Brigida, Matthew David.

The recent advances in communication technology are changing the structure of the labor market in the United States. Jobs, which previously had to be done in the United States, can now be done offshore and thus American companies can take advantage of the wage differentials between countries. To see the potential effects that such a structural change may have on economic growth, we first examine the 19th century convergence between Europe and the New World countries. Thereafter we introduce a model of economic growth that will take into account a particular aspect of present day offshoring. Many of the workers being brought into the United States labor market are highly skilled. After this, we introduce Skill-Biased Technological Change and look at how it may be affected by offshoring.

Information leakage before full acquisitions has been widely documented. The information leakage, and the resulting pre-bid runup in the target's stock, generally increases the total cost of the acquisition. That is, information leakage and the ensuing pre-bid runup is a gain to the target and loss to the acquirer. Herein, I first ascertain the characteristics of full acquisitions that affect the amount of information leakage. I find that if the acquirer borrows to finance the acquisition then information leakage is greater. Further if the acquirer is foreign, if the target is a high-tech firm, and if the target has options on its stock all increase information leakage. I find hostile deals are effective in reducing information leakage. Lastly, information leakage increases in the percentage of managerial ownership. I next hypothesize that the identity and intent of partial acquirers is known to market participants before the announcement of a partial acquisition. I find that the market can anticipate whether a partial acquirer intends to fully-acquire or take an active role in the management of the target. Also, the market anticipates whether the acquirer is a private investment find or a non-financial corporation. Further, the acquirer's identity or intent is fully reflected in the target's stock price before the announcement of the partial acquisition. These results help explain why there are few partial acquisitions as precursors to full acquisitions.