MSc (Med), Population-Based Field Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / Background Complications of childbirth and pregnancy are leading causes of death among women of reproductive age. Worldwide, developing countries account for ninety-nine percent of maternal deaths. The United Nations’ fifth millennium development goal (MDG-5) is to reduce maternal mortality ratio by three fourths by 2015. Aim The aim of this study is to explore the levels, trends, causes and risk factors associated with maternal mortality as put forward by World Health Organization (WHO) in rural settings of Tanzania. Specific objectives To establish the trend of maternal mortality ratios in Rufiji health and demographic surveillance system (RHDSS) during the period 2002-2006. To determine the main causes of maternal deaths in RHDSS during the period 2002-2006. To determine the risk factors associated with maternal mortality RHDSS during the period 2002-2006. Method Secondary data analysis based on the longitudinal database from Rufiji Health and Demographic Surveillance System was used to study the risk factors and causes of maternal death. Data for a period of 5 years between 2002-2006 was used. A total of 26 427 women v aged 15-49 years were included in the study; 64 died and there were 15 548 live births. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the risk factors associated with maternal deaths. Results Maternal mortality ratio was 412 per 100 000 live births. The main causes of death were haemorrhage (28%), eclampsia (19%) and puerperal sepsis (8%). Maternal age and marital status were associated with maternal mortality. An increased risk of 154% for maternal death was found for women aged 30-39 versus 15-19 years (HR=2.54, 95% CI=1.001- 6.445). Married women had a protective effect of 62% over unmarried ones (HR=0.38, 95% CI=0.176-0.839). These findings were statistically significant at the 5% level. Conclusion This analysis reinforced previous findings pointing to the fact that haemorrhage and eclampsia are the leading causes of maternal mortality in Tanzania and other developing countries. This indicates the need for better antenatal and obstetric care, particularly for women over thirty years of age, as well as implementing health care delivery strategies according to the regional specific risk factors of maternal deaths and not the global factors.

Thesis advisor: Peter Ireland / My dissertation consists of three papers on business cycles in developing countries. All the papers are different from each other and emphasize different aspects of understanding economic fluctuations in developing countries. The first paper is titled `Medium Term Business Cycles in Developing Countries' (with Diego Comin, Norman Loayza and Luis Serven). This paper models the link between business cycle fluctuations in developed countries with fluctuations in developing countries. Business cycle fluctuations in developed economies tend to have large and persistent effects on developing countries. We study the transmission of business cycle fluctuations from developed to developing economies with a two-country asymmetric DSGE model with two important features: (i) endogenous and slow diffusion of technologies from the developed to the developing country, and (ii) adjustment costs to investment flows. Consistent with the model, we observe that the flow of technologies from developed to developing economies co-moves positively with output in both developed and developing countries. After calibrating the model to Mexico and the U.S., it can explain the following stylized facts: (i) U.S. and Mexican output co-move more than consumption; (ii) U.S. shocks have a larger effect on Mexico than in the U.S.; (iii) U.S. business cycles lead over medium term fluctuations in Mexico; (iv) Mexican consumption is more volatile than output. The second paper of my dissertation is based on a price setting survey conducted by the State Bank of Pakistan (Central Bank). The paper is titled `Price-Setting Discoveries: Results from a Developing Country' (with M. Ali Choudhary, Abdul Faheem, Nadeem Hanif, and Saima Naeem) present the results of 1189 structured face-to-face interviews about price-setting behavior of the formal firms in the manufacturing and services sector of Pakistan. The key findings of the survey are:the frequency of price change is high in Pakistan, lowering the real impact of monetary policy. Price rigidity is mainly explained by firms caring about relative prices and the persistence of shocks. The exchange-rate and cost shocks are more important than financial and demand shocks for both setting prices and also the readiness with which these shocks pass-through to the economy. Formal sector firms with connections to the informal sector, especially through demand, have a lower probability of price adjustment. The lack of taxes and compliance with tax regime, i.e. enforcement are held responsible for existence of the informal sector by formal sector firms. The results from this paper provided motivation for the last paper of my dissertation about understanding and modeling the business cycle fluctuations in a developing economy like Pakistan. The last paper of my dissertation is titled `Modeling Business Cycles in Pakistan: A First Step'. In this paper, I establish the nature of short-run fluctuations of the Pakistani economy over the period of 1960-2010. There have been significant changes in the nature of the Pakistani economy over the last few decades. Therefore, I focus my detailed analysis on the last few decades where it seems more appropriate to investigate the nature and causes of business cycles in Pakistan. Furthermore, I evaluate the performance of a typical RBC and an augmented RBC model with an exogenous FDI shock in explaining cyclical fluctuations experienced by the Pakistani economy. I find that a simple RBC model does badly in terms of matching relevant second order moments of short run fluctuations as depicted by the data. However, augmented RBC model performs better compared to the simple RBC model. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Thesis advisor: Robert G. Murphy / Each year increasing levels of development assistance are provided to promote growth and reduce poverty in less developed countries. This is done, however, despite unresolved debates about the effectiveness of foreign aid. Investigating a new approach to the topic in 1999, Burnside and Dollar introduced a conceptual framework in which the effectiveness of aid is contingent on the economic and political policies of the countries receiving it. With its strong intuitive appeal, this hypothesis has attracted widespread attention, and yet the questions surrounding aid's effectiveness remain controversial. While the debate remains open-ended, this study reexamines Burnside and Dollar's specification with new and updated data and builds on their model with new econometric estimation techniques. Getting even a little closer to determining the true effects of foreign aid on developing countries is timely and valuable as calls and commitments for help are continuously rising. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

This thesis focuses on the social exclusion of children of primary school age in India and Mozambique by examining two related aspects: the policies that have been adopted in both countries to tackle social exclusion and the indicators they have used to identify it. It is argued that existing policy indicators in both countries can provide a partial answer to the question of how far they have been able to address social exclusion but that indicators and analyses need to be more fine grained both to monitor social exclusion and provide leads as to how it can better addressed. The purpose is not to compare the two country analyses in order to evaluate how they differ in terms of magnitude or severity in the form of the exclusion. Rather, it is to understand the diverse nature of exclusion, and the different remedies and analyses that are required in the two countries. This analysis suggests that one size fits all policies, as once suggested by the World Bank, are inappropriate. The thesis develops an understanding of the concept of social exclusion and contrasts it with previous accounts of poverty in countries like India and Mozambique. It also adopts a normative Human Rights approach in viewing primary schooling as crucial to questions of social exclusion. It also shows how these key concepts can be related. Through the two country analyses offered in this thesis, it can be shown that because data collection processes are largely based on aggregate indicators, there is insufficient information to undertake an adequate analysis of social exclusion. In order to establish this point, official data sets are reanalyzed to see how far they can take us in helping to understand the complex nature of social exclusion. In particular, it will be shown that the indicators related to the education status of children are insufficiently disaggregated to enable an improved understanding of the characteristics of children that continue to be excluded. From this analysis it will be argued that a broader list of indicators needs to be developed related to the dynamics at the level of the school, community and household. However, given that social exclusion may be structured differently in various contexts it is argued that participatory research is required that facilitates the assessment and analysis of these dynamics by all the key stakeholders, including children, at the various levels. In particular, policy makers fail to involve children in the process of assessing and analyzing the reasons for exclusion, and therefore do not benefit from their perceptions and insights. Further analysis of the various dynamics which relate to exclusion provide useful insights to better understand the policy and programmatic initiatives that effectively address the social exclusion of children from primary school.

Photocopy of typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / General systems theory provides a conceptual framework for the integration of knowledge from a wide variety of specialized fields. Systems theory serves to synthesize, reconcile, and integrate knowledge making it possible to unify analytical data into broader based theories. By examining various systematic relationships, attention can be focused upon the interrelatedness of organization theory and physical planning. The juxtaposition of these two disciplines within a systems context has particular application in the design of urban settlements in developing countries. The lack of organizational capability and the inability to influence the environment contributes to the continuing cycle of poverty of the urban poor. By structuring and integrating their activities, the poor would be better able to participate in the planning and the implementation of projects which affect their lives. The development of organizational systems can increase the capacity of individuals to change their relationship to the environment to one of greater influence and control. Further, the designs of physical layouts have potential for determining social systems which enhance the idea of interrelatedness. / by Joseph V. Morog. / M.Arch.

Female entrepreneurs contribute significantly to the global economy especially through employment creation, contributing to diversity in entrepreneurship and economic growth. Notwithstanding this contribution, their potential remains considerably unexploited in many countries, evidenced by businesses that underperform those owned by men. Significant research gaps on the subject of female entrepreneurship exist in the literature. To illustrate, the number of studies focusing on women-owned businesses remains significantly fewer than that of studies focusing on businesses owned by men, resulting in little being known about the subject. Another important research gap is the absence of a conceptual model of factors affecting performance of women-owned SMEs in the context of Sub-Saharan African countries. Furthermore, the majority of studies on female entrepreneurship have been done in developed countries, giving rise to theories originating from those contexts and relative lack of knowledge and empirical results in the context of developing countries. Zambia represents a specific case of a developing context where little is known about female entrepreneurs. This research develops and tests a conceptual model of individual level and firm level factors affecting performance in women-owned SMEs in Zambia, drawing on the Competency Approach, Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), and Resource Based View of the firm as the main theoretical foundations. It adopts a mixed method approach implemented in two stages: an exploratory qualitative study (carried out as the initial stage of this research) and a main quantitative study. The study uses the findings of the exploratory qualitative study to refine the conceptual model developed and to provide insights into the quantitative findings. The conceptual model is tested empirically using structural equation modelling with SPSS Amos software. The research makes a new contribution by identifying a new set of entrepreneurial competencies relevant to the Zambian context. It also attempts to integrate two literature streams (i.e. competency approach and entrepreneurial orientation) by providing empirical evidence that the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and firm performance is partially mediated by entrepreneurial orientation. The study also extends the boundaries of knowledge by challenging the applicability of established measures and research approaches originating from developed contexts to non-industrially developed contexts. For example, it provides empirical evidence that the relevance of entrepreneurial competencies in a particular context is contingent on the unique aspects of its business environment. The study also challenges widely accepted knowledge that EO enhances firm performance, and provides empirical evidence for the argument that this relationship is context-specific. It further demonstrates that the individual dimensions of EO may have varying effects on firm performance, suggesting that it is better to view the EO construct as a multidimensional rather than unidimensional construct. This research also extends literature on entrepreneurial competencies by showing that they are strong predictors of firm performance in the current research context, and that formal education and previous entrepreneurship experience contribute to their development.

This dissertation contains three essays in Development Economics. The first two chapters relate to the provision of credit for agricultural production in a developing country. The third chapter explores methodological issues in the measurement of risk aversion using laboratory experiments. Risk aversion has been suggested as a theoretical explanation for credit constraints in agricultural settings in developing countries. Better measures of risk aversion can be used to empirically validate these theories. In Chapter 1 of this dissertation, I study the consequences of the use of credit scoring systems for agricultural lending in developing countries. Credit scoring has become a widespread tool to assess the creditworthiness of prospective borrowers, and has been found to increase efficiency and welfare in many settings. This chapter identifies a shortcoming in existing credit scoring systems that may lead to a market failure in agricultural lending in developing countries: Farmers' scores -- and their access to credit -- decline because of exogenous short-term weather shocks that do not reduce their likelihood of future repayment. I use data on the near universe of formal agricultural loans for coffee production in Colombia to show that excess rainfall shocks cause lower concurrent loan repayment, lower credit scores, and more frequent denial of subsequent loan applications. Then, I draw on the agronomic literature on coffee production and use survey data to show that productivity, income and repayment behavior recover faster from these shocks than farmers' credit histories. In the chapter I argue that these additional loan denials create costs for both farmers and the lender that could be avoided. The results presented in this chapter suggest that incorporating verifiable information on individual level shocks into credit scores would increase the efficiency of credit markets. In Chapter 2, together with Jairo Esquivel, Margarita Gáfaro, Guillermo Otero and Moisés Mahecha, I study the determinants of repayment of loans to a public development bank. In particular, we investigate whether the public nature of a lender affects the repayment behavior of its borrowers. We conducted a field experiment where customers who receive reminder phone calls before a payment installment of loans were randomly assigned to different phone call scripts. The loans are from a public agricultural bank in Colombia. In our main treatment, we include a sentence to remind the customer of the public nature of the lender. We find strong and positive effects on repayment performance: farmers in this treatment have probabilities of ever being overdue and of entering into a period of 30 days past due that are respectively 10\% and 22\% lower than those of farmers treated with the traditional script. We interpret this finding as evidence that farmers are more like to repay their loans because of the public nature of the bank. Results from heterogeneity exercises show that some measures of state presence increase the magnitude of the effect of the public treatment, which suggests that state deterrence is a potential mechanism behind our findings. Furthermore, results from treatments where sentiments of altruism and peer pressure are induced by the script suggest that these motives explain part of the effect that the public nature of the lender has on repayment. In Chapter 3, together with Juan Camilo Cárdenas, Christian Jaramillo and Luis Roberto Martínez, I address a methodological concern common in laboratory experiments. The house-money effect, understood as a person's tendency to be more daring with easily-gotten money, is a behavioral pattern that poses questions about the external validity of experiments in economics. We ran an economic experiment with 122 students, who received an amount of money with which they made risky decisions involving losses and gains; a randomly selected treatment group received the money 21 days in advance and a control group got it the day of the experiment. With our preferred specification, we find a mean CRRA risk aversion coefficient of 0.34, with a standard deviation of 0.09. Furthermore, if subjects in the treatment group spent 35\% of the endowment (as they did, on average) their CRRA risk aversion coefficient is higher than that of the control group by approximately 0.3 standard deviations. We interpret this result as evidence of a small and indirect house money effect operating though the amount of the cash in advance that was actually spent. We conclude in this chapter that the house money effect may play a small role in decisions under uncertainty, especially when involving losses.

The dissertation focuses on the Vietnamese economy and its development during the time period from the end of the World War II until present. Its objective is to map and analyze the process of integration of Vietnam into the regional and global economic structures in the aforementioned time period and identify the main challenges of current Vietnamese economic development. The issues of deficient infrastructure, energy shortage and environmental pollution can all hinder further economic development in terms of trade and investment absorption capacity. Although many other developing countries face similar problems, in Vietnam the conditions had been aggravated by more than 30 years of war, socialist planned economy, division of the territory and long lasting economic isolation all resulting in inefficiencies in use of resources, division of labor and environmental devastation. Nevertheless, Vietnam skillfully uses the newly acquired regional network within the Association of South East Asian Nations as well as the advantages of deepening relationships with the economic centers in Europe and North America to further enhance trade, attract investment and raise development aid. With its outstanding record of high economic growth and dynamic development, Vietnam has proved the ability to employ its resources and comparative advantages to the full.