Should governments subsidize firms' own innovation or adoption of foreign technology? How does the answer change over different stages of development? To answer these questions, we digitize the universe of technology transfer contracts between domestic and foreign firms in South Korea during its...

The number of promising technology startups has increased worldwide, yet few outside the US manage to scale. What accounts for these international scaling disparities? This dissertation assesses the role of entrepreneurial and gatekeeper decisions in these scaling differences. From the...

During industry change, managers and entrepreneurs often must make strategic investment decisions well in advance of knowing when and how new technologies and business models would reshape the industry landscape. Scholars have emphasized the important role of managers’ forward-looking...

This dissertation advances research on the role of states in shaping the global financial network. The relationship between states and financial globalization is complex and multifaceted. States employ various economic tools, such as secondary sanctions, anti-money laundering (AML), and...

This dissertation consists of two chapters on the industrial organization of public institutions. In the first chapter, Proactive and Reactive Infrastructure Investment, I examine investment decisions of drinking water system managers in the United States. Properly functioning infrastructure is...

I study how improved access to public firm disclosures affects private firm financing through IPOs. Theory indicates that although improved access to public firm disclosures can reduce IPO investors' valuation uncertainty, it can also lead to increased adverse selection. This tension leaves the...

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are the dominant firm type in the global electricity sector. Given their prevalence, the acquisition of new electricity generation technologies by these firms, could have vast implications for electricity supply, economic growth, greenhouse-gas emissions and the...

Access to drinking water infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has increased over the last 30 years, but much of that infrastructure functions intermittently, provides water of poor quality, or fails prematurely. Financing for the recurrent costs of delivering truly safe and...

This dissertation studies a special feature about the international financial market. Classical theories often assume that countries are symmetric, but realistically the international financial market is heavily US dollar dominated, which stimulates my interest to study whether this role of the...

This dissertation lies at the intersection of environmental economics and development economics. It includes three essays that empirically examine the effects of climate change and extreme weather events on agriculture in both developed and developing countries.The first essay explores how the...