Implications of recent Australian wheat industry developments for overseas and domestic prices

This study is motivated by the proposition that the objectives of the AWB Ltd have changed since semi-privatisation of the Australian Wheat Board under the Wheat Marketing Act, 1989. Conceptualising this change of objectives as a shift from revenue maximization to profit maximization, this study examines the impact of such a change on the pricing policies of a multi-market price-setting firm. More specifically, this paper investigates, using two hypothetical objective functions, a risk averse AWB�s price-setting behaviour in an �overseas� and a �domestic� market in response to recent wheat industry developments. In the analysis these developments manifest themselves as differing price elasticities, differing transport costs and uncertain demand functions, and their implications particularly for the prices paid by domestic consumers are explored.

Repasse cambial reverso: uma avaliação sobre a relação entre taxa de câmbio e IPCA no Brasil (1999-2007)

A presente dissertação discute o repasse cambial para o IPCA na economia brasileira durante o período compreendido entre janeiro de 1999 e dezembro de 2007. A ampla maioria dos trabalhos que versam sobre este tema aborda a redução do repasse após a adoção do regime de metas de inflação e/ou tem como único foco o impacto das desvalorizações cambiais no aumento dos índices de preços. Este trabalho, por outro lado, aborda de maneira explícita o papel da valorização do Real sobre a variação do IPCA no período recente, configurando o que denominamos de repasse cambial reverso. Para tanto, estimamos o repasse cambial por meio de um modelo de vetores auto-regressivos tanto para o referido período (1999-2007), quanto para outros dois recortes temporais: entre janeiro de 1999 e junho 2003 (amostra 1), período no qual se verifica uma tendência de desvalorização cambial e aumento de preços; e de julho de 2003 a dezembro de 2007 (amostra 2), período caracterizado pelo processo inverso, de valorização da taxa de câmbio e de cumprimento das metas de inflação na maioria dos anos. Os principais resultados foram: (i) no longo prazo os coeficientes de repasse cambial para o IPCA para as duas amostras foram superiores àqueles verificados para o período completo; e (ii) o repasse estimado para a amostra 2 foi bem elevado, ainda que inferior àquele obtido para a amostra 1. Estes resultados reforçam o argumento de que a taxa de câmbio desempenhou um papel proeminente no controle da inflação no período 2003-2007.

Status of the shrimp sector in Bangladesh in the context of HACCP and trade issues: a review

Shrimp culture in Bangladesh has emerged as an important aquaculture industry over the last three decades although its culture in greater parts of the farming area is done in traditional ways. In the meantime, the government of Bangladesh has taken necessary measures along with the private sectors to increase production, upgrade processing industries and to promote export performance. Long supply chain in raw material collection, inadequate infrastructure facilities, poor level of cool chain and lack of adequate HACCP-based training on hygiene and sanitation of different groups of people involved in the field level are the main problems of quality loss of raw materials. Shortage of raw materials results in poor capacity utilization of the processing plants. The growth of bagda (P. monodon) hatchery has expanded rapidly over the last few years, remaining mostly concentrated in Cox's Bazar region is enough to meet the target production. However, there is a shortage of pelleted shrimp feed in Bangladesh. A large number of export processors are now producing increasing amounts of value-added products such as individually quick-frozen, peeled and divined, butterfly cut shrimp, as well as cooked products. The export earnings from value added products is about half of the total export value. About 95% of total fish products are exported to European countries, USA and Japan and the remaining to the Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Most of the EU approved shrimp processing industries have been upgraded with laboratory facilities and provided HACCP training to their workers. As of now, HACCP is applied on the processing plants, but to ensure the quality of raw materials and to reduce risks, shrimp farms are also required to adopt HACCP plan. There is increased pressure time to time from importing countries for fish processors to establish effective quality assurance system in processing plants. Fish Inspection and Quality Control (FIQC) of the Department of Fisheries while having moderately equipped laboratories with chemical, bio-chemical and microbiological testing facilities and qualified technical personnel, the creation of facilities for testing of antibiotics is underway. FIQC mainly supervises quality aspects of the processing plants and has little or no control over raw material supply chains from farm to processing plants. Bangladesh export consignments sometimes face rejection due to reported poor quality of the products. Three types of barriers are reported for export of shrimp to EU countries. These are:(1) government participation in trade and restrictive practices (state aid, countervailing duties, state trading enterprises, government monopoly practices), customs and administrative entry procedures (anti-dumping duties, customs valuation, classification, formalities, rules of origin); (2) technical barriers to trade or TBT (technical regulations, standards, testing, certification arrangement); (3) specific limitations (quantitative restrictions, import licensing, embargoes, exchange control, discriminatory sourcing, export restraints, measures to regulate domestic prices, requirements concerning marking, labeling and packaging).

Problems and prospects of india's major spice-pepper

This study is directed to examine how far price fluctuations in pepper can be controlled in the Indian context so as to have a reasonable and stable income for the primary producers which will ensure an adequate ‘encouragement for higher production and better export earnings. In a study of the methods of controlling violent price fluctuations a important question is that whether the present system of management of supply is satisfactory or not. It is more so when the demand is likely to be sanimlatsd by the importers and wholesalers of the foreign countries. Though pepper is the most important of all the spices gross in India, little work has been done so far to study the problems and prospects of this commodity.

Inflação no Brasil e preços internacionais

No início dos anos 90, começou a ser observada uma queda e uma maior estabilização da inflação mundial, principalmente em economias desenvolvidas. Esse fenômeno também foi observado em economias em desenvolvimento como a brasileira, protagonistas de momentos de hiperinflação em um passado recente. Com a queda substancial da inflação mundial, alguns economistas sugerem que se incorporem os efeitos dos fatores globais na dinâmica da inflação doméstica. Este presente estudo tem por objetivo verificar se fatores externos têm reduzido a sensibilidade dos preços domésticos às condições econômicas exclusivamente domésticas. É feita uma análise do papel dos preços internacionais na dinâmica da taxa de inflação no Brasil através de estudos da dinâmica da curva de Phillips, a partir da metodologia VAR. Através dos resultados obtidos, concluiu-se que apesar de boa parte da estabilidade da inflação ser conseqüência da credibilidade da política monetária adotada pelo Banco Central, da maneira como ele consegue ancorar essas expectativas e da adoção de boas práticas monetárias e fiscais, não se pode negar o importante papel dos fatores globais na dinâmica da inflação brasileira.

Does mixed frequency vector error correction model add relevant information to exchange misalignment calculus? Evidence for United States

Real exchange rate is an important macroeconomic price in the economy and a ects economic activity, interest rates, domestic prices, trade and investiments ows among other variables. Methodologies have been developed in empirical exchange rate misalignment studies to evaluate whether a real e ective exchange is overvalued or undervalued. There is a vast body of literature on the determinants of long-term real exchange rates and on empirical strategies to implement the equilibrium norms obtained from theoretical models. This study seeks to contribute to this literature by showing that it is possible to calculate the misalignment from a mixed ointegrated vector error correction framework. An empirical exercise using United States' real exchange rate data is performed. The results suggest that the model with mixed frequency data is preferred to the models with same frequency variables

Analysis of the effects of trade opening on household welfare: an application to Chile, 1999-2006

Incluye bibliografía

Analysis of the effects of trade opening on household welfare: an application to Chile, 1999-2006

Includes bibliography

Total Factor Productivity, Human Capital and Outward Orientation: Differences by Stage of Ddevelopment and Geographic Regions

Do openness and human capital accumulation promote economic growth? While intuition argues yes, the existing empirical evidence provides mixed support for such assertions. We examine Cobb-Douglas production function specifications for a 30-year panel of 83 countries representing all regions of the world and all income groups. We estimate and compare labor and capital elasticities of output per worker across each of several income and geographic groups, finding significant differences in production technology. Then we estimate the total factor productivity series for each classification. Using determinants of total factor productivity that include, among many others, human capital, openness, and distortion of domestic prices relative to world prices, we find significant differences in results between the overall sample and sub-samples of countries. In particular, a policy of outward orientation may or may not promote growth in specific country groups. even if geared to reducing price distortion and increasing openness. Human capital plays a smaller role in enhancing growth through total factor productivity.

Liability dollarization and fear of floating

This paper explores the idea that fear of floating can be justified as an optimal discretionary monetary policy in a dollarized emerging economy. Specifically, I consider a small open economy in which intermediate goods importers borrow in foreign currency and face a credit constraint. In this economy, exchange rate depreciation not only worsens importers' net-worth but also increases the financing amount in domestic currency, therefore exaggerating their borrowing finance premium. Besides, because of high exchange rate pass-through into import prices, fluctuations in the exchange rate also have strong impacts on domestic prices and production. These effects, together, magnify the macroeconomic consequences of the floating exchange rate policy in response to external shocks. The paper shows that the floating exchange rate regime is dominated by the fixed exchange rate regime in the role of cushioning shocks and in welfare terms.

Mecanismos de transmissão de preços e parcelas de mercado: uma análise sobre as exportações brasileiras de manga

Climate and environmental conditions allowed Brazil to become one of the largest producers of tropical fruits in the world. The São Francisco Valley, over the years, has emerged as the main fruit-producing region of the country, especially mangos and grapes. The mango, which is produced in this region, has reached a good international position, especially in European and American markets. However, the domestic price has absorbed more and more the impact of fluctuations in the international market expectations affecting the production and marketing of producers. The objective of the study is to analyze the transmission ratio of export prices of the mango, with the American market prices and the European Union in the period from 2003 to 2013. It is intended also to analyze the factors affecting the fluctuations of exports Brazilian mango for the main import markets. To achieve the proposed objectives, we used, in the methodology, the autoregressive vector model, in order to find the price transmission mechanism and the mechanisms of impacts through the impulse response function. We also used, the Constant Market Share model, in order to observe the importance of the effects competitiveness, destination, and growth in world trade on the changes of Brazilian mango exports in the period. The data used were obtained from the database of the Ministry of Development and Foreign Trade - MIDIC and FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Among the results, it was found that the Brazilian domestic prices are influenced by the US market price, and that price shocks promoted this market can impact on the growth of the internal prices for several months. It was noted also that the competitiveness effect accounted for the largest portion of the effective growth of Brazilian exports, in other word, the country has improved its competitiveness among the other exporting countries.

Soybeans and the world market [microform] : joint hearing before the Subcommittee on Agricultural Production and Stabilization of Prices and the Subcommittee on Domestic and Foreign Marketing and Product Promotion of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, United States Senate, One Hundredth Congress, second session, on the question of whether the marketing loan program should be expanded to include soybeans, March 18, 1988.

Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche. Item 1032-C, 1032-D (microfiche)

Pass-through of International food prices to domestic ination during and after the great recession: evidence from a set of Latin American economies

We examined how international food price shocks have impacted local ination processes in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru in the past decade -- Using impulse-response analysis coming from cointegrated VARs, we wind that international food ination shocks take from one to six quarters to pass through to domestic head-line ination, depending on the country -- In addition, by calculating the elasticity of local prices to an international food price shock, we found that this pass-through is not complete -- We also take a closer look at how this type of shock affects local food and core prices separately, and asses the possibility second round effects over core ination stemming from the shock -- We wind that a transmission to headline prices does occur, and that part of the transmission is associated with rising core prices both directly and through possible second round effects, which implies a role for monetary policy when such a shock takes place -- This is especially relevant given that international food prices have recently been on an upward trend after falling considerably during the Great Recession

Property rights and competing for the affections of Demos: The Impact of the 1867 Reform Act on stock prices

The 1867 Reform Act in Britain extended the electoral franchise to the skilled but propertyless urban working classes. Using stock market data and exploiting the fact that foreign and domestic equities traded simultaneously on the London market, this paper finds that investors in British firms reacted negatively to the passage of this Act. We suggest that this finding is consistent with investors foreseeing future alterations of property rights arising from the pressure that the large newly enfranchised group would bring to bear on government policy. We also suggest that our findings appear to be more consistent with the Tory political competition explanation for the Act rather than the Whig threat-of-revolution explanation.

Domestic policy responses to the food price crisis: The case of Bolivia

In face of the global food crisis of 2007-2008, severe concerns arose about how developing countries would be affected by the extreme short-term fluctuations in international commodity prices. We examine the effects of the crisis on Bolivia, one of the poorest countries of the Americas. We focus on the effectiveness of the domestic policy interventions in preventing spillovers of the development of international food prices to domestic markets. Using a cointegration model, we study price interdependencies of wheat flour, sunflower oil and poultry. The analysis suggests that the policy measures taken had little effect on food security during the food crisis. Throughout the entire period, perfect price transmission between the Bolivian poultry and sunflower oil markets and the respective international reference markets existed. Bolivian prices were determined by international prices and the policy interventions in the markets of these two commodities were not found to have had an effect. The government's large-scale wheat flour imports did not shield Bolivian consumers from the shocks of international prices.