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A literature is rapidly developing on financial shocks originating from ecological imbalances. These shocks can be triggered by either intensified environmental policies, clean tech breakthroughs or due to the economic costs of crossing ecological boundaries. However, financial supervisors have so far given little attention to this ecological dimension. This allows systemic financial imbalances resulting from ecological pressures to build up and concentrate in financial institutions and markets. This paper sketches the ecological dimension of the prudential policy framework and illustrates the working for the case of carbon emissions.

Although still in its early phases, the Juncker Commission has already broken new ground. Not only is Jean-Claude Juncker the first Commission President to be selected by the Spitzenkandidaten process, an extra-constitutional system that has reconfigured the European Union’s institutional balance, but he has transformed the structure and operation of the College with the aim of creating a more political, and therefore more effective, Commission, and made good – so far – on his promise ‘to do better on the bigger things and be small on the small things’. This article examines this three-fold transformation. It looks at the innovations and change associated with the Juncker Commission. It considers what motivated them and how they were achieved, sets them in historical perspective, and discusses their implications for the institutions and for the European Union more broadly.

Due to the complexity of agricultural drought, univariate indices may not be suitable for assessing its impacts comprehensively. The main objective of this study was to develop a new multivariate drought index using the Scalogram concepts, in which the input data weights and their cluster separation were performed based on the entropy theory and fuzzy k-means algorithm, respectively. The newly developed index, named as SCI index, integrates the four weighted individual quantitative indicators such as the difference between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (Di), the moisture departure (di), the Soil Moisture index (SMI), and the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) to quantify agricultural drought in monthly and annual timescales in the various climate conditions of Golestan province, Iran. Next, the Composite Drought Index (CDI) was calculated for the selected stations by the same variables in the SCI index as an input. According to the results a good agreement and a high behavioral similarity for the identifying moisture conditions was found between SCI index and CDI index and even other well-known drought indices such as SPEI and SPDI. But the intensity with extremes of wet and dry conditions in the CDI significantly were more than the SCI index and other ones. Comparing results obtained by the Standardized Yield Index (SYI) for rainfed wheat with the SCI index showed that at most stations when a severe drought as happened in 2000–2001 and 2007–2008, severe crops losses also occurred. The flexible structure of SCI index provides a comprehensive approach to quantify agricultural drought and can be adapted to characterize other types of drought on a practical basis.

Simulations have become popular teaching tools in political science and EU studies curricula. Proponents point out that simulations match with constructivist theories of learning. They argue that students will better understand EU decision making when they combine theoretical knowledge about negotiation theory with knowledge about how the EU works and with the experience of negotiating as if they were EU actors. This article aims to validate the pedagogical claims by constructivists regarding simulations in two ways. It assesses the organisation of EuroSim, a four day comprehensive simulation of EU decision making organised by the Trans-Atlantic Consortium for European Union Studies & Simulations (TACEUSS) as an active learning environment. In addition, using data from pre- and post-simulation surveys among participants, the authors show that through participation in simulations students gained in the areas of affective learning, such as the ability for self-assessment, as suggested by the constructivist literature.

One of the most notable challenges of getting colleagues to try out simulations in European studies teaching is the overcoming of start-up costs. In particular, the creation of a scenario from scratch or the adaptation of an existing game can be daunting. The article discusses these challenges and their origins in the fundamental assumptions that simulations make about both the world and pedagogy. In particular, the tension between the simple rules that are understood to capture real-world phenomena and the complexity that those rules produce creates not only an excellent learning opportunity but also a barrier to developing useful resources for simulation designers. The article offers a number of ways that such a barrier can be overcome, including the development of a simulation designer community, use of online guides and the creation of simulations that teach about simulation design. These ideas are illustrated with a number of practical examples.

The article analyses publication patterns according to gender in three Political Science and International Relations journals based in Britain ( Political Studies, British Journal of Political Science, and Review of International Studies ). Examining publications from 1991 to 2011 in terms of authorship, seniority of author, and number of citations and responses, our findings suggest that women are less likely to be published as sole or lead author than their male counterparts are but that they are just as likely to be cited. Furthermore, since 2000, women are now over-represented in comparison with their presence within the discipline in publications that have at least one female author.

Simulations, understood as complex role plays, are nowadays widely used in (university) teaching to actively engage students and promote content-specific interactive learning, understanding, and communication. There is a growing debate about the functions and benefits of simulations in the university teaching context. Simulating the EU is not yet as common as simulating the UN, but the use of EU simulations gradually increases. In this paper, we discuss several aspects of EU simulations. First, we briefly review the importance of the EU in current European politics, and to its growing complexity, which represents a challenge for teaching and studying European integration. Second, we indicate that simulations address new didactical demands that arose in the context of the Bologna Process and the so-called ‘shift from teaching to learning’. And third, we move beyond the debate of EU simulations as merely an active learning tool, and discuss the (underestimated) role they may play as quasi-experiments, which may constitute a valuable resource both for didactical and European integration research. Together, these three aspects make EU simulations a promising multi-dimensional tool.

This paper empirically investigates the evolution and sources of interest-rate pass-through heterogeneity in the Eurozone for a sample of 11 Euro area countries over the period 2003M1–2013M12. Our findings, based on a panel error correction model approach and a panel interaction vector autoregressive framework, indicate that risk factors, as well as differences in financial market structures across countries, explain the heterogeneity of monetary transmission in the EU. In terms of policy implications, this means that future reforms promoting a more efficient and homogeneous monetary policy transmission should not only focus on risk factors but also should attempt to consolidate financial integration.

The authors reflect on the potential of simulation games for teaching the European Union. They argue that when developing or using simulations it is imperative to decide, first of all, on the learning objective(s). The authors distinguish games geared primarily towards conveying knowledge from those aimed at training soft skills. The former can focus on teaching the processes and dynamics of European politics ( politics ), on teaching factual knowledge about a given policy field ( policy ) or on teaching the Union’s institutional aspects ( polity ). The second category concerns objectives such as training teamwork, communication and negotiation skills, as well as empathy, the ability to deal with complexity and making decisions under stress. The relevance of these objectives for teaching and training students is assessed on the basis of case studies describing different simulation game concepts. Although the authors acknowledge that simulation games enjoy an increasing popularity within academic teaching, they maintain that their use in European Studies is largely restricted to classical concepts and argue for a more extensive use of more experimental simulation games.

UK Higher Education has recently entered uncharted waters – this includes changes to the fee structures in England and ever increasing pressure to perform to measurables such as Key Information Sets, Destinations of Leavers in Higher Education data and a plethora of Key Performance Indicators. In this article, we highlight key findings from recent research regarding the status of women in the profession – with particular emphasis upon evidence that may suggest a gender divide in terms of research and teaching. We then go on to explore primary data from a number of sources to explore whether male and female academics in the UK have different priorities, and question to what extent recent reforms will exacerbate a ‘glass ceiling’ or ‘leaking pipeline’ and further challenge the diversity of the profession.