We examine two distinct and important dimensions (e.g. symmetry vs. asymmetry and linearity vs. nonlinearity) of price transmission from international to retail coffee prices in France, Germany and the United States. We show that ignoring these two features of the price transmission process may lead to misleading impact assessments resulting from the elimination of International Coffee Agreement (ICA) in 1990. Our results confirm the presence of threshold effects in both periods (ICA and post ICA) in all three countries. Our estimates show that, in the long-run, the speed of adjustment toward equilibrium becomes faster during the post-ICA period in France and Germany. Our results suggest that, for these two countries, changes in international prices did... |