I am deeply grateful to my advisor, Professor Aimee Chin, for her constant support and guidance throughout my Ph.D. study. Discussions with her always inspire me to look at different research questions with new angles. I would like to thank Professors Chinhui Juhn and Elaine Liu for their invaluable support and feedback. Professor Juhn's questions on my research projects always make my ideas and thoughts be more clear and concise. Meeting with Professor Liu and my classmates every week exposes me to different interesting questions, help me to organize my thoughts and learn how to communicate my research ideas to other people. I would also like to thank Professor Andrew Zuppann for his inspirational feedback and comments. I also thanks Professors Willa Friedman, Jee-Yeon K. Lehmann, and Gergely Ujhelyi for helpful comments and discussions. I greatly appreciate the financial support from the Department of Economics, University of Houston.

I also thank my parents for their love and support, their understanding is very important in my graduate study. Studying in a new environment is never an easy task. Luckily, I met nice and supportive friends who helped me in many ways during my graduate school.

Finally, I thank my wife Chon-Man. She always allows and encourages me to pursue my goals and do things that I want to do. As the most important person in my life, her love, patient, understanding, and support completed my life. I am everything I am because of her. 