Impact Of Market Participation Research Articles

Impact of Market Participation on Household Food Security among Smallholder Irrigators in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Food insecurity is a global challenge. The reduction of hunger is a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target widely seen as a measure for evaluating the progress of the well-being of rural people. This study aimed to investigate the impact of collective action and market participation on household food security. Data were collected using a structured survey questionnaire from 243 randomly selected households in Msinga Local Municipality. The binary probit model findings revealed that farmers’ group membership, market participation, gender, the total number of cattle owned, farm income, and credit access increased the likelihood of a food-secure household. This paper’s findings have crucial implications for the government and other development agencies for improving household food-security status. The findings identified collective action and market participation to be contributing to food-insecurity alleviation. The government and private organisations need to encourage and empower existing farmers’ groups through community mobilisation.

The effect of farmers’ market access on residential property values

Improving farmers' market accessibility is increasingly being used as a mechanism to promote healthy food consumption. Previous studies about farmers’ markets largely focused on describing either the demographics of market patrons or the impact of market participation on fruit and vegetable intake. Thus, little empirical research has examined how market accessibility impacts nearby communities.The goal of this study is to assess whether consumers value farmers' market accessibility by exploiting preferences revealed through housing purchases. Using residential sales data from 2007 to 2012 in five Central Maryland counties, we tested whether farmers' market accessibility is associated with housing prices by estimating hedonic models with temporal and neighborhood fixed effects. The results suggest an inverse association between housing prices and distance to the closest farmers’ market, a relationship that remains statistically significant when using matching and instrumental variables estimators. The results also suggest that the association between market accessibility and housing prices is stronger in areas with poor-quality food environments.The findings are important to policy makers and planners because they suggest that farmers' market accessibility is valued by consumers in nearby communities and that consumers with limited access to food stores are willing to pay a premium for houses with access to farmers’ markets. Assessing the mechanisms driving this association is an important area for future research.

The impact of market participants' interaction on futures prices: comparing three US wheat futures markets

The extreme price movements in the three US wheat futures markets in 2008 and 2011 can be largely explained by fundamental developments. But different price reactions in those wheat futures markets raise doubt whether only supply and demand moved wheat futures prices. The question arises whether the different behaviour of market participants is also essential for price discovery. This study examines the influence of different market structures on prices of the three most important US wheat futures markets. For this purpose, trader's positions of the disaggregated commitments of traders (DCoT) report from June 2006 to December 2013 are analysed. Results reveal that during the price peak, the behaviour of hedgers and other market participants at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange contributed to the decoupling of wheat futures prices from the fundamental development. This demonstrates that market structure is of great importance for price development in futures markets.

The impact of market participants' interaction on futures prices: comparing three US wheat futures markets

The extreme price movements in the three US wheat futures markets in 2008 and 2011 can be largely explained by fundamental developments. But different price reactions in those wheat futures markets raise doubt whether only supply and demand moved wheat futures prices. The question arises whether the different behaviour of market participants is also essential for price discovery. This study examines the influence of different market structures on prices of the three most important US wheat futures markets. For this purpose, trader's positions of the disaggregated commitments of traders (DCoT) report from June 2006 to December 2013 are analysed. Results reveal that during the price peak, the behaviour of hedgers and other market participants at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange contributed to the decoupling of wheat futures prices from the fundamental development. This demonstrates that market structure is of great importance for price development in futures markets.

Transformations of Efficient Market Hypothesis under the Influence of Behavioral Finance

The paper provides a theoretical study on efficient market hypothesis (EMH) changes under the influence of behavioral finance. Authors of the paper briefly provide the basic assumptions of efficient markets theory and remind how the top of its dominance was reached in the 1970s. At the same time the goal of the paper is to develop the unbiased and complex overview of the today’s market efficiency and show its transformations under the impact of market participants’ irrationality. In the paper authors introduce the interaction between market efficiency, market arbitrage, irrationality of market participants and highlight the importance to revise the reliability of efficient market theory assumptions in order to achieve high performance of investment portfolios. Through the behavioral finance point of view authors not only aggregate the critics EMH faces during the recent years, but also evaluate today’s opportunities for arbitrage and provide arbitrage critics. According to documented by experimental economists departures from market efficiency and taking into consideration their nature, i.e. investors’ irrationality as a result of influence of a set of specific behavioral (both cognitive and emotional) biases, an alternative to EMH approach called “The Adaptive Markets Hypothesis” espoused by Andrew Lo in 2004 is introduced. The supporters of the EMH have responded to these challenges by arguing that, while behavioral biases and corresponding inefficiencies do exist from time to time, there is a limit to their prevalence and impact because of opposing forces dedicated to exploiting such opportunities. Finally, basic financial market anomalies are presented in the paper as an example of market inefficiency. On the one hand, their persistence in the face of public scrutiny seems to be a clear violation of the EMH. On the other - most of these anomalies can be exploited by relatively simple trading strategies, and, while the resulting profits may not be riskless, they seem usually profitable relative to their risks. Summing up of the investigation presented in the paper, authors conclude that many classical EMH supporters set the cases theoretically without empirical or real measurement analysis. Therefore the discussion on EMH is still on-going, but real market analysis should be done instead of evolving EMH theoretical evaluation models, which remain theoretical and do not always work properly in the conditions of real financial market. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n13p327

Revisiting the Determinants of Futures Contracts: The Curious Case of Distillers' Dried Grains

A futures market for distillers' dried grains (DDGs) was introduced on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in early 2010, but the market became inactive only four months after its inception. While many new futures contracts do not develop into high-volume traders, significant interest from DDG cash market participants seemed to indicate that this contract would be successful. This study examines whether it might have been possible to predict the ineffectiveness of the DDG contract. We test multiple factors found in previous literature to affect the success of futures contracts, as well as the impact of market participants and the activeness of supporting futures markets. In particular, we empirically determine whether lack of activity in the ethanol futures market contributed to the ineffectiveness of the DDG contract. While the existing literature would have predicted a high likelihood of success for a DDG futures contract, our estimation results draw a conflicting conclusion and indicate that a primary reason was an inactive supporting ethanol futures market.

Revisiting the Determinants of Futures Contracts: The Curious Case of Distillers' Dried Grains

A futures market for distillers' dried grains (DDGs) was introduced on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in early 2010, but the market became inactive only four months after its inception. While many new futures contracts do not develop into high-volume traders, significant interest from DDG cash market participants seemed to indicate that this contract would be successful. This study examines whether it might have been possible to predict the ineffectiveness of the DDG contract. We test multiple factors found in previous literature to affect the success of futures contracts, as well as the impact of market participants and the activeness of supporting futures markets. In particular, we empirically determine whether lack of activity in the ethanol futures market contributed to the ineffectiveness of the DDG contract. While the existing literature would have predicted a high likelihood of success for a DDG futures contract, our estimation results draw a conflicting conclusion and indicate that a primary reason was an inactive supporting ethanol futures market.