Lessons from the History of Over-the-Counter Derivatives Regulation

The approach of Problem-based learning (PBL), which was used for the first time in medical education at Mc Master University, is the main teaching method within the field of European Studies at Maastricht University, both at Master and Bachelor level. PBL is a student-centred approach in which students collaboratively solve problems - normally structured by way of assignments - in small groups with the help of a tutor. Advocates of PBL claim it can be used to enhance content knowledge and foster the development of communication, problem-solving, and self-directed learning. This contribution aims to reflect on how to apply this method to the field of European Studies (ES) and how to set up assignments within this domain. In a nutshell this paper thus aims not only to contribute to the general debate about teaching with PBL and its relevance for EU studies but examines specifically the value and applicability of different assignments in different setting

Corporate Social Responsibility Activities: Appropriability and Impact on Social Performance

To explore strategic aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR), this paper examines the impact of CSR activities on corporate social performance (CSP). Drawing from and synthezing two literatures, the well-known instrumental/strategic stakeholder theory and research on CSR strategic value criteria (Burke and Logsden, 1996), we conceptualize appropriability as a variable intermediating between a firm’s CSR activities and its CSP. We suggest that two considerations shape appropriability in the context of corporate social performance: 1) the extent to which social actions go beyond legal requirements and dominant social norms (voluntarism and proactivity) and, 2) the coherence of stakeholder groups’ interest aggregation and articulation. We hypothesize a clear positive connection between investment in corporate social activities and CSP where appropriability is high. Our second conceptual contribution is to categorize CSR activities as performance-oriented and learning/information acquisition-oriented. Where appropriability is low, we expect activities will be learning/information acquisition-oriented and the association between corporate social activity and CSP negative. In preliminary statistical tests we find empirical support for the value of developing the appropriability concept in research on corporate social activity and corporate social performance and further exploring the differences between performance-oriented and learning-oriented corporate social activities

Gatekeepers of financial power: from London to Lagos

The main premise of this paper is that, until recently, African elites did not regulate or control financial flows moving across the continent. They were not financial gatekeepers. In Africa Since 1940, Cooper identified African elites as gatekeepers regulating access to resources and opportunities passing through strategic sites. This paper makes a case for revision of existing notions of the gatekeeper state in an ongoing effort to (re)negotiate the continent’s colonial past through two new arguments. The first is that financial power was never located at a ‘peripheral’ African gate, but resolutely held onto within leading financial centres, circumventing any opportunity for African elites to control financial flows. Failure to distinguish between types of flows distorts analysis of African political economic power under colonialism. It is only in the post-2000 period, that we see powerful African states driving the integration of African markets into the global financial system. The second argument is that these African goals to control financial flows correspond more to ‘gateway’ strategies than to gatekeeper. Drawing on the case of Lagos, I demonstrate how this ‘gateway’ concept better captures trans-scalar processes of new financial clustering in Africa’s emerging markets than a concept associated with ‘gates’ under Empire