Abstract
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2018), world market prices for food commodities rose more than 75% from the end of2006 to July 2008. Since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been several periods of dramatic agricultural price increases such as the rapid increase during the 1970's and the commodity depression of the 1990's, which raised concerns that permanent changes in the agricultural market environment were occurring. According to Bernanke (2006), a significant portion of income and welfare is associated with these commodity prices. [...]both rational and irrational speculation can set price trends which may be self-enforced by herd behavior and result in prices bubbles. [...]we argue that the assessment of the long-run drivers of commodity prices could help the study of the policy implications related to resource rich countries with solid and economic infrastructure, trade openness, and high investments in alternative technology (Van der Ploeg, 2011).