Search results for "Commodity"
showing 10 items of 52 documents
Glycolipid Biosurfactant Production from Waste Cooking Oils by Yeast: Review of Substrates, Producers and Products
2021
Biosurfactants are a microbially synthesized alternative to synthetic surfactants, one of the most important bulk chemicals. Some yeast species are proven to be exceptional biosurfactant producers, while others are emerging producers. A set of factors affects the type, amount, and properties of the biosurfactant produced, as well as the environmental impact and costs of biosurfactant’s production. Exploring waste cooking oil as a substrate for biosurfactants’ production serves as an effective cost-cutting strategy, yet it has some limitations. This review explores the existing knowledge on utilizing waste cooking oil as a feedstock to produce glycolipid biosurfactants by yeast. The review f…
Durability of Biodegradable Polymer Nanocomposites
2021
Biodegradable polymers (BP) are often regarded as the materials of the future, which address the rising environmental concerns. The advancement of biorefineries and sustainable technologies has yielded various BP with excellent properties comparable to commodity plastics. Water resistance, high dimensional stability, processability and excellent physicochemical properties limit the reviewed materials to biodegradable polyesters and modified compositions of starch and cellulose, both known for their abundance and relatively low price. The addition of different nanofillers and preparation of polymer nanocomposites can effectively improve BP with controlled functional properties and change the…
Major International Information Flows Across the Safex Wheat Market
2016
We study information flows across four wheat futures markets on four continents: Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE), South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX), Euronext/Liffe and Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT). Three approaches for studying information flows among non-synchronous markets are applied: cointegration techniques, vector autoregressive analysis and multiple regression proposed. Although comparable underlying assets are traded in the four markets, our results indicate that no long-run links exist among them. ZCE is by far the most endogenous market, and Euronext/Liffe is the most exogenous one. Finally, the model points to KCBT as the most influential and sensitive wheat market. …
Structural change in a Ricardian world economy: The role of extensive rent
2019
Abstract We study an implication of the Ricardian theory of differential extensive rent in a free trade regime. To this effect we develop a Ricardian two country two commodity open economy model. We assume that, unlike labour, land is heterogeneous both within and across countries and that the ratio of high to low quality land is different among the trading countries. By means of a numerical example we show that as the process of worldwide capital accumulation (and population growth) proceeds an industrial country may find it convenient to increase its domestic corn production and even reverse completely the pattern of its imports and exports.
China Spillovers: New Evidence from Time-Varying Estimates
2017
The recent ârebalancingâ of Chinaâs economy has raised concerns that the countryâs growth slowdown may have large global implications. This note looks at this issue by analyzing the effects of Chinaâs growth shocks on the output of other countries and how these effects have changed over time. Estimates indicate that the magnitude of Chinaâs spillovers has steadily increased during the last two decades, but remains yet limited. Spillovers are larger in neighboring (Asian) countries and in emerging markets and developing economies. Trade linkages remain main transmission channels. In addition, a negative shock in China has (marginal) positive effects for net commodity importers wh…
Information Flows Across Wheat Futures Markets
2015
We study information flows across four wheat futures markets on four continents: Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE), South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX), Euronext/Liffe, and Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT). Three main approaches have been applied: cointegration techniques, VAR analysis, and a multiple regression model proposed by Peiro, Quesada, and Uriel (1998) to study information flows among non-synchronous markets. Our results indicate that no long-run links exist among the four markets, that ZCE is by far the most endogenous market, and that Euronext/Liffe is the most exogenous one. Furthermore, the model by Peiro et al. (1998) points to KCBT as the most influential as well as the…
Data for: Global Factors, Uncertainty, Weather Conditions and Energy Prices: On the drivers of the duration of commodity price cycle phases
2021
Supporting materials Title: "Global Factors, Uncertainty, Weather Conditions and Energy Prices: On the drivers of the duration of commodity price cycle phases" Authors: Luca Agnello, Vítor Castro, Shawkat Hammoudeh, and Ricardo M. Sousa.
Primary Commodity Prices: Co-movements, Common Factors and Fundamentals
2011
The behavior of commodities is critical for developing and developed countries alike. This paper contributes to the empirical evidence on the co-movement and determinants of commodity prices. Using nonstationary panel methods, we document a statistically significant degree of co-movement due to a common factor. Within a Factor Augmented VAR approach, real interest rate and uncertainty, as postulated by a simple asset pricing model, are both found to be negatively related to this common factor. This evidence is robust to the inclusion of demand and supply shocks, which both positively impact on the co-movement of commodity prices.
Production and Foreign Trade of Mineral Products in Latvia and Belarus
2015
Latvia and Belarus are small countries with limited scope of natural resources. However, the available mineral resources play important role in production of mineral products for domestic and foreign consumption. Main goal of the paper is to characterize the role of extraction industry in national economy and mineral products trade in two neighboring countries - Latvia and Belarus. To achieve the goal, the role of mining and quarrying industry in Latvia and Belarus was identified; trade of mineral resources in Latvia was analyzed. The main trends in the development of its own mineral resources of the Republic of Belarus were identified, the role of mineral resources in the commodity structu…
'Traveling Barbies' and rolling blackouts Images of mobility in Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding
2003
AbstractThis article proposes to read Mira Nair's film Monsoon Wedding through a critical framework provided by transnational anthropology. Such a framework suggests that approaches celebrating transnational mobility must be balanced against nationally specific forms of constraint. It is argued that Monsoon Wedding bears out precisely such a balance. Nair's film suggests that the mobility of human lives may not be quite as unfettered as that of cultural commodities. Moreover, the filmic narrative insists on a differentiation within the Indian diasporic community. Similarly, some theorists of transnationalism have cautioned that the concept of a 'diasporic community' may serve to obfuscate c…