Food Price Bubbles: Food Price Indices of Turkey, the FAO, the OECD, and the IMF

Abstract

Food price bubbles are a phenomenon in which the cost of some food items or food commodities climbs quickly and unreasonably before collapsing due to reasons such as speculation, supply and demand imbalances, meteorological occurrences, and governmental actions. Governments and academics keep an eye on food prices to spot and address these bubbles. The aim of this paper is to analyze the food price bubble phenomenon despite the global slowdown by examining its origins, consequences, and policy solutions. The study’s contribution lies in its investigation of the presence of a potential bubble formation in food prices, which have experienced a surge globally and particularly in Turkey in recent years. The research examines the behavior of bubble formation in food prices in Turkey, the FAO, the OECD, and the IMF between 1992 and 2022 using the ADF, SADF, and GSADF tests. These tests can help identify when asset prices deviate significantly from their fundamental values and may be at risk of a sharp correction. The TUR, FAO, OECD, and IMF variables all show distinct bubble formations, with the TUR variable having 130 periods from 1995 to 2006, the FAO having 8 price bubble occurrences, the OECD having 12 different bubble formations, and the IMF having 4 distinct bubble formations. The results indicate the existence of food price bubbles that demonstrate disparities from their inherent values grounded in market fundamentals.