Essays on Applied International Economics and Finance

Abstract

Studies in international economics and finance have become increasingly important in understanding the ways economies are integrated. This dissertation comprises three essays on this topic. The first essay investigates the relationship between financial development and trade based on panel data of bilateral trade between the world’s three largest economies (United States, Japan, and Germany) and 47 partner countries. The second essay estimates common factors from a monthly panel of 51 commodity prices and further analyzes the most important common factor, which appears to be correlated with the U.S. dollar nominal exchange rates. Lastly, the third essay examines data on Japanese and Korean automobile exports to the United States to determine consistency with the Alchian-Allen theorem.