Thesis advisor: S. Anukriti / I examine how increases in the tariff rate impacted market prices and household consumption of imported rice in Nigeria during 2001-2018. I find that the country-level tariff pass-through for imported rice was 7 percent and occurred three-months after implementation. When faced with increases in the tariff-rate, households decrease their consumption of imported rice. Households that face greater exposure to the tariff rate decrease their consumption more than those that are less exposed. The relatively small tariff pass-through and the responsiveness of consumption to increases in the tariff rates are crucial pieces of information for informing Nigeria’s future rice policy. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.

I provide evidence on the impact of foreign competition on firms' propensities to engage in mergers and acquisitions. Using import tariff reductions as an exogenous shock that increases foreign industry competition, I find that affected firms are more likely to make acquisitions following a tariff reduction. Cross-sectional tests show that this association is more pronounced for single segment firms, firms that innovate less, or that are more capital intensive, which suggests this association is stronger for firms which stand to gain more from an acquisition. Moreover, the positive relationship between acquisition likelihood and tariff cuts is less pronounced for financially constrained firms and during times of low capital liquidity, which implies that it is easier for firms with greater access to external capital to respond to increases in foreign competition by making acquisitions. Finally, I find that acquisitions made subsequent to tariff decreases are associated with positive wealth gains for bidder shareholders, indicating that these acquisitions are viewed favorably by market participants.