The study analyzes the effects of three maize market policies on strategic price volatility, oligopoly/oligopsony market power, distribution of market surplus and total welfare. Policies of interest are privatization, the Current Malawi government policy and a proposed policy. The study first develops a workable theory then tests the various government policies in laboratory market experiments. The laboratory results indicate that the proposed policy was the most effective in reducing strategic volatility, but resulted in high output and low input prices. In terms of welfare distribution, privatization had highest consumer surplus followed by the current policy. The same was the case with producers’ surplus. However, traders’ profits were substantially higher in the proposed policy treatment. Total welfare was highest in the proposed policy followed by the current policy. In all, there appears there can be significant policy tradeoffs between market volatility, market power, surplus distribution and total welfare.

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.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / Recent unexpected variability in the earnings of agribusinesses in South Africa has led stakeholders to ask as to why projected financial performance tended to be so different from the actual results achieved. This paper aims to make an empirical contribution to the discussion on the effects of soft commodity price volatility on the returns of entities whose major business involves derivatives trading in agricultural commodity products. Firstly, mathematical models for commodity price volatility are determined for the major agricultural commodities on the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX) using the autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) and the generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) type of approaches. Secondly, the study then seeks to ascertain whether there are causality links between the commodity price volatility and the returns or earnings realised by selected agribusinesses over time. The paper then discusses some trading strategies that are applicable given that commodity price volatility can be forecasted using the statistical models identified under the study.

Usually, consumers will collect market information about the product before they decide to buy it or not. In other words, the market information is a critical factor to affect consumers¡¦ purchasing intensions and behavior. Previous research points out that when consumers encounter a wider dispersion of price, they will expect to find cheaper stores. Besides, future price is often considered by consumers too. Kauffman et al. (2002) mentioned that the market price information might affect the recruiting of group buying. In a competitive market, if consumers are unable to perceive the utility of discounts provided by group-buying mechanism, they may shop at other retailers¡¦ stores. Further, because the final price of group buying will not be known until the transaction is closed, consumers¡¦ decisions might be up to their prediction about the final price. This study explores how price dispersion and price volatility affect consumers¡¦ internal reference price and expectation of final price of group buying. The difference between the internal reference and expectation of final price of group-buying indicates the consumers¡¦ transaction utility. How transaction utility affects consumers¡¦ intentions to join group buying is another issue being studied. In addition, if there is interference effect of consumers¡¦ risk attitude on final price forecast of group-buying, it¡¦s investigated, too. The result indicates that price dispersion has significant effects on consumers¡¦ all kinds of internal reference prices and predictions about the final price of group buying. However, the price volatility only has significant effects on consumers¡¦ perceived fair price, aspiration price, and reservation price. Neither significant effect of price volatility on consumers¡¦ price prediction of group buying nor interference effect of risk attitude is found. As expected, there is a significant positive causal relationship between transaction utility and intention to join group-buying. It shows that the transaction utility resulting from the comparison between the lowest market price and the most possible final price of group buying has the most explanatory power to predict consumers¡¦ participating intension to join group-buying.

This thesis examines the effects of price and exchange rate volatilities on the volume of trade corn, soybean, wheat and rice. Empirical results indicate that price volatility and exchange rate volatilities do not have effects on Canada’s export of wheat and soybean, and Canada’s import of corn and rice. This thesis also examined the effects of exchange rate and commodity price volatilities on developed countries’ trade and developing countries’ trade separately. Results show that trade between developing countries is more sensitive to exchange rate and commodity price volatilities than trade between developed countries. / Canadian Agricultural Trade Policy and Competitiveness Research Network (CATPRN)

This thesis examines the effects of price and exchange rate volatilities on the volume of trade corn, soybean, wheat and rice. Empirical results indicate that price volatility and exchange rate volatilities do not have effects on Canada’s export of wheat and soybean, and Canada’s import of corn and rice. This thesis also examined the effects of exchange rate and commodity price volatilities on developed countries’ trade and developing countries’ trade separately. Results show that trade between developing countries is more sensitive to exchange rate and commodity price volatilities than trade between developed countries. / Canadian Agricultural Trade Policy and Competitiveness Research Network (CATPRN)

This thesis examines the effects of price and exchange rate volatilities on the volume of trade corn, soybean, wheat and rice. Empirical results indicate that price volatility and exchange rate volatilities do not have effects on Canada’s export of wheat and soybean, and Canada’s import of corn and rice. This thesis also examined the effects of exchange rate and commodity price volatilities on developed countries’ trade and developing countries’ trade separately. Results show that trade between developing countries is more sensitive to exchange rate and commodity price volatilities than trade between developed countries. / Canadian Agricultural Trade Policy and Competitiveness Research Network (CATPRN)

This study investigates how increased wind power production (in MWh) in Sweden has affected electricity price volatility in the Nordic wholesale electricity exchange Nord Pool. The importance and growth of wind power have emerged in light of its low marginal costs of production and it being a renewable, zero-carbon electricity generation source. Previous studies have found that while increased wind power production generally lowers the average wholesale price of electricity, volatility tends to increase due to the intermittent character of wind power production. By using daily price and wind power data from the Nordic exchange market Nord Pool during the period 2015-2017, a GARCH model was used to investigate how wind power has affected price volatility. The results indicate that electricity price volatility increases in the long run when wind power production increases. The reasons behind this could be found in the inflexibility of baseload power production. However, the Swedish electric power system also benefits from a high degree of flexibility due to the presence of hydropower reservoirs.

This research aims to examine if a negative relationship exists between the dividend yield and stock price volatility of firms listed on the Swedish Stock exchange market, which is of utter interest and intrinsic for investors and financial analyst in the process of valuing a security’s and a stock portfolio's risk and return. The data that was utilized for this study consists of 52 companies for the period of 2010 to 2019 which makes up for 520 observations. A pooled regression model and a multiple ordinary least squares model was applied to test the relationship. The results show a negative relationship between the dividend yield and stock price volatility. On the other hand, the results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between earnings volatility and stock price volatility. However, there is a negative relationship for leverage, market value and asset growth with stock price volatility.

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