This dissertation consists of the essays in international economics and development. Study 1: This chapter theoretically and empirically investigates the impact of technology on the growth in productivity of different industries in Saudi Arabia, with the consideration that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow and government investment are the main channels for technology. This paper develops a growth model and utilizes panel data for 10 industries for the period 1991-2016. Data are analyzed and divided on research and development (R&D)-intensive activities and are based on the government ownership of each industry. Using the Arellano- Bond (GMM estimation) regression approach with fixed and random effects, my empirical results indicate that inward FDI is an important vehicle by which technology achieves growth in productivity for all industries. R&D-intensive industries are more technology-dependent and benefit more from FDI inflow than from government investment. Industries that have higher government ownership benefit more from government investment. This study focuses is a country-specific study, in contrast to existing literature that focuses on international study. This study takes the largest oil-producing country as a case study. The Saudi Arabian Government could broaden existing policies to improve foreign investment in existing economic industries. Study 2: This chapter theoretically investigates the minimum tax credit that is needed to make renewable energy development projects competitive with other energy production facilities. The study presents findings on the minimum possible tax credit rate as an important vehicle for achieving renewable energy development. Study 3: Using time series data on four types of renewable energy consumption, this study finds that federal policies related to renewable energy development and tax credit have significant positive impacts on the consumption of renewable energy by the residential and transport sectors. Under the assumption of a linear relationship, the auto-regressive integrated moving average estimation method (ARIMA) was used. The results were computed by applying structural breaks in the tax credit by using dummy variables. In the other linear model, I include all of the observations without applying structural breaks and find consistent results. This study also includes a discussion of different energy prices and their impacts on renewable energy consumption in the short term. The different types of energy prices and renewable energy consumptions of different groups of consumers led to these findings. Gas and electricity are substituted in residential and commercial energy consumption; in contrast, coal and electricity are substituted in industrial energy consumption. Household gas causes emission; therefore, increasing in emission rate greatly affects residential consumption of renewable energy. This would encourage the Department of Energy and the Federal Government of the United States to continue increasing federal funds of energy development, and reduce subsidies for household gas that causes emission.