Futures markets and economic efficiency: A theoretical perspective

This article examines the role of futures markets in schieving economic efficiency. The question is introduced in a timeless, certain framework, and extended to the case where time, but not uncertainty, becomes important: it is shown that in such a framework futures markets ensure economic efficiency. Uncertainty is then introduced, and it is shown that contingent markets ensure full efficiency, but that these are cumbersome; it is also shown that futures markets, as an alternative, ensure approximate efficiency. An appendix explores more formally the relation between markets and efficiency.     

Tests for aggregated dispersion: Van Valen’s test and a new competitor

Environmental and Ecological Statistics - Van Valen’s test is usually applied as a two sample test for equality of dispersion for multivariate data. Motivated by a comment of Manly (Van...