Fuel-feed-livestock price linkages under structural changes

Abstract

ABSTRACT The large-scale diversion of crops into mandates-driven biofuels since early 2000s, has raised concerns about impacts of biofuel policies on food prices. This study examines crude oil-corn-livestock dynamic linkages from January 1987 until December 2019 in Ontario, Canada. A significant structural break is identified in March 2011 as biofuel policy impacts become fully implemented and splits the three-decade period into pre- and post-break sub-periods. A nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) approach is employed since it allows prices to be tied by asymmetric relationships both in the short- and long-run. The NARDL model bounds test results indicate that crude oil and corn prices have a long-run connection with livestock prices in both sub-periods. In the post-break period, corn price has an asymmetric effect on cattle price in the long-run, with negative shocks in the corn price leading to a greater intensity on the cattle price than positive shocks. The presence of short-run asymmetry is evident in the impacts of crude oil price on both cattle and hog prices. However, the above asymmetric effect is insignificant in the pre-break period.