Intercommodity price transmittal : analysis offood markets in Ghana

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Abstract
This report expands on a dynamic model of market integration to investigate how information is transmitted across commodities. The author investigates one property of an efficient market : the full use of available information. Studies of spatial price integration simultaneously looks at the flow of information and commodities. The author investigates the flow of information within a single spatial market and the relationship between prices in spatially separate markets. He studies intercommodity price transmittal from two perspectives. First, he asks whether the government can concentrate on a single commodity price, yet achieve policy objectives in a broader arena. This is important in Ghana because no single commodity dominates consumers'food budgets. The author finds that price movements for the main cereal consumed in the country (maize) are fully transmitted to other regions. Second, he investigates the working of commodity markets in developing countries. He notes imperfections in the way markets process information. There are several possible explanations for this market inefficiency. Traders may set prices for other coarse grains in response to information about maize prices. Another possibility is that some traders may not deal in all grains and thus have different costs of acquiring information. In short the author's dynamic model of price integration indicates functional efficiency in Ghana.
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