The Case for a Supra-national Control on Commodities in the post WWII World: Novel Perspectives from FAO and Kaldor Archives

Titolo Rivista HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY
Autori/Curatori Paolo Paesani, Annalisa Rosselli
Anno di pubblicazione 2014 Fascicolo 2014/1
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 26 P. 5-30 Dimensione file 852 KB
DOI 10.3280/SPE2014-001001
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

Commodity markets are characterized by high price volatility, inefficient resource allocation and the cyclical reappearance of excessive surpluses and shortages. Historically, these problems and their relevant socio-economic implications have been tackled by means of protectionist measures at the national level, with cartels among producers or, in some rare cases, with international agreements among producers and consumers of a single commodity. At the end of World War II, however, a number of ambitious projects were put forth by multilateral organizations and by individual economists. These projects (e.g. World Food Board, International Commodity Clearing House, International Commodity Reserve Currency) aimed at overcoming traditional commodity problems by means of supra-national institutions and the coordinated management of all the main commodities within a unified scheme capable of combining stable prices and abundant supplies. The goal of this paper is to reconstruct some of these proposals, their theoretical underpinnings and the debate they roused. In particular, we intend to focus on the role played by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and by the experts who were involved in its projects. While individual contributions by some economists belonging to this group of experts have been widely investigated in the literature, their reciprocal influences and the relevant intellectual and historical context have received much less attention. Recent important publications bearing on this question and the re-opening of FAO archives add new angles on and insights into this issue.

Keywords:Keynes, Food Agriculture Organization, Stabilization of commodity prices, Buffer-stock

Jel codes:B22, F02, N50, Q02

  1. Graham F.D. (1941). Transition to a Commodity Reserve Currency, American Economic Review, 31: 520-25.
  2. Graham F.D. (1943). Commodity-Reserve Currency: A Criticism of the Critique, Journal of Political Economy, 51: 50-5, DOI: 10.1086/255989
  3. Harrod R.F. (1959). Review of ‘Trends in International Trade’ by G. Haberler, R. de Oliveira Campos; J. E. Meade ; J. Tinbergen, The Economic Journal, 69: 553-5, DOI: 10.2307/2228086
  4. Hart A.G. (1964a). Fluctuations in Commodity Earnings, in Royal Institute of International Affairs (1964). New Directions for World Trade. A Chatham House Report, Oxford, Oxford University Press: 77-91.
  5. Hart A.G. (1964b). Monetary Reform to Further Economic Development, Political Science Quarterly, 79: 360-77, DOI: 10.2307/2145905
  6. Hart A.G. (1986). Commodity Reserve Currency, in J. Eatwell, M. Milgate, and P. Newman (1986). The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, London, Macmillan.
  7. Hart A.G., N. Kaldor and J. Tinbergen (1963).The Case for a Commodity Reserve Currency, in Kaldor (1964): 131-58.
  8. Hemmi K. (1964). International Commodity Agreements: Reality and the Future, Developing Economies, 2: 358-72, DOI: 10.1111/j.1746-1049.1964.tb01095.x
  9. Hubbard W.H. (1928). Cotton and the Cotton Market, 2nd ed., New York, Appleton.
  10. ILO (International Labour Office) (1943). Intergovernmental Commodity Control Agreements, Montreal, ILO Document.
  11. Kaldor N. (1952). Economics of International Wheat Agreement, FAO Commodity Policy Studies, n.1. In Kaldor (1964): 61-111.
  12. Kaldor N. (1964). Essays on Economic Policy, Vol. II, London, Duckworth.
  13. Kaldor N. (1996). Causes of Growth and Stagnation in the World Economy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511559709
  14. Keynes J.M. (1938). The Policy of Government Storage of Food-stuffs and Raw Materials, The Economic Journal, 48: 449-60, in Keynes (1971-1989). XXI: 456-65.
  15. Keynes J.M. (1942). The International Control of Raw Materials, in Keynes (1971-1989). XXVII:112-66.
  16. Keynes J.M. (1971-1989). The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes (CWK), Managing Editors E.A.G. Robinson and D. Moggridge, London, Macmillan.
  17. King J. (2009). Nicholas Kaldor. London, Palgrave Macmillan.
  18. Lamartine Yates P. (1955). So Bold an Aim: Ten Years of International Co-Operation Toward Freedom from Want, Rome, Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
  19. Marchisio S. and A. Di Blase (1991). The Food and Agricultural Organization, Graduate Institute for International Studies, Geneva, M. Nijhoff Publishers.
  20. Marcuzzo M.C. (ed.)(2012). Speculation and Regulation in Commodity Markets: The Keynesian Approach in Theory and Practice, Rome, Sapienza University.
  21. Mehrling P. (2011). The Monetary Economics of Benjamin Graham: A Bridge between Goods and Money, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 33: 285-305, DOI: 10.1017/S105383721100023X
  22. Orr B. (1966). As I recall, with an Introduction by R. Calder. London, McGibbon and Kee.
  23. Paesani P. (2012). Kaldor on Buffer Stocks, paper presented at the STOREP conference, Padua (Italy), June, mimeo.
  24. Porter R.S. (1950). Buffer Stocks and Economic Stability, Oxford Economic Papers, 2: 95-118.
  25. Prakash A. (ed.)(2011). Safeguarding Food Security in Volatile Global Markets, Roma, FAO.
  26. Riefler W.W. (1946). A Proposal for an International Buffer-Stock Agency, Journal of Political Economy, 54: 538-46, DOI: 10.1086/256430
  27. Rosselli A. (2012). Richard Kahn and the Stabilization of Commodity Prices, in Marcuzzo (ed.)(2012): 207-24.
  28. Rowe J.W.F. (1936). Markets and Men, Cambridge (UK), Cambridge University Press.
  29. Shonfield A. (1964). Introduction, in Royal Institute of International Affairs (1964). New Directions
  30. for World Trade. A Chatham House Report, Oxford, Oxford University Press: 1-6.
  31. Bateman B., T. Hirai and M.C. Marcuzzo (eds.)(2010). The Return to Keynes, Harvard, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  32. Beale W.T.M., M.T. Kennedy and W.J. Winn (1942). Commodity Reserve Currency: a Critique, Journal of Political Economy, 50: 579-94, DOI: 10.1086/255907
  33. Bennet M.K. et al. (1949). International Commodity Stockpiling as an Economic Stabilizer, Stanford, Stanford University Press.
  34. Berg A. (2011). The Rise of Commodity Speculation: from Villainous to Venerable. In Prakash (ed.)(2011): 255-80.
  35. Blau G. (1954). International Commodity Agreements, Progress, Unilever Magazine.
  36. Blau G. (1956). Note for F. McDougall, Commodity Agreements – Reasons for Lack of Progress Since Hot Springs, FAO Archive, Box 12 ESC 392 and Commodity Policy – Basic Research , Box 12, no reference number.
  37. Blau G. (1963). International Commodity Arrangements and Policies, Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Economics and Statistics, 12: 1-9.
  38. Blau G. (1964). Commodity Export Earnings and Economic Growth. In Royal Institute of International Affairs New Directions for World Trade. A Chatham House Report Oxford, Oxford University Press: 161-212.
  39. Brown C.P. (1980). The Political and Social Economy of Commodity Control, London, Macmillan.
  40. Calsoyas C.D. (1948). Commodity Currency and Commodity Storage, American Economic Review, 38: 341-52.
  41. Carabelli A.M. and M.A. Cedrini (2010a). Global Imbalances, Monetary Disorder and Shrinking Policy Space: Keynes’s Legacy for our Troubled World, European Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, 7: 303-23.
  42. Carabelli A.M. and M.A. Cedrini (2010b). Current Global Imbalances. Might Keynes Be of Help?, in Bateman, Hirai and Marcuzzo (eds.)(2010): 257-74.
  43. Cashin P. and J. McDermott (2002). The Long-Run Behavior of Commodity Prices: Small Trends and Big Variability, IMF Staff Papers, 49: 175-99.
  44. Cristiano C. and P. Paesani, (2012). Kaldor and the Relationship between ‘Normal Backwardation’ and the Theory of Storage, in Marcuzzo (ed.)(2012): 129-50.
  45. Dimand R.W and M.A. Dimand (1990). J.M. Keynes on Buffer Stocks and Commodity Price Stabilization, History of Political Economy, 22: 113-23, DOI: 10.1215/00182702-22-1-113
  46. Singer H. (1984). Ideas and Policy: the Sources of UNCTAD, Institute of Development Studies Bulletin, 15: 14-7.
  47. Skidelsky R. (2005). Keynes, Globalisation and the Bretton Woods Institutions in the Light of Changing Ideas about Markets, World Economics, 6: 15-30.
  48. Skidelsky R. (2010). The Relevance of Keynes, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 36: 1-13.
  49. Spraos J. (1989). Kaldor on Commodities, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 15: 201-22.
  50. Staley E. (1937). Raw Materials in Peace and War, American Coordinating Committee for International Studies, New York, Council on Foreign Relations.
  51. Staples A.L.S. (2003). To Win the Peace: the Food and Agriculture Organization, Sir John Boyd Orr, and the World Food Board Proposals, Peace and Change, 28: 495-523, DOI: 10.1111/1468-0130.00273
  52. St.Clare Grondona L. (1958). Utilizing World Abundance, London, Allen and Unwin.
  53. Swerling B.C. (1953). Buffer Stocks and International Commodity Problems, Economic Journal, 63: 778-90, DOI: 10.2307/2226639
  54. Toye J. and R. Toye (2004). The UN and Global Political Economy. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press.
  55. Tyszynski H. (1950). A Note on International Commodity Agreements, Economica, New Series, 17: 438-47, DOI: 10.2307/2549505
  56. Tyszynski H. (1955). An International Commodity Standard. FAO Archive, Box 12.
  57. Turnell S. (1998). The Quest for Commodity Price Stability: Australian Economists and ‘Buffer Stocks’, Research Paper, Macquarie University, no.2/1998.
  58. United Nations (1951). Measures for International Economic Stability. Report by a Group of Experts appointed by the Secretary-General. New York, United Nations Department of Economic Affairs.
  59. United Nations (1953). Commodity Trade and Economic Development, General Assembly. Committee of Experts on Commodity Trade and Economic Development.
  60. Ussher L. (2011). Combining International Monetary Reform with Commodity Buffer Stocks: Keynes, Graham and Kaldor, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, mimeo.
  61. Way W. (2013). A New Idea Each Morning. How Food and Agriculture Came Together in One International Organization. Canberra, Australian National University Press.
  62. Zaglits O. (1946). International Price Control through Buffer Stocks, Journal of Farm Economics, 28: 413-43, DOI: 10.2307/1232554
  63. Ezekiel M. (1938). The Cob-web Theorem, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 52: 255-80, DOI: 10.2307/1881734
  64. Fantacci L. (2012). Keynes’s Commodity and Currency Plans for the Post-war World, in Marcuzzo (ed.)(2012): 177-206.
  65. Fantacci L., M.C. Marcuzzo, A. Rosselli and E. Sanfilippo (2011). Speculation and Buffer Stocks: the Legacy of Keynes and Kahn, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 19: 453-73, DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2010.501109
  66. FAO (1946). Proposals for a World Food Board and World Food Survey, Washington, mimeo.
  67. FAO (1949). World Commodity Problems, Washington, mimeo.
  68. FAO (1956). Function of a World Food Reserve – Scope and Limitations, FAO Commodity Policy Study, 10.
  69. Graham B. (1937). Storage and Stability: A Modern Ever-Normal Granary, New York, McGraw-Hill.
  70. Graham B. (1943). Commodity-Reserve Currency: A Point-by-Point Reply, Journal of Political Economy, 51: 66-9, DOI: 10.1086/255988
  71. Graham B. (1944). World Commodities and World Currency, New York, McGraw-Hill.

  • How speculation became respectable: early theories on financial and commodity markets Paolo Paesani, Annalisa Rosselli, in The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought /2021 pp.273
    DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2020.1817117
  • RICHARD KAHN AND THE STABILIZATION OF COMMODITY PRICES Annalisa Rosselli, in Journal of the History of Economic Thought /2017 pp.483
    DOI: 10.1017/S1053837217000499
  • Richard F. Kahn Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, Paolo Paesani, pp.1 (ISBN:978-3-030-98587-5)

Paolo Paesani, Annalisa Rosselli, The Case for a Supra-national Control on Commodities in the post WWII World: Novel Perspectives from FAO and Kaldor Archives in "HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY" 1/2014, pp 5-30, DOI: 10.3280/SPE2014-001001