Essays on Imperfect Competition and International Trade

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three chapters based on product differentiation and increasing returns to scale. Chapter 1 studies a static monopolistic competition model with social indifference curves over a group of consumers and applies it to international trade and public economics. Chapter 2 examines the impacts of domestic and international trade costs on per-capita income in an economy where each individual exchanges with others to gain intermediate product diversity and economies of scale. Chapter 3 analyzes the impact of trade growth in manufacturing on the productivity growth in agriculture using a two-sector endogenous growth model.