Dealing with the social phenomenon of the “skills drain”, retired workers leaving companies en masse sometimes even before the recruitment of newcomers and consequently impeding classic training through mentoring, managers are seeking innovative solutions to train new employees and ensure a satisfactory level of competencies, especially in high risk industries. This led to questions to which the present research offers solutions: How are competencies of experienced workers mobilized? How can they be accessed? How are they developed through training? And more especially in full-scale simulation, which is key to occupational training in high risk industries. The literature shows that the relationship between knowledge, know-how, skills and competencies remains unclear. A model is suggested, adapted to the present issue. It shows that competencies must be investigated in action through work activity analysis and leads to an approach to describe competencies in action, as in Le Boterf’s model (1998), which presents a relevant link between competencies and action and was tested in the field. However, its application revealed a dearth of the expected description; pre-tests led to adapt it into a new model and protocol: the Square of PErceived ACtion (SPEAC model). The protocol was used, in the line of Subjective Evidence-Based Ethnography (SEBE) methods, to structure the replay interview following the recording of the workers’ activity by subcams, miniaturized cameras mounted on spectacles (first person perspective). The resulting analysis was applied to full-scale simulation and in real operating situations for which a risk assessment protocol whilst using SEBE equipment was developed, tested and applied. It provided more relevant input data for occupational training, and showed higher performance in training than other methods (more exhaustive and less costly). In order to evaluate the impact of SPEAC-improved training on actual performance at work, the SPEAC improvement in a standard training curriculum was tested in two contexts of high risk industries (medicine and nuclear). In doing so, we tackled also the issue of resistance to innovation in training. The application of the SPEAC method to provide input data and to structure the training sessions improved significantly the work performance both at the end of the training sessions and in real operating situations. When combined with improved pedagogical methods in simulation training, the SPEAC protocol has been shown to provide substantial gains for following real operating situations, both in terms of safety (fewer subsequent complications and less pain for patients in hospital, higher levels of reliability for activities in nuclear industries) and in terms of cost (per year, potentially tens of thousands of euros could be saved in hospitals when considering one operation and several millions of euros for a nuclear power plant when all activities are taken into account). Top management now wishes to roll out the method within their professionalization program in the two institutions where the field experiments and applications were carried out. In parallel, as a theoretical perspective, developments and applications in the framework of the present research have suggested the relevance of a systemic approach of the professionalization cycle in complex socio-technical systems: the Experiential Learning Theory-based excursive cycle of the professional training process developed in this study might contribute towards modelling a systemic approach of simulation training in high risk industries providing areas for improvement and consequently higher performance.

Muslim religious identity amongst offenders has acquired significance as Islam is the fastest growing religion in prisons in the UK. This increase in the number of Muslim offenders in prison is accompanied by fears and concern about the potential for Islamist terrorist recruitment and radicalisation in the prison setting. Despite these concerns, there are significant gaps in our understanding of how religion influences the identity of offenders throughout their life. My research uses life story interviews with Muslim offenders (N=17) to provide a holistic overview of the significance of religion at different stages over the life course. The sample includes both converts and born-Muslims to provide insight into the influence of religion on the identity of both groups. The thesis starts by bringing together insights from sociological and anthropological literature on religion, along with theoretical criminological perspectives on identity in prison as well as post-release. It then discusses the methodological underpinnings of this research. In the first empirical chapter I discuss the importance of religion in childhood; the next chapter examines shifts in religious identity during adolescence and early adulthood. After discussing the significance of religion in the prison environment, I conclude by looking at whether changes to identity that occur in prison are sustained upon release. This research provides an original contribution to knowledge by looking at the processual development of religious identity over the life course. It identifies three main ways in which religion is important in the lives of the participants over the life course. (i) Religion is regarded as important in developing and maintaining a connection to a fictive local kinship group based on shared attendance at a place of worship (ii) Spiritual sense-making is useful for dealing with times of emotional distress and material deprivation. This sense-making allows participants to feel a sense of wellbeing and personal meaning even when they are experiencing difficulties and setbacks (iii) Religion provides a moral understanding through which participants develop ideational social roles in their family, work place and in their community. Through these social roles participants can develop holistic ideals of selffulfilment and non-material personal goals. Although religion can play an important role in identity development, its influence rises and falls over the life course. Factors such as gender, class, age, local neighbourhood, personal biography and ethnicity remain more consistent influences on identity.

The rapid fertility declines and increases in contraceptive prevalence rates in the last decades in Latin America occurred concurrently with increases in teenage and unintended childbearing. The factors behind, as well as possible future demographic consequences of this unique pattern of fertility change are still poorly understood. This thesis advances knowledge of three aspects of reproductive behaviour in Latin America: dynamics of contraceptive use in relation to an unintended birth experience, educational disparities in motherhood-timing and possible future of cohort fertility. I explore an untapped potential of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Population Censuses for Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil, and employ demographic and statistical modelling techniques that have not been previously fully exploited in the Latin American context. First, I show how the longitudinal DHS reproductive "calendars" can be analysed using event-history models to advance the understanding of contraceptive choices of women who experience unintended pregnancies in Colombia and Peru. The study uncovers the importance of considering patterns of both pre- and after-birth contraceptive behaviour to inform the organization of postpartum family planning programmes in both countries. Second, using census data, I provide the first estimates of cohort first-birth age-specific schedules disaggregated by education level for Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. I document vastly increasing educational disparities in motherhood-timing during the fertility transition and discuss the potential factors behind this process. The analyses uncover a drastic increase in teenage fertility among women who drop-out of secondary school, indicating a need for an intervention. Lastly, using indirectly reconstructed fertility rates from censuses, cohort fertility is forecasted for total population and by education in Brazil. The study shows how a Bayesian model for fertility forecasting can be applied in the Latin American context where the childbearing pattern has been distinct from other world regions and where there is a scarcity of time-series of fertility rates. The study reveals the evolution of educational differences in completed fertility and shows that emerging low period fertility levels in Brazil might not necessarily correspond to women's equally low lifetime fertility in the future. Overall, the substantive findings improve the understanding of the reproductive behaviour disparities in Latin America and serve as inputs for the design of policies to alleviate them. The novel use of data and application of methods are important for the development of future research agendas on fertility change and for the collection of fertility data in the region.

This thesis contains three essays on the impact evaluation of social programs and public sector reforms. Chapter 2 investigates whether the effects of a cash transfer program persist or wear off in the long-run. I study the first two phases of Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH) in Ecuador, each of which lasted about five years. My identification strategy uses a regression discontinuity design and relies on the fact that at the threshold of eligibility, the second assignment to treatment (in 2008/9) was independent of the first assignment (in 2003). This allows me to disentangle the impact of a short exposure to the program (treatment during one phase) from a long exposure (treatment during two phases). Most of the gains in enrollment and schooling were achieved in the short-run among children that started treatment when they were about to start elementary school, eleventh grade or Baccalaureate. However, an extended exposure to BDH was not enough to keep raising children's education. Regarding labor market outcomes, BDH had a negative (not statistically significant) impact on the probability of working among young children but did not increase job opportunities among young adults in the long-run. Chapter 3 evaluates the impact on in-hospital mortality of a reform that made all health professionals working part-time switch to full-time contracts at public hospitals in Ecuador. I take advantage of the staggered adoption of the reform and hospital panel data to implement an event study to evaluate the impact of the reform. The results for the sample of admissions to the emergency department show that mortality in public hospitals decreased by 0.1% on the adoption year and by 0.2% one year later. Results were robust to several alternative specifications and to the inclusion of pre-reform characteristics that could have been used by policymakers to decide the order of implementation. More importantly, I show that the effects reported in this paper cannot be attributed to changes in other quality indicators at the hospital level like the length of stay or by changes in the patient mix. Chapter 4 studies the impact of increased liability risk facing physicians on the use of c-sections and on indicators of maternal and infant health. I take advantage of a legal reform that led to the hardening of sentences for cases of professional malpractice in Ecuador. I use a difference-in-difference strategy that compares the outcomes of two neighboring countries, Ecuador and Colombia, before and after the introduction of the reform and perform several parallel trend tests on the outcomes of interest and test for the stability of the demographic composition of both countries to support my identification strategy. During the five quarters following the reform, Ecuadorian doctors reduced the c-section rate by 1.1% among women aged 15 to 24 years, and by 0.9% among women aged 25 to 34 years. The c-section rate remained unaffected for women aged 35 to 44 years, possibly because doctors have less discretion over riskier births. Interestingly, the observed reduction in the c-section rate did not affect the health outcomes of mothers or newborns.

Li, Wei. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-53). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.ii / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- The Model --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1. --- Feature of the model --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2. --- Households --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3. --- Firms --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3.1. --- Firms in Non-traded Sector --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3.2. --- Firms in Traded Sector --- p.13 / Chapter 2.4. --- Monetary Policy Rules --- p.14 / Chapter Case I: --- Target the Inflation Rate in Non-Traded Sector (NPT) --- p.15 / Chapter Case II: --- Target the CPI Inflation Rate (CPI) --- p.15 / Chapter Case III: --- Target the Nominal Exchange Rate (FER) --- p.15 / Chapter 2.5. --- Equilibrium --- p.16 / Chapter 3. --- Calibration and Shocks --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1. --- Calibration --- p.17 / Chapter 3.2. --- Shocks --- p.20 / Chapter 4. --- Dynamics of the Model --- p.22 / Chapter 4.1. --- Impulse Response to Sector Technology Shocks --- p.23 / Chapter 4.1.1. --- Technology Shock in the Non-traded Sector --- p.23 / Chapter 4.1.2. --- Technology Shock in the Traded Sector --- p.25 / Chapter 4.2. --- Impulse Response to Foreign Interest Rate Shocks --- p.25 / Chapter 4.3. --- Impulse Response to Terms of Trade Shocks --- p.26 / Chapter 5. --- Welfare Comparison and Consumption Equivalent Analysis --- p.26 / Chapter 5.1. --- Welfare Comparison under Alternative Policy Rule and Debt Level --- p.27 / Chapter 5.2. --- Robustness Check --- p.30 / Chapter 5.3. --- Policy Implications of the findings --- p.34 / Chapter 6. --- Conclusion --- p.35 / Appendix I. Impulse Response to the Shocks --- p.36 / Appendix II. Technical Derivation of the Model --- p.43 / "Appendix III. Equilibrium, Steady State and Shocks" --- p.47

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 70 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-65).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-148). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-90).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 2002. / UMI number: 3060191. Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-257). Also available on the Internet.