Co-integration of Groundnut Markets in India with Special Reference to Karnataka State

Abstract

Aims: Market integration is an indicator that explains how different markets are related to each other. The main aim of the paper is to examine the market integration of groundnut seed and oil markets in India.  Study Design: This paper examines the market integration in six major groundnut oil markets and four groundnut pod markets using monthly wholesale prices of groundnut. Methodology: Test for stationarity was done using Dickey Fuller Test. The Engle-Granger two-step method is used to test for co-integration between the variables. Johansen co-integration test was applied to analyse the long run equilibrium among the groundnut markets. Results: Unit root test indicated that the price series in each location are non-stationary at their levels and stationary at their first differences. The Granger causality test indicated that all the market pairs are well co-integrated, some of the markets have bidirectional relationship and some have unidirectional relationship at five per cent level of significance, which implies that the groundnut prices have an equally long run association. Conclusion: In overall, the study suggests that regional markets for groundnut in India are strongly co-integrated. Therefore, the Government can stabilize the price in one key market and rely on commercialization to produce a similar outcome in other markets. This reduces the cost of stabilization considerably.