Financialization of Commodity : the Role of Financial Investors in Commodity Markets.

Summary This dissertation studies the role of financial investors on commodity markets, which is referred as financialization of commodity. The content of the dissertation splits to theoretical and empirical work. The implemented researches are motivated by the participation of investors, who own stock portfolios, in commodity futures markets for diversification reasons. Furthermore, that diversification is likely achieved by investing in a basket of commodities. The first chapter investigates, theoretically, the interaction between commodity and stock markets. The second chapter studies, empirically, the impact of financial investors on the commodities futures risk premium. It focuses on studying three commodities: crude oil (WTI), heating oil and natural gas. The third chapter examines, theoretically, the integration between two commodity markets. We clarify the hesitating of the previous literature in finding evidences of the impact of financialization. We confirm the influential power of investment in commodity market. However, that depends on the financial investors positions taken in the futures market. Generally, financialization increases the spot prices, the futures prices and inventory levels. We find, also, that investors are a transmission channel between commodity markets. Their effects spread out restricted to the cross commodity markets correlation. Finally, stock market returns became effective determinant of the futures risk premium after 2008 financial crisis. Also, the effect of the stock returns indifferent between short and long maturities.