Commodity Markets: Rational Expectations in Markets With Irrational Investors

The "financialization" of commodity markets have become a concern for policy makers and market participants. What was once a market for the hedging of holding physical commodities has expanded to become a market for the diversification of financial assets. When financial assets diversification goals are decoupled from the fundamental factors that affect producers and consumers of physical goods futures markets may not be as efficient in aggregating information concerning the economics of the underlying commodity. Theoretical understanding of whether commodity futures market function well under exogenous shifts in demand for futures contracts depend on our assumptions of how market participants behave, including their level of risk aversion. This paper builds a competitive storage model with an explicit futures market that incorporates irrational shocks to demand for futures contracts. This model is flexible enough to investigate the impact of the "financialization" of commodity futures markets and the resulting impacts.commodity, futures, financialization, competitive storage, rational expectations, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Financial Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

Caprolactam from renewable resources:catalytic conversion of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural into caprolactone

In zijn dissertatie beschrijft dhr. Teddy experimentele onderzoek naar de omzetting van 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) naar caprolactam, de uitgangsstof voor nylon 6. Het HMF kan op zijn beurt weer gemaakt worden uit lignocellulosische biomassa, zoals hout of grasachtig afval, is dan dus een groen basismateriaal. C6-suikers in lignocellulosische biomassa zijn interessante startmaterialen voor groene chemicaliën met grote toepassingsmogelijkheden. HMF kan gemaakt worden uit D-fructose en mogelijk ook uit goedkopere suikers als D-glucose. Een grote uitdaging voor dit onderzoek betrof de ontwikkeling van katalytische routes voor de omzetting van HMF naar 1,6-hexanediol (1,6-HD). Vier verschillende routes zijn onderzocht: de directe hydrogenatie van HMF naar 1,6-HD, een tweestapsroute via 2,5-THF-dimethanol (THFDM), een driestapssynthese via THFDM en 1,2,6-hexanetriol (1,2,6-HT) en ten slotte een vierstapssynthese via THFDM, 1,2,6-HT en tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-ylmethanol (2-THPM)

Pereduksian Rasionalitas dan Fungsi Rasionalitas Emotif dalam Teori Pilihan Rasional pada Kajian Ekonomi Hukum

The mental block of behavioral approach when implemented rational choice theory in economic law studies is actually reflection of its unrealistic core assumption: that people subject to law act rationally. That assumption or postulate is deductively elaborated into crudely conception of economic and psychological, and it is nothing else but necessarily to hold their paradigms that reasoned out the human frame of reference in an incentive-disincentive mechanism or the stimuli-respond design. No doubt the results of research that insisted arbitrary concepts and ignored inductive method would be artificial and partial nature, and essential dehumanization, or that research based on economy or psychology concept alone is not sufficient to accout for legal behaviour processes. Hence, legal economic scholars should established analysis the mind and act linkage through thick description, for example, by followed anthropology discipline has commited to holistic explanation, look at the people's entity as it is in realities

The Effects of Environment Risk, Capital Structure, and Corporate Strategy on Assets Productivity, Financial Performance and Corporate Value: a Study on Go Public Companies Registered at Jakarta Stock Exchange

This study was aimed at: (1) examining the effects of environment risk consisted oi financial risk, business risk and market risk on corporate strategy, capital structure, asset productivity, financial performance and corporate value. (2) examining the effects of corporate strategy consisted of liquidity, sales growth, assets growth and growth potential on capital structure, assets productivity, financial performance and corporate value. (3) examining capital on assets productivity, financial performance and corporate value. The research was an explanatory study. This study was an explanatory research. All companies registered in Jakarta Stock Exchange in 2000-2004 periods were used as samples. They were divided into main board category consisted of 71 emitters, development board 62 emitters, and total board 134 emitters. Structural Equation Model was used as analysis method. SPSS 11.5 and AMOS 5.0 were used for processing data and allowing hypothetical tests to be performed. The results indicated that: (1) investors expect main board companies to adopt free cash flow whereas development board companies were expected to be more conservative by adopting pecking order theory. Most Indonesian companies were expected to adopt the latter. And, in fact, most of main, development, and total board companies in Indonesia tend to adopt pecking order theory. (2) In general, the increase of company\u27s value was influenced by the increase of corporate strategy and capital deduction, but the increase would be much more higher if accompanied by raising assets productivity. For development board companies in particular, the increase of company\u27s value should be accompanied by company\u27s financial performance. (3) Creditors do not consider company\u27s financial risk in giving loans, this implies the increase of stacked credit. (4) Investors do not trust company\u27s financial performance report. (5) Strategic management may provide help in explaining capital structure phenomena with significant influence of corporate strategy on both capital structure and company\u27s value. Key Words: Corporate Strategy, Environment Risk, Capital Structure, Assets Productivity, Financial Performance, Company\u27s Value, financial risk, business risk market risk, sales growth, assets growth, growth potential, liquidity, debt to equity ratio, debt to assets ratio, equity to Assets ratio, return to assets ratio, basic earning ratio, pecking order Theory, free cash flow theory