Macroeconomics Commons^™

Essays In International Economics: Decomposing Episodes Of Large Growth In International Trade, Brandon K. Malloy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis consists of three chapters relating to topics in International Economics. In the first essay, I use bilateral trade data from Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the U.S. and the U.K. to decompose the patterns of trade growth across various goods classifications during episodes of rapid growth in bilateral trade. I find that bilateral trade growth during these episodes is granular- less than 5\% of goods classifications account for over 65\% of overall bilateral trade growth. I quantitatively assess whether ``Melitz-style" trade models, with heterogeneous productivity firms, CES demand and fixed and variable costs of exporting, can match the observed …

Essays On Growth And Input Misallocation In China, Wenya Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis consists of three chapters that contribute to the study of input misallocation and TFP growth in China.

In Chapter 2, I compare the misallocation of intermediate goods to those of capital and labor, which have been extensively studied in the literature. To measure misallocation, I compute the dispersion of marginal products of intermediate goods across firms, and the potential output gains by eliminating this dispersion in China Industrial Enterprise Survey (CIES) data. Although the within-industry dispersion of marginal products of intermediates is smaller than that of capital and labor, gross output and value added gains from reallocating intermediate …

Essays On Debt In Macroeconomics, James G. Partridge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My dissertation consists of three chapters, where the common theme among them is debt and saving. My work contributes to our understanding of how debt markets function for entrepreneurs, large corporations and households.

The first chapter studies how entrepreneurs used personal borrowing to fund their businesses during the Great Recession. One of the defining characteristics of this period was a “credit crunch” during which the supply of credit dropped for all borrowers. I show that changes in the finances of entrepreneurs between 2007 and 2009 are consistent with entrepreneurs using personal assets to secure lending for their businesses and overcome …