THREE ESSAYS ON INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS by

This dissertation comprises of three essays in international macroeconomics. The first essay investigates the competition between two city states, both of which will stand in place of countries in the global scheme. Under the framework of the three-stages-game, we assume that there are two cities competing for dominance over two sectors: the manufacturing sector and the financial sector. In addition, the government of each city state can build infrastructure to increase the competitiveness of the financial and distributive firms of its city. Under this framework, we are able to show that the amount of resources, the start-up costs of providing services, and the relative effectiveness of their infrastructures determine the optimal amounts of infrastructures the cities decide to build, and thus also decide the equilibrium outcome of this game. In my second essay, we examine the relationship between income distribution and import patterns. The Linder hypothesis states that countries with similar economic characteristics should trade more often. However, although the total volumes of trade between these countries are similar, the traded goods may be different. This paper investigates the tradin