Export Price Volatility and Price Transmission Asymmetry: The Case of Salmon and Cod

Suggested Bibliographic Reference: Challenging New Frontiers in the Global Seafood Sector: Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, July 11-15, 2016. Compiled by Stefani J. Evers and Ann L. Shriver. International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), Corvallis, 2016.Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.Recently, several studies have investigated price behaviors of aquaculture and wild fisheries products and related the differences in price fluctuations to production technology, and environmental shocks. Researchers have also documented the evidence of asymmetric price responses along the supply chain of seafood products; however, a feature that has received little attention is how price adjustment frequency affects price volatility. In this study, we attempt to fill this gap in the literature, by using the cases of salmon and cod from Norway to the global market. We first estimate price transmission relationships from the downstream level to export price for salmon and cod. After confirming asymmetric responses, we construct an asymmetry index. The impact of the asymmetry index on export price volatility is further investigated by controlling for demand and supply shocks. The results indicate that the coefficient of asymmetry index is significant with a negative sign in both salmon and cod models. In terms of magnitude, salmon price volatility is more sensitive to the asymmetric adjustment to cost shocks