O agronegócio brasileiro vem apresentando importantes avanços quantitativos e qualitativos, ocupando posição de destaque na economia brasileira e no comércio internacional. Entretanto, essa nova realidade introduz ao processo de formação de preços, novas variáveis macroeconômicas que influenciam os arranjos negociais e aumenta à variabilidade de preços, exigindo do produtor rural a ampliação do conhecimento e da prática de gestão de riscos, seja para o êxito de seu negócio e/ou para o bem da economia como um todo. O risco de mercado intrínseco na atividade agropecuária gera impactos de diferentes proporções aos agentes envolvidos e configura-se como um grande problema para o agronegócio. Como solução deste problema é apresentado o mercado de derivativos agropecuários, analisando sua eficiência na gestão da variabilidade de preços, através de diferentes estratégias de comercialização da soja nas três últimas safras. Como a comercialização da produção através do mercado futuro se propõe a garantir determinado preço ao produtor, simularam-se os resultados obtidos por uma propriedade-padrão que negociou sua produção via contratos futuros, comparativamente aos obtidos através da venda no mercado spot local. Quanto à efetividade dos instrumentos derivativos, nota-se que sua utilização resguarda o produtor de oscilações de preços que possam comprometer sua atividade, mesmo que ele não enfrente adversidades em relação à produtividade de sua lavoura. Evidentemente, dada a amplitude e a diversidade de operações, o conjunto de estratégias não pôde ser esgotado. / Brazilian agribusiness has been showing significant quantitative and qualitative advances, occupying a prominent position in the Brazilian economy and international trade. However, this new reality introduces the process of pricing, new macroeconomic variables that influence the negotiating arrangements and increases price variability, requiring the farmer to increase the knowledge and practice of risk management, either to the success of his business and/or for the good of the economy as a whole. The market risk inherent in agricultural activity generates impacts of different proportions to those concerned, and configures itself as a major problem for agribusiness. As a solution to this problem, the agricultural derivatives market is presented, analyzing their effectiveness in the management of price variability through different marketing strategies of soybeans in the last three seasons. As the commercialization of the production through the futures market aims at guaranteeing a certain price to the producer, it was simulated the results obtained by a standard property which negotiated its production through futures contracts, compared to those obtained by selling in the spot market place. As for the effectiveness of derivative instruments, note that its use protects the producer price changes that may compromise his activity, even if he does not face adversity in relation to the productivity of his crop. Of course, given the breadth and diversity of operations, the set of strategies could not be exhausted.

O agronegócio brasileiro vem apresentando importantes avanços quantitativos e qualitativos, ocupando posição de destaque na economia brasileira e no comércio internacional. Entretanto, essa nova realidade introduz ao processo de formação de preços, novas variáveis macroeconômicas que influenciam os arranjos negociais e aumenta à variabilidade de preços, exigindo do produtor rural a ampliação do conhecimento e da prática de gestão de riscos, seja para o êxito de seu negócio e/ou para o bem da economia como um todo. O risco de mercado intrínseco na atividade agropecuária gera impactos de diferentes proporções aos agentes envolvidos e configura-se como um grande problema para o agronegócio. Como solução deste problema é apresentado o mercado de derivativos agropecuários, analisando sua eficiência na gestão da variabilidade de preços, através de diferentes estratégias de comercialização da soja nas três últimas safras. Como a comercialização da produção através do mercado futuro se propõe a garantir determinado preço ao produtor, simularam-se os resultados obtidos por uma propriedade-padrão que negociou sua produção via contratos futuros, comparativamente aos obtidos através da venda no mercado spot local. Quanto à efetividade dos instrumentos derivativos, nota-se que sua utilização resguarda o produtor de oscilações de preços que possam comprometer sua atividade, mesmo que ele não enfrente adversidades em relação à produtividade de sua lavoura. Evidentemente, dada a amplitude e a diversidade de operações, o conjunto de estratégias não pôde ser esgotado. / Brazilian agribusiness has been showing significant quantitative and qualitative advances, occupying a prominent position in the Brazilian economy and international trade. However, this new reality introduces the process of pricing, new macroeconomic variables that influence the negotiating arrangements and increases price variability, requiring the farmer to increase the knowledge and practice of risk management, either to the success of his business and/or for the good of the economy as a whole. The market risk inherent in agricultural activity generates impacts of different proportions to those concerned, and configures itself as a major problem for agribusiness. As a solution to this problem, the agricultural derivatives market is presented, analyzing their effectiveness in the management of price variability through different marketing strategies of soybeans in the last three seasons. As the commercialization of the production through the futures market aims at guaranteeing a certain price to the producer, it was simulated the results obtained by a standard property which negotiated its production through futures contracts, compared to those obtained by selling in the spot market place. As for the effectiveness of derivative instruments, note that its use protects the producer price changes that may compromise his activity, even if he does not face adversity in relation to the productivity of his crop. Of course, given the breadth and diversity of operations, the set of strategies could not be exhausted.

O agronegócio brasileiro vem apresentando importantes avanços quantitativos e qualitativos, ocupando posição de destaque na economia brasileira e no comércio internacional. Entretanto, essa nova realidade introduz ao processo de formação de preços, novas variáveis macroeconômicas que influenciam os arranjos negociais e aumenta à variabilidade de preços, exigindo do produtor rural a ampliação do conhecimento e da prática de gestão de riscos, seja para o êxito de seu negócio e/ou para o bem da economia como um todo. O risco de mercado intrínseco na atividade agropecuária gera impactos de diferentes proporções aos agentes envolvidos e configura-se como um grande problema para o agronegócio. Como solução deste problema é apresentado o mercado de derivativos agropecuários, analisando sua eficiência na gestão da variabilidade de preços, através de diferentes estratégias de comercialização da soja nas três últimas safras. Como a comercialização da produção através do mercado futuro se propõe a garantir determinado preço ao produtor, simularam-se os resultados obtidos por uma propriedade-padrão que negociou sua produção via contratos futuros, comparativamente aos obtidos através da venda no mercado spot local. Quanto à efetividade dos instrumentos derivativos, nota-se que sua utilização resguarda o produtor de oscilações de preços que possam comprometer sua atividade, mesmo que ele não enfrente adversidades em relação à produtividade de sua lavoura. Evidentemente, dada a amplitude e a diversidade de operações, o conjunto de estratégias não pôde ser esgotado. / Brazilian agribusiness has been showing significant quantitative and qualitative advances, occupying a prominent position in the Brazilian economy and international trade. However, this new reality introduces the process of pricing, new macroeconomic variables that influence the negotiating arrangements and increases price variability, requiring the farmer to increase the knowledge and practice of risk management, either to the success of his business and/or for the good of the economy as a whole. The market risk inherent in agricultural activity generates impacts of different proportions to those concerned, and configures itself as a major problem for agribusiness. As a solution to this problem, the agricultural derivatives market is presented, analyzing their effectiveness in the management of price variability through different marketing strategies of soybeans in the last three seasons. As the commercialization of the production through the futures market aims at guaranteeing a certain price to the producer, it was simulated the results obtained by a standard property which negotiated its production through futures contracts, compared to those obtained by selling in the spot market place. As for the effectiveness of derivative instruments, note that its use protects the producer price changes that may compromise his activity, even if he does not face adversity in relation to the productivity of his crop. Of course, given the breadth and diversity of operations, the set of strategies could not be exhausted.

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The dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay investigates how oil market factors impact on liquidity commonality in global equity markets. I identify two transmitting channels of the effect on liquidity commonality, namely oil price return and volatility. Using a sample of firms drawn from 50 countries spanning from Jan 1995 to Dec 2015, I find that both effects in oil explain the liquidity commonality in countries with higher integration to oil market. In addition, I show that oil volatility effect is more pronounced in net oil exporters compared to net oil importers after controlling for oil sensitivity. My findings suggest that oil volatility effect on liquidity commonality is more substantial for high oil sensitive countries than oil price return effect except five OPEC members, where liquidity commonality is highly influenced by oil the return along with volatility. These results are robust to controlling for possible sources of liquidity commonality as found in the literature. In the second essay, I study the impact of stock liquidity on firms’ future investments. Since stock liquidity decreases the cost of equity, I expect firms’ future investments to increase with stock liquidity. Secondly, I argue that this relation is more pronounced in more financially constrained firms because of their limited access to external capital. Using a sample of more than 9800 firms, from 21 emerging markets and spanning from 2000 to 2015, I find supportive and robust evidence of a positive association between stock liquidity and firms’ future investments. Furthermore, my findings strongly suggest that the liquidity impact on corporate investments is highly influenced by the firms’ financial constraint levels, using four different definitions of financial constraints. My findings are robust due to controlling for other determinants of future investment suggested in the previous literature, and due to controlling for the country and time effects. In addition, the results seem to be consistent with the use of alternative measures of corporate investments and stock liquidity and with alternative model specifications and estimation methodologies.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / Pre-democratic South Africa was highly regulated by the apartheid government with the black small-scale farming community actively marginalised. Following the deregulation of the South African agricultural market came the opening up of the market to accommodate these small-scale farmers and also the introduction of South African Futures Exchange. South Africa has done well in terms of development of ICT over the past years, making it a country with characteristics of both first and third world countries. This study aims to assess the agricultural commodity exchange market and how small-scale farmers may participate more actively in the market. This study finds that though South Africa has world class ICT infrastructure this has not made it easier for small-scale farmers to enter the agricultural market and value chain. The study finds that there is little or no participation by small-scale farmers in South African Futures Exchange. It finds that mobile phones and applications may be the way forward in the efforts to ensure their participation in the commodity exchange market through provision of services such as price discovery and price risk management as is the function of South African Futures Exchange. It is also found that there is need to invest in high value agricultural products in order to benefit more from commodity exchanges.

(Ph. D. (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The issues regarding the determinants of agricultural production and food supply are currently of great interest in developing countries. This, in turn, has led to the undertaking of this study focusing on the effectiveness of incentives that can be offered within the agricultural sector to boost production. The study aims to model the supply response of key agricultural commodities to price incentives, price risk and non-price incentives. Special focus is given to four major grain crops, namely; maize, wheat, sorghum and barley, which are of strategic interest to South Africa. The emphasis of the study is on two significant aspects of agricultural supply response: First, an attempt is made to determine the level of price risk among the selected grain crops using two distinct price risk measures. Second, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag-Error Correction Model (ARDL-ECM) approach to cointegration is used to estimate the responsiveness of grain producers to price risk, price incentives and non-price incentives. Annual historical time series data of 49 observations for the period 1970 to 2018 is used in the analysis. Data is tested for stationarity using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test and the Dickey-Fuller Generalised Least Square (DF-GLS) detrending test. The empirical results reveal that grain supply in South Africa is reasonably responsive to price incentives. However, the degree of responsiveness is low and varies among different crops. Depending on the crop, the results show that own price supply elasticities range from about 0.24 to 0.75. Supply elasticities for nonprice factors are much higher, indicating that non-price incentives (i.e. rainfall, fertiliser, technology) are better production drivers than price incentives in South Africa. Thus, instead of regarding price mechanisms as being the only tools to promote agricultural production, it is concluded that further expansion of irrigation facilities and encouraging the adoption of drought-resistant varieties will stimulate grain production. The results underscore the relevance of price risk in determining production output and show that greater price risk leads to reduced production levels, particularly for maize and barley. In light of such evidence, any policy initiatives undertaken to stabilise the grain industry should look into proposing packages (i.e., forward contracts, futures contracts, contract farming) that reduce the negative impacts of price volatility in grain commodity markets

Agriculture is of inestimable value to South Africa because it is a major source of job creation and plays a key role in earning foreign exchange. The most significant contribution of agriculture, and in particular maize, is its ability to provide food for the nation. For a number of decades government legislation determined prices, and as such the trade of grains on the futures exchange requires market participants to adapt to a volatile environment. The research focuses on the ability of market participants to effectively mitigate price volatility on the futures exchange through the use of derivative instruments, and the possibility of developing risk management strategies that will outperform the return offered by the market. The study shows that market participants are unable to use derivative instruments in such a way that price volatility is minimised. The findings of the study also indicate that the development of derivative risk management strategies could result in better returns than those offered by the market, mainly by exploiting trends on the futures market. / Financial Accounting / M. Comm. (Business Management)

Corn production is scattered geographically over various continents, but most of it is grown in the United States. As such, the world price of corn futures contracts is largely dominated by North American corn prices as traded on the Chicago Board of Trade. In recent years, this market has been characterised by an increase in price volatility and magnitude of price movement as a result of decreasing stock levels. The development and implementation of an effective and successful derivative price risk management strategy based on the Chicago Board of Trade corn futures contract will therefore be of inestimable value to market stakeholders worldwide. The research focused on the efficient market hypothesis and the possibility of contesting this phenomenon through an application of a derivative price risk management methodology. The methodology is based on a combination of an analysis of market trends and technical oscillators with the objective of generating returns superior to that of a market benchmark. The study found that market participants are currently unable to exploit price movement in a manner which results in returns that contest the notion of efficient markets. The methodology proposed, however, does allow the user to consistently achieve returns superior to that of a predetermined market benchmark. The benchmark price for the purposes of this study was the average price offered by the market over the contract lifetime, and such, the efficient market hypothesis was successfully contested. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)

Text in Afrikkans / Summaries in English and Afrikaans / The capital-adequacy problem is essentially concerned with the amount of capital that a bank should maintain in order to conduct its operations in a prudent manner. Because one of the primary functions of bank capital is to act as a risk cushion for the protection of a bank's depositors, a bank's capital funds are often regarded as comprising an insurance element. The capital-adequacy concept, therefore, may be seen as part of the overall banking risk, or prudential management. An attempt has been made to indicate that bank supervisors should use not only capital ratios when analysing a bank's capital position. Other factors, such as asset quality and other financial risks, should also be taken in consideration. Financial ratio analysis, however, provides bank supervisors with useful information. When combining ratio analysis with non-quantifiable factors, bank supervisors may indeed achieve their goal of determining capital adequacy. / Die kapitaaltoereikendheidsprobleem is hoofsaaklik gebaseer op die hoeveelheid kapitaal waaroor 'n bankinstelling moet beskik, ten einde die bankbesigheid op 'n verstandige wyse te bedryf. Een van die primere funksies van kapitaal is om te dien as verliesabsorberingsbuffer ter beskerming van 'n bankinstelling se deposante, en daarom word toereikende kapitaal dikwels geag om 'n soort versekeringselement te bevat. Die konsep van kapitaaltoereikendheid kan dus beskou word as deel van die totale risikobestuurskonsep. Daar is tydens die studie gepoog om aan te dui dat banktoesighouers nie net kapitaalverhoudings behoort te gebruik om 'n bankinstelling se kapitaalposisie te ontleed nie. Ander faktore, soos batekwaliteit en antler finansiele risiko's, moet ook in ag geneem word. Finansiele verhoudingsgetalontledings voorsien banktoesighouers van waardevolle inligting. Indien verhoudingsgetalle egter met nie-gekwantifiseerde inligting gekombineer sou word, kan banktoesighouers hul doel om kapitaaltoereikendheid te bepaal, bereik. / M.Com. (Business Management)