The Economics of Commodity Markets

As commodity markets have continued their expansion an extensiveand complex financial industry has developed to service them. Thisindustry includes hundreds of participating firms, including assetmanagers, brokers, consultants, verification agencies and a myriadof other institutions. Universities and other training institutionshave responded to this rapid expansion of commodity markets as wellas their substantial future growth potential by launchingspecialized courses on the subject. The Economics of Commodity Markets attempts to bridge thegap between academics and working professionals by way of atextbook that is both theoretically informative and practical.Based in part on the authors? teaching experience ofcommodity finance at the University Paris Dauphine, the book coversall important commodity markets topics and includes coverage ofrecent topics such as financial applications and intuitive economicreasoning. The book is composed of three parts that cover: commodity marketdynamics, commodities and the business cycle, and commodities andfundamental value. The key original approach to the subject matterlies in a shift away from the descriptive to the econometricanalysis of commodity markets. Information on market trends ofcommodities is presented in the first part, with a strong emphasison the quantitative treatment of that information in the remainingtwo parts of the book. Readers are provided with a clear andsuccinct exposition of up-to-date financial economic andeconometric methods as these apply to commodity markets. Inaddition a number of useful empirical applications are introducedand discussed. This book is a self-contained offering, discussing all keymethods and insights without descending into superfluoustechnicalities. All explanations are structured in an accessiblemanner, permitting any reader with a basic understanding ofmathematics and finance to work their way through all parts of thebook without having to resort to external sources.