Using USDA Forecasts to Estimate the Price Flexibility of Demand for Agricultural Commodities

Michael Adjemian and Aaron Smith

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2012, vol. 94, issue 4, 978-995

Abstract: We estimate the general equilibrium price flexibility of demand for corn and soybeans using monthly changes in expected supply published by the USDA. Our estimates reflect the demand response to a one-year supply shock and thus correspond to the inverse demand elasticity. We derive the conditions under which our estimates are consistent, and we show how demand flexibility varies by season, inventory, time horizon, and demand composition. At average inventory and without accounting for corn-ethanol use, we obtain price flexibility estimates of - 1.35 and - 1.03 for corn and soybeans, respectively. Current corn-ethanol production levels are associated with much larger absolute flexibilities for both commodities. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ajae/aas032 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:94:y:2012:i:4:p:978-995

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Agricultural Economics is currently edited by Madhu Khanna, Brian E. Roe, James Vercammen and JunJie Wu

More articles in American Journal of Agricultural Economics from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().