The goal of this dissertation is to explore the financialization of commodities markets. The term financialization is used to describe the constant increase of importance of the financial aspect of the global economy versus its other aspects, either through the increase of volume and size of transactions that are realized through financial markets and the creation of new investment products either through the accumulation of wealth through investment versus trade or production of commodities.

The study is focused on how financialization affects commodity markets, as they are more frequently used as an alternative investment since the early 2000s. Towards this goal, data on agricultural, energy, industrial and precious metal commodities is collected. The data includes financial, futures contracts prices, spot prices, data on different trader categories within the various commodity markets and macroeconomic data. Research is done on how different commodities behave under financialization and if there are any short or long-term effects on commodity prices. A question that arises under the assumption of the use of commodities as investments, under the financialization view, is how various commodities fare under adverse economic conditions and if the effects of financialization are increased. Therefore, the study extends to how various commodities behave under tail-risk events, such as economic crises. Further research is done, specific to energy and agricultural commodities, in order to explore how financialization can have exceedingly high impact on emerging economies, via the creation of conditions of possible restriction to food or energy access.