Investigating the Effects of Iran Mercantile Exchange Regulation on Commodity Price Fluctuations

Abstract

Regulation is one of the important socioeconomic tasks of governments. Regulation literature focuses on government intervention in the markets and determination of structure and the rules governing it in order to regulate the production and distribution of commodities. The commodity exchange is one of the leading regulatory bodies, which conventionally results in regulating commodities market by providing a convenient, transparent, and observable trading system. The advantage of commodities exchange is the presence of regulatory and supervisory bodies by which all producers, consumers, and traders enjoy the benefits of commodity regulation, but the institutional barriers to competitiveness can, however, prevent the regulation from being effective on prices. This study aims to test the effects of regulating the listed commodities in Iran Mercantile Exchange on commodity price fluctuations. To this end, price movements of 20 commodities traded on Iran Mercantile Exchange are compared with 20 ones not listed in Iran Mercantile Exchange using their coefficient of variation (CV) and Propensity Score Matching method. According to the results, the supply of commodities on the Iran Mercantile Exchange has led to an increase in their price fluctuations compared to similar off-exchange ones. In other words, trading commodities on Iran Mercantile Exchange has not prevented price fluctuations because the institutional barriers to competitiveness affect regulatory facilitation and cause its ineffectiveness.

Keywords

• regulation
• government
• mercantile exchange
• matching