Honours Theses, Academic Year 2019-20

 

 

Year:                   

 2019-20

Student Name:

 Gillian Hollebone

Title:

Women’s Wealth and Financialization in Rural Nova Scotia between 1910-1930

Supervisor:

 Dr. Andrew Davis

Abstract: 

This thesis uses Nova Scotia probate records to examine the level of female financial sophistication and wealth from 1910-1930. The wills of 149 women from Annapolis County women were read and analysed to determine the nature of their investments and wealth. The impacts of variables found in the wills such as marital status, location (urban vs. rural), wealth, and debt were all examined and found to have no strong relationship with whether women possessed different types of investments. From the levels of wealth described in the wills, a Gini coefficient of 0.78 was calculated, which shows extreme wealth inequality in the sample. This thesis deepens knowledge about the financial lives of mostly rural women in an understudied time period and shows the richness of detail available in probate wills.

 

 

 

Year:                   

 2019-20

Student Name:

Ben Huang

Title:

Microcredit and Its Impact on Developing Areas

Supervisor:

 Dr. Andrew Davis

Abstract: 

Microcredit became one of the most prominent tools for poverty elimination in the 1990s. However, there are doubts as to whether microcredit can really generate positive effects in developing regions. This thesis is an extension of the meta-analysis examining this question from Chliova et al. (2015). By synthesizing 59 quantitative findings, this research uses regression analysis to find whether research conditions affect the effect size of microcredit interventions in developing areas. My results show that higher corruption levels, lower economic status, rural areas and microcredit organizations operating without the support of government are associated with larger effect sizes in developing areas. Microcredit generally has greater effect in more challenging conditions.