I consider myself extreme lucky to have Professor Bent Sorensen, Professor Christian Murray, and Professor German Cubas to serve as my committee, and guide me through my Ph.D. study. I cannot thank Professor Bent Sorensen enough for his exceptional advice, support, and encouragement for me during these years. I'm so lucky and it is such a great honor for me to have him as my academic advisor. I would like to thank Professor Christian Murray and Professor German Cubas for guiding me and supporting me in the research. Professor Christian Murray led me to the ZILC issue, so I can come up the first essay; Professor German Cubas taught me the advanced Macroeconomics topics and led me to the consumer confidence topic in the applied macroeconomics research. I would also like to thank Professor Alex Nikolsko-Rzhevskyy in Lehigh University. He gave me great comments in the conference where I presented my paper. I thank him to be one of my committee members and guided me in my research. 

It would not have been as great for the life at UH had it not been with my fantastic friends. I want to thank Yi Zhu and Hui Du for their guidance, support, and endless love for me. They are my family in U.S.. I want to thank Chon-Kit Ao and Somdeep Chatterjee for being such great friends for me. 

Finally, I want to thank my parents Zetian Du and Xiuhua Liu, who deserve my deepest gratitude for their never-ending belief and love.  