Inflation Hedging with Commodities: A Wavelet Analysis of Seven Centuries Worth of Data

We perform a test of the inflation hedging properties of commodities on the longest data series ever used for this purpose. We apply wavelet analysis to commodity prices and inflation data from the United Kingdom for the years 1265 through 2017, to detect co-movement across different times and frequencies. We demonstrate robust inflation hedging properties of agricultural, energy, and industrial commodities for the 4- to 8-year horizon through almost the entire seven centuries.