This thesis is a subset of a larger “parent” project under the direction of my supervisor, Dr. Cecilia Benoit. The purpose of the larger project is to seize an unique research opportunity that has emerged with the development and implementation of the HerWay Home (HWH) program, a community-based initiative for pregnant and early parenting women who face substance use and other challenges in the Greater Victoria Area. My research has capitalized on the pre-implementation phase of the HWH program between 2010-2011. Thirteen in-person semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who would likely be clients for the HWH program, based on their pregnancy experiences, substance use concerns and other life challenges. The goal of this research has been to explore these women’s pregnancy and postpartum narratives and investigate what, in their view, should be crucial components of the HWH intervention in the short and longterm. My findings indicate that, consistent with the literature on pregnant and early parenting women facing substance use and other life challenges, a range of complex, intertwined disadvantages exist in their lives that translate into multiple barriers to accessing continuous health and social care during their pregnancy and after the birth of their child. An adapted model of the Health Lifestyle Theory is used to frame the analysis of the data collected from this research. The results from this research support the argument that the life choices of the participants are constrained by structural life chances and socially determined inequities that systematically disadvantage and disempower them. The findings also reveal an implicit sense of agency in the women’s narratives, as well as key specifics about what they view as the main gaps in care and their desired program services. The findings will be relayed to HWH organizers, and used to inform the development and implementation of the program’s services. / Graduate

Dans un contexte économique mondialisé, hyperconcurrentiel, en situation de crise, les entreprises initient des stratégies collectives (Astley et Fombrun, 1983). Les stratégies collectives (Le Roy, 2006) caractérisent des relations horizontales de grand nombre, au sein desquelles des concurrents créent une structure fédérative de coordination. Elles s’observent particulièrement sur des secteurs où évoluent de nombreuses PME, ces entreprises restant plus vulnérables aux forces de l’environnement et devant lier leur destin pour survivre. L’étude de cas du syndicat de vignerons du Pic Saint-Loup, qui a conduit à réaliser quarante-cinq entretiens semi-directifs, combinés à de l’observation directe confortée par une position de professionnel du secteur, a mis en lumière un certain nombre de résultats. D’une part, des déterminants psychologiques influent sur la capacité des dirigeants à s’impliquer dans des stratégies collectives. D’autre part, des groupes d’acteurs, dont les instigateurs de la stratégie, occupent une place centrale au sein du réseau de dirigeants et en retirent une performance économique supérieure. Enfin, concernant les modalités, principalement la gestion du paradoxe par le dirigeant impliqué dans la stratégie collective, l’analyse des phases de concurrence et de collaboration met en évidence une discontinuité des flux qui engendre un processus d’alternance de fonctions. / In a globalized economy and crisis context, companies initiate collective strategies (Astley and Fombrun, 1983). Collective strategies (Le Roy, 2006) characterize horizontal relationships of large numbers, in which competitors create a federal structure of coordination. They occur particularly on sectors where many SMEs operate, these companies remain vulnerable to environmental forces and need linking their destiny to survive. The case study of Pic Saint-Loup winegrowers Union, which led to realize forty-five semi-structured interviews, combined with direct observation supported by a professional position in the industry, highlighted some number of results. On the one hand, psychological determinants affect the ability of managers to engage in collective strategies. On the other hand, stakeholder groups, including the instigators of the strategy, make superior economic performance out of this central position within the manager network. Finally, the management paradox by the manager involved in collective strategy analyzes, show analysis phases of competition and collaboration and highlights a discontinuity of flow which generates an alternating functions process.

This dissertation consists of two empirical papers that explore recent phenomena in Banking and Microfinance Performance. Chapter 1, “Market Power and Bank Performance in MENA Countries,” examines the determinants of market power in 12 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), specifically within six Gulf Cooperation Countries and six non-Gulf countries. We examine the dynamics of bank competition in MENA countries, provide an up-to-date assessment of market power, investigate the factors impacting bank competition, and explore the evolution of market power during the financial crisis. Our results show an overall increase in market power following the GFC for both regions. We find that bank size, capitalization, and diversification affect market power differently in the pre-crisis and post-crisis years. Larger banks enjoy cost advantages and the diversification impact on market power has decreased in the post-crisis years and the impact of capitalization on market power increased during the GFC. Overall, banks with higher capitalization can better weather the crisis. Chapter 2, “The impact of firm-level characteristic and county-specific attributes on the performance and efficiency of the Microfinance institutions,” estimates the impact of country-specific macro-variables and firm-specific attributes on the financial performance and the efficiency of microfinance institutions (MFIs). We use a large international up-to-date database consisting of over 10,000 firm-years for MFIs over 89 countries during the period 2008-2015. Several interesting findings emerge: a) regulation and outreach are negatively correlated. b) There is a negative and highly statistically significant correlation between the percentage of female borrowers and loan size, which is evidence of “mission drift”. c) An increase in the percentage of female board member has positive and statistically significant effect on MFIs profitability and ROA; which emphasizes the importance of female participation in leading position in MFIs.

The thesis investigates the nature of the relationship between the banking sector depth and long-term economic growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States, assesses the banking sector development status in each of the States, and underlines the policy implications in the light of the banking-growth nexus and the banking development benchmarking models’ findings for the region by undertaking three projects. The thesis examines the nature of the relationship between banking sector depth and long-term economic growth in the NRBC—as a proxy for the GCC States— vis-à-vis the rest of the world countries. For the empirical investigation, a dynamic panel data approach, i.e. Generalised Method of Moments (GMM), is adopted over the period 1961 to 2013. By utilising mixed effects and System GMM frameworks, the research identifies the countries with the strongest banking-growth relationships and establishes the banking sector development determinants in those countries. Employing a novel benchmarking process, the thesis assesses the status of the banking sector development in each of the GCC member countries and simulates the change in the banking sector depth across the Gulf region over a period of ten years to highlight the potential policy implications for the sector development. The findings of the thesis suggest that the relationship between banking sector depth and long-term economic growth in the NRBC is non-linear, where the relationship between the banking sector depth and economic growth turns from positive to negative beyond certain levels of sector depth. In comparison to other countries, the results indicate that the banking-growth nexus in the NRBC exhibits a smaller total effect magnitude as well as a shorter time between the change in the sector depth and its effect on economic growth. The benchmarking of the banking sectors in the GCC region suggests that in five of the six member countries the banking sectors are underdeveloped. The simulation results predict that the banking sectors will develop further in half of the countries in the region, given their current levels of banking sector development determinants, while two countries require reforms in terms of undertaking regulations and policies to avoid seeing their sector development levels deteriorate. The thesis contributes to theory by confirming findings in the literature and expanding the body of knowledge through novel findings. This research also contributes to policy by demonstrating the significance of the banking sector development for long-term economic growth in the NRBC, providing policymakers in the Gulf States with the status of their banking sectors, and underlining the banking sector depth determinants that ought to be considered when setting regulations and policies that are aimed at developing the banking sector further.

This thesis explores employment among people who inject drugs (IDU). It seeks identify what differentiates IDU who work from those who do not, barriers to labour market participation, and how employment is perceived and experienced by IDU. Using longitudinal data from the Vancouver Injection Drug User Study (VIDUS), it conducts this research through a detailed examination of the implications of missing data, quantitative analyses of transitions into employment and qualitative, in-depth interviews. Missing data analyses identified differences between those that those that do and do not have missing data, as well as predictors of observation gaps and how individuals end their study participation (either right-hand censorship, attrition, or death). Differences were observed along individual, behavioural and contextual dimensions. Analytical approaches to the relationship between data structure and content gleaned useful information for longitudinal studies with marginalized populations. Discrete time event history analyses of work transitions revealed complex relationships between drug use, drug-related activities, situational risk factors, and transitions into employment. While most IDU did not make transitions into employment, some did, and while some statistical relationships were expected, others were surprising. Novel findings included mode-specific addiction treatment impacts on employment (methadone vs. non-methadone) and the importance of the broader risk environment over and above even high-intensity substance use. Finally, qualitative interviews identified heterogeneity in individual motivations toward and experiences of work. Those who maintained concurrent drug use and formal labour market involvement utilized strategies to spatially and temporally separate the two activities. Individual capacities to employ these strategies were facilitated by material, vocational and temporal motivations, and interfered with by health conditions, catastrophic events and institutional relationships that operated as barriers to employment. This study provides insight into what is a known social determinant of health in the general population among injection drug users.

This paper uses Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to find robust determinants of economic growth in a new dataset of 255 European regions between 1995 and 2005. The paper finds that income convergence between countries is dominated by the catching-up of regions in new member states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), whereas convergence within countries is driven by regions in old EU member states. Regions containing capital cities are growing faster, particularly in CEE countries, as do regions with a large share of workers with higher education. The results are robust to allowing for spatial spillovers among European regions.

Extant literature has documented well that people seek health information via the internet as patients and consumers. Much less, however, is known about interaction and creation behaviors in the development of new online health information and knowledge. More specifically, generalizable sociodemographic data on who engages in this online health behavior via social media is lacking in the sociological literature. The term “social e-health” is introduced to emphasize the difference between seeking behaviors and interaction and creation behaviors. A 2010 dataset of a large nationally representative and randomly sampled telephone survey made freely available from the Pew Research Center is used to examine social e-health behavior according to respondents’ sociodemographics. The dependent variable of social e-health behavior is measured by 13 survey questions from the survey. Gender, race, ethnicity, age, education, and income are used as independent variables. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the odds of engagement in social e-health behavior based on the sociodemographic predictors. The social determinants of health and digital divide frameworks are used to help explain why socioeconomic variances exist in social e-health behavior. The findings of the current study suggest that predictable sociodemographic patterns along the dimensions of gender, race, age, education, and income exist for those who report engaging in social e-health behavior. This study is important because it underscores the fact that engagement in social e-health behavior is differentially distributed in the general U.S. population according to patterned sociodemographics.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Purpose: The primary objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of vaccination and HBV infection status of adults and to evaluate the trend in self reported vaccination and seroprevalence for Hepatitis B for this population. Additionally, this study sought to assess the association between vaccination rates, seroprevalence (HBsAg, anti-HBc, and anti-HBs), demographic (age, gender, location of birth, race/ethnicity), and socioeconomic (annual household income, education level, insurance coverage and access to care, marital status) characteristics. Methods: Eight years, 1999-2006, of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data were used. NHANES participants aged 20-59 years who contributed data via the household interview and laboratory component were eligible for this study. Two sources of vaccination status were available. The vaccination status was identified through self-report. Those who answered yes to “less than three doses” and “at least three doses” were classified as vaccinated. Vaccination status was also verified through serologic markers. All analyses were weighted to consider the complex weighting scheme and adjusted to the 2000 US census population. Vaccination rates were calculated for both low and high risk populations. 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of each estimate were also calculated. The association between potential predictors of vaccination (demographic variables, socioeconomic status, high risk, and health care access and utilization variables) and vaccination status was assessed using bivariate analysis. We used logistic regression model to obtain odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals for the association between predictor variables and vaccination status after adjusting for all potential confounding factors. Results: Vaccinated adults were more likely to be female, younger (20-29), Non-Hispanic white, married, born in the United States, have some education beyond high school, have a household income greater than $20000, health insurance coverage, a source of usual medical care, report a health status of good or higher, be non-smokers, and have no history of alcohol abuse. High risk adults comprised about 16% of adults who had received at least one dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine. Unvaccinated adults were more likely to be male, over the age of 40, Non-Hispanic white, born in the United States, married, have some education beyond high school, have a household income greater than $20,000, live in a household of 6 or fewer people, have health insurance coverage, and a source of usual care. When comparing the self reported vaccination status with serologic status, almost half of the adults who reported receiving all three doses of the vaccine tested negative for immunity. For all adults the prevalence increased from 23.4% to 39.1%. Compared to adults in 1999-2000, adults were twice as likely to report vaccination in 2005-2006 (OR=2.1 95% CI [1.77, 2.49]). Conclusions: Although, hepatitis B vaccination rates are rising, only 32% of high risk adults are vaccinated. The rise in vaccination rates in young adults is mostly related to childhood immunization strategies and not strategies aimed at adults. Older males, those with less than high school education, without health insurance coverage and a source of usual care were least likely to be vaccinated. More targeted interventions are needed to educate and vaccinate the adult population and to create a means for identifying those at risk and those already vaccinated.

Poverty, Inequality & Terrorism Relationship in TurkeyUsing empirical evidence criminological studies have identified a relationship between poverty and crime and many studies have concluded that a high crime rate is associated with a higher poverty rate. Other studies indicate that inequalities are a better determinant of crime than absolute poverty. Social disorganization theory, anomie strain theory and Marxist theory have been used to explain the phenomenon. Guided by the aforementioned theories and previous literature on crime, this study looks at the terrorism issue and explores whether a relationship exists between poverty, inequality and terrorist incidents. The main hypothesis of this study indicates that higher poverty and higher inequalities are related to higher number of terrorist incidents. This study examines Turkey's terrorism problem in depth and identifies some factors that are related to the formation of terrorism. It is believed that this may assist help policy makers to develop new policies that can eliminate fertile ground where terrorism easily finds support. The researcher uses secondary data analysis; data for number of terrorist incidents are derived from the Turkish National Police's database, and other demographic and economic variable data are derived from Turkish Statistical Institute, and Government Planning Office. A multiple regression analysis technique is used to identify the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable, number of terrorist incidents. The results of the statistical analysis show that there is a statistically significant relationship between the percentage of population living below the poverty line, unequal distribution of some government resources, such as unequal distribution of education services, and unequal distribution of public investment. Findings also show that higher populated provinces may experience greater terrorist incidents. Additionally, the percentage of young in the population is also found to be related to the number of terrorist incidents.