Essays on applied international trade

In this thesis, I examine three empirical research questions that are concerned with the expansion of international trade and the increasing activity of multinational firms. First I attempt to determine empirically the effect of the rising volume of international trade on the relative wages of skilled and unskilled workers in the US economy for the period 1967-1991. Secondly, I try to assess the causal effect on total factor productivity ( TFP) growth of a change in the status of British firms from domestic producers to either exporters or subsidiaries of multinational firms over the period 1990 to 1996. Finally, I decompose the growth rate of the volume of US net exports into five components. These are a term of trade component, an endowment component, a production technology component, a preferences component and an income component. Then I obtain estimates of each component's contribution and I am able to provide possible explanations for the particular path the volume of US net exports followed in the period 1966-1991.