Commodities, Financialization, and Heterogeneous Agents

SAFE Working Paper No. 131

BoL Working Paper No. 25/2016

70 Pages Posted: 7 Apr 2016 Last revised: 29 Apr 2016

See all articles by Nicole Branger

Nicole Branger

University of Münster - Finance Center Muenster

Patrick Grüning

Latvijas Banka

Christian Schlag

Goethe University Frankfurt; Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE

Date Written: April 12, 2016

Abstract

The term 'financialization' describes the phenomenon that commodity contracts are traded for purely financial reasons and not for motives rooted in the real economy. Recently, financialization has been made responsible for causing adverse welfare effects especially for low-income and low-wealth agents, who have to spend a large share of their income for commodity consumption and cannot participate in financial markets. In this paper we study the effect of financial speculation on commodity prices in a heterogeneous agent production economy with an agricultural and an industrial producer, a financial speculator, and a commodity consumer. While access to financial markets is always beneficial for the participating agents, since it allows them to reduce their consumption volatility, it has a decisive effect with respect to overall welfare effects who can trade with whom (but not so much what types of instruments can be traded).

Keywords: Commodities, General Equilibrium, Heterogeneous Preferences, Financial Markets

JEL Classification: E23, G12, G13, Q11, I30

Suggested Citation

Branger, Nicole and Grüning, Patrick and Schlag, Christian, Commodities, Financialization, and Heterogeneous Agents (April 12, 2016). SAFE Working Paper No. 131, BoL Working Paper No. 25/2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2759314 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2759314

Nicole Branger

University of Münster - Finance Center Muenster ( email )

Universitatsstr. 14-16
Muenster, 48143
Germany
+49 251 83 29779 (Phone)
+49 251 83 22867 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.wiwi.uni-muenster.de/fcm/fcm/das-finance-center/details.php?weobjectID=162

Patrick Grüning (Contact Author)

Latvijas Banka ( email )

K. Valdemāra iela 2A
Riga, 1050
Latvia

Christian Schlag

Goethe University Frankfurt ( email )

Faculty of Economics and Business
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 3
Frankfurt am Main, Hessen 60323
Germany

Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE ( email )

(http://www.safe-frankfurt.de)
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 3
Frankfurt am Main, 60323
Germany

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