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This dissertation studies topics of international economics, such as the impact of US monetary policy on trade and finance in emerging market economies, impact of trade, migration and finance in influencing consumption across 50 states in the United States, and healthcare costs and choices in a developing economy (India). Each chapter of the dissertation approaches one of these three topics.The first chapter investigates the role of US dollar as the dominant currency in world trade and finance and its impact on emerging market economies. In response to a U.S. monetary tightening, I show that exports of emerging market economies (EMEs) fall, contrary to the implications of standard open economy models. To explain this puzzle, I construct a DSGE model that incorporates two important aspects of the global economy; a large share of trade volumes among EMEs are denominated in US dollars and firms in EMEs borrow in US dollars. These key features of the model, along with imported inputs in production and financial frictions (a Bernanke-Gertler-Gilchrist style financial accelerator), lead to inefficient current account imbalances. In this paper, I assess the impact on the external balancing mechanism as propounded by Mundell Fleming model through a three-country general-equilibrium model with nominal rigidities, imperfect competition in production, dominant currency pricing and financing, incomplete and imperfect asset markets.The second chapter examines how frictions in bilateral economic linkages shape the consumption pattern across economies. Using state-level data from the US, we find that the degree of bilateral consumption risk sharing across economies decreases in geographic distance. To explain this novel fact, we develop a DSGE model that incorporates trade, migration, and finance as channels of risk sharing which are subject to frictions that covary with distance. Calibrated to the US data, the model not only enables us to quantify the magnitude of the frictions in each channel, but also allows us to examine the interplay among the channels and disentangle their effects on the level, volatility, and comovement of consumption across states. Counterfactual analyses based on the model shed light on the design of macroeconomic policies that aim to reduce cross-region consumption disparity. In the third and last chapter, we use survey data for 500 individuals from 10 villages distributed around the town of Nabha in Punjab, India, to examine patterns of healthcare choices. In particular, we examine the choice between government and private providers, and between medical professionals and informal practitioners. We also examine the joint choice of provider type and distance traveled, and possible factors influencing reported satisfaction levels with the care received. We construct a measure of anticipated treatment cost, and find that this variable, as well as reported cost-sensitivity, affects the choice between government and private providers. Our results have possible implications for policies with respect to the supply of healthcare options and their funding.

During development, the heart grows by addition of progenitor cells to the poles of the primordial heart tube. In the zebrafish, Wilms tumor 1 transcription factor a (wt1a) and b (wt1b) genes are expressed in the pericardium, at the venous pole of the heart. From this pericardial layer, the proepicardium emerges. Proepicardial cells are subsequently transferred to the myocardial surface and form the epicardium, covering the myocardium. We found that while wt1a and wt1b expression is maintained in proepicardial cells, it is downregulated in pericardial cells that contributes cardiomyocytes to the developing heart. Sustained wt1b expression in cardiomyocytes reduced chromatin accessibility of specific genomic loci. Strikingly, a subset of wt1a- and wt1b-expressing cardiomyocytes changed their cell-adhesion properties, delaminated from the myocardium and upregulated epicardial gene expression. Thus, wt1a and wt1b act as a break for cardiomyocyte differentiation, and ectopic wt1a and wt1b expression in cardiomyocytes can lead to their transdifferentiation into epicardial-like cells. NM has been funded by SNF grant 320030E-164245 and ERC Consolidator grant 2018 819717. The CNIC is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN) and the Pro CNIC Foundation and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505). Benoît Zuber is supported by SNF grant 179520 and ERA-NET NEURON grant 185536. M.O. was supported by SNF grant PCEFP3_186993. Sí