Ecuador

The growth of microfinance over the past two decades has been nothing short of astounding. Fueled by a mixture of good intentions and the potential to earn profit the industry quickly became the development world's new silver bullet to end poverty as many microfinance institutio…

“Of all the social processes, conflict is perhaps the most universal and potentially the most dangerous. A feature of every society and every form of relationship, conflict can be found at all levels of human interaction, from sibling rivalry to genocidal warfare (Bercovitch and…

What kinds of power-resources do third party interveners employ to influence adversarial parties' behavior in the course of mediation? What factors and circumstances shape the effective use of such resources? This study attempts to answer these and allied questions by examining …

The objective of this research is to systematically characterize soil properties and hydrologic processes of selected tropical forest plots and their associated catchments in Panama, Ecuador, and Malaysia. Few studies have produced a comprehensive, standardized dataset assessing…

The first chapter constructs the monthly current account factor that is a good proxy for quarterly current accounts, and it examines the effect of the current account factor on the US term structure. Using the Generalized Method of Moments, I estimate the term structure with inf…

Health in All Policies (HiAP) is a health promotion strategy that aims to improve population health and equity through a whole-of-government approach to the development and implementation of public policy. This dissertation tests the hypotheses about factors that shape implement…

Chagas disease affects Latin-American countries and Ecuador is not the exception. The kissing bugs, Triatominae are vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi the causative agent of this disease. At least 151 triatomine species have been recognized as potential vectors worldwide. Sixteen spec…

Salango is an archaeological site on the coast of Ecuador that has been inhabited for thousands of years by multiple different cultures, including the Guangala (100 BCE- 400 CE). While research about mortuary treatment and socio-cultural characteristics has been conducted for th…

The International Monetary Fund continues to be a controversial organization in the workings of the global economy. For those seeking financial assistance from the IMF through the disbursement of a loan, austerity packages markedly contain a number of conditions the receiving co…

Mining is a dangerous activity that can cause environmental damage to flora and fauna due to the utilization of heavy metals. Ecuador has a long history of mineral extractions and nowadays the activity is increasing in many parts of the country. Environmentalists state that chem…

Puruhá fashion designers, vendors, and sellers have used their cultural heritage to create an emerging dress market that is both locally productive and nationally disruptive. These entrepreneurs have combined traditional dress with contemporary elements to create a new style tha…

Seismologists use the seismic wavefield to image the Earth’s structure at a wide range of scales, from a few meters to 1000s of km. Sources (earthquakes, explosions, etc.) of seismic waves can also be located and distinguished using the seismic wavefield. In this dissertation, I…

Ethnically representative leadership in the local church is an application of the equality of believers through our shared union in Christ and the fact that we are created in the image of God. Such leadership models have been shown to be deeply meaningful to ethnic minorities an…

In this dissertation I purpose to identify key indicators of contemporary secularization discovered through literary resources documenting the rise of secularism in Western culture from the Middle Ages to the present day. After identifying these key cultural markers of seculariz…