Working Paper
Financialization in Commodity Markets
Christiano, Lawrence J.; Chari, V. V. (2017-09-17)
The financialization view is that increased trading in commodity futures markets is associated with increases in the growth rate and volatility of commodity spot prices. This view gained credence because in the 2000s trading volume increased sharply and many commodity prices rose and became more volatile. Using a large panel dataset we constructed, which includes commodities with and without futures markets, we find no empirical link between increased futures market trading and changes in price behavior. Our data sheds light on the economic role of futures markets. The conventional view is ...
Working Paper Series , Paper WP-2017-15

Report
Financialization in Commodity Markets
Christiano, Lawrence J.; Chari, V. V. (2017-08-24)
The ?nancialization view is that increased trading in commodity futures markets is associated with increases in the growth rate and volatility of commodity spot prices. This view gained credence be-cause in the 2000s trading volume increased sharply and many commodity prices rose and became more volatile. Using a large panel dataset we constructed, which includes commodities with and with-out futures markets, we ?nd no empirical link between increased futures market trading and changes in price behavior. Our data sheds light on the economic role of futures markets. The conventional view is ...
Staff Report , Paper 552