The role of fuel prices in spatial price transmission between horticultural markets: empirical analysis from a developing country

This article aims to analyze how fuel prices impact spatial price transmission between two Chilean horticultural wholesale markets. We implement a regime-dependent VECM where price transmission parameters depend on dynamics imposed by a stationary exogenous variable (fuel price). We identified two price transmission regimes characterized by different equilibrium relationships and short-run adjustment processes. This implies that fuel prices affect price transmission elasticities and intermarket adjustment speeds. Our results show increasing marketing costs as farm to market distance grows. This impact depends on each product’s attributes. Highlights This article analyzes the effect of fuel prices on the price transmission mechanism between the most relevant Chilean horticultural wholesale markets. A regime-dependent Vector Error Correction Model where price transmission parameters depend on fuel price was implemented. Clear evidence of the role played by fuel prices for in horizontal price transmission between the wholesale markets considered in this study was found. This situation supports the idea that regardless of quantities traded in regional markets, the major effect of price adjustment is a result of the high demand, distances and market concentration of a central market. This impact depends on each product’s attributes.

Investigating the Impact of Trade Disruptions on Price Transmission in Commodity Markets: An Application of Threshold Cointegration

Threshold cointegration is introduced as an econometric technique to model the impact of trade disruptions on spatial price transmission in commodity markets so that market participants and policy makers can understand the global impact of trade disruptions on prices. The threshold cointegration technique that is employed is flexible in that it allows the number of thresholds and their location to be determined endogenously and the threshold variable to be exogenous to the system. We innovate on the threshold cointegration technique by selecting a measure of trade disruptions as the threshold variable. This innovation can be used for any commodity market that is spatially connected due to arbitrage; however, to illustrate its usefulness we apply the technique to trade disruptions for canola traded between Canada and China using weekly data between 2014 and 2019 and find that canola trade disruptions between Canada and China impacted global price transmission and resulted in market fragmentation.

Spatial Price Dynamics and Asymmetric Price Transmission in Skim Milk Powder International Trade: Evidence from Export Prices for New Zealand and Ireland

A fast-changing global landscape highlights the importance of understanding spatial price dynamics in key international markets such as China, especially in the era of COVID-19 pandemic with international food trade and food system experiencing an unprecedented challenge. Nowadays, New Zealand’s dominant position in China’s dairy import market is being challenged by European Union (EU) dairy exporters leading to intensified market competition. Using monthly export data of skim milk powder (SMP), we applied threshold cointegration models along with asymmetric error correction models to examine spatial price dynamics and price transmissions of New Zealand and Ireland in Chinese and global markets. We found that New Zealand’s export prices retain their leadership position in China, Ireland’s export prices are well more aligned with those in international markets. In terms of own-country price transmission, Ireland’s relatively symmetric and swift adjustments were found to contrast with New Zealand’s SMP export prices, which displayed more asymmetric price transmissions.

Adoption of yield-increasing technologies in poorly integrated crop output markets

This paper analyzes the relationship between crop output market and the use of modern inputs of farmers in developing countries. For this purpose, we used a large-scale household dataset collected in rural Burkina Faso. We found evidence that crop output market integration matters in farmer decision to adopt modern inputs. More specifically, an increase of the spatial price dispersion by 10% is significantly associated with a decrease of the probability of using modern inputs by 4%. However, price volatility affects neither the decision to use of the modern nor the intensity of adoption. Our finding implies that in order to succeed, agricultural interventions that target the adoption of modern inputs should be accompanied with market development measures.

Measuring spatial price differentials at the basic heading level: a comparison of stochastic index number methods

Spatial price comparisons rely to a high degree on the quality of the underlying price data that are collected within or across countries. Below the basic heading level, these price data often exhibit large gaps. Therefore, stochastic index number methods like the Country–Product–Dummy (CPD) method and the Gini–Eltetö–Köves–Szulc (GEKS) method are utilised for the aggregation of the price data into higher-level indices. Although the two index number methods produce differing price level estimates when prices are missing, the present paper demonstrates that both can be derived from exactly the same stochastic model. For a specific case of missing prices, it is shown that the formula underlying these price level estimates differs between the two methods only in weighting. The impact of missing prices on the efficiency of the price level estimates is analysed in two simulation studies. It can be shown that the CPD method slightly outperforms the GEKS method. Using micro data of Germany’s Consumer Price Index, it can be observed that more narrowly defined products improve estimation efficiency.

Territorial disparities in labour productivity, wages and prices in Italy: What does the data show?

In Italy, both at the regional and sub-regional levels, labour productivity and average wages are strongly correlated. Overall, in industry and services, the gap (about 30%) in productivity between Southern and Central-Northern regions is almost offset by that in the average wage: unit labour costs are similar. Since, in Italy, in each sector, nominal wages are set through national collective agreements – and therefore are the same throughout the country – regional differences in wage per employee depend solely on the composition of the occupational structures. The small difference in the unit labour cost suggests that also the North–South disparity in labour productivity is largely due to the characteristics of the respective productive structures. Across Italian regions, average wages and price levels are positively correlated. Spatial price differentials mainly depend on the prices of services and housing. In turn, prices influence regional nominal productivity in sectors producing non-tradable goods. The North–South difference in price levels substantially equalises the average real wage in the two areas. Nevertheless, thanks to the lower prices and the equality in nominal wages, in the South employees enjoy a greater purchasing power than their colleagues in the rest of the country with analogous job positions. The Italian case suggests that, at the regional level, labour productivity, average wages and prices are interrelated. The analysis of their mutual relationships is of great importance for regional policies.

Quality, Location and Collusion under Spatial Price Discrimination

We present the first demonstration of the influence of a quality rivalry on location choices under spatial price discrimination. The rivalry is shown to generate the socially efficient quality but to push locations inefficiently close together, a result not found under Hotelling pricing. We apply this new equilibrium to the anti-trust policy issue of collusion showing that introducing the quality rivalry reduces the likelihood of collusion.