Essays in international economics and macroeconomics

Abstract

The three chapters of this dissertation investigate major puzzles in international economics and macroeconomics. Chapter 1 proposes a new measure of knowledge production within corporations and analyzes how the production and flow of knowledge within multinational cor- porations can account for the cross-country correlation in corporate sector GDP fluctuations. Chapter 2 studies how fluctuations in the price of primary commodities can account for fluctua- tions in bilateral real exchange rates between the United States and United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. Finally, Chapter 3 studies the role of firm entry in accounting for the slow recovery in employment following the World Economic Crisis in 2008–2009.