Given the role electricity and natural gas sectors play in the North American economy,an understanding of how markets for these commodities interact is important. Thisdissertation independently characterizes the price dynamics of major electricity andnatural gas spot markets in North America by...

Monetary policy has been given either too many positive attributes or, in contrast, only economy-disturbing features. Central banks must take into account a wide variety of factors to achieve a proper characterization of modern economies for the optimal implementation of monetary policy. Such is...

In this thesis we study three basic issues related to international black tea markets: Are black tea markets integrated? Where is the price of black tea discovered? Are there leaders and followers in black tea markets? We use two statistical techniques as engines of analysis. First, we use time...

This research explored the causal relationships among strategies, corporate structure, and performance of the largest U.S. non-financial firms using Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). Corporate strategies and structure have been analyzed as major variables to influence corporate performance in...

This study proposes one plausible procedure to address two methodological issues,which are common in micro- and macro- econometric analyses, for the full realization ofresearch potential brought by recently available high dimensional data. To address the issue ofhow to infer the causal structure...

This dissertation investigates various issues of interest regarding the workings and uses of commodity futures markets. Chapter II evaluates the relative performances of various estimators of bid-ask spreads in futures markets using commonly available transaction data. Results indicate a wide...

This paper uncovers the relationship between stock markets and exchange ratesin seven countries by employing stable aggregate currency (SAC) for the period of 1973-2004. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, time series methods, and directedacyclic graphs are applied to the daily data on...

The dynamics of the U.S. and Canada natural gas spot markets are evolving throughderegulation policies and technological advances. Economic theory suggests that thesemarkets will be integrated. The key question is the extent of integration among themarkets. This thesis characterizes the degree...