region has become dependent on groundwater availability. Continued overdrafts of the aquifer have caused a long-term drop in water levels and some areas have now reached effective depletion. This thesis seeks to estimate the impact of the rising commodity prices on groundwater consumption and cropping patterns in the Kansas portion of the Ogallala. The economy of this region is particularly dependent on water and irrigated crops, with more than 3 million head of feeder cattle and irrigated crop revenues exceeding $600 million annually. Sheridan (northwestern Kansas), Seward (southwestern Kansas), and Scott (west central Kansas) counties have been selected as representative case study regions. These counties have a wide range of aquifer levels with Seward having an abundant supply, Sheridan an intermediate supply, and Scott nearing effective depletion. Cropping patterns in these counties are typical of the western Kansas region, with most irrigated acreage being planted to corn and with dominant nonirrigated rotations of wheat-fallow and wheat-sorghum-fallow. A Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) model was developed and calibrated to land- and water-use data in the case counties for a base period of 1999-2003. The PMP approach produces a constrained nonlinear optimization model that mimics the land- and water- allocation decision facing producers each year. The choice variables in the model are the acreages planted to each of the major crops and the water use by crop. The model was run for each of the case counties. The PMP calibration procedure ensures that the model solutions fall within a small tolerance of the base period observations. Once calibrated, the models were executed to simulate the impacts of the emerging energy demand for crops over a 60-year period. After the baseline projections were found, the model was then run under increased crop prices that reflect the higher prices observed in 2006 and after. The thesis found that under the high price scenario, both irrigated crop production and water application per acre increased significantly during the early years of the simulated period in all modeled counties. The size of the increases depended on the amount of original water available in each county. The increases generally diminished in magnitude toward the end of the simulation period, but led to smaller ending levels of saturated thickness as compared to the base price in all counties. Finally, in two of the three counties, it was observed that initial increases in irrigated crop acres and water application forces a decline in the aquifer such that less water can be applied per acre in the final years of the simulation. This suggests that high commodity prices forces a higher emphasis on early production levels than later production levels. Additionally, the higher prices have a significant effect on the rate of decline of the Ogallala aquifer.

Submitted by Natasha Lewin (natgaertner@hotmail.com) on 2014-05-21T13:47:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Natasha_Gaertner.pdf: 1016109 bytes, checksum: 3be3ae578302aaf3f6975eea7891ef1a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vitor Souza (vitor.souza@fgv.br) on 2014-05-28T20:14:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Natasha_Gaertner.pdf: 1016109 bytes, checksum: 3be3ae578302aaf3f6975eea7891ef1a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-02T20:29:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Natasha_Gaertner.pdf: 1016109 bytes, checksum: 3be3ae578302aaf3f6975eea7891ef1a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-11-27 / Este trabalho analisa a importância dos fatores comuns na evolução recente dos preços dos metais no período entre 1995 e 2013. Para isso, estimam-se modelos cointegrados de VAR e também um modelo de fator dinâmico bayesiano. Dado o efeito da financeirização das commodities, DFM pode capturar efeitos dinâmicos comuns a todas as commodities. Além disso, os dados em painel são aplicados para usar toda a heterogeneidade entre as commodities durante o período de análise. Nossos resultados mostram que a taxa de juros, taxa efetiva do dólar americano e também os dados de consumo têm efeito permanente nos preços das commodities. Observa-se ainda a existência de um fator dinâmico comum significativo para a maioria dos preços das commodities metálicas, que tornou-se recentemente mais importante na evolução dos preços das commodities. / This study analyses the importance of common factors in metal prices movements for the period 1995-2013. For this purpose, cointegrated VAR models and also a Bayesian dynamic factor model are estimated. Given the effect of the financialization of commodities, DFM can capture dynamic effects common to all commodities. Furthermore, panel data is applied in order to use all heterogeneity between commodities over the period. Our estimation results show that interest rate, US dollar effective rate and also consumption data have permanent effect in the commodity prices. Also, there exists one common significant dynamic factor for most metal commodity prices and that this common factor has recently become increasingly important in driving commodity prices.

No período 2003-11, os preços internacionais de commodities tiveram significativa valorização em termos tanto nominais quanto reais, o que melhorou os termos de troca para os países exportadores líquidos desses produtos, entre eles o Brasil. Esse movimento esteve associado ao crescimento econômico mais robusto para esses países, se comparado com o período anterior ao boom de preços. Frente a essa conjuntura, o propósito que se pretende alcançar neste trabalho é verificar a relação entre o crescimento econômico brasileiro e a performance desses preços relativos nos anos 2000, por meio de seus possíveis canais de transmissão. Considera-se a existência de cinco possíveis canais: (a) efeito-preço nas exportações de commodities; (b) efeito-quantum nas exportações de manufaturados para outros países exportadores de commodities; (c) resultados no emprego; (d) a possibilidade de se elevarem as importações e, portanto, atender-se à demanda doméstica; e, por fim, (e) a elevação das receitas fiscais. O impacto no crescimento econômico depende, assim, da magnitude desses canais na economia e de o país aproveitar, ou não, essas oportunidades. Neste sentido, defende-se a possibilidade de usufruir desses estímulos externos para o desenvolvimento econômico, com o pressuposto da inexistência de uma maldição dos recursos naturais. / In the period 2003-2011, international commodity prices had significant appreciation both in nominal and real terms, which improved the terms of trade for net exporters of these products, including Brazil. This movement was associated with a more robust economic growth for these countries compared with the period before the price boom. Taking this situation into account, the aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Brazil's economic growth and the performance of these relative prices in the 2000s through its possible transmission channels. This study considers the existence of five possible channels: (a) price effect on the exports of commodities; (b) quantum-effect on manufactured exports to commodity-exporting countries; (c) employment outcomes; (d) the possibility of raising imports, thus stimulating domestic demand; and, finally (e) the increase in tax revenues. The impact on economic growth, therefore, depends on the magnitude of these channels in the country's economy and whether or not the country takes advantage of these opportunities. In this regard, called for the possibility of access to such external stimulation for productive diversification, with the assumption of the absence of a resource curse.

No período 2003-11, os preços internacionais de commodities tiveram significativa valorização em termos tanto nominais quanto reais, o que melhorou os termos de troca para os países exportadores líquidos desses produtos, entre eles o Brasil. Esse movimento esteve associado ao crescimento econômico mais robusto para esses países, se comparado com o período anterior ao boom de preços. Frente a essa conjuntura, o propósito que se pretende alcançar neste trabalho é verificar a relação entre o crescimento econômico brasileiro e a performance desses preços relativos nos anos 2000, por meio de seus possíveis canais de transmissão. Considera-se a existência de cinco possíveis canais: (a) efeito-preço nas exportações de commodities; (b) efeito-quantum nas exportações de manufaturados para outros países exportadores de commodities; (c) resultados no emprego; (d) a possibilidade de se elevarem as importações e, portanto, atender-se à demanda doméstica; e, por fim, (e) a elevação das receitas fiscais. O impacto no crescimento econômico depende, assim, da magnitude desses canais na economia e de o país aproveitar, ou não, essas oportunidades. Neste sentido, defende-se a possibilidade de usufruir desses estímulos externos para o desenvolvimento econômico, com o pressuposto da inexistência de uma maldição dos recursos naturais. / In the period 2003-2011, international commodity prices had significant appreciation both in nominal and real terms, which improved the terms of trade for net exporters of these products, including Brazil. This movement was associated with a more robust economic growth for these countries compared with the period before the price boom. Taking this situation into account, the aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Brazil's economic growth and the performance of these relative prices in the 2000s through its possible transmission channels. This study considers the existence of five possible channels: (a) price effect on the exports of commodities; (b) quantum-effect on manufactured exports to commodity-exporting countries; (c) employment outcomes; (d) the possibility of raising imports, thus stimulating domestic demand; and, finally (e) the increase in tax revenues. The impact on economic growth, therefore, depends on the magnitude of these channels in the country's economy and whether or not the country takes advantage of these opportunities. In this regard, called for the possibility of access to such external stimulation for productive diversification, with the assumption of the absence of a resource curse.

No período 2003-11, os preços internacionais de commodities tiveram significativa valorização em termos tanto nominais quanto reais, o que melhorou os termos de troca para os países exportadores líquidos desses produtos, entre eles o Brasil. Esse movimento esteve associado ao crescimento econômico mais robusto para esses países, se comparado com o período anterior ao boom de preços. Frente a essa conjuntura, o propósito que se pretende alcançar neste trabalho é verificar a relação entre o crescimento econômico brasileiro e a performance desses preços relativos nos anos 2000, por meio de seus possíveis canais de transmissão. Considera-se a existência de cinco possíveis canais: (a) efeito-preço nas exportações de commodities; (b) efeito-quantum nas exportações de manufaturados para outros países exportadores de commodities; (c) resultados no emprego; (d) a possibilidade de se elevarem as importações e, portanto, atender-se à demanda doméstica; e, por fim, (e) a elevação das receitas fiscais. O impacto no crescimento econômico depende, assim, da magnitude desses canais na economia e de o país aproveitar, ou não, essas oportunidades. Neste sentido, defende-se a possibilidade de usufruir desses estímulos externos para o desenvolvimento econômico, com o pressuposto da inexistência de uma maldição dos recursos naturais. / In the period 2003-2011, international commodity prices had significant appreciation both in nominal and real terms, which improved the terms of trade for net exporters of these products, including Brazil. This movement was associated with a more robust economic growth for these countries compared with the period before the price boom. Taking this situation into account, the aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Brazil's economic growth and the performance of these relative prices in the 2000s through its possible transmission channels. This study considers the existence of five possible channels: (a) price effect on the exports of commodities; (b) quantum-effect on manufactured exports to commodity-exporting countries; (c) employment outcomes; (d) the possibility of raising imports, thus stimulating domestic demand; and, finally (e) the increase in tax revenues. The impact on economic growth, therefore, depends on the magnitude of these channels in the country's economy and whether or not the country takes advantage of these opportunities. In this regard, called for the possibility of access to such external stimulation for productive diversification, with the assumption of the absence of a resource curse.

Doctor of Philosophy / Economics / Steven P. Cassou / The increase in commodity prices that has taken place in the past decade or so has resulted in renewed interest in the debate about the macroeconomic consequences of such price increase. Previous studies tend to assume that all commodity price shocks are alike and advocate a “one size fit all” policy response by monetary authorities, either by means of contractionary monetary policy to alleviate inflationary pressures or doing nothing, since these shocks are believed to have insignificant economic impact. This dissertation analyses the impact of fluctuations in commodity prices on the South African economy. The first chapter studies the impact of shocks to prices of four commodities on monetary policy variables. Results show that shocks to different commodity prices have different effects on the monetary policy variables, hence rejecting the “one size fits all” policy response by monetary authorities, as some researchers have suggested. Chapter two investigates the sectorial effects of commodity price shocks. The Dutch Disease hypothesis suggests that a boom in the natural resource sector shrinks the manufacturing sector through crowding out and appreciation of the real exchange rate. South Africa is a major exporter of a large number of commodities. Using a structural VAR framework this chapter analyzes the impact of shocks to different commodity prices on the production and employment levels in the manufacturing and mining sectors in South Africa. The results show that the commodity price boom has had a positive impact on both sectors, hence the manufacturing sector did not experience signs of the Dutch disease. Chapter three examines the volatility transmission between commodity prices and nominal exchange rate in South Africa. This chapter uses conditional and realized volatility models to estimate volatility in exchange rate, gold, platinum, oil, palladium and silver prices and then employs Granger-causality, Impulse Response analysis, Variance Decomposition and Ordinary Least Squares to analyze the volatility transmission from the commodity prices to the nominal exchange rate. The results show that there is volatility transmission from commodity prices to the nominal exchange rate, hence knowing the volatility in commodity prices would improve investor’s ability to manage risk in South Africa.

The objective of this study is to develop a market sentiment model for financial markets using machine learning, and to illustrate these methods using commodity price data. A market sentiment model may capture the fundamental and crowd psychology of the market, through a variable that uses positive and negative words and phrases. The commodity price used is the daily price of the spot crude oil exchange-traded fund (ETF), United States Oil Fund (USO). The forecasting power of the market sentiment model is compared with a traditional autoregressive model. The results showed that the autoregressive models did not have significant forecasting power for the oil data over the time period examined and the addition of the sentiment model did not improve the forecasting power. Machine learning is a relatively new forecasting method. Therefore, further research on this topic is needed before any firm conclusions can be drawn regarding the effectiveness of this approach. / February 2017

This dissertation comprises two essays; the first of which investigates sovereign credit risk interdependencies, while the second examines the reaction of corporate credit risk to sovereign credit risk events. The first essay titled, Characterizing Sovereign Credit Risk Interdependencies: Evidence from the Credit Default Swap Market, investigates the relationships that exist among disparate sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) and the implications on sovereign creditworthiness. We exploit emerging market sovereign CDS spreads to examine the reaction of sovereign credit risk to changes in country-specific and global financial factors. Utilizing aVAR model fitted with DCC GARCH, we find that comovements of spreads generally exhibit significant time-varying correlations, suggesting that spreads are commonly affected by global financial factors. We construct 19 country-specific commodity price indexes to instrument for country terms of trade, obtaining significant results. Our commodity price indexes account for significant variation in CDS spreads, controlling for global financial factors. In addition, sovereign spreads are found to be related to U.S. stock market returns and the VIX volatility risk premium global factors. Notwithstanding, our results suggest that terms of trade and commodity prices have a statistically and economically significant effect on the sovereign credit risk of emerging economies. Our results apply broadly to investors, financial institutions and policy makers motivated to utilize profitable factors in global portfolios. The second essay is titled, Differential Stock Market Returns and Corporate Credit Risk of Listed Firms. This essay explores the information transfer effect of shocks to sovereign credit risk as captured in the CDS and stock market returns of cross-listed and local stock exchange listed firms. Based on changes in sovereign credit ratings and outlooks, we find that widening CDS spreads of firms imply that negative credit events dominate, whereas tightening spreads indicate positive events. Grouping firms into companies with cross-listings and those without, we compare the spillover effects and find strong evidence of contagion across equity and CDS markets in both company groupings. Our findings suggest that the sensitivity of corporate CDS prices to sovereign credit events is significantly larger for non-cross-listed firms. Possible reasons for this finding could in fact be due to cross-listed firms’ better access to external capital and less degree of asymmetric information, relative to non-cross-listed peers with lower level of investor recognition. Our results provide new evidence relevant to investors and financial institutions in determining sovereign credit risk germane to corporate financial risk, for the construction of debt and equity portfolios, and hedging considerations in today’s dynamic environment.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-04-25T19:30:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Sabrina Monique Schenato Bredow_.pdf: 1816066 bytes, checksum: dfc2fea0a5369d22e5ec14fc8ea0cd5a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:30:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sabrina Monique Schenato Bredow_.pdf: 1816066 bytes, checksum: dfc2fea0a5369d22e5ec14fc8ea0cd5a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este trabalho analisa a influência do recente ciclo de alta dos preços das commodities sobre a entrada de capital externo no Brasil. Para o alcance desse objetivo, foram utilizadas duas metodologias econométricas diferentes: Modelos de Mudanças de Regimes Markovianos e Modelo Vetorial de Correção de Erros (VAR/VEC). O primeiro modelo foi utilizado para delimitar o ciclo de alta dos preços das commodities e para verificar se este período é concomitante ao período de elevação da entrada de capital externo no Brasil. Os resultados apontam que o recente período de alta dos preços das commodities ocorre entre os anos de 2002 e 2014, que é o último ano da amostra utilizada nesta pesquisa. Ademais, os regimes de alta estimados para as exportações, Investimento Estrangeiro Direto (IED) e Investimento Estrangeiro em Carteira (IEC), que são os três principais agregados do Balanço de Pagamentos que representam o ingresso de capitais externos no país, ocorrem em períodos similares ao observado para a série dos preços das commodities. A partir destes resultados, a influência da alta dos preços das commodities sobre a entrada de capital externo no Brasil foi analisada através do emprego da metodologia VAR/VEC, para o período entre o ano de 2002 e 2014, a partir da estimação de três modelos diferentes, um para cada agregado do Balanço de Pagamentos brasileiro. Os resultados apontam que o ciclo de alta dos preços das commodities influenciou significativamente a entrada de dividas externas no Brasil, sendo que os efeitos mais expressivos ocorrem via comércio e entrada de capitais de curto prazo. / This study analyzes the influence of the recent cycle of high commodity prices on foreign capital inflows in Brazil. To achieve this goal, it was used two different econometric methodologies: Markov-Switching Model and Vector Error Correction Model (VAR/VEC). The first model was used to define the cycle of high commodity prices and to check if this period is concomitant to the raise period of foreign capital inflows in Brazil. The results show that the recent period of high commodity prices occurs between the years 2002 and 2014, which is the last year of the sample used in this research. Moreover, the estimated high regime for exports, Foreign Direct Investment and Foreign Portfolio Investment, which are the three main aggregates of the Balance of Payments representing the inflow of foreign capital in the country occur in similar periods to that observed for the series of commodity prices. From these results, the influence of higher commodity prices on foreign capital inflows in Brazil was analyzed through the use of VAR/VEC methodology for the period between 2002 and 2014, from the estimation of three different models, one for each aggregate of the Balance of Payments. The results show that the cycle of high commodity prices significantly influenced the foreign capital inflows in Brazil, with the most significant effects occur via trade and short-term capital inflows.

Copulas functions are a flexible tool for modelling the dependence structure between variables. The joint and marginal distributions of Copulas are not constrained by the assumptions of normality. This study examines the dependence structure between the gold, platinum prices and the ZAR/U.S.D exchange rate using Copulas. The study found that marginal distributions of Copulas follows the ARMA (1, 1)-EGARCH (1, 1) and ARMA(1, 1)-APARCH (1, 1) models under different error terms including the normal, the student-t and the skew student-t error terms. It used the Normal, the Student-t, the Gumbel, the rotated Gumbel, the Clayton, the rotated Clayton, the Plackett, the Joe Clayton and the Normal time varying Copulas to analyse the dependence structure between returns prices of gold, platinum and ZAR/U.S.D exchange rate. The results showed evidence of a positive strong dependence between the returns prices of gold, platinum and returns on the Rand/U.S.D exchange rate for constant and time varying Copulas. The result also showed a co-movement of exchange rates and gold and platinum prices during a rise or declining prices of gold and platinum. The results imply that fluctuations in gold and platinum prices generate Rand/U.S.D exchange rate volatility. / Statistics / M. Sc. (Statistics)