ABSTRACTCHAPTER 1: A Structural Empirical Model of R&D Investment, Firm Heterogeneity, and Industry EvolutionThis paper develops and estimates a structural model of R&D investment and productivity evolution of manufacturing plants in the Korean electric motor industry from 1991 to 1996....

Increases in wages and the appreciation of the New Taiwanese dollar since the mid-1980s have significantly altered the environment in which firms operate and survive. In particular, as more countries have liberalized their trade and foreign investment policies, Taiwanese firms have been...

This dissertation consists of three essays in process improvement and assortment planning. In the first essay, we study firm's strategies on balancing two conflicting manufacturing process improvement activities: learning and process change. Learning deepens the firm's knowledge of the...

The traditional education system in Qing China has been widely debated over the past decades. Some have argued it was efficient and furthered economic growth, while others have stressed its inefficient nature, which led to the introduction of the modern education system in the closing decades of...

In recent decades, national income has become increasingly important as a measure of a nation’s economic health. In this study, we used a wide array of primary and secondary sources to arrive at values of the Chinese per capita gross domestic product (GDP) during the period of 1661–1933. We...

In this dissertation we study several key issues faced by firms while introducing new products to market. The first essay looks at product rollovers: introduction of a new product generation while phasing out the old one. We study the strategic decision of dual vs. single roll jointly with...

This paper discusses a new policy framework to appraise proposals of large transport infrastructure investments—transport corridors—and applies it to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The framework emphasizes the need to focus the appraisal of transport corridor investments on...

CHAPTER 1: Productivity Improvements and Falling Trade Costs: Boon or Bane?This essay looks at two features of globalization, namely, productivity improvements and falling trade costs, and explores their effect on welfare in a monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms and...

This thesis examines the association between insider trade behavior and participation within Rule 10b5-1 trade plans to provide evidence about how insiders respond to regulation that reduces litigation risk and how the Rule affects insiders informed trade profits. Rule 10b5-1 includes a safe...

The economic decisions of rational agents can be analyzedby theoretical models and/or empirical models. This dissertationconsists of two different applications of empirical models on twodifferent economic conundrums, both based on theoretical hypotheses.The first chapter introduces the related...