On February 24, 2005, in the Marble Hall of the Government Building, DDr. Reinhard Mang – Head of Department at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management – presented the Austrian Society for Agricultural Economics (ÖGA) Research Prize, donated by Federal Minister Josef Pröll, to DI Christoph Tribl in recognition of his research. Tribl is a research associate at the Chair of Economics – Environmental Economics and Agricultural Policy at the Technical University of Munich, Weihenstephan Science Center. The laudatory speech was given by Univ. Prof. Dr. Klaus Salhofer, his supervisor. Tribl's thesis was selected from several agricultural economics papers by Univ. Prof. Dr. Jens-Peter Loy from the Institute of Agricultural Economics at Kiel University, acting as an independent reviewer.
Short version of the award-winning thesis:
Sugar is still one of the most heavily protected agricultural commodities. International and national policies limit the quantity traded on the world market, thereby leading to highly volatile world market prices. This paper pursues two objectives: First, it uses economic theory to explain the causes and implications of volatile prices. Second, it applies the cointegration theory of econometrics to empirically investigate whether price fluctuations in the world market price for raw sugar are transmitted completely (symmetrically) or incompletely (asymmetrically) to subsequent processing stages. In particular, it analyzes the price transmission between raw and white sugar on the world market. Furthermore, using data from the United States of America, it analyzes the price transmission from the world market to the wholesale level and from the wholesale to the retail level. The empirical results show the following: First, a rising premium between the world market prices for raw and white sugar is corrected more quickly than a falling premium. Reasons for this are likely to be speculation on futures markets, among others. Second, the price transmission process between world market prices and the corresponding wholesale prices is almost complete. Third, the price transmission process between the wholesale price of refined sugar and the retail price demonstrates the pattern of potentially existing market power.
Univ. Prof. Dr. Jens-Peter Loy delivered a keynote speech on the German milk exchange system, exploring whether it could serve as a pioneering model for milk quota trading.
Since April 1, 2000, milk quota trading in Germany has been permitted exclusively through milk quota exchanges. This change to the institutional framework was developed in close coordination by the Ministry and the agricultural interest group. The objective was to "reduce the burden on active milk producers associated with the purchase of reference quantities and to restore greater control over the reference quantities" (Sales Office for Milk Quotas of the States of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, and Bremen, 2000). These goals were to be achieved by introducing regional sales offices while simultaneously prohibiting alternative transaction mechanisms. Furthermore, a reduction in the quota price should be achieved through additional price-dampening institutions, such as penalty deductions or the price corridor. The presentation presented, discussed, and evaluated the key regulations and peculiarities of the German milk exchange system. The analysis was further illustrated by real-life developments in the German milk quota market. The presentation concluded with some recommendations that should be considered when adopting such market regulations.
The celebratory event concluded with a buffet sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Protection.
