European Studies
New Corporate Governance System
Tsjalle van der Burg is an assistant professor, columnist and published author. He is senior member of the Netherlands Institute of Governance and a member of the Centre for European Studies.
Together with Professor Aloys Prinz from the University of Munster, he is investigating the development of a new system of corporate governance, where only the beneficial owners of a firm can vote in shareholder's meetings through "proxy voting institutions".
Van der Burg says a few of these organisations already exist today and aid to relieve shareholders of the burden to vote in shareholder meetings. He gives as an example the Association of Dutch Shareholders Rights (VEB) that acts and operates as a proxy institution for shareholders who share the same views as the VEB.
The new element proposed by Prinz and Van der Burg is, for instance, to allow participants in the Dutch pension fund ABP, who are the beneficial owners of shares bought by the ABP, the possibility to vote on these shares with the help of proxy voting institutions.
"Firstly, we analysed the effects of the new system on the performance of firms," he tells. At present,"We are focusing on the effects on the economy as a whole, and on politics too. If the new corporate system of governance works efficiently then firms can internalize external effects through its shareholders." As a consequence, firms produce less "public-bads" in the form of air pollution or other contributors that negatively affect human welfare.
His recent book Een kleine economie van het voetbal (The Economics of Football - a brief account) is partly based on his columns and was published just last year. Now and then, he has appeared as a guest on radio and television programmes. To read more about his latest book, visit the University of Twente news archives, click here.
Marike Faber Research Associate CHEPS
Frans Coenen Department head CSTM
Demographic change in Western Europe
Professor Gert-Jan Hospers, professor and researcher, is an expert in economic geography at the University of Twente and holds a special chair in city and regional marketing at Radboud University Nijmegen. Since carrying out his position at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, he returned to Enschede in 2000 to teach economics.
At present, his research focuses on analyzing the challenges faced by shrinking cities and regions in European countries. "More and more regions in the periphery are losing inhabitants as a result of low fertility, ageing and brain drain," explains Hospers. "The process of demographic change, ominously called 'shrinkage', poses new questions for policy makers." He questions:"Should they accept shrinkage, try to beat it or do something else?"
His research conclusion, based on empirical findings and case studies of regional shrinkage policies of Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, is to support shrinkage on a regional scale level.
Through his strong desire to push the policy debate further and gain more "conceptual clarity" in the field, he proposes to begin further research projects on the differences between "urban-rural" shrinkage, in the case of city versus countryside, and "hard-soft" shrinkage of physical as opposed to social decline.
Professor Hospers is a regular columnist for several Dutch newspapers and publications: De Twentsche Courant Tubantia and Luxity magazine. Besides his 2009 publication of Citymarketing in Perspectief, last summer he published a book on the topic of demographic change in Western Europe.
His book in Dutch entitled Krimp! (Shrinkage) is the third book in the series SUN Statements which has drawn the attention and praise of a large audience of policy makers, urban planners and researchers. Visit sunarchitecture.nl/ to purchase or read a short synopsis of his most recent book.
Conflicts and natural resources in the Middle-East
Irna van der Molen, an assistant professor, joined the Twente Centre for Studies in Technology and Sustainable Development in October 2001.
In 2010, she took the lead in two projects studying the interface between conflict and natural resources. The first project looks at cooperation between stakeholders in service delivery in Palestinian Territories.
"We studied how multiple stakeholders work together in planning, construction, management and operation of several sites," she explains. Her research team examined four main issues: the regulation of landfills; a waste water treatment plant that benefited households which traditionally had depended on cesspits; desalination of water in the Gaza Strip; and irrigation wells between the Green Line and the Wall.
Her other key project is the "Conflict and Environment in North-Lebanon" project. This research, a follow-up on earlier work by Professor Jon Lovett and Dr. Aseel Takshe, investigates prevention and reconstruction of damage to the environment as a result of armed conflict, and is funded by WOTRO. "Damage," according to her, "is not just caused by violence itself, for example, the oil spills of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, but more often related to difficulties of environmental management in a post-conflict society, in this case North-Lebanon."
The first research results for the Palestinian case studies and the first deliverables for the Lebanese research programs will be known by the summer of 2011.
By establishing contacts and partnerships worldwide, she has been able to conduct research projects in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and paid visits to North-Lebanon, India, Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Territories. Van der Molen regularly publishes in national and international journals and books. She is on the editorial board of the Dutch journal Vrede en Veiligheid (Peace and Security), a publication for exploring international problems in conflict areas.