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Futures Markets: A Consequence of Risk Aversion or Transactions Costs?

Jeffrey Williams

Journal of Political Economy 1987

A two-period model of an industry of risk-neutral processors who have nonlinear production costs and who face transact ions costs in the spot and futures markets is put forth as a countere xample to the models of commodity markets in which processors' risk a version plays the major role. The model's equilibrium exhibits the sa lient endogenous features of actual commodity markets, namely, that t he futures price is below the current spot price, that processors hol d inventories despite this opportunity cost, that those holding inven tories are short in futures, and that processors as a group hold an u nbalanced, usually net short, position in the futures market. Copyright 1987 by University of Chicago Press.

DOI
10.1086/261499
Volume
95 (5)
Pages
1000-1023
Language
en
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