New insights into an old issue: modelling the U.S. food prices

Abstract

The study attempts to add significant outcomes to the U.S. food prices literature by performing a dynamic regression model and a frequency domain causality test to explore the causality and relationships between U.S. food prices, energy prices, economic policy uncertainty, and the value of the U.S. dollar. It is shown that dollar price negatively affects the food price index at both high and low volatility periods. Furthermore, it is presented that there is a permanent long-run causal relationship running from the dollar index to the food price index. The results indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between the energy price index and the food price index. Moreover, energy is found to be a long-run and permanent cause of the food price index. The effect of uncertainty has not been sufficiently explored in the food pricing field, the outcome of this study reveals that uncertainty increases the food price index at high volatility times. Besides, uncertainty is shown to be the long-run and permanent cause of the food price index.