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Journal of Finance Vol. 70 No. 5 2015

Informational Frictions and Commodity Markets

Michael Sockin1; Wei Xiong2,3,4,5,6

1 The University of Texas at Austin · 2 Asia Society · 3 Princeton University · 4 Singleton Hospital · 5 The Econometric Society · 6 Joel Popkin and Company

Abstract

This paper develops a model with a tractable log‐linear equilibrium to analyze the effects of informational frictions in commodity markets. By aggregating dispersed information about the strength of the global economy among goods producers whose production has complementarity, commodity prices serve as price signals to guide producers' production decisions and commodity demand. Our model highlights important feedback effects of informational noise originating from supply shocks and futures market trading on commodity demand and spot prices. Our analysis illustrates the weakness common in empirical studies on commodity markets of assuming that different types of shocks are publicly observable to market participants.

DOI
10.1111/jofi.12261
Volume
70
Issue
5
Pages
2063-2098
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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