Hennessy, David A.; Wahl, Thomas I.

American Journal of Agricultural Economics Vol. 78 no. 3 (August 1996): 591-603.

Existing literature on commodity futures price volatility emphasizes time to expiration and the resolution of uncertainty. In this paper we stress the supply and demand inflexibilities arising from decision making. A decision made on the supply (demand) side makes future supply (demand) responses less elastic. Therefore, a shock arising after a decision is made is more effective in changing the futures price than a shock before the decision is made. The results support the time-to-maturity hypothesis, but do not conflict with the state variable hypotheses of futures price volatility. Evidence supporting the impacts of inflexibilities are presented for corn, soybean, and wheat contracts.