Financial Speculation Impact on Agricultural and Other Commodity Return Volatility: Implications for Sustainable Development and Food Security

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The topic of the paper is very potential. I find it interesting for readers.

The abstract contains all necessary information – objective of the research, methods, and findings.

The authors have bound introduction and literature review into one part – Introduction. It contains description of the problem and the process of looking for a suitable method. The text is built logically. I advise avoiding multiple citations. Sometimes it is not necessary. Further, the authors use sometimes elderly sources. I recommend refreshing the literature review (avoid old sources and add the latest ones). Maybe, it would be fine if the authors added a paragraph about neural networks (they are widely used but they are not mentioned as a possible method). For example:

Vochozka, M., Horak, J., & Suler, P. (2019). Equalizing Seasonal Time Series Using Artificial Neural Networks in Predicting the Euro-Yuan Exchange Rate. JOURNAL OF RISK AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm12020076

Vochozka, M., Vrbka, J., & Suler, P. (2020). Bankruptcy or Success? The Effective Prediction of a Company’s Financial Development Using LSTM. SUSTAINABILITY, 12(18). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187529

Materials and Methods chapter was written properly. Methodology is understandable and explained step by step. It is repeatable able.

Results are presentation of the methodology output.

Discussion is divided into three parts. The first part is focused on relevance of the findings in comparison to the previous studies. The authors again use multiple citations. I recommend avoiding it. However, this part is very valuable. The second part of Discussion is focused on model improvements and future research recommendation. Everyone can feel the depth of authors` experience. The most valuable part is the third one – Practical guidelines. The authors explained who are the beneficent from the research and how the findings can be applied.

Conclusion is a presentation of summary of the paper.

I have some recommendation above. Despite them the paper is prepared properly and can be published in its current form.

Author Response

Dear Professor,

Thank You very much for Your observations. They were very helpful improving the quality of our paper. We've attached our detailed answers to this letter.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article seems well written. However, I suggest the following comments for the improvement of the research paper.

1. The policy implications given at the end of the abstract are not clear. It shall be written on the basis of the computed results.

2. The contribution at the end of the introduction are not properly highlighted. It shall be clearly highlighted as a separate paragraph. The unnecessary detail discussion shall be removed from it.

3. In the introduction atleast one paragraph shall be included on the financial speculations, It process, approaches and impacts for the economy.

4. In the Materials and Methods section the data and variables description, empirical models and techniques discussion is mixed. Better to highlight all of these information in separate sections by starting it from the theoretical model (i.e. Theory followed in this study), conceptual framework, empirical models, data and variables discussion and techniques selection and application etc.

5. It would also be great if some of the results can be merged presented in the results section. 

6. Section 4.2 Model improvement and future research recommendations and 4.3 practical guidelines are also given before the conclusion. I suggest these information shall be placed after the conclusion section. Moreover, the model improvement information shall be presented separately. And the future research recommendations and practical guidelines shall be merged.

7. The research paper shall be also be checked for the typo errors and grammatical errors.

 

 

Author Response

Dear Professor,

Thank You very much for Your observations. They were very helpful improving the quality of our paper. We've attached our detailed answers to this letter.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

his paper analyzed the influence of financial speculation on agricultural and other commodity prices and return volatility by using daily returns on wheat, soybean, corn, and oats futures from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as well as two additional commodities (crude oil and gold). Findings show that financial speculation, except for the oats market, either has no impact or makes the underlying futures returns less volatile. It is a significant study, but I would like the author to explain the empirical strategy. Not only the introduction of methods and the model, but the reasons for using different models.

Author Response

Dear Professor,

Thank You very much for Your observations. They were very helpful improving the quality of our paper. We've attached our detailed answers to this letter.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf