The object of government is the welfare of the people – Theodore Roosevelt Commodity prices in the South African economy has become a topic of much debate with suppliers, consumers and government involved in a struggle to address issues of monopolies, market dominance and claims of excessive pricing. This document aims to explore to what extent commodity prices affect the gold mining industry, the theory and practicality of monopolistic supplier pricing models, the responses to such behaviour and the role that the competition authorities play in facilitating a free market. By obtaining industry information, studies of market theory and the review of competition legislation, an understanding of the issues was obtained. After discussion with industry role players (suppliers, mining companies and independent third parties) both qualitative and quantitative data was obtained to answer questions around competition and market dominance. <p.The findings of the study include: •Gold mining companies have considerable exposure to Import Parity Pricing for commodities such as steel and chemicals. •Monopoly suppliers exercise considerable market power over these products. •Consumers believe that they are being treated unfairly by suppliers and this raises high levels of emotion. •The competition authorities appear to be unable to manage these issues effectively. •Government sees this as a problem and is intent on addressing these issues. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

實證證據顯示商品價格有均值回歸和跳躍的特性。由於一些商品期權收益涉及歷史商品價格的算術平均，因此我們求出算術亞式期權在均值回歸跳躍擴散過程下的分析解。比分析解是對資產價格最終值和實際平均值的聯合特徽函數進行快速傅立葉變換獲得。我們通過數值模擬研究來檢驗此建議方法的準確度和計算效率。 / Empirical evidence indicates that commodity prices are mean reverting and exhibit jumps. As some commodity option payoff involves the arithmetic average of historical commodity prices, we derive an analytical solution to arithmetic Asian options under a mean reverting jump diffusion process. The analytical solution is implemented with the fast Fourier transform based on the joint characteristic function of the terminal asset price and the realized average value. We also examine the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed method through numerical studies. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Chung, Shing Fung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-42). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Model with constant parameters --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Model specification --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Joint characteristic function --- p.8 / Chapter 3 --- Model with time-dependent parameters --- p.12 / Chapter 3.1 --- Model specification --- p.13 / Chapter 3.2 --- Joint characteristic function --- p.13 / Chapter 4 --- Fast Fourier transform on Asian option prices --- p.18 / Chapter 5 --- Numerical results --- p.20 / Chapter 5.1 --- Comparison of the analytical solution and Monte Carlo simulation . --- p.20 / Chapter 5.2 --- Price sensitivity and model parameters --- p.26 / Chapter 5.3 --- Price sensitivity and payoff structure --- p.26 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.33 / Chapter A --- Normally distributed jump size --- p.34 / Bibliography --- p.40

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-02T11:16:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-07-02Bitstream added on 2014-12-02T11:21:40Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000800230.pdf: 1704707 bytes, checksum: a23d2d846c7469eb7ba97c7543ecb60e (MD5) / O consumo de soja na China ultrapassou a capacidade doméstica de produção, em e special devido ao aumento do consumo de óleo e farelo de soja, induzido pelo crescimento da renda e pelo crescimento da população, particularmente em grandes áreas urbanas. Como resposta rápida ao aumento na demanda, a China passou a importar grão de soja principalmente de três países: EUA, Brasil e Argentina. Com esta mudança no padrão de consumo, coprodutos da industrialização do grão de soja, o óleo e o farelo, ganharam importância na vida cotidiana da população chinesa. O farelo de soja passou a ser uti lizado na alimentação animal , e o óleo de soja substituiu o consumo de óleo de colza para alimentação humana. Desta forma, o objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar as relações de causalidade e de transmissão de preços do grão, farelo e óleo de soja na China e Estados Unidos. Os dados são referentes ao período de janeiro de 2006 a outubro de 2013, com periodicidade diária dos preços de fechamento dos produtos analisados nas bolsas de valores de Dalian e Chicago. Utilizou - se a metodologia de causalidade de Gran ger para testar as relações entre as variáveis e foram aplicados os modelos de autoregressão vetorial com modelo de correção de erros (MCE). Os resultados empíricos apontam a existência de uma relação de equilíbrio de longo prazo dos níveis de preços futur os entre os mercados analisados, identificando a incorporação ... / The soy consumption in China exceeded domestic production capacity, especially due to the increase in consumption of oil and soybean meal, induced by income growth and population growth, particularly in large urban areas. As a rapid response to soaring demand, China began importing soybean mainly from three countries: USA, Brazil and Argentina. With this change in the pattern of consumption, byproducts of industrialization of soybean, the oil and the meal, have gained importance in the everyday life of the Chinese population. Soybean meal came to be used in animal feed, and soybean oil replaced the consumption of rapeseed oil for human consumption. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the relatio nships of causal and of transmission of prices of grain, meal and soybean oil in China and in the United States. Data are referring to the period from January 2006 to October 2013, with a daily periodicity of the closing prices of the products analyzed in the stock exchanges of Dalian and Chicago. It was used the causality methodology of Granger to test the relationships between the variables and it were applied vector autoregression models with error correction model (ECM). The empirical results indicate t he existence of a relationship of long - run equilibrium in the levels of future prices between the analyzed markets, identifying the incorporation of the same information in the price formation process. So, the possibility of arbitration between these marke ts is reduced wit

Orientador: Osmar de Carvalho Bueno / Coorientador: Anselmo José Spadotto / Coorientador: Pedro Valentim Marques / Banca: Maura Seiko T. Esparancini / Banca: Andréia Cristina de O. Adami / Resumo: O consumo de soja na China ultrapassou a capacidade doméstica de produção, em e special devido ao aumento do consumo de óleo e farelo de soja, induzido pelo crescimento da renda e pelo crescimento da população, particularmente em grandes áreas urbanas. Como resposta rápida ao aumento na demanda, a China passou a importar grão de soja principalmente de três países: EUA, Brasil e Argentina. Com esta mudança no padrão de consumo, coprodutos da industrialização do grão de soja, o óleo e o farelo, ganharam importância na vida cotidiana da população chinesa. O farelo de soja passou a ser uti lizado na alimentação animal , e o óleo de soja substituiu o consumo de óleo de colza para alimentação humana. Desta forma, o objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar as relações de causalidade e de transmissão de preços do grão, farelo e óleo de soja na China e Estados Unidos. Os dados são referentes ao período de janeiro de 2006 a outubro de 2013, com periodicidade diária dos preços de fechamento dos produtos analisados nas bolsas de valores de Dalian e Chicago. Utilizou - se a metodologia de causalidade de Gran ger para testar as relações entre as variáveis e foram aplicados os modelos de autoregressão vetorial com modelo de correção de erros (MCE). Os resultados empíricos apontam a existência de uma relação de equilíbrio de longo prazo dos níveis de preços futur os entre os mercados analisados, identificando a incorporação ... / Abstract: The soy consumption in China exceeded domestic production capacity, especially due to the increase in consumption of oil and soybean meal, induced by income growth and population growth, particularly in large urban areas. As a rapid response to soaring demand, China began importing soybean mainly from three countries: USA, Brazil and Argentina. With this change in the pattern of consumption, byproducts of industrialization of soybean, the oil and the meal, have gained importance in the everyday life of the Chinese population. Soybean meal came to be used in animal feed, and soybean oil replaced the consumption of rapeseed oil for human consumption. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the relatio nships of causal and of transmission of prices of grain, meal and soybean oil in China and in the United States. Data are referring to the period from January 2006 to October 2013, with a daily periodicity of the closing prices of the products analyzed in the stock exchanges of Dalian and Chicago. It was used the causality methodology of Granger to test the relationships between the variables and it were applied vector autoregression models with error correction model (ECM). The empirical results indicate t he existence of a relationship of long - run equilibrium in the levels of future prices between the analyzed markets, identifying the incorporation of the same information in the price formation process. So, the possibility of arbitration between these marke ts is reduced wit / Mestre