Prisvolatiliteten på återvunnet material : En studie av prisvolatilitetens historiska förändring på marknaden för återvunnet material

Previous research claims that considerable price volatility exists on the market for secondary material and in most cases it appears to be greater for the recycled materials than their corresponding virgin material. The price volatility for secondary material appears to be one of the causes to uncertainty and thus discourage investments in the market, which eventually results in fewer investors choosing to substitute virgin-material for their corresponding recycled material. Volatility for recyclables could be seen from two different perspectives, one where it is a cause of an effective market that is determined by supply and demand and from the other perspective where it is a cause of market failures. Based on the assumption that volatility for recyclables decreases as the markets for recyclables mature over time, the purpose of this paper is to measure the change in volatility over time for recyclables. Based on data from U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, Standard deviation is used to measure volatility for five different recyclables, which all have different time periods depending on the material. The annual standard deviation is calculated from monthly data of the changes in a price index for each material. The results presented increasing volatility for two materials while the others indicate constant volatility over time. Hence the conclusion is from this data, that the hypothesis of decreasing volatility as the markets for recyclables mature over time cannot be validated. Why this is the case, depends on more than one factor, however these causes of a still existing volatility for secondary materials is not covered in this study and will therefore be unanswered.Validerat; 20120628 (anonymous