Professor of Applied Economics and Idaho Wheat Commission Bill Flory Endowed Chair in Risk Management, University of Idaho
Futures, Options, and Risk Management
This stream studies the markets producers use to manage price risk and the strategies they follow. On the market side, I examine how risk premiums form in commodity futures, how information and trading volume move prices, momentum in intraday futures prices, announcement effects of government reports, and liquidity in thinner markets such as lumber and emissions permits.
On the producer side, my group combines focus groups, statewide surveys, and market data to understand how Idaho wheat growers actually market their crops, what separates top-performing marketers, and the cost and effectiveness of tools such as forward contracts, hedges, and fertilizer swaps. This research feeds directly into my extension program.
Representative publications
K C, S.*, Etienne, X.L.#, and Trujillo-Barrera, A. Vertical price transmission in food markets: New evidence from meta-analysis. Forthcoming. Agribusiness: An International Journal. doi
Couleau, A., Trujillo-Barrera, A.#, and Etienne, X.L. 2026. Dynamic time series momentum: The case of intraday coffee futures prices. Journal of Commodity Markets, 41, 100537. doi
Etienne, X.L., Li, B.#, and Liu, R. 2025. Detangling risk premiums: Common and idiosyncratic components of commodity futures. Journal of Futures Markets, 45(9), 1409–1427. doi
Xu, Y., Wang, L.*, Li, J.#, and Etienne, X.L. 2025. The impact of trading volume on liquidity and price in futures markets: Disentangling the role of informed trading. Agribusiness: An International Journal, 41(2), 342–362. doi
Nading, M.*, Etienne, X.L.#, Trujillo-Barrera, A., Hatzenbuehler, P., and Wilder, B. 2024. Factors influencing wheat marketing decisions: Insights from Idaho focus groups. Western Economics Forum, 22(1), 65–76. doi
Li, J.*, Irwin, S.H., and Etienne, X.L. 2023. Do extreme CIT position levels have market impacts in grain futures markets? Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 54(4), 792–814. doi
Lawson, J.*, Alam, M.R.#, and Etienne, X.L. 2021. Speculation and food-grain prices. Applied Economics, 53, 2305–2321. doi
Ismailova, Z.*, Etienne, X.L.#, Shakya, S.*, and Mattos, F. 2020. Quantifying the announcement effects in the U.S. lumber futures market. Journal of Forest Economics, 35(4), 375–395. doi
Maples, W., Brorsen, B.W., and Etienne, X.L. 2019. Hedging effectiveness of fertilizer swaps. Applied Economics, 51(53), 5793–5801. doi
Franken, J., Garcia, P., Irwin, S.H., and Etienne, X.L. 2018. Information transmission between livestock futures and expert price forecasts. Journal of Agribusiness, 36(1), 21–39. doi
Etienne, X.L., Trujillo-Barrera, A., and Hoffman, L.A. 2017. Volatility spillover and time-varying conditional correlation between DDGS, corn, and soybean meal markets. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 46(3), 529–554. doi
Etienne, X.L., Mallory, M., and Irwin, S.H. 2017. Estimating the cost of pre-harvest forward contracting corn and soybeans in Illinois before and after 2007. Agribusiness: An International Journal, 33(3), 358–377. doi
In progress
Dhakal, A.*, Etienne, X.L., and Trujillo-Barrera, A. Impact of weather disturbances on wheat price spread. Revise and resubmit.
K.C., S.*, Etienne, X.L., and Trujillo-Barrera, A. Machine learning meets meta-analysis: Vertical price transmission in food markets.
Adhikari, S.*, Etienne, X.L., Trujillo-Barrera, A., McConnell, M., and Adam, B. Rising international production and trade and corn price dynamics.