Book reviews

The most fascinating commodity?

TIN: ITS PRODUCTION AND MARKETING

by William Robertson

Croom Helm, London, UK, 1982, f 14.95

This book is the second in the Croom Helm Commodity Series. Unfortun- ately it was written before the recent turmoil on the world tin market caused by a syndicate of producers - apparently led by Malaysian interests - attempting a ‘comer’. However, readers of Robertson’s book will find themselves in a better position to comprehend this type of exercise, and perhaps deduce the reason why things did not develop quite as its perpetrators envisaged. l

About the first half of the book wn- sists of a description of the production and use of tin. Although I cannot describe this part of the book as lively, it is easily read and certainly useful. In fact the principal merit of this book is that it provides a more or less wmpre- hensive overview of the great world of tin that, in comparison to Fox’s well known study,2 is almost up to date. And, despite the preconceptions that many people may have about this market, it may well be the most fascinating of all primary commodity markets with its interplay of oligopoly, buffer stocks, agreements, exchange pricing, ‘North’ versus ‘South’ politics, and perhaps genuine scarcity - since the reserves of tin appear to be palpably limited when measured in terms of annual consumption.

What about the economics of tin - and by economics I specifically mean the use of standard economic analysis to explain market-related phenomena? Here there are some shortcomings. Although there is an interesting review of some of the literature-primarily the work of Paul Hallwood, Christopher Gilbert, Kerstin Barkman (and not

Backman), and Smith and Schink - I found this portion of the book a bit too thin for my taste. Robertson obviously knows his commodity economics, and it may well be that his book took this particular form because his editor and/ or publisher desire volumes in this series dealing with specific commodi- ties to cover ‘essential properties, production properties, marketing and prospects’, to use the terminology of series editor Fiona Gordon-Ashworth in her editorial statement; but I, as an economist, would personally never have anything to do with writing a book where, as a matter of policy, analysis was subordinated to description. This does not mean, of course, that bad analysis is preferable to good descrip- tion; particularly since bad analysis is what several well known commodity econometricians seem to specialize in.

Robertson’s study should have con- tained more theoretical material, as well as a brief examination of such econometric constructions as the World Bank tin model. Here I would like to make it clear that while I find most commodity econometrics cynical and counter-productive, this particular model is in the same class as the important work on aluminium done by L.A. Fisher and Anthony Owen3 and David Hojman4 I was also surprised, actually amazed, not to find a reference

to the seminal work of M. Desai on tin - although I have expressed a few reservations about Dr Desai’s conclusions.5

Still, there is no reason to look a gift horse in the mouth. Over the years a number of my students in international economics have expressed an interest in the tin market, thereby putting me in the somewhat trying position of obtaining literature for them. Unless I am mistaken, the appearance of Robertson’s compact little study (which treats many issues that are important for all non-fuel minerals) reduces that problem to manageable proportions.

Ferdinand Banks Nationalekonomiska institutionen

Uppsala University, Sweden

See F.E. Banks, Resources and Energy: An Economic Analysis, DC Heath, Lexington and Toronto, 1983, for an analysis of this attempted coup. Another important discussion is: John Edwards, ‘The battle for the tin market’, financial Times, 15 February 1982. *William Fox, Tin: The Working of a Commodity Agreement, Mining Journal Books, London, 1974. 3See L.A. Fisher and A.D. Owen, ‘An econometric model of the US aluminium industnr’. Resources Policv. Vol 7. No 3. September 1981, pp 150-l 88. 4David E. Hojman, ‘An econometric model of the international bauxite-aluminium economy’, Resources Policv, Vol 7, No 2, June 1981, ~~87-102. _ Meanad Desai. ‘An econometric model of the - world tin economy, 194881’, Econometrica, 1988. See also F.E. Banks,‘An Econometric Model of the World Tin Economy: A Comment,’ Econometrica, July 1972.

LDC commodity model

COMMODITY EXPORTS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The Commodity Problem and Policy in Developing Countries

by F. Gerard Adams and Jere R. Behn-nan

Lexington Books, Lexington, MA (UK: Gower, Aldershot, Hants), 7 982, 346 pp. f21.00

This book represents the culmination of a series of econometric studies by the Wharton School of Econometric Forecasting at the University of Pennsylvania. Like the earlier publi- cations which it summarizes the book is based on the special econometric model developed by the Wharton Unit. However, non-mathematical readers need not be deterred because the conclusions and main points are

RESOURCES POLICY March 1983 65