Policy impact on volatility dynamics in commodity futures markets: Evidence from China

Chinese financial markets play an ever more pertinent role in the global economic context and are therefore increasingly relevant for stabilizing the economy. In this paper, we scrutinize the impact of a series of new policies on stock index futures trading, which have recently been enacted by the Chinese government. We pay particular attention to the way in which these have influenced commodity market volatilities and how their impact on liquidity has affected volatility more generally. Our results reveal a novel interaction between the new government policy and market forces which drive volatilities in commodity markets.