thesis topic ideas economics

134 Economics Thesis Topics: Ideas for Outstanding Writing

Writing a thesis is not an easy task. For most of the students, it can be even intimidating, especially when you do not know where to start your research.

Here, we have provided an economics thesis topics list. After all, everyone knows that choosing the right idea is crucial when writing an academic paper. In economics, it can combine history, math, social studies, politics, and numerous other subjects. You should also have solid foundations and a sound factual basis for a thesis. Without these elements, you won’t be able to master your research paper.

The issue is:

It is not always clear what could be seen as an excellent economics thesis topic. Our experts can assist you with this challenge. This list contains some outstanding examples to get you started.

• ⭐ Thesis in Economics
• 🔥 Supreme Thesis Topics
• 👍 Bachelor’s Thesis
• 😲 Master’s Thesis

📊 Microeconomics

📈 macroeconomics.

• 🤔 Developmental
• 👨‍💼 Behavioral
• 💼 Financial
• 🌱 Agricultural
• 🤝‍ Sociology
• 📚 Ph.D. Topics
• 📝 How to Pick a Topic

⭐ What Does a Thesis in Economics Look Like?

A good thesis in economics is a blend between an empirical paper and a theoretical one. One of the essential steps in choosing a topic in economics is to decide which one you will write.

You may write, research, analyze statistical data and other information. Or build and study a specific economic model.

Or why not both!

Here are some questions you can ask when deciding what topic to choose:

• What has already been written on this topic?
• What economic variables will my paper study?
• Where should I look for the data?
• What econometrics techniques should I use?
• What type of model will I study?

The best way to understand what type of research you have to do is to write a thesis proposal. You will most probably be required to submit it anyway. Your thesis supervisor will examine your ideas, methods, list of secondary and primary sources. At some universities, the proposal will be graded.

After you get the initial feedback, you will have a clear idea of what to adjust before writing your thesis. Only then, you’ll be able to start.

🔥 Supreme Economics Thesis Topics List

• Fast fashion in India.
• The UK housing prices.
• Brexit and European trade.
• Behavioral economics.
• Healthcare macroeconomics.
• COVID-19’s economic impact.
• Global gender wage gap.
• Commodity dependence in Africa.
• International trade – developing countries.
• Climate change and business development.

👍 Economics Bachelor’s Thesis Topics

At the U.S. Universities, an undergraduate thesis is very uncommon. However, it depends on the Department Policy.

The biggest challenge with the Bachelor’s Thesis in economics concerns its originality. Even though you are not required to conduct entirely unique research, you have to lack redundant ideas.

You can easily avoid making this mistake by simply choosing one of these topics. Also, consider visiting IvyPanda essays database. It’s a perfect palce to conduct a brainstorming session and come up with fresh ideas for a paper, as well as get tons of inspiration.

• The impact of the oil industry on the economic development of Nigeria. The oil industry is vital for the economic development of Nigeria. In this thesis, students can discuss the notion of the resource curse. Analyze the reasons why general people are not benefiting from the oil industry. Why did it produce very little change in the social and economic growth of the country?
• Sports Marketing and Advertising: the impact it has on the consumers.
• Economic opportunities and challenges of investing in Kenya .
• Economic Development in the Tourism Industry in Africa. Since the early 1990s, tourism significantly contributed to the economic growth of African countries. In this thesis, students can talk about the characteristics of the tourist sector in Africa. Or elaborate on specific countries and how their national development plans look like.
• Globalization and its significance to business worldwide .
• Economic risks connected to investing in Turkey .
• The decline in employment rates as the biggest American economy challenge .
• The economics of alcohol abuse problems. In this thesis, students can develop several essential issues. First, they can examine how poverty is connected to alcohol abuse. Second, they can see the link between alcohol consumption and productivity. To sum up, students can elaborate on the economic costs of alcohol abuse.
• Causes and solutions for unemployment in Great Britain.
• Parallel perspective on Global Economic Order: China and America. This thesis can bring a comparative analysis of the economies to a new level. China and The US are the world’s two largest economies. These two countries have a significant impact on the global economic order. So, looking at the set of institutions, policies, rules can be constructive.
• The new international economic order after COVID-19
• Financial stability of the banking sector in China.
• New Electronic Payment Services in Russia.
• The influence of culture on different entrepreneurial behaviors.
• The impact of natural cultural practices on entrepreneurial activity.
• The relationships between national culture and individual behavior.
• The main reasons for salary inequalities in different parts of the U.S.

😲 Economics Master’s Thesis Topics

Student life can be fascinating, but it comes with its challenges. One of which is selecting your Master’s thesis topic.

Here is a list of topics for a Master’s thesis in economics. Are you pursuing MPhil in Economics and writing a thesis? Use the following ideas as an inspiration for that. They can also be helpful if you are working on a Master’s thesis in financial economics.

• The impact of visual aid in teaching home economics.
• The effect of income changes in consumer behaviors in America.
• Forces behind socio-economic inequalities in the United States. This thesis can explore three critical factors for socio-economic differences in the United States. In the past 30 years, social disparities increased in the United States. Some of the main reasons are technology, trade, and institutions.
• The relationships between economic growth and international development.
• Technological innovations and their influence on green and environmental products.
• The economics of non-solar renewable energy .

• The economic consequences of terrorism . Terrorism not only takes away lives and destroys property but also widely affects the economy. It creates uncertainty in the market, increases insurance claims, slows down investment projects, and tourism. This thesis can address all of the ways in which terrorism can affect economies.
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implementation in the Oil and Gas Industry in Africa.
• Use of incentives in behavioral economics.
• Economic opportunities and challenges of sustainable communities .
• Economics of nuclear power plants.
• Aid and financial help for emerging markets. This topic is very versatile. Students can look at both the positive and the adverse effects that funding has on the development. There are plenty of excellent examples. Besides, some theories call international help a form of neocolonialism.
• Multinational firms impact on economic growth in America .
• The effect of natural disasters on economic development in Asia.
• The influence of globalization on emerging markets and economic development.

📑 More Economics Thesis Topics: Theme

For some students, it makes more sense to center their search around a certain subject. Sometimes you have an econ area that interests you. You may have an idea about what you want to write, but you did not decide what it will be.

If that’s the case with you, then these economics thesis topics ideas are for you.

• An analysis of the energy market in Russia.
• The impact of game theory on economic development.
• The connection between minimum wage and market equilibrium.
• Gender differences in the labor market in the United States. This topic can shed light on gender differences in the labor market in the United States. In the past years, the overall inequality in labor in the markets decreased. However, there is still a lot of work that can be done.
• Economic reasons that influence the prices of oil .
• Relationship between the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient.
• Challenges of small businesses in the market economy.
• The changes in oil prices: causes and solutions . Universal economic principles do not always apply to the sale and purchase of the oil. The same happens with its cost. In the thesis, talk about what affects the prices. What are the solutions that can be implemented?
• The economic analysis of the impact of immigration on the American economy.

• Economic inequality as a result of globalization . Economic inequality becomes even more apparent on the global level. There is a common belief that globalization is the cause of that. Discuss what can be the solutions to these problems. This topic is vital to minimize the gap between the rich and the poor.
• The economic explanation of political dishonesty .
• Effect of Increasing Interest rates costs in Africa .
• The connection between game theory and microeconomics.
• Marketing uses in microeconomics.
• Financial liability in human-made environmental disasters.
• Banks and their role in the economy. Banks are crucial elements of any economy, and this topic covers why. You can explain how banks allow the goods and services to be exchanged. Talk about why banks are so essential for economic growth and stability.
• Inflation in the US and ways to reduce its impact.
• The connection between politics and economics.
• Income Dynamics and demographic economics.
• US Market Liquidity and macroeconomics.
• Macroeconomics and self-correction of the economy .
• The American economy, monetary policy, and monopolies .
• The importance of control in macroeconomics. One of the central topics in macroeconomics is grouped around the issue of control. It is quite reasonable that control over money and resources should become a topic of discussion.
• Analysis of Africa’s macroeconomics and its performance.
• Economics of education in developing markets.
• Problems and possible solutions for Japan macroeconomics .
• Comparative analysis of British macroeconomics concerning the US .
• Public policies and socio-economic disparities.
• The world problems through macroeconomic analysis. Indeed, macroeconomics is very complicated. There are many influences, details, and intricacies in it. However, it allows economists to use this complex set of tools to examine the world’s leading problems today.

• The connection between employment interest and money.

🤔 Development Economics

• Economics of development . This topic is very rich in content. First, explain what it is. Then pay particular attention to domestic and international policies that affect development, income distribution, and economic growth.
• The relation between development and incentive for migration.
• The impact of natural disasters on the economy and political stability of emerging markets.
• The economic consequences of population growth in developing countries.
• The role of industrialization in developing countries . The industrialization has been connected with the development. It promotes capital formation and catalyzes economic growth in emerging markets. In this thesis, you can talk about this correlation.
• Latin American economic development.
• Gender inequality and socio-economic development .
• Problems of tax and taxation in connection with economic growth.
• The economic impact of terrorism on developing markets.
• Religious decline as a key to economic development. Not everyone knows, but a lot of research has been done in the past years on the topic. It argues that decreased religious activity is connected with increased economic growth. This topic is quite controversial. Students who decide to write about it should be extra careful and polite.

👨‍💼 Behavioral Economics

• Risk Preferences in Rural South Africa.
• Behavioral Economics and Finance .
• Applied behavioral economics in marketing strategies. If you want to focus your attention on marketing, this topic is for you. Behavioral economics provides a peculiar lens to look at marketing strategies. It allows marketers to identify common behaviors and adapt their marketing strategies.
• The impact of behavioral finance on investment decisions.
• Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs in North Texas.
• Guidelines for Behavioral Economics in Healthcare Sector.
• Cognitive and behavioral theories in economics .
• Cross-cultural consumer behavior and marketing communication. Consumers are not only affected by personal characteristics, but also by the culture they are living in. This topic focuses on the extent it should determine marketing strategy and communication.
• Behavior implications of wealth and inequality.

• Optimism and pessimism for future behavior.

💼 Financial Economics

• Financial Economics for Infrastructure and Fiscal Policy .
• The use of the economic concept of human capital. Students can focus on the dichotomy between human and nonhuman capital. Many economists believe that human capital is the most crucial of all. Some approach this issue differently. Therefore, students should do their research and find where they stand on this issue.
• The analysis of the global financial crisis of 2020s. Share your thoughts, predictions, ideas. Analyze the economic situation that affects almost everyone in the world. This thesis topic will be fresh and original. It can help to start a good and fruitful conversation.
• The big data economic challenges for Volvo car.
• The connection between finance, economics, and accounting.
• Financial economics: Banks competition in the UK .
• Risk-Taking by mutual funds as a response to incentives.
• Managerial economics and financial accounting as a basis for business decisions.
• Stock market overreaction.

🌱 Agricultural Economics

• Agricultural economics and agribusiness.
• The vulnerability of agricultural business in African countries.
• Agricultural economics and environmental considerations of biofuels .
• Farmer’s contribution to agricultural social capital.
• Agricultural and resource economics. Agricultural and resource economics plays a huge role in development. They are subdivided into four main characteristics which in this topic, students can talk about: – mineral and energy resources; – soil resources, water resources; – biological resources. One or even all of them can be a focus of the thesis.
• Water as an economic good in irrigated agriculture.
• Agriculture in the economic development of Iran.
• The US Agricultural Food Policy and Production .
• Pesticides usage on agricultural products in California.

• An analysis of economic efficiency in agriculture. A lot of research has been done on the question of economic efficiency in agriculture. However, it does not mean there is no place for your study. You have to read a lot of secondary sources to see where your arguments can fit.

🤝‍Economic Sociology

• Theory, approach, and method in economics sociology.
• Economic sociology of capitalism. While economists believe in the positive effect capitalism has on the economy, the social effect is quite different. The “economic” part of the issue has been studied a lot. However, the sociology of it has been not. This thesis can be very intriguing to read.
• Political Economy and Economic Sociology.
• Gender and economic sociology .
• Progress, sociology, and economics.
• Data analysis in economics, sociology, environment .
• Economic sociology as a way to understand the human mind.
• Economic sociology of money.
• Economics, sociology, and psychology of security.
• Major principles of economic sociology. In the past decade, economic sociology became an increasingly popular field. Mainly due to it giving a new view on economics, human mind, and behavior. Besides, it explores relationships between politics, law, culture, and gender.

📚 The List of Ph.D. Topics in Economics

If you decide to go to grad school to do your Masters, you will likely end up getting a Ph.D. as well. So, with this plan in mind, think about a field that interests you enough during your Masters. Working with the same topic for both graduate degrees is easier and more effective.

This list of Ph.D. Topics in Economics can help you identify the areas you can work on.

• Occupational injuries in Pakistan and its effect on the economy. Injuries are the leading cause of the global burden of disability. Globally, Pakistan was ranked 9th populated country with a large number of unskilled workers. In this dissertation, consider the link between occupational injuries and their effects on the economy.
• The study of the Philippines’ economic development.

• Financial derivatives and climate change .
• Econometric Analysis of Financial Markets.
• Islamic Banking and Financial Markets .
• Health economics and policy in the UK.
• Health insurance: rationale and economic justification. In this dissertation, students can find different ways to explain and justify health insurance. Starting to philosophical to purely economic grounds. In the past years, there was a lot of discussion regarding the healthcare system for all. What are some of the economic benefits of that?
• Colombian economy, economic growth, and inequality.
• Benefits of mergers and acquisitions in agribusiness.
• Methods to measure financial risks when investing in Africa.
• The significance of financial economics in understanding the relationship between a country’s GDP and NDP.
• Network effects in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are not new anymore. However, it is still an original subject for a dissertation. Students can decide to choose several crypto coins and evaluate the importance of the network effect. This effect is particularly significant for Bitcoin. Explain why.
• The comparison of the Chinese growth model with the American growth model.
• An economic justification versus political expediency.
• Pollution Externalities Role in Management Economics .

📝 How to Select an Economics Thesis Topic

As your academic journey is coming to an end, it’s time to pick the right topic for your thesis. The whole academic life you were preparing to undertake this challenge.

Here is the list of six points that will help you to select an economics thesis topic:

• Make sure it is something you are genuinely interested in. It is incredibly challenging to write something engaging if you are not interested in the topic. So, choose wisely and chose what excites you.
• Draw inspiration from the previous student’s projects. A great place to start is by looking at what the previous students wrote. You can find some fresh ideas and a general direction.
• Ask your thesis advisor for his feedback. Most probably, your thesis advisor supervised many students before. They can be a great help too because they know how to assess papers. Before meeting with your professor, do some basic research, and understand what topic is about.
• Be original, but not too much. You do not want to spend your time writing about a project that many people wrote about. Your readers will not be interested in reading it, but your professors as well. However, make sure you do not pick anything too obscure. It will leave you with no secondary sources.
• Choose a narrow and specific topic. Not only will it allow you to be more original, but also to master a topic. When the issue is too broad, there is just too much information to cover in one thesis.
• Go interdisciplinary. If you find yourself interested in history, philosophy, or any other related topic, it can help you write an exceptional thesis in economics. Most of your peers may work on pure economics. Then, the interdisciplinary approach can help you to stand out among them.

Thank you for reading the article to the end! We hope this list of economics thesis topics ideas could help you to gather your thoughts and get inspired. Share it with those who may find it useful. Let us know what you think about it in the comment section below.

🔗 References

• Economics Thesis Topics List: Seminars Only
• How To Pick A Topic For Your Economics Research Project Or Master’s Thesis: INOMICS, The Site for Economists
• What Do Theses and Dissertations Look Like: KU Writing Center, the University of Kansas
• Writing Economics: Robert Neugeboren with Mireille Jacobson, University of Harvard
• Economics Ph.D. Theses: Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School, IDEAS_RePEc
• World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018: United Nations
• Undergraduate Honors Theses: Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
• Economics Department Dissertations Collection: Economics Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Topics for Master Theses: Department of Economics, NHH, Norwegian School of Economics
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A very well written, clear and easy-to-read article. It was highly helpful. Thank you!

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Economics Dissertation Topics

Published by Alvin Nicolas at January 11th, 2023 , Revised On October 5, 2023

The field of economics has changed entirely in recent times. Today, the field holds an extremely important place in every economy, with individual choices, spending, borrowing, production, occupations, markets, trading, employment, and a lot more being predicted and planned by economists.

Today, economists view economics from a modern and slightly different perspective than traditional economics. Different approaches in economics include perspectives like anthropology, sociology, geography, and various institutions.

Studying economics involving these perspectives provides a clearer view of the issues and problems related to the modern economic world. In contrast, focusing on the traditional economic approaches while selecting a topic will result in vague outcomes according to modern economics.

The most difficult task with respect to economics dissertations involves the  collection of data . Mostly the data required by the researcher must be in quantitative form. However, once data is collected, the researcher can focus on performing the analysis.

There are a number of economic perspectives that can be studied in detail. As your final project, you will want to select the most recent and relevant economics topic for your dissertation.

To help you get started with brainstorming for economics topic ideas, we have developed a list of the latest topics that can be used for writing your economics dissertation.

These topics have been developed by PhD-qualified writers of our team , so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting  a brief research proposal  from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an  introduction  to the problem,  research question , aim and objectives,  literature review  along with the proposed  methodology  of research to be conducted.  Let us know  if you need any help in getting started.

Check our  example dissertations to get an idea of  how to structure your dissertation .

You can review step by step guide on how to write your dissertation.

Check our  example dissertation to get an idea of  how to structure your dissertation .

2022 Economics Dissertation Topics

Topic 1: the influence of price and brand on consumer preference during an economic recession: a case of the clothing market in greece.

Research Aim: The research will aim to examine the impact of prices and brands on consumer buying behaviour during an economic recession in Greece’s clothing market. During an economic crisis, not all types of products suffer the same consequences. During a recession, people are more sensible in their buying decisions, and they frequently continue to choose known product brands that meet their demands. The study will look at the impact of the recession on consumer purchasing preferences, taking into account variations in spending on various apparel brands based on price.

Topic 2: The financial and non-financial support of the family members in the growth of a successful entrepreneurship

Research Aim: The research will aim to investigate the importance of financial and non-financial support of family members in the growth of successful entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a driving force in economic growth, social transformation, and organizational change. Private businesses (entrepreneurship) not only support a state’s social and economic growth but it also develops intellectual competition and innovation. Family members who are involved in business ventures can influence individuals’ goals to start new businesses, and they can also be considered as a means of economic and motivational strength.

Topic 3: The impact of transaction cost on economic development

Research Aim: The research will aim to explore the impact of transaction cost on the economic development of a country. The study will try to find the impact by using different methods and analyses. This article will investigate the difficulties of economic growth as they relate to transaction costs and how the latter produce various sorts of market failures. The study also explores several major contributions to the field of economic development, including market failure and growth barriers. Alternative perspectives on the failure of government and the market-government duality will also be examined.

Topic 4: What effect does oil price fluctuation have on business activity in oil-importing and exporting states?

Research Aim: The research will aim to find the influence of oil rate fluctuation on businesses of oil-importing and exporting countries. Change has a significant influence on the production costs of oil-importing countries and changes in pricing levels changes. At the same time, oil price variations have a significant impact on energy export profits and government budget revenues in energy-exporting economies.

Topic 5: The impact of gender inequality on work productivity and economic growth: A case study on developing countries

Research Aim: The research will aim to find the impact of gender inequality on work productivity and economic growth in developing countries. Gender inequality is not solely a concern in developing countries. Males earn more than women in practically every society. Differences in health, education, and negotiating power within marriage, on the other hand, tend to be bigger in countries with low Per capita income. Gender inequality in the office contributes to females’ lower socio-economic standing. Furthermore, such gender inequality may be associated with human resource rules and human resource related decision-making.

Topic 6: Research to identify the impacts of Coronavirus on the economy

Research Aim: This study will focus on identifying the impacts of coronavirus on the global economy.

Topic 7: Research to study the impacts of Coronavirus on the real estate sector

Research Aim: This research aims at identifying the impacts of coronavirus on the real estate sector. Is real estate a better option for investment during COVID-19?

Topic 8: Research to study the impacts of Coronavirus on the stock market

Research Aim: This research aims at identifying the impacts of coronavirus on the stock market.

Topic 9: Research to identify the impacts of Coronavirus on banking and the future of banking after the pandemic

Research Aim: This research aims at identifying the impacts of coronavirus on banking and the future of banking after the pandemic. What are the predictions? What challenges may come across? How to overcome those challenges?

Dissertation Topics on Economics 2021

Topic 1: economic expansion in bioenergy: a case study.

Research Aim: This research aims to conduct a case study on the economic expansion in bioenergy

Topic 2: Factors responsible for job creation and job destruction in the UK

Research Aim: This research aims to identify the factors responsible for job creation and job destruction in the UK.

Topic 3: Impacts of wars on the economy of both nations

Research Aim: This research aims to address how do wars impact the economy of both nations?

Topic 4: The role of banks in the economy of a country

Research Aim:  This research aims to highlight the role of Banks in the economy of a country. Students can choose any country to conduct the study.

Topic 5: Is an unhealthy country considered an emerging country?

Research Aim:  This research will answer the question: Is an unhealthy country considered a poor country?

Dissertation Topics Related to Economic Geography

Economic geography studies human economic activities with respect to various conditions such as location, distribution, production, consumption, exchange of resources, etc. Thus, studying the availability of all these resources, their development, and utilization is the main subject matter of economic geography.

In addition to studying these resources and their relationship with human economic activities, economic geography also helps study the interaction of these resources and variables with respect to nature and economic activities.

Economic geography is studied within different regions and localities in order to assess various human economic activities. Here are some economic geography dissertation topics to help you explore this field.

Topic 1: Role of local ethics and culture in shaping entrepreneurial economic development in various businesses.

Research Aim: This study will talk about the role of culture and ethics in shaping economic entrepreneurial attitudes in different fields of business.

Topic 2: Diversity in entrepreneurial approaches brought up by emigrants in the economics of a place: A critical analysis

Research Aim: This research will discuss whether entrepreneurial approaches be exported when emigrants move to a new place.

Topic 3: Assessing factors involved in facilitating knowledge transfer in a specific locality or place

Research Aim: This research will understand the various factors that play a role in transferring knowledge from one place or locality to another.

Topic 4: Economic opportunities provided within local boundaries. A case study of any specific area

Research Aim: This study will talk about the economic opportunities provided by local boundaries. This dissertation can be customised according to an area/region of your choice.

Topic 5: To discuss the role of the “European regional policy” in shaping or modifying places in the UK

Research Aim: This study will talk about the role of European regional policy in shaping and modifying UK places.

Topic 6: Location of top IT firms in the UK, the role of location on economics linked to a particular firm

Research Aim: This study will assess the economic geography of top IT firms in the UK that are linked to different firms.

Topic 7: Causes of regional diversity. Analysis and comparison between the richest and poorest places of the UK

Research Aim: This will be a comparative study between the richest and poorest places in the UK based on regional diversity.

Topic 8: Economics and expansion in bioenergy: A Case Study

Research Aim: This study will talk about economics and expansion in bioenergy, and a specific case will be under analysis.

Topic 9: Economic modifications faced by emigrants, causes and impacts

Research Aim: This research will talk about the various economic modifications that emigrants have to face and will also assess its causes and impacts.

Topic 16: A critical analysis of diversity in entrepreneurial attitudes in rural and urban areas

Research Aim: This will be a critical study that will assess diversity in entrepreneurial attitudes in both rural and urban areas.

How Can ResearchProspect Help?

ResearchProspect writers can send several custom topic ideas to your email address. Once you have chosen a topic that suits your needs and interests, you can order for our dissertation outline service which will include a brief introduction to the topic, research questions , literature review , methodology , expected results , and conclusion . The dissertation outline will enable you to review the quality of our work before placing the order for our full dissertation writing service!

Dissertation Topics on Microeconomics

This branch of economics deals with economic perspectives on an individual level. It takes into account the allocation of various resources that are limited in nature. Different theories of microeconomics can be applied to markets where different products are bought and sold out.

In order to complete your graduation program, you will have to select the right economics topic that not only interests you but is relevant in today’s world. The suggested topics for you to choose from are listed below:

Topic 1: Difference in consumer attitudes in the UK over the past 15 years – Critical analysis of customer behaviour trends.

Research Aim: This research will compare the consumer attitude in the UK over the past 15 years and will study the trends.

Topic 2: Understanding to what extent does the concept of oligopoly exists in markets of the UK – A critical analysis

Research Aim: This study will first talk about oligopoly, and will then build and critically discuss how this concept exists in the UK market.

Topic 3: Laws and their impact on British firms.

Research Aim: This study will talk about the various laws in the UK that have an impact on various industries as a whole.

Topic 4: “European regional policy” and its effects on British small and medium enterprises

Research Aim: This research will study the European regional policy and the impacts this has on SMEs in the UK.

Topic 5: To discuss specific traits of the UK innovation organisation

Research Aim:  This research will understand the various traits of UK organisations that innovate.

Topic 6: Study of the characteristics of the energy market in the UK – A microeconomic approach

Research Aim: This study will undertake a microeconomic approach in order to understand the characteristics of the energy market in the UK.

Topic 7: Common traits of the top internet technology firms in the US – Analysis of the approaches adopted by different successful technology firms

Research Aim: This research will talk about the various traits of leading internet firms in the US and will analyse their different approaches

Topic 8: How is the concept of “economic convergence” linked to salary levels in the United States? – A critical analysis

Research Aim: This study will critically discuss economic convergence and how it is linked to salary levels in the US.

Topic 9: A Discussion on the use and role of various “pricing models” in making investment decisions.

Research Aim: This research will analyze the various pricing models that companies use to make decisions with respect to their investment.

Topic 10: Analysing salary inequalities in the United States and the forces behind such inequalities? – A Critical analysis

Research Aim: This study will talk about an important issue, i.e., salary inequalities in the US, and will also discuss the various forces that drive such inequalities.

Dissertation Topics on Employment Economics

Employment is a very important aspect that is studied in economics. Employment is interconnected with other academic subjects as well and affects people’s finances, which further determines their type of relationship with their environment or society.

Moreover, with the passage of time, technological advancements in various fields have impacted the labor market, which directly influenced the employment rate.  Dissertation topics  related to the field of employment economics are listed as under:

Topic 1: Factors responsible for the job creation and job destruction in the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This research will talk about the different factors that are responsible for job creation and destruction in the United Kingdom.

Topic 2: Analysing to what extent the concept of self-employment prevails in the United Kingdom – Discuss the factors that determine it

Research Aim: This research will determine the extent to which the concept of self-employment prevails in the UK. Furthermore, the factors determining self-employment will also be explored.

Topic 3: Link between minimum wages and British employment. A critical analysis

Research Aim: This study will critically analyze the link between wages minimum wages and employment in Britain.

Topic 4: Understanding In what ways technological advancements have paved the way for a rise in British employment levels

Research Aim: This research will talk about the various ways through which technological advancements have helped increase employment in the British economy.

Topic 5: Exploring the value of labour in the United Kingdom– Skilled or unskilled labour? A Critical Analysis

Research Aim: This study will talk about the value of both types of labour, skilled and unskilled, in the UK. A critical analysis will be conducted as to which type of labour is more in demand in the economic system.

Topic 6: Analysing the levels and prevalence of self-employment in various parts of Europe. An Analysis of the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This research will discuss and analyse the levels and prevalence of self-employment in various parts across Europe. Special attention will be given to the UK in the study to understand the self-employment system.

Topic 7: In what ways does immigration affects British employment levels and productivity? Discuss

Research Aim: This research will talk about the various ways through which immigration affects British employment levels and productivity.

Topic 8: How can professional training impact British employment? Discuss

Research Aim: This study will talk about the impact of professional training on employment in the UK. The research will discuss if the impact was negative or positive.

Topic 9: Analysing the impact of gender inequality in employment on economic growth in the UK

Research Aim: This research will analyse the impact of gender inequality in employment on economic growth in the UK.

Topic 10: Economic productivity and Innovation – Are they both related? A study of the UK services industry

Research Aim: This research will help understand the relationship (if any) between economic productivity and innovation. The UK Services industry will be analyzed.

Dissertation Topics on Economic Sociology

This field refers to the study of sociological aspects from an economic perspective. Social networks are also one of the more important features in the economic world because they can contribute greatly to promoting a particular brand.

Different social gatherings are a source to highlight a particular industry, firm, and even a private setup. They can contribute greatly to building successful businesses. Following are some economic sociology dissertation topics for you to choose from:

Topic 1: Exploring Innovation Activities for the promotion of a particular firm/industry/brand

Research Aim: This research will talk about all the innovative activities that take place while promoting a brand or a company in an industry. This topic can be customised according to a brand/company of your choosing.

Topic 2: Understanding the role of families in funding a particular firm

Research Aim: This research will talk about the family funding of businesses, the whole process and how it takes place. You can choose an industry of your choice to base your dissertation on.

Topic 3: Can a blend of different cultures contribute to increasing the level of productivity? Evidence from a UK firm

Research Aim : This research will discuss how various cultures contribute to increasing productivity levels. A UK firm will be chosen for this research.

Topic 4: Social capital plays its role in the rural areas in the UK – A critical analysis

Research Aim: This research will talk about social capital and its role in the rural areas of the UK.

Topic 5: Youth as one of the biggest supports in the promotion of economic agents

Research Aim: This research will help understand the relationship (if any) between economic productivity and innovation. The UK services industry will be analysed.

Topic 6: Exploring the role of university networks in shaping entrepreneurial behaviours and actions

Research Aim: This study will help explore the role of university networks in shaping entrepreneurial actions and behaviours.

Topic 43: Role of social entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This study will talk about the role of social entrepreneurship in the UK and how it has emerged.

Topic 8: Diverse culture and productivity enhancement – How are the two related?

Research Aim: This study will talk about whether diverse culture has an impact on productivity enhancement in the UK or not.

Topic 9: Exploring the Impact of social networks on the success of Brands

Research Aim: This study will talk about the impact of social networks on the success of brands and how they impact businesses. You can choose a brand for this dissertation.

Topic 10: Understanding the ‘peer’ factor in setting up businesses

Research Aim: Setting up a business involves various factors, and an essential one is a support from peers. This research will explore this aspect of support when starting a business and the impact it has.

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Dissertation Topics on Institutional Economics

Institutional economics helps in understanding the role of institutions in shaping economic behaviour. Certain institutions promote certain values, beliefs and norms, and they impact the public in a certain way.

These institutions can affect the economics of a certain region and help shape economic life and behaviour. Institutional economics is still an emerging field. Following are some institutional economics dissertation topics that you can base your dissertation on.

Topic 1: Assessing the factors behind the power of a successful firm. How is it built?

Research Aim: This research will discuss the various factors that help companies build power in the industry and impact the economy.

Topic 2: Analysing the impact of cultural mix on the organisation of firms in the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This study will analyse the impact of diverse cultures on organisations in the UK.

Topic 3: Evaluating the role of bureaucracy in the productivity levels of the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This research will help in evaluating the role of bureaucracy on productivity levels in the UK.

Topic 4: Understanding various methods to ensure economic efficiency in the property markets of the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This study will understand the different ways through which economic efficiency is ensured in the UK property markets.

Topic 5: Impacts of transaction costs on economic development?

Research Aim: This research will evaluate how economic development is impacted by transaction costs.

Topic 6: Analysing the major forces operating behind the concept of control and ownership in the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This study will help analyse the major forces that control and own institutions in the UK and how they impact the economy.

Topic 7: Traits of British managers and investors. A Comparative analysis

Research Aim: This will be an interesting study as it will talk about the various traits of British managers and investors.

Topic 8: Role of educational aspects in entrepreneurship

Research Aim: This research will explore the role of education concerning entrepreneurship, i.e. how does education help build entrepreneurs, which in turn benefits the economy.

Topic 9: The concept of latent entrepreneurship – A comparison between the United Kingdom and Europe

Research Aim: This study will understand the concept of latent entrepreneurship by comparing the UK environment with that of Europe.

Topic 10: Is the profit of a firm dependent on its size? Evidence from the manufacturing firms in the UK

Research Aim: This research will help in understanding whether the profit of a company is dependent on the business’ size or not. The UK Manufacturing industry will be explored.

Dissertation Topics on Environmental Economics

Environment and economics share a unique and close relationship. The environment can affect economics in a good or bad way. There are various environmental economic issues that should be addressed. Following are some of the pressing issues pertaining to environmental economics that you can choose as your dissertation topic.

Topic 1: To what extent is the environment responsible for shaping business behaviours? A critical analysis

Research Aim: This research will talk about the extent to which the environment is responsible for building business behaviours.

Topic 2: Economics in relation to biodiversity and nature conservation. An evidence-based study

Research Aim: This research will discuss economics in relation to biodiversity and nature conservation.

Topic 3: Assessing the role of NGO’s and organizations to promote a healthy environment through fundraising programs

Research Aim: This research will help in assessing the role of NGOs and organisations in promoting healthy environments through various fundraising programs.

Topic 4: Willingness to pay for various recycling programs – A case study of the United Kingdom.

Research Aim : This research will help understand the different recycling programs by evaluating a UK-based case study.

Topic 5: Incentives regarding land and water management – A case study of the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This research will talk about various incentives relating to land and water management. A UK-based case study will be chosen.

Topic 6: Economic value of historical places: A critical analysis

Research Aim: This research will talk about the economic value of historical places and will present a critical analysis.

Topic 7: In which field is it cheapest to reduce or cut carbon emissions? Discuss.

Research Aim: This research will talk about the impacts of carbon emissions and will discuss in which field it will be cheapest to reduce or eliminate such emissions.

Topic 8: Ethanol production from an economic perspective. Discuss.

Research Aim: This research will help in exploring ethanol production with respect to economics.

Topic 9: Environmental improvements in regards to locational differences in communities Discuss in an economic approach

Research Aim: This research will present various environmental improvements with respect to locational differences in communities.

Topic 10: Climate change in relation to economics. Discuss

Research Aim: This research will talk about an important issue, i.e. climate change and the impact it has on economics.

Dissertation Topics on Regional Development

Economic growth can also be studied at a regional level. This field considers economic perspectives on a smaller level with a focus on trade between regions. Suggestions for dissertation topics in this field are listed as follows:

Topic 1: Evaluating the link between profit and regional development?

Research Aim: This research will evaluate the link between profit and regional development with respect to economics.

Topic 2: Assessing the “regional development policy” in the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This study will talk about the regional development policy in the UK.

Topic 3: Discussing the role of learning or knowledge gaining involved in regional development?

Research Aim: This research will explore the role of knowledge and learning that helps promote regional development.

Topic 4: Assessing the existence of location theories that contribute towards the development and understanding of regional development

Research Aim: This research will assess the existence of locational theories that help contribute towards the development and understanding of regional development.

Topic 5: Evaluating the role that technology plays in regional development? A UK case study

Research Aim: This research will evaluate the role that technology plays in promoting regional development.

Topic 6: Exploring entrepreneurship and its regional aspects in the United Kingdom

Research Aim: This research will help explore entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship network with respect to regional development in the UK.

Topic 7: Role of Institutional setups in regional development

Research Aim: This study will talk about the role of institutional setups in regional development.

Topic 8: Assessing the relationship between unemployment and entrepreneurship in the light of evidence from British relationship

Research Aim: This research will assess the relationship between unemployment and entrepreneurship in the UK.

Find 100s of dissertation topics for other research areas.

Topic 9: In what ways the UK and the European firms are different in terms of innovation – A critical analysis

Research Aim: This research will help in understanding the various ways in which the UK and European firms are different with respect to innovation.

Topic 10: Assessing the role of regional co-operation in developing sustainable advantage

Research Aim: This research will help in assessing the role of regional cooperation in developing sustainable advantage amongst regions

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Important Notes

As a student of economics looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment on existing economics theories – i.e., to add value and interest in your research topic.

The field of economics is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like civil engineering ,  construction ,  law , engineering management , healthcare , mental health , artificial intelligence , tourism , physiotherapy , sociology , management , marketing and nursing . That is why it is imperative to create a project management dissertation topic that is articular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic; it is the basis of your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in  writing your dissertation  as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the very initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

Keeping our advice in mind while developing a research topic will allow you to pick one of the best economics dissertation topics that not only fulfil your requirement of writing a research paper but also adds to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and can also be practically implemented. Take a look at some of our sample economics dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure your Economics Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

• A Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Declaration
• Abstract: A summary of the research completed
• Table of Contents
• Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems to be addressed. An outline of the structure of a dissertation  can also be added to this chapter.
• Literature Review :  This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analysing published and unpublished literature available on the chosen research topic, in light of  research questions  to be addressed. The purpose is to highlight and discuss the relative weaknesses and strengths of the selected research area while identifying any research gaps. Break down of the topic, and key terms can have a positive impact on your dissertation and your tutor.
• Methodology:  The  data collection  and  analysis  methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter which usually includes  research design, research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods, and  data analysis strategy .
• Findings and Analysis:  Findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include  graphs ,  charts, and  tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
• Discussion  and  Conclusion: The researcher presents his interpretation of results in this chapter, and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section is to establish the link between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regards to implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
• References:  Make sure to complete this in accordance with your University’s requirements
• Bibliography
• Appendices:  Any additional information, diagrams, graphs that were used to  complete the dissertation  but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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How to find economics dissertation topics.

For economics dissertation topics:

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• Seek topics aligning with your passion and career aspirations.

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Economics Dissertation Topics

Economics is about making choices in the face of scarcity and uncertainty and ensuring that resource allocation is effectively and efficiently done. What was popularised by writers, researchers and philosophers such as Adam Smith in the 1770s, has become a field with significant relevance and importance in today’s society that is highly financialised and globalised. Dating back to medieval scholastics as well as literature published back in the 15th and 18th century, through the 19th century, the concerns of economics have largely focused on aspects such as choices of individuals, borrowing, money, consumption and production, occupations and employment, markets, trade, pricing of assets, taxes, and most recently human behaviour in relation to economic decisions.

There are multitudes of research studies, within the existing literature, that have been conducted in relation to the above concerns and many of these have resulted in a number of models that attempt to provide possible explanations to real world problems. As the world continues to evolve with the advent of technological advancements that have increased the pace of transformation and globalisation, new areas in economics have emerged as worthwhile research targets. The following are possible economics dissertation topics to choose from for your academic research project in economics:

Economic Geography Dissertation Topics

Economic sociology dissertation topics, institutional economics dissertation topics, microeconomics dissertation topics, macroeconomics dissertation topics, regional development dissertation topics.

• Employment Economics Dissertation Topics

Financial Economics Dissertation Topics

This is the area in economics academic literature that is concerned with the role of geographic location and place with the economical outcomes. It focuses on describing and analyzing patterns and trends in human behavior and activity to gain understanding of the processes and drivers that shape and affect the economic and cultural landscapes. Within regions and localities, there are great dynamics that shape the nature and extent of economic activity. Below are some suggestions for economics dissertation topics on economic geography:

• The impact of local and regional cultures on shaping entrepreneurial economic development.
• Can entrepreneurial attitude be exported? The role of emigrants in introducing new entrepreneurial attitudes.
• Differences of entrepreneurial behaviour in rural and urban areas.
• Is there any relationship between mature industries dominating small towns and their local cultural factors?
• The role of local culture in promoting regional innovation networks.
• National, regional and local policies to support local clusters: opportunities.
• How can policy support the creation of a local cluster?
• Are networks affected by local proximity? Differences between co-localised and dispersed networks.
• The likelihood impact of Brexit on policy outcomes that shape the local economy in UK cities.
• A model for the development of information and communication technology incubators in the UK. Analysis of the concentration of Top 50 IT companies.
• What is causing regional divergence? An analysis of the richest and poorest regions in the UK.
• The economic geography of recession. Difference between regional and city economics in the UK.
• Why are housing built in flood-prone coastal areas?
• Understanding educational progression at the local level: A comparison of the North and South cities in the UK.
• How COVID has contributed to house price volatility in various cities in the UK.
• How the COVID lockdown has affected social life of big cities.
• Will coronavirus cause a big city exodus?

Economic sociology refers to sociological aspects influencing the economic indicators and their relationship with social outcomes. It is the study of how the material conditions of life are produced and reproduced through social processes and broadly covers the sociology of markets and the sociology of consumptions. Possible economics dissertation topics in this area include:

• The role of social networks in supporting innovation activities in mature industries.
• The financial and non-financial support of family in the development of successful entrepreneurship.
• The private network as the facilitator of the firm start-up.
• Exploring the differences between trust and power in local productive systems.
• Social contracts and peer-pressure as the source of traditional industry development in the UK.
• Can cultural mix increase productivity in creative industries? Evidence from the UK.
• The role of social and intellectual capital in rural places in the UK.
• Is social capital a critical factor in the British creative industries?
• How can universities take advantage of social networks to induce entrepreneurial action among their students?
• The role and contribution of social entrepreneurship in the UK.
• The economic impact of migration from different regions of the world to the UK. Comparative analysis between the EU and the non-EU migration.
• Is the relationship between economic and social development linear?
• The convergence of economic systems in the wake of globalisation and their implications on the social development across developed, emerging and developing national economies.

Institutional Economics relates to a variety of economics traditions that are concerned with social institutions which are linked to consumption, distribution and production of goods and services as well as the underlying corresponding social relations. In essence, Institutional Economics has a relatively broad inquiry scope and is considered to have relatively close ties with other disciplines such as anthropology, economic sociology, psychology, economic history, behavioural economics, behavioural finance, physical science, management and business studies, and nowadays neuro, cognitive and brain science. This implies that there are various dissertation topics that can fall under the Institutional Economics bracket; some of these include the following.

• An assessment of the implications of Institutional Economics methodologies for the analysis of the property market.
• A study of how the theoretical assumptions of the New Institutional Economics’ (NIE) micro analytical level influence a firm’s choice of governance structures.
• How do habits and routines affect productivity? The case of (an industry).
• How does the culture mix impact on the organisation of firms in the UK?
• Resilience to economic shrinking in an emerging economy: the role of social capabilities.
• Financial constraint, trust, and export performances: The case of UK SMEs.
• Efficiency in the property market in the UK: An institutional perspective.
• Transaction costs and economic development.
• A resource-based theory analysis to firm co-operation.
• How can transaction costs economics account for inter-firm collaboration?
• Ownership and control in the UK: An institutional analysis.
• Institutions and policies of economic freedom: different effects on income and growth.
• How does job experience relate to entrepreneurship? Evidence from the UK.
• Educational aspects of entrepreneurship. The role of formal school in promoting entrepreneurial capacities in the UK.
• Latent entrepreneurship: the UK vs Europe.

Microeconomics has to do with supply and demand, and with the way they interact in various markets. It is andconcerned with how economic agents, that is, individual decision-makers (both consumers and producers) behave in different economic settings. The overarching goal of microeconomic research is to identify the incentives of various agents and trade-offs that they may face. To understand behaviour of individuals in terms of their economic decision-making, researchers build various models, use data and conduct experiments.

The following are the examples of dissertation topics on ‘Microeconomics’:

• The evolution of household consumption in the UK over the last 10 years: Trends in consumer behaviour.
• Are mergers and acquisitions related to productivity in UK firms?
• Is the minimum wage still relevant in the UK economy?
• Is the British retail sector becoming less oligopolistic? An analysis of the impact of new supermarkets.
• Are British oligopolistic markets really oligopolistic?
• Conditions for the existence of a knowledge firm.
• Characteristics of the innovative organisation in the UK.
• Are UK firms more innovative than their European counterparts?
• The impact of the European regional policy on British small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
• The energy market in the UK: A microeconomic approach.
• The impact of regulation on British industries: The case study of Uk energy sector.
• Does firm size affect firm profits? Evidence from telecommunication firms in the UK.
• Game theory and decision theory.

Macroeconomics is concerned with how the overall economy works and how all markets interact to generate big phenomena that economists call aggregate variables. It studies such things as employment, gross domestic product, inflation, national income, employment and the interaction between the global economy and financial markets.

The following are the examples of dissertation topics on ‘Macroeconomics’:

• How do interest rates affect consumption in the UK?
• What is the role of the dollar evolution in UK spending?
• The magnitude of the impact of oil price changes on UK consumption.
• The impact of Brexit on consumer spending in the UK.
• The impact of Brexit on employment and labour in the UK.
• What factors influence the salary inequality across the UK?
• The evolution of the exchange rates in the UK: Causes and consequences.
• Negative interest household savings in the UK.
• The impact of the common agriculture policy (CAP) on British agriculture.
• Economic growth and productivity. The UK in the century transition.
• Interest rates and foreign direct investment in the UK.
• Brexit and foreign direct investment in the UK.
• Monetary policy pass-through for the UK after Brexit.
• Development of UK monetary policy overtime.
• Does inflation affect firms’ profits in the UK?
• Macroeconomic determinant of house prices in the UK.
• Unemployment and regional mobility of labour in the UK.
• The impact of finance on growth: The case of UK.
• Economic growth and unemployment: Is there a relationship in the UK?
• The macroeconomics of SMEs entrepreneurship in the UK.
• Global economic recession and factors that contribute to it.
• Is the UK insurance system economically viable?
• How does the Greek financial crisis impact the EU economy overtime?
• The impact of COVID income inequality in the UK.
• Coronavirus and wage inequality: The case of UK manufacturing sector.
• COVID and economic recession: Will the impact be more pronounced than the 2007 financial recession?
• Role of information technology in economic development.
• Social inequality: the difference between wealth and income.
• Why is insurance necessary for the economic development of a country?
• How is the tax burden shared between buyers and sellers in the UK?
• Asymmetric information and adverse market selection: A case study of UK insurance market.
• Economic rent and transfer earnings in the UK.

This discipline is focused on understanding the dynamics of regions as smaller economies with their own circumstances and outcomes. The focus is on the internal working of the regional economies as well as on their interaction with other regions. There is a component of economic growth and development at a regional level. The suggestions below will give you further ideas for your economics dissertation topics:

• Regional development and profitability of the businesses. What are the factors underpinning this relationship?
• The contribution of entrepreneurial networks for regional development.
• Implications and development of regional development policy in the UK.
• Infrastructures and regional development. How can the rail and road network explain the differences in the development of regions in the UK.
• Regional comparative advantage in natural resources and regional development.
• Effect of regional policy surrounding start-ups on regional development: more new firms or better old ones?
• The role of broadband internet technology in regional development: co-relation between internet speeds and regional development?
• Public investment and regional output: Evidence from the UK regions.
• Robustness of regional institutions and development: How to search for a link?
• Regional aspects of entrepreneurship in the UK.
• Differences between types and extent of entrepreneurship and unemployment across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• Convergence and endogenous growth differences between South East England and the rest of the UK.

Employment/Labour Economics Dissertation Topics

Employment is considered to be a key concept in economics and its significance is reflected in the perception that people at work are seen as individuals/groups of individuals involved in the production of services and goods. Such production requires human capital and time; thus, organisations of different types pay people that are involved in the production process providing them with income that is later used to boost economic activity. In macroeconomics, low rates of national employment may signal underdevelopment or long-lasting depression while high rates of national employment may signal economic growth and development. Below is a list of dissertation topics that cover the area of employment economics.

• Work from home or office and employee wellbeing: The case of the COVID pandemic.
• A study of how flexible employment affects political support for social policy protection.
• The impact of gender inequality in employment on economic growth and workforce productivity.
• The influence of economic cycles on employment, workforce productivity and innovation: a study of manufacturing industries.
• Local pools on unemployment in the UK: Looking for similarities.
• Factors determining self-employment in the UK.
• The effects of minimum wages on British employment.
• How does technological innovation affect British unemployment? Evidence from the manufacturing industries.
• A comparison of self-employment across Europe: Where does the UK stand?
• Government policies in support of self-employment: Evidence from the UK.
• The effects of immigration on British employment and productivity.

Financial economics concentrates on exchanges in which money of one type or another is likely to appear on both sides of a trade. Financial markets are crucial in facilitating these exchanges at a relatively reduced transaction cost. In many such cases, the amount of money to be transferred in the future is uncertain. Financial economists thus deal with both time and uncertainty. Often the latter is called risk. Financial economics is thus a branch of economics that examines the utilisation and distribution of economic resources in financial markets in which decisions must be made under uncertainty.

The following are examples of dissertation topics on ‘Financial Economics’:

• How has the coronavirus pandemic affected the UK stock market?
• How is the FTSE affected by interest rates?
• Does CAPM measure the risk of stocks listed on the FTSE 100?
• How does the behaviour of the FSTE 100 affect economic growth?
• Behavioural finance: A study on the motivation of British investors.
• The determinants of corporate debt in the UK.
• The role of private equity and debt market in the finances of SMEs in the UK.
• Do SMEs achieve higher profitability rates than large corporations in the UK?
• The financial structure of British firms: A comparison with the European Union.
• Financial markets and financial intermediation in the UK.
• Temporary and permanent components of asset prices in the UK.
• Capital and financial structure of UK companies.
• Investor protection and corporate governance: Comparison between EU and US financial market.
• Political uncertainty on asset prices.

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The Study Blog : Research topics

50+ Economics research Topics and Topic Ideas for dissertation

The ultimate goal of economic science is to improve the living conditions of people in everyday lives. Economists study how to utilize the available scarce resources to maximize value and thus profits. The concerns of economics today are largely focused on issues such as opportunity cost, consumption and production, borrowing, saving, investments, occupations and employment, trades markets, pricing and human behavior concerning making economic decisions.

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Given that economics covers a lot of issues in society today coupled with the multitude of research studies within the existing literature, many economics students find it difficult to find the most suitable economic research topic for their undergraduate project, master’s thesis, and dissertations. Technological advancement has also increased the pace of transformation and globalization creating new areas in economics that are worth research. Our economics experts have curated a list of research paper topics in economics that you can use to get the perfect research paper topic.

Micro-Economics Research Topics

Microeconomics deals with the economic behavior of individual isolated units of the economy like an individual, a household, a company, and industry. Micro-economists study factors that influence economic choices, markets and their key elements such as demand and supply and analyze markets and determine the prices for goods and services that best allocate the available limited resources. Some of the best research topics in microeconomics that you can use for your thesis or dissertation include:

1. The effect of income changes on consumer choices

2. The effect of labor force participation on the economy and budget – A comparison

3. The impact of marital status on the labor force composition: A case of [your country] economy

4. The difference in the consumption attitude in [your country] over the last decade – Critical analysis of consumer behavior trends

5. The relationship between salary levels and ‘economic convergence’ in [your country]?

6. Analyzing salary inequalities in [your country] and the forces behind such inequalities.

7. The evolution of consumption in [your country] over the last 10 years: Trends and consumer behavior.

8. Dynamics of the Gini index as a reflection of the problem of inequality in income 

9. Cashless economy: The impact of demonetization on small and medium businesses

10 Privatization of Public Enterprises and its implications on economic policy and development

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Macroeconomics Research Topics

1. The relationship between economic growth and unemployment in [your country]

2. Global recession and factors that contribute to it.

3. Impact of government expenditure on economic growth in [country]

4. The impact of company income tax revenue on the developing economies- A comparative analysis of Kenya, India, and Nigeria

5. The relationship between common stock prices and inflation in [your country]

6. The relationship between inflation and government spending in [your country] economy.

7. The effect of currency devaluation on small and medium firms- A case study of selected multinationals in [your country]

8. The relationship between internet connectivity and productivity in the workplace 

9. The evolution of the stock market in [your country]: Causes and consequences

10 Unemployment and regional mobility of labor in [your country]

11 A comparison of the United States unemployment to the rest of the world

Research Topics on International Trade

1. The relationship between economic growth and international trade

2. To what extent does a currency union affect trade: A case of the United States

3. What are the gains and losses of international trade for developing countries?

4. Foreign direct investment in the United States: Determinants and impact

5. The effects of the banana crisis on the Jamaican and British economies

6. The impact of Brexit on small and middle businesses in the UK

7. The relationship between foreign direct investment and wages- A comparative analysis of USA and China

8. The roles of exchange rate and exchange rate regime in the US export

9. The importance of international trade in developing countries

10 To what extent are the gains of less developed countries from tradeliberalization exaggerated?

Environmental economics research paper topics

Economic activities such as production have a significant impact on the environment such as pollution and depletion of natural resources. Environmental economics studies these impacts and other environmental issues. Below are some of the best research paper topics in environmental economics.

1. An economic examination of waste disposal programs in the United States

2. Man-made environmental disasters: who bears the economic liability?

3. The economics of land- a comparative analysis of land sharing and land sparing in the United States

4. The impact of waste disposal programs to America’s Environmental Policy: An economic evaluation

5. Water management and conservation policies in the United States and the UK- a comparative analysis

6. The economic implications of climate policy changes because of different climate change assessment mechanisms

7. Investigating the cost of organizational environmental analysis in the United States

8. What are the determinants of climate policy formulation in the United States? An economic scrutiny

9. The economic perspectives of distribution of natural resources across boundaries

10 The impact of technological innovation for clean and green products on the environment

11 The impact of work-life balance on social eco-systems: perspectives from the United States

12 The relationship between financial subsidies and generation of eco-friendly products

Research Paper Topics on Behavioral Economics

Behavioral economics examines the psychology behind economic activities and economic decision making. It examines the limitation of the assumption that individuals are perfectly normal. Good behavioral economics topics cover subjects such as bounded rationality, irrational exuberance, and choice architecture. 

1. Inducing choice paralysis: how retailers bury customers in an avalanche of options

2. The behavioral economics of discounting- A case study of amazon

3. Pricing and the decoy effect; how corporations ‘nudge’ consumers to spend more

4. Big data and implications for behavioral economics

5. A study of how the United States market benefitted from behavioral economics theory

6. How has behavioral economics influenced the real-world context? A case of online purchase behavior

7. Weight management through behavioral economics: use of incentives

8. What motivates consumers? A behavioral economics perspective

9. Using behavioral economics to help in reducing substance abuse

10 Addressing lifestyle management for diabetes through behavioral analysis- insights from the US healthcare sector

You may also like: The little secret why your friends are earning better grades

Development Economics research paper topics

1. The impact of multinational commodity trading through the development economic perspective

2. The impact of globalization on income distribution in emerging economies

3. Investigating the relationship between migration and development economics

4. Budgeting and decision making by low-income earners in emerging economics

5. Investigating the relationship between family planning, labor force, and income fluctuations

6. The impact of natural disasters on development in emerging economies

7. The impact of population growth on development economics- review of India

8. The determinants of high performing institutions in emerging economies

9. Comparative economic patterns of villages across Virginia

10 Aid and economic growth of developing economies- a review

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Top 50 Economic Topics For Your Research Paper Or Thesis

Choosing the best economics research topics is a major challenge for most learners pursuing economics studies. Economics entails the study of how humans use scarce resources in the production of valuables. Learners pursuing economics programs analyze how valuables are eventually distributed among society members after production.

Before learners are given economics research paper assignments, they are taught many elements that affect the economy. This enables them to understand real-life economies, as well as, daily expenditures and expenses. Such elements include medicine, politics, race, trade, unemployment, poverty, religion, and war among others.

As such, economics research topics for undergraduates should show their understanding of these issues and how they affect the economy. But, many learners have difficulties understanding different aspects of economics research. This makes choosing topics for their papers and essays difficult.

Tricks for Choosing the Best Economics Research Topics

Choosing research paper topics in economics is undoubtedly not easy for most students. That’s because a learner should choose a narrow topic so that they can delve deeper in analyzing and discussing it in their paper. But, if the topic is too narrow, it can be limiting. And, if it is too broad, the learner might not cover it exhaustively.

However, learners can still select the best economics research paper topics by following these guidelines:

Understand the subject matter and figure out whether the topic’s context is within your study field and writing ability. Select a topic that you find interesting and suitable for your understanding. Evaluate the scope of the topic to ensure that you can find the necessary information to write a comprehensive paper or essay about it. Consider the instructions provided by the instructor or professor in terms of topic selection

Before you start the actual writing of a paper or essay, brainstorm for ideas around several topics. That means you can have an economics research topics list from which to choose what to write about. Topics in this study field can be classified into different categories as follows.

Undergraduates Economics Topics for Research

Many students panic when asked to write undergraduate papers and essays. That’s because they don’t know how to choose the best economics topics for research paper. If you’re among students that are troubled by the thought of choosing a topic, here are examples presetned by our academic writers that you can choose from.

• What you should know about fiscal policy
• Describe the three opportunity costs
• How do banks set the exchange rate?
• How can profit maximization be achieved?
• Explain the major ethical rules in an economy
• How to conduct a cost-benefit analysis on your preferred action
• Explain why some resources are rare
• What does economic forecasting entail?
• Discuss the pros and cons of privatization
• How are the economies of both sides of a conflict affected by war?

These are great topics for economics research paper for undergraduate students. However, they still require in-depth research to come up with a coherent and comprehensive document.

Health Economics Research Topics

The health of citizens influences the economy of a country, though this might be unclear to some learners at first. Health research topics for economics lead to the production of papers and essays that are quite interesting to read. Here are sample topics in this category. You can also check our nursing research topics .

• How is the economy affected by a smoking ban?
• Is the world hunger affected by economics?
• How does perfect competition work in the pharmaceuticals world?
• How is free healthcare justified in the U.S?
• How do chronic diseases affect the workforce and the economy?
• Is health insurance important?
• How an unhealthy country translates into a poor country
• How can public hospitals optimize their revenue collection?
• How does an infectious disease outbreak affect the economy?
• The economics of the pharmaceutical industry

Interesting Behavioral Economics Research Topics

Some learners might not know about it but behavioral economics exists. And, some topics in this category are quite interesting to write about. Here are examples of topics that students in different study levels can write about in this category.

• Does money make most people happy?
• Why financial wellbeing makes most people happy
• What does the economy of trust mean?
• How can Uber be described as an aspect of the economy of trust?
• How does the brain change when a person is striking a great deal?
• Useful human insights that are missing in big data and how this affects the economy
• Per household economic analysis explained
• The buying capacity and gender
• How race relates to economic power
• Impact of economic stability on the social life of a person

Microeconomics Topics

Microeconomics studies revolve around trade between people. It’s trading at an individual level. This covers the basics of demand and supply. This is the category where some learners find simple research topics in economics. Here are examples of topics in this category.

• Understanding the competition and market concepts
• Inflation sources and consequences explained
• Explaining how competition influences the price
• Explaining the balance between supply and demand in microeconomics
• Opportunity costs explained from a microeconomics perspective
• Explaining production costs and profit
• How a stock market operates
• Perfect competition in microeconomics
• How unemployment affects microeconomics
• Aggregate demand and supply in microeconomics

Cool Environmental Economics Research Topics

The environment has more effects on an economy more than most people think. Ocean pollution can global warming are some of the environmental changes that affect the economy seriously. Here are some of the economics research topics for students to explore in this category.

• Cost-benefit analysis of the regulation of the environment
• Why it’s important to analyze the economics of clean drinking water
• Evolution of economics institution concerning climate change
• How greenhouses affect economic growth
• How global warming affects economic growth
• Detailed analysis of the European Union Emission Trading System
• Is waste management a rare resource?
• How technological advancement leads to economic growth
• Explain the energy markets’ economic potential
• How wildlife protection affects the economy

Students at different study levels have many research topics in economics to choose from. However, the research topic in economics that a learner chooses should be suitable for them based on their interests and academic goals. That’s because some topics are cumbersome to write about. They also require extensive knowledge and familiarity with different economic concepts to come up with a comprehensive document. Thus, they are ideal for students that are pursuing advanced studies. Nevertheless, every topic highlighted here requires in-depth economics research to come up with a concrete paper or essay.

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Economics Dissertation Topics: 25+ Examples You Can Explore

by  Antony W

July 11, 2022

If you’re looking for some economics dissertation topics to help you brainstorm your topic idea, this guide is for you.

Popularized by the likes of Adam Smith as far back as 1770, Economics is a subject that deals with making the right decisions in the face of uncertainty and scarcity.

As much as it dates back to the medieval scholastics, economics still focuses largely on human choices, borrowing habits, markets and trade, assets’ pricing, human behavior in relation to economic decisions, taxes, and consumption.

Existing literature on economics attempt to give the best possible explanations to problems human beings face. Still, there’s need for more research in this field because new areas continue to emerge in economics, especially since technology continues to advance enhance transformation and increase the rate of globalization.

Given how wide this field is, there are dozens of economic dissertation topics that you can choose to explore in your research project. This guide is a list of some of the topic ideas that you might want to consider for the project.

25+ List of Economic Dissertation Topics

Economics is a wide field with different areas of exploration. This guide looks at some of the areas economics, each with a few examples of dissertation topics that you can investigate.

Dissertation Topics on Regional Development

Your focus on regional development is to study regions as small economies with the aim of understanding their circumstances and outcomes. You’ll examine how internal regional economies operate and evaluate how they relate to other regions.

Some interesting topics that you can investigate in your dissertation in this area are as follows:

• Business development and profitability in the region What are the underlying variables in this relationship?
• Natural resource comparative advantage and regional development
• There are differences in the forms and levels of entrepreneurship and unemployment across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
• The impact of regional policy on start-ups on regional development: more new enterprises or better existing ones?
• Entrepreneurial networks’ contribution to regional development.

Also Check: Custom Economics Dissertation Writing Help

Dissertation Topic Ideas on Economic Sociology

Examine the sociological aspects that affect economic indicators and explain how they relate with the social outcome.

Some great topics that you might want to consider for your dissertation project if you choose to focus on this area include:

• The function of social networks in facilitating innovation in mature sectors.
• How can universities take advantage of social networks to induce entrepreneurial action among their students?
• Exploring the disparities between trust and power in local productive systems.
• Is there a straight line between economic and social development?
• In the United Kingdom, traditional industry development is fueled by social contracts and peer pressure.
• Family support, both financial and non-financial, in the development of successful entrepreneurship.
• The convergence of economic systems as a result of globalization and its implications for social development in developed, emerging, and developing economies.

Related: Technology Dissertation Topics

Economic Geography Topics for Dissertation Project

This area focuses on economical outcome in relation to geographical location. You’ll evaluate patterns and trends in activities and human behavior to explain what shapes the cultural and economic landscapes.

Here are some topic ideas to consider if you want to write a dissertation project in this area:

• The influence of local and regional cultures on entrepreneurship and economic growth.
• Is there a link between established enterprises that dominate small towns and local cultural factors?
• The likelihood impact of Brexit on policy outcomes that shape the local economy in UK cities.
• The economic geography of recession. Difference between regional and city economics in the UK.
• Understanding educational progression at the local level: A comparison of cities in the UK’s north and south.
• How COVID has influenced house price volatility in various UK cities.

Institutional Economics Dissertation Topics

This area deals with social entities linked to production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Given that this is a broad area, you might have to study related disciplines such as psychology, economic history, management and business studies cognitive and brain science, and behavioral economics and finance. 

• Here are some dissertation topic ideas that you should consider:
• How can transaction costs economics account for inter-firm collaboration?
• Economic freedom institutions and policies have different effects on income and growth.
• How does the cultural mix affect the organization of enterprises in the United Kingdom?

Also Check: Social Work Dissertation Topics

Dissertation Topics That Deals With Employment Economics

Given that employment is a key concept in the production of goods and services, it’s important to study the rate at which organizations hire talents and the compensations offered.

Below are some topic ideas that you can explore in this area of economics: 

• The influence of gender disparity in employment on economic growth and labor productivity.
• What effect does technological innovation have on British unemployment? Evidence from the industrial industry.
• The impact of economic cycles on employment, workforce productivity, and innovation: a case study of the manufacturing sector

Macroeconomics Dissertation Topics

Macroeconomics is an interesting field that examines an economy as a whole. In this division, the focus is on how markets interact with each other to generate aggregate variables. You’ll study national income, gross domestic product, employment, inflation, global economy, and financial markets.

Here are some interesting topics that you can explore in your dissertation if you’re studying macroeconomics:

• COVID and the economic downturn: Will the impact be as severe as the 2007 financial downturn?
• The global economic downturn and the causes that lead to it.
• How will the Greek financial crisis affect the EU economy in the long run?

Microeconomic Dissertation Topics

In microeconomics, the focus is on the interaction between demand and supply in different markets. You’ll study and interpret how economic agents behave in different settings and identify the incentives they’re more than likely to face by building modes and using data to conduct your research and experiments.

Here are some interesting topics to cover in this area:

• Does the size of a company impact its profits? Evidence from UK telecommunications companies.
• Are UK corporations more inventive than their European counterparts?
• Is the retail industry in the United Kingdom becoming less oligopolistic? An examination of the effects of new supermarkets.
• The development of household consumption in the United Kingdom during the previous decade: Consumer behavior trends.

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

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Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Examples of honors theses written by economics undergraduate students.

Posted with permission of the author. © 2019-2022 by the individual author. All rights reserved.

• "The Causal Effect of ACA Subsidies on Insurance Coverage Status Among California Adults"  - William Vereyken
• "Economic Impacts of Immigration Detention Centers Built Between 1990-2016 on U.S. Commuting Zones"  - Ekaterina Yudina

Spring/Summer 2022

• "The Impact of Indiv. Mandate on High-Income, Non-elderly Indiv. Health Insurance Coverage Rates and Racial/Ethnic Disparities"  - YeJin Ahn
• "An Economic Analysis of the 1997 Amhara Land Redistribution in Ethiopia"  - Ezana Anley
• "Affirmative Action's Effect on Educational and Wage Outcomes for Underrepresented Minorities"  - Vishnu G. Arul
• "Are the Effects of Racism Really That Black and White? A Study on the Effect Racism Has on the Productivity of Black   Footballers in the Premier League"  - Advik Banerjee
• "An Empirical Analysis of Industrial Concentration and Prices: Can We Blame Inflation on Corporate Greed?"  - Anton Bobrov
• "Tax Revenue Cyclicality and Income Inequality: Evidence from U.S. Counties From 1989 to 2019"  - Yiyang Chen
• "The Impact of Economic Opportunities on African American Migration Patterns in Oakland"  - Fernando Cheung
• "Impact of Tech Companies on Wages in the Local Economy"  - Niki Collette
• "Warm Welcome: Evidence for Weather-based Projection Bias in College Choice"  - Maria Cullen
• "Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on Bilateral Trade with China"  - Pedro de Marcos
• "Renaissance of the Black Homeowner: Impact Evaluation of Michigan's Renaissance Zones"  - Rupsha Debnath
• "Lockdown Blues: The Effect of Social Norms on the Psychological Cost of Unemployment During the COVID-19 Pandemic"  - Dylan Hallahan
• "How Education Affects Health Outcomes Across Genders"  - Jessica Li
• "Is Increasing Diversity Inclusion Effective in Improving Companies' Performance in the Financial Services Industry?"  - Miranda Li
• "The Future Financial Status of the Social Security Program"  - Chloe Manouchehri
• "Does Recreational Marijuana Legalization Affect Hard-Drug Use? - Evidence from Cocaine Prevalence and Treatment Admissions"  - Arthur Weiss
• "Relationship Between Economic Status and Money Spent on Private Education Leading to Economic Inequality in South Korea"  - Jiho Lee
• "The Impact of Migrant Remittances on Rural Labor Supply: Evidence from Nepal"  - Amanda Wong
• "Confirmation Bias: The Role of Messages and Messengers"  - Hongyu (Randol) Yao

Spring 2021

• "Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Solving the Asian Puzzle"  - Zoya Ali
• "Women in STEM: Moving Up or Falling Off the Academic Career Ladder?"  - Sophia J. Bai
• "Time Dependence in Okun's Law at the State Level" - Sarah Baig
• "Labor Regulation and the Impact on Firm Behavior in India" - Vatsal Bajaj
• "Gender Representation in Academia: Evidence from the Italian Education System Reform" - Oyundari Batbayar
• "Money & Marriage on the Elementary Mind: A High-Level Analysis of Inequitable Child Development in LA County" - Matthew J. Chang
• "Unanticipated Unemployment Rate News on the Stock Market" - David Chi
• "Should Physicians Be More Collaborative? Determining the Relationship Between Patient Participation and Treatment Plan Confidence Across a Spectrum of Illness Severity in the State of California" - Saif Chowdhury
• "Modeling Optimal Investment and Greenhouse Gas Abatement in the Presence of Technology Spillovers" - Sabrina Chui
• "Understanding the Influence of Marginal Income Tax Rates on Retirement Investment Habits"  - Daniel Cohen
• "Infrastructure in India's Internal War: A District-Level Analysis of the Naxalite-Maoist Conflict" - Krunal Desai
• "Do Eucalyptus Trees Increase Wildfires?"  - Lila Englander
• "Understanding the Labor Outcomes of Hurricane Sandy" - Kevin Fang
• "Does TikTok Show Viewers the Content Relevant to them?" - Ekaterina Fedorova
• "The Impact of the Affordable Care Act Dependent Care Provision on Long-term Young Adult Labor Market Choices" - Anne Fogarty
• "Orchestra Sex Disparity: Experimental Evidence from Audience Members" - Richard Gong
• "The Big Three Medical Price Indexes: A Comparative Review and Analysis"  - Robert Hovakimyan
• "Effect of Value-Added-Services on Customer Reviews in a Platform Marketplace" - Shankar Krishnan
• "COVID19 Recession: Gender Layoff Gap Explodes" - Ember Lin-Sperry
• "The Gender Wage Gap in China: Learning from Recent Longitudinal Data" - Donghe Lyu
• "Local Graduation Policies as a Tool for Increasing College Eligibility: Evidence from Los Angeles" - Dan L. Ma
• "Trust in Government and Lockdown Compliance in Sub-Saharan Africa" - Charles McMurry
• "I Do (or Don't): The Impact of Same-Sex Marriage Laws on International Tourism" - Oliver McNeil
• "International Shipping Consequences of a Navigable Arctic" - Jack Melin
• "Investigating Dollar Invoicing Trends Using United Kingdom Export Data" - Aneesh Nathani
• "Micro-Level Impact of Initial Public Offerings on Bay Area Housing Inflation" - Mina Nezam-Mafi
• "Explaining EU's Oil Dependency Through the Response of the Portuguese Sector Indexes to Brent Oil Prices Fluctuations" - Pedro S. Nunes
• "Dynamic Incentives and Effort Provision in Professional Tennis Tournaments" - Ruiwen Pan
• "Examining the Effects of Minimum Wage Laws on Part-Time Employment" - Odysseus Pyrinis
• "The Great Indian Identity Crisis? Exclusions & Intersectionality in the Indian Aadhaar System" - Aditi Ramakrishnan
• "The 'Clutch Gene' Myth: An Analysis of Late-Game Shooting Performance in the NBA"  - Can Sarioz
• "Estimating the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Jobs Within the Healthcare Industry" - Sidharth Satya
• "Factors Influencing Telehealth Utilization: Evidence from California" - Emily Schultz
• "Cash and Conflict: Evidence from the Indian Banknote Demonetization" - Nachiket Shah
• "Determinants of the Number of Anti-Government Demonstrations: Evidence from OECD Countries" - Nina Singiri
• "Hygiene Heroes: A Process Evaluation of Promoting Hygiene Practices in Tamil Nadu Schools" - Malika Sugathapala
• "Exploring the Labour Patterns of Women and Mothers Through the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Impact of School Closures and a New Kind of Recession"  - Renee Isabel Utter
• "How Have Socioeconomic Achievement Determinants Changed in the Past Decade for First-Generation Chinese Immigrants in the U.S." - Haolin Wang
• "The Impact of Quarantining on School Enrollment: Evidence from the Ebola Epidemic in Sierra Leone" - David Willigrod
• "Weeding out Needy Households and Welcoming the Better Off? Impacts of Transactional Barriers on SNAP Participation Rates" - Kevin Woo
• "Are Soccer Teams Being Inefficient? An Analysis of Sunk Cost Fallacy and Recency Bias Using Transfer Fee" - Junru Lyu
• "The Effects of Access to Family Planning Facilities on Female Labor Market Outcomes"  - Marcus Sander
• "Macroeconomic Volatility at the Zero Lower Bound: Evidence from the OECD" - Anthony Swaminathan
• "How are Society's Conditions and Demographics Related to the Popularity of Chief Executive Carrie Lam  and the Hong Kong Government"  - Peter To

Spring/Summer 2020

• "Parental Involvement: The Differential Impacts of Consent and Notice Requirements for Minors' Abortions" - Angela Ames
• "Examining Local Price Levels and Income Distribution Over Time" - Josh Archer
• "Estimating the Effect of Grandparent Death on Fertility" - Jason Chen
• "Democracy in the Face of COVID-19: Have Less Democratic Countries Been More Effective at Preventing the Spread of This Pandemic ?" - Yi Chen
• "Understanding the Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers on Indigenous People in Mexico" - Arushi Desai
• "Microfinance and Payday Lending: Are they Solving a Problem or Creating One?" - Sophia Faulkner
• "The Risk-Taking Channel of Monetary Policy and Foreign Banks" - Noah Forougi
• "Ride of Die? Metropolitan Bikeshare Systems and Pollution" - Sean Furuta
• "Internet's Important Involvement in Information Industry Integration in Idaho, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana (and others): How the emerging internet affected the economic geography of the information industry" - Keming (Alex) Gao
• "The Relationship between Economic Crises and Long-Run Wealth Inequality" - Renuka Garg
• "Voter Bias in the Associated Press College Football Poll : Reconducting a 2009 study with new data in a $1 Billion-dollar industry that has seen significant changes in the past decade"  - Brent Hensley
• "Monopsony Exploitation in Major League Baseball: Using Wins Above Replacement to Estimate Marginal Revenue Product" - Jacob C. Hyman
• "The Relationship Between Currency Substitution and Exchange Rate Volatility" - Jewon Ju
• "Efficiency, Bias, and Decisions: Observations from a Sports Betting Exchange" - Alexander Kan
• "The Effect of Medicaid Expansion on Substance Use Disorder Treatment Utilization: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act" - Christy Kang
• "Analyzing the Relationship between Personal Income Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality" - Gevorg Khandamiryan
• "The Effects of Occupancy Taxes on the Short-Term Rental Market: Evidence from Boston" - Alan Liang
• "Corporate Types and Bank Lending in Contractionary Era: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies" - Zishen Liu
• "Financial Constraints on Student Learning: An Analysis of How Financial Stress Influences Cognitive Function in Children" - Simone Matecna
• "The Effect of Workplace Inspections on Employment and Sales - A Regression Discontinuity Analysis" - Jeseo Park
• "Lending Sociodynamics, Economic Instability, and the U.S. Farm Credit Crisis" - Erfan Samaei
• "The Effect of Intangible Assets on Value Added: Evidence from microdata across small and large firms in Europe" - Tamara Sequeira
• "Price Efficiency Differences Between Public and Private Utilities: An Empirical Analysis of US Electric Utilities" - Yechan Shin
• "Effect of Campus Shootings on Academic Achievement: Examination of 2014 Isla Vista Killings" - Min Joo (Julie) Song
• "First-Degree Price Discrimination: Evidence from Informal Markets in India" - Rishab Srivastava
• "Who Benefits From Gentrification? A Case Study of Oregon Public High Schools" - Namrata Subramanian
• "Estimating the Economic Impacts of Wealth Taxation in France" - Jeffrey Suzuki
• "Transit-Oriented Development or Transit-Oriented Displacement? Evaluating the Sorting Effect of Public Transportation in Los Angeles County" - Yeeling Tse
• "How State Abortion Policy Restrictiveness is Associated with Unintended Pregnancy Outcomes in the United States from 2014-2018" - Ruhee Wadhwania
• "Global Food Security and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation"  - Aidan Wang
• "The Relationship Between Pharmaceutical R&D Spending and NME Development" - Taylor Wang
• "The Role of Individual Risk Attitude in Occupational Inheritance" - Yi Wang
• "Labor Market Segmentation: Evidence from U.S. Janitorial Jobs Advertised in English and Spanish" - Zijun Xu
• "Bias on the Brain: How Patient Gender Influences Use of Emergency Room Diagnostic Imaging" - Abigail Zhong
• "Age Effects, Irrationality and Excessive Risk-Taking in Supposedly Expert Agents" - William Aldred
• "Pricing Disparities for Minority Communities in Chicago: Rideshares and Taxis" - Matthew Cleveland
• "Where My Negros At? Evaluating the Effects of Banning Affirmative Action on Black College Enrollment" - Ellie Koepplinger
• "Race and Recession: How Minorities May Affect Downturns" - Alexander Szarka
• "Understanding the Effects of Canadian International Food Aid on Production and Trade" - Patrick D. Tagari
• "Urban Property Rights and Labor Supply in Peru: Heterogeneity Analysis by Gender and Educational Attainment" - Juan Sebastián Rozo Vásquez
• "Effect of High-Speed Rail on City Tourism Revenue in China: A Perspective on Spatial Connectivity" - Lingyun Xiao

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Department of Economics

Finding a senior thesis topic.

Some senior thesis topics come from a student's previous research for a term paper or an experience in an internship. Other ideas come from subjects studied in a course or current headlines. But many students have difficulty coming up with a topic that "works" — one that is researchable by an Econ senior and where data are readily available. Below are research topics suggested by current faculty members in their own areas of expertise.

Health Economics/Labor Economics

Impact of economic crisis on mortality and population health in poor countries

How has the recent economic crisis affected health and mortality in poor countries? Has it differentially affected young versus older-age mortality, or male versus female mortality? Have parents favored, for example, protecting the health of sons over daughters in the crisis? How do the health effects of this crisis compare with those of other crises? USAID’s Demographic and Health Surveys include surveys of the health status of children and adults in many developing countries in the 1990s and 2000s and could be used to investigate this question.

Do pro-natalist policies increase fertility rates?  

Many countries now have fertility rates below the replacement level and are concerned about declining populations. In an effort to increase fertility, some countries now offer substantial payments to women for (for example) the birth of a second child. Do these payments work, or simply change the timing of fertility as some critics have argued? One could investigate this question by examining one or more of the European countries that have implemented these policies.

Environmental Economics

Environmental regulation and public health

California has some of the most stringent environmental regulations in the country and some of the worst measures of environmental quality. Yet very few studies look specifically at the relationship between environmental policy and health outcomes in California. Using publicly available pollution and health data (as well as regulatory information), a student can look for evidence of measurable health benefits from the extraordinary regulatory measures that California has undertaken for the past 30 years.

Industry transformation

To shed light on recent government efforts to bail out auto companies based in Detroit, a student could analyze the earlier cases of Pittsburgh (or Birmingham or any other steel town) and the process of transformation from a one-industry city specializing in steel to a high-tech more diversified city. How long did it take to "adjust"? What did the changes cost?

Education/Public Sector

Project STAR

For four years, the state of Tennessee conducted an experiment in its elementary schools. Students were randomly assigned to classes of different sizes, and teachers were randomly assigned to classroom. Data is available on some student characteristics (e.g., race, free lunch eligibility) and on some teacher characteristics (e.g., race). The students were tested in math and reading in grades K-3. Follow-up studies tracked their later achievement. With this data set, it is possible to investigate a number of questions regarding the effects of smaller classes and different kinds of teachers on different groups of students, and whether these effects persisted over time.

Massachusetts Health Care Refor

In 2006 Massachusetts undertake health care reform. The Massachusetts effort served as the model for the national health reform law that was passed in 2010. What were the major features of the Massachusetts reform, and what have its effects been on the number of people with health insurance, on health care costs, and on health care quality?

Micro/Industrial Organization/Finance

Prof. Graddy has three different datasets students are welcome to use for any senior thesis project:

• Data on violin prices at auction — one dataset is a repeat-sales dataset from 1855 to present and another dataset contains detailed individual data from 1980 to present.
• Data on art sold at auction between 1980 and 1992.
• Real estate data from the MLS — for example all homes listed in Boston and suburbs during January 2003.

Some specific ideas for using these datasets:

Violins as assets

Estimate a CAPM model using detailed violin data. Prof. Graddy can supply the violin data, but the student will need to download relevant stock and bond data and understand how to estimate the model.

Testing for optimizing behavior by impressionist artists

Estimate the price-per-square-foot for impressionist art, and then determining whether or not the majority of artists are optimizing.

House prices and school ranking

Using the MLS data, one might be able to correlate real estate prices to school ranking in the Boston area and then explain why the correlation is as it is.

R&D Spending/China

From 1996 to present, the ratio of R&D spending to GDP in China has risen from 0.6% to over 2%, now matching the OECD countries. What is motivating the increase? Who performs R&D and why? Data set: most of China’s large, medium and small manufacturing firms — a panel of about 400,000 firms spanning 1998-2007. Includes data on R&D, exports, new product innovation and other relevant measures.

How does patenting in China's renewable energy sector compare with that of the U.S.?  

This will entail accessing patent data from China's State Intellectual Property Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office comparing the quantity and quality of such patenting over the past decade.

Econometrics

Degree to which stock return predictability changed over time

Historical data on the aggregate S&P 500 index and most of the key macroeconomic and financial indicators that have been found to be useful predictors of returns are available from Amit Goyal’s website at http://www.hec.unil.ch/agoyal/docs/PredictorData2010.xls . Professor Pettenuzzo has been working with this data recently and would be happy to advise students that would like to work with it. Some interesting questions worth exploring are related to the degree to which stock return predictability changed over time.

For example, the five-year period between 1990 and 1995 has been found to be one the most detrimental time period for the hypothesis that stock returns can, at least to some extent, be predicted. Various hypotheses have been suggested as possible explanations for this significant change in predictability, but there is no clear consensus on which institutional or macroeconomic factor might best suited to explain this phenomenon. The question of what generated this change in predictability is still quite open.

Economic History/Economics of Financial Institutions

Railroad profits and investment

The period from the Civil War to World War I was the golden age of American railroads. Railroad mileage grew dramatically over the period but at a very uneven pace. Large portions of the railroad network were laid down in relatively brief spurts followed by periods of limited growth and, in some cases, bankruptcies or restructuring. What explains the pattern of railroad expansion over this period?

The January effect

The efficient market hypothesis predicts that stock prices should not exhibit predicable patterns but should move randomly. However, small stocks tend to exhibit abnormally high returns from late December through early January. Recent work indicates that the January effect has become smaller over time — and some claim that it has disappeared altogether. What generated the January effect and what explains its decline in the past two decades?

International Macroeconomics, Macroeconomics

Price dynamic

Prof. Schoenle has worked with the micro data underlying the CPI, PPI and IPP (US export and import prices) published by the BLS. Very disaggregated data for these series are published online by the BLS at http://www.bls.gov . There is detailed online documentation about these datasets available in the form of the BLS Handbook and FAQs.

Many policy questions can be addressed by studying these data such as: How does a large appreciation of the Chinese Yuan pass through into US import and domestic prices? How do various measures of the exchange rate pass through into US import prices? Do domestic, export and import price indices show consistent price dynamics for example for computer electronics prices? Prof. Schoenle has worked extensively with these data and is happy to advise students interested in working on US price dynamics.

Corporate Finance

Governance of mutual fund firms

The aim of the study is to examine whether different corporate governance practices of mutual fund companies have any effect on the returns to mutual fund investors. The emphasis will be on the different board structures of the mutual fund companies (whether the different funds under the same mutual fund family group share a board of directors). The project involves collecting data on mutual fund board characteristics and managerial characteristics, and then analyzing whether (a) the performance of the fund is higher under any board structure, and (b) there is less performance transfer to the star funds under any board structure.

Executive compensation and risk taking in the banking sector

This study will analyze how different components of executive compensation packages (salary, bonus, stock-based awards, pension contributions) affects the executive risk-taking in the banking industry. The project involves (a) organizing the compensation data, (b) developing risk-taking measures for the banking industry, (c) using econometric techniques to investigate the relation between executive compensation and risk-taking.

Diversification effects in biopharmaceutical firms

Several studies indicate that diversified firms trade at an average discount relative to specialized firms in the same industries (Lang and Stulz, 1994; Berger and Ofek, 1995; Servaes, 1996). However, Villalonga (2004) argues that the computed diversification discounts in the prior studies is merely a “data artifact” because the use of segment data introduces a noise by breaking down the activities of firms by industries inconsistently across firms. Thus, the presence of a “diversification discount” is still an open debate in corporate finance. Using a hand-collected dataset on drug development activities of U.S. pharmaceutical companies, we will try to perform tests of effects of diversification at a product level.

Macroeconomics

Consumer expectations and buying attitudes

The micro data from the Michigan Survey of Consumers is all available online at http://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/ . Prof. Tortorice has worked with this data in the past and would be happy to advise someone who wants to work with it. The documentation is online so a student can browse through the variables and come up with some questions that the data can be used to answer.

The Survey of Consumers is a monthly survey of the economic expectations and buying attitudes of U.S. households. It covers personal finances, business conditions and buying conditions. The variables include assessments of personal finances, expected changes in family income and attitudes towards business conditions in the economy as a whole, over the near and the long-term horizon. It also contains expected changes in inflation, unemployment, and interest rates, as well as confidence in government economic policies. Finally, it includes each respondent's view on market conditions for buying large household durables, vehicles, and houses. Several demographic variables, e.g., education, age, race and gender, are available as well.

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Suggested Senior Thesis Topics  2017-18 (pdf)

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50+ Economics Dissertation Topics in 2024

Manali Ganguly ,

Mar 4, 2024

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The most popular economics dissertation topics in 2024 are economic development, economic policy and planning, impact of globalisation on economy, money and rates of interest, and international finance among others.

The economics dissertation topics include impact of globalisation on economy, international finance, economic development, the macroeconomic features of international trade, and many more. A student who has enrolled in a BA Economics course or who is pursuing a PhD in Economics must be aware of the topics that are popularly selected to prepare economics dissertation.

Economics can be said to be a social science associated with the production, distribution, and the consumption of services. The subject analyses the efforts made by the country, organisation, or individual for the allocation of resources.

Economics covers a vast number of topics. These are macroeconomics, microeconomics, international economics, managerial economics, labour economics, behavioural economics and many more.

Top 50+ Economics Dissertation Topics

The list of economics dissertation topics that have been listed below are the most popular ones picked up by the students. These topics cover varied theories, laws, and principles of economics. The list has been categorised under various heads, which are as follows:

• Macroeconomics Dissertation Topics
• Microeconomics Dissertation Topics
• Economic Geography Dissertation Topics
• Labour Economics Dissertation Topics
• Environmental Economics Dissertation Topics

1. Macroeconomics Dissertation Topics

This branch of Economics studies the performance, behaviour, structure, and decision-making of an aggregate or the whole economy. Long term growth in the economy and short termed cycles in business are the two major areas of macroeconomics.

The economics dissertation topics for macroeconomics are:

• Is the system of economics practicable for all sections of a society?
• How do interest rates affect consumption in a country?
• Effect of Covid-19 on industrial production?
• Using big data in behavioural economics at macro level
• Has Brexit influenced the rate and quality of consumer spending?
• Division of tax between a buyer and seller
• How to mitigate the space between theory and practise of behavioural macroeconomics?
• FDI and interest rates in India
• Is it necessary to revise neoclassical growth according to the modern world conditions?
• Housing prices and the macroeconomics determinants

Also Check: Thesis Vs. Dissertation - Meaning, Differences and Similarities

2. Microeconomics Dissertation Topics

Microeconomics is the branch of economics that deals with the study of households, firms, and individual’s ' behaviour in allocating resources. It applies to goods and services and deals with economic and individual issues.

The dissertation topics on macroeconomics are:

• A macroeconomic study of the energy sector
• The relationship between merger and acquisition and productivity
• Inequality of income in the Indian workforce
• The antitrust regulations and horizontal mergers
• Impact of the new supermarket stores on local economy
• The impact of cryptocurrency on economy
• The concept of minimum wage for the daily wage wage earners
• Relationship between the game theory and decision theory
• Impact of eCommerce on small and medium enterprises
• Is the profit percentage made by a firm directly proportional to the size of the firm? Shed light on the telecommunication sector

Also Check : Skill Development Courses List for Students 2024

3. Economic Geography Dissertation Topics

Economic geography can be said to be a part of human geography and the economic activities that affect it. This is a subfield of economics.

The economics dissertation topics related to economic geography are:

• How is local proximity being affected by the networks? Difference between co-localized and dispersed networks
• The effect of Covid-19 on the economic life in the cities
• The role of local and regional cultures in the shaping of economic development of the entrepreneurs
• Indian economy in the post pandemic era
• National, regional, and local policies for an environment conducive to local cluster
• How does local culture help promote regional innovation networks?
• What is regional divergence? Poorest and richest areas in India in terms of wealth distribution.
• The difference in entrepreneurial behaviour between the rural and urban areas
• How can natural calamities affect the economy and resources of a localised region or state or country?
• How has recession affected the economic geography of India in the past?

Also Check : 6 Coping Strategies For Student Mental Health

4. Labour Economics Dissertation Topics

The Labour Economics studies the role of the labour force in the production process. The labour force refers to the whole gamut of the industry, i.e., the employers and the employed.

The distinctive labour economics dissertation topics are:

• A critical and analytical assessment of a collective bargaining practice
• The role of gender inequality in the staggered growth of economy and productivity within the context of work-culture
• The impact of digitization on the labour market
• How practical are the economic labour laws in India?
• Government policies in favour of self-employment
• The impact of ‘Vocal for local’ on local and regional economies in India
• Immigration policies in India and its impact on the local labour market
• Labour exploitation in China and its impact on the labour laws of the country
• How Brexit has impacted the policy outcomes shaping the local economy of the cities in the United Kingdom.
• Cheap labour: An exploitation of the labour laws in India

Also Check :  10 Tips for Staying Focused and Productive as A Student

5. Environmental Economics Dissertation Topics

Environmental economics is a branch of economics that deals with the cost-effective use, allocation, and protection of the natural resources of the world.

The most popular environmental economics dissertation topics are:

• The impact of a company running on an eco-friendly model on its competitiveness in the market
• The economic and cultural impact of the of the maintenance of heritage cities on a country’s economy
• A qualitative study of the paying for recycled products
• Biological invasion and its impact on a country’s economy
• Analysing the impact of risk aversions in the context of goods and services
• Climate change and its impact on natural production and thereby on the national economy
• Does drinking clean water really impact the GDP of a country?
• The impact of greenhouse effect on the global and local economy
• Waste management procedure: implication on the environmental economy
• Economic environmental policies in the lights of natural disasters: An impact on the national economy
• Is the growth of new industries impacting the environment economy of India?
• Preservation of natural resources and its impact on the economy

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Economics refers to the study of social sciences that deal with the productive use of available resources. Economists analyze economic affairs and make recommendations for development. Therefore, economics and economists are a vital part of our lives that impact us every day . Students should find interesting economics dissertation topics for their dissertation modules.

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Evolving Impact of Economics on Society

Economics has been crucial since Adam Smith's book in 1776. Economists hold influential positions and can affect policies in their countries and neighbouring ones. The world has seen the impact of economics during the Great Recession and now with COVID-19, new economists must research topics like business economics dissertation topics , health economics dissertation topics , development economics dissertation topics , behavioural economics dissertation topics , dissertation topics in financial economics, and gender economics dissertation topics . By doing so, they can provide crucial solutions to help our world cope with the economic challenges we face.

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50+ Excellent Economics Papers Topics You Shouldn’t Miss

The field of economics has attracted quite a small number of students as compared to other academic fields. Many attribute this to the complex math calculations and ever dynamic world of economics. Nevertheless, our top expert writers have gone through all these and are competent to help you craft a professional-looking economics paper.

What Is Economics?

It is a social discipline concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services—economics studies how individuals, governments, businesses, nations, and businesses make choices about allocating resources.

From the definition, you can already sense a smell of complexity in this subject. However, that should not deter you from writing excellent economics papers either in high school or college. Remember that there are two types of economics; micro and macroeconomics. Therefore, you can always choose which side is best for you and settle on it.

What Entails Good Economics Papers Topics?

The first principle to understand is that economics is a field of numbers and statistics. It is thus necessary to understand how to convert these complex figures into manageable topics best. To achieve this, follow the tips below:

Avoid using a lot of numbers in your topic Make your topic as precise as possible Focus on one aspect of economics; micro or macro Do not water down your topic to mere statistics

A great and exciting topic can win the hearts of many. If this is hard for you, look at the sample economics paper topics below for your inspiration:

Interesting Economic Topics For College

• The role of effective decision making in analyzing the cost-benefit
• Factors involved in the division of labor and specialization
• The central tenets of well-thriving economic institutions
• Discuss the various economic systems in the US
• What is the general impact of incentives and appreciations?
• The role of banks in determining the flow of money

Economic Topics To Write About in 2023

• What determines the opportunity cost for any venture?
• The role of determining productive resources first in a start-up
• Measures and strategies that improve productivity in workplaces
• How effective are property rights in the US?
• Why scarcity remains to be a problem in the world of economics
• Is technology the game-changer in economics?

Economic Research Paper Topics in Macroeconomics

• Discuss Aggregate Demand as a concept of macroeconomics
• How does aggregate supply relate to aggregate demand?
• Effective means of dealing with budget deficits and public debt
• The relevance of monetary policies in business cycles
• The impact of coronavirus in economic growth and recession
• Dealing with employment and unemployment crisis in developing countries

Research Paper Topics in Economics – Microeconomics

• The importance of competition and establishing market structures
• How consumers play a crucial role in maintaining an economic balance
• Discuss the elasticity of demand in developed countries
• Causes of market failures in the technological age
• The roles of government in maintaining price ceilings and floors
• A public-choice analysis of the cosmetics industry

Good Topics For Economic Research Papers on International Economics

• Impact of the ban on travel on international economics
• Analyze the balance of trade and balance of payments
• What are the barriers to international trade?
• How to deal with smuggling and substandard trade goods
• How tourism is shaping the world of international economics
• The role of foreign exchange rates on international trade

Personal Finance Economic Paper Topics

• How to make compound interest from a start-up business
• Cashing in on credits and loans as an aspiring entrepreneur
• Navigating through different financial markets
• The effect of human capital in the economic cycle
• Why it is important to get personal and business insurance cover
• Benefits of personal savings and investments in the 21st century

Macroeconomics Research Paper Topics For Students

• Effective investment ventures as an endogenous variable
• The importance of understanding the macroeconomic equation system
• How the fiscal policy is crucial in macroeconomics
• Considerations when settling for interest rates in banks
• Discuss inflation as a macroeconomic variable
• Analyze the challenges in formulating macroeconomic policies

Interesting Topics in Economics

• How do individuals make financial decisions?
• The behavior of consumers to changes in the price
• How do companies best cooperate?
• Dynamics of demand and supply in the light of population pressure
• The efficiency of costs in producing and selling goods
• The role of business organization and structure

Amazing Economics Paper Topics Ideas

• The implications of specific human activities on the economy
• Economic laws that help to maintain an equilibrium of exchange
• How to understand the behavior of financial markets
• Human decisions behind the success of businesses
• Falsifiable tests associated with economics
• Unethical practices in the field of economics

Interesting Macroeconomic Topics

• Discuss the monetarist and Keynesian branches of economics in the USA
• The role of an activist government in irrational market swings and recessions
• Effects of economic analysis on the stock market exchange
• How economic conditions move markets and guide investment decisions.
• What the GDP says about a country’s economic performance
• Determinants of consumer spending levels

You could use one of the topics above for your economics research paper or modify it to fit your assignment. If you need fast research paper writing help, our expert writers are on standby to offer you that fantastic experience. Try us today.

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How To Pick A Topic For Your Economics Research Project Or Master's Thesis

Read a summary or generate practice questions using the INOMICS AI tool

One of the biggest and most exciting challenges of a young academic's career is coming up with that first economics research topic. Knowing how much is riding on the decision, it can also be pretty stressful. With so much to consider, we thought it would be easier to break the decision-making process down into some key points. Consideration of each will give you the best chance possible to make sure the topic of your economics Master's thesis is the right one - both for you personally and for your future career.

Without further ado, read on for our advice on how to pick a topic for your economics thesis.

Browse our course listings for economics Master's degrees

1. Make sure it's something you're interested in

This sounds obvious, but you should make sure that the project you choose is of interest to you. If you're going to be working on a project for months or even longer, then it has to be something which you are engaged with.

The best way to keep engaged is to pose a question for your project to which you want to know the answer. Think back over the lectures you've attended and the books you've read, and consider what issues you enjoyed discussing and thinking about. If there was ever a topic which you came across and enjoyed studying, but didn't have the time or resources to investigate more, this is your chance to dive deep and become an expert.

2. Get inspired by previous students' projects

If you're unsure where to start, or don't know what sort of project would be appropriate for your course, it's a great idea to look at previous students' projects. In most universities you'll be able to access previous student theses in the library, so you should take advantage of this resource.

While you should never copy someone else's idea, you can use it as inspiration. For example, perhaps someone has done a project on the economic implications of an international policy within a certain country. Your project could look at the implications of that same policy in a different country. Or you could look at a similar policy in a different period of history.

Additionally, many alumni will still have links with your university, so it may be possible to get in contact with them directly. If someone has written about a topic you are interested in, do not hesitate to request a meet up to pick their brains. Most academics relish the opportunity to discuss their own research, so there is no reason to be shy. In any case, it is always fascinating meeting those more experienced than yourself who have remained in the field.

3. Ask your lecturers or supervisor for advice

Once you have one or more ideas about thesis topics, you'll want to ask for advice from people who have experience in assessing projects. You don't want to do a lot of work on a project idea, only to hear much later that your supervisor thinks your topic is not a good choice.

Do some basic preparation before meeting with a supervisor or lecturer. Make sure you understand the basic facts of the topic area in which you're interested, and that you have some ideas about what your research question will be and what methods you'll use to study it.

Further, make sure that you get feedback on your idea early in the process. This advice extends to the rest of the research project too. It is your supervisor's job to guide you, so keep in regular contact with them throughout the course of your research.

4. Pick something original, but not too obscure

It’s common to struggle to come up with new economics research topic ideas, but you don't want to do the same project which has been done by a million students before. Not only will this be uninteresting to you, but it will be uninteresting to the person marking your thesis.

Try to come up with a novel approach or a new topic to study. Perhaps there is a new type of data analysis you could use to study an old problem from a new angle. Perhaps new data has been made available, and an older study could be challenged or reaffirmed by studying the new data.

However, be wary of anything too obscure – you don't want to be stuck with no materials or resources to work from. To reiterate the above, definitely run your more ambitious topic ideas by your supervisor to help avoid the pitfall of going too niche and really falling down the rabbit hole.

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5. Choose a small and specific topic

One general tip when coming up with a project or research question is to think smaller. If you don't know a lot about a topic, you won't yet appreciate all the subtleties and complexities it contains. You might think that you can produce a great project on the impact of the introduction of the Euro in Ireland, for example, but this topic is way too broad to cover in a Master's project.

Choosing a topic that is far too broad like the above example is a common mistake that new students make when they are unfamiliar with academic research. Get more specific, and your project will not only be more manageable, but you will actually get to the crux of something.

It may seem counterintuitive, or scary - it can seem impossible to write 50 or more pages about an obscure question. But, it’s much better for your final evaluation to maintain a small scope and conduct very high-quality research about that small topic, rather than attempt to explain a large phenomenon alone and fill up an entire paper with surface-level analysis.

6. Consider an interdisciplinary topic

If you're thinking of economics Master's thesis ideas but find yourself interested in another academic subject, you may have the opportunity to learn about that field as a part of your research project. You could consider a project which touches on a subject like history, sociology, business, politics, or psychology, for example.

The advantage of this is that you can try out learning information and methods from another field to see if studying it further would interest you. It will also help you to create a unique and memorable project, as most of your fellow students will likely study a topic which is based purely in economics.

However, this might also make your project a little harder, as you will have more new information to grasp than others – but it can also be very rewarding for ambitious and engaged students. If you wish to take this route, strongly consider finding a secondary supervisor within the interdisciplinary field who can guide you along with your more economics-focused supervisor. This can even be beneficial for your career, as you become well-versed in a niche set of skills that employers or PhD programs would find attractive.

7. Check for available data

If you’re doing an empirical project, the success or failure of your thesis may very well come down to data availability. It’s very important to have an idea of what data to use for your study before you commit to a topic. If you have the world’s greatest research idea, but the data to study it just isn’t available, you’re out of luck.

To avoid this heartbreaking situation, search for usable data as early in the process as possible. This search can even help you narrow down your topic area of focus, and pick a specific, small-scope research question within your field of interest.

Perhaps you’re interested in the effect of malaria prevention programs on children’s economic outcomes in the future, but panel studies haven’t yet been completed in your region of interest. If you search for data, you might find a completed panel dataset that studied a similar disease, or one that studied malaria in a different country. These types of searches can help you pick a related, doable, and properly-scoped research question without wasting time racing towards a dead end.

8. Meticulously plan your experiment

Of course, if you’re running an experiment, you can create your own dataset. This situation presents its own, equally important challenges.

A poorly designed experiment can render your data biased or unusable even after months of work. To avoid this type of catastrophe, spend as much time as you can designing the experiment, checking over all your assumptions meticulously, and seeking feedback and approval from your supervisor to ensure that the experiment is designed well.

Studying examples of experimental designs that led to published studies in prominent journals is highly recommended. Modeling your experiment on successful ones in the past is a great way to ensure your experiment runs smoothly.

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130 Excellent Economics Research Topics To Consider

Table of Contents

Are you an economics student searching for good topics for your research paper? If yes, then keep on reading this blog. To make the topic selection process easier for you, here we have suggested a list of the best economics research topics on various areas associated with the subject. In addition to that, we have also presented a brief overview of economics research paper topic selection and writing.

Quickly explore the entire list and choose any ideal topic for composing your economics thesis or dissertation.

Economics Research Paper Topic Selection and Writing

Have your professor asked you to submit an economics research paper? If yes, then topic selection is the first step you should do. In case, your supervisors had not suggested any research ideas, make sure to choose a unique economics research topic that you are interested in. The topic you choose should be understandable for you and your readers, and it should also have a wide research scope with the necessary information for crafting a comprehensive research paper or essay.

After you have selected a research topic for your economics assignment, sketch an outline with the research ideas that you have gathered. Then, with the help of the essay outline you have prepared, draft the research paper in a well-structured manner by including the essential elements such as the introduction, body, and conclusion.

The introduction paragraph of your research paper should have a catchy opening sentence, brief background information on the topic, and a strong thesis statement addressing the purpose of your research paper. After the introduction, in the body paragraphs, you should include innovative topic sentences and explain your arguments with supporting evidence in a way to persuade your reader. Then, you should finally close your research paper with an engaging conclusion that contains a brief summary of the main points.

List of the Best Economics Research Paper Topics

You may think that it is easy to choose a research topic for your economics research paper. But actually, it is not. As economics is a complex and broad subject, choosing a perfect research topic from it is a daunting task.

If you are asked to write an economics research paper or essay, then you can prefer to choose a topic from economics research areas such as macroeconomics, microeconomics, behavioral economics, agricultural economics, development economics, financial economics, and so on.

Here, we have sorted different categories of economics topics and have recommended a list of excellent economics research topic ideas for you to consider. Go through the entire list and pick a topic that is ideal for writing academic papers as per your instructor’s requirements.

Agricultural Economics Research Topics

• Farmer’s contribution to agricultural social capital.
• Agricultural economics and agribusiness.
• An analysis of economic efficiency in agriculture.
• Agricultural and resource economics.
• Agricultural economics and environmental considerations of biofuels.
• Analysis of food security and poverty status among households in Ehime Mbano
• Role of bank loans and credit facility in financing Nigerian agriculture sector: a case study of Nigeria agricultural cooperative and rural development bank
• Evaluation of the impact of micro-finance banks on the South African agriculture sector
• How poultry farming is becoming a veritable tool for the economic empowerment of South Africa?
• Critical analysis of the problems and prospects of agriculture financing in rural India

Behavioral Economics Research Paper Topics

• What does the economy of trust mean?
• How does the brain change when a person is striking a great deal?
• The impact of economic stability on the social life of a person
• The buying capacity and gender
• How does race relate to economic power?
• Big data and its implications for behavioral economics
• The impact of behavioral finance on investment decisions.
• Cognitive and behavioral theories in economics.
• Behavior implications of wealth and inequality.
• Using behavioral economics to help in reducing substance abuse

Development Economics Research Topics

• The relation between development and incentive for migration.
• The economic consequences of population growth in developing countries.
• The determinants of high-performing institutions in emerging economies
• The impact of globalization on income distribution in emerging economies
• The problems of tax and taxation in connection with economic growth.
• The economic impact of terrorism on developing markets.
• Investigate the relationship between family planning, labor force, and income fluctuations.
• The impact of natural disasters on the economy and political stability of emerging markets.
• Budgeting and decision-making by low-income earners in emerging economics
• The impact of multinational commodity trading through the development of economic perspective.
• Compare and contrast the impact of demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation on a country’s economy
• Discuss the impact of multinational commodity trading through the perspective of development economics
• Discuss the concepts of mercantilism, linear stages of growth model, economic nationalism, and structural-change theory
• Investigate the relationship between unemployment and fluctuations in national income
• Compare and contrast the economic patterns of villages across Papua New Guinea

Environmental Economics Research Paper Topics

• Explain the energy markets’ economic potential.
• How does global warming affect economic growth?
• How technological advancement leads to economic growth
• Evolution of economic institutions concerning climate change
• Cost-benefit analysis of the regulation of the environment
• The economic perspectives of the distribution of natural resources across boundaries
• The relationship between financial subsidies and the generation of eco-friendly products
• Detailed analysis of the European Union Emission Trading System
• Why it’s important to analyze the economics of clean drinking water
• How wildlife protection affects the economy

Read more: Outstanding Environmental Science Topics for You to Consider

Financial Economics Research Topics

• Risk-taking by mutual funds as a response to incentives.
• Financial economics for infrastructure and fiscal policy.
• Managerial economics and financial accounting as a basis for business
• The analysis of the global financial crisis of 2020
• Stock market overreaction.

Health Economics Research Ideas

• How do chronic diseases affect the workforce and the economy?
• How can public hospitals optimize their revenue collection?
• The economics of the pharmaceutical industry
• How an unhealthy country translates into a poor country
• Is the world’s hunger affected by economics?
• How does perfect competition work in the pharmaceutical world?
• How does an infectious disease outbreak affect the economy?
• Is health insurance important?
• How is the economy affected by a smoking ban?

Research Paper Topics on International Trade

• What are the gains and losses of international trade for developing countries?
• The importance of international trade in developing countries
• The relationship between economic growth and international trade
• The impact of Brexit on small and middle businesses in the UK
• To what extent does a currency union affect trade?
• The roles of exchange rate and exchange rate regime in the US export.
• To what extent are the gains of less developed countries from trade liberalization exaggerated?
• Foreign direct investment in the United States: Determinants and impact
• The relationship between foreign direct investment and wages
• The effects of the banana crisis on the Jamaican and British economies

Macroeconomics Research Topics

• Global recession and factors that contribute to it.
• The relationship between Internet connectivity and productivity in the workplace.
• The relationship between economic growth and unemployment in your country.
• Income Dynamics and demographic economics.
• What should our government do to minimize the risks of future default?
• The connection between politics and economics.
• The world problems through macroeconomic analysis .
• US Market Liquidity and Macroeconomics.
• The structure, history, and activities of the World Bank.
• Economics of education in developing markets.
• Public policies and socio-economic disparities.
• Banks and their role in the economy.
• Problems and possible solutions for Japan macroeconomics.
• State regulation of the economy in foreign countries: main models of regulation.
• The effect of currency devaluation on small and medium firms
• A comparison of the United States unemployment to the rest of the world
• The relationship between common stock prices and inflation in your country.
• Macroeconomics and self-correction of the economy.
• Analysis of Africa’s macroeconomics and its performance.
• The implications of Internet banking on bank profitability.

Read more: Best Macroeconomics Research Topics and Ideas for Students

Microeconomics Research Topics

• Explain how competition influences the price.
• Opportunity costs explained from a microeconomics perspective
• Inflation sources and consequences explained
• The impact of demonetization on small and medium businesses
• The connection between the minimum wage and market equilibrium.
• Perfect competition in microeconomics
• Theories in microeconomics
• The effect of labor force participation on the economy and budget
• Economic inequality as a result of globalization.
• Explain the balance between supply and demand in microeconomics
• Dynamics of the Gini index as a reflection of the problem of inequality in income
• Privatization of Public Enterprises and its implications on economic policy and development
• How does the stock market work?
• The impact of game theory on economic development.
• The changes in oil prices: causes and solutions.
• Marketing uses in microeconomics.
• The economic explanation of political dishonesty.
• How company mergers and dissolutions impact the economy
• The role of tax collection agencies in microeconomics
• Different microeconomic models and how they face the effect of industry conditions

A Few More Microeconomics Research Ideas

• How exactly does Uber fit into the economy of trust?
• How does a person’s brain alter when they hit a big deal?
• missing practical human insights from big data and how this affects the economy.
• explaining how supply and demand are balanced in microeconomics
• Changes in economic institutions with regard to climate change
• Effects of greenhouses on economic growth
• Effects of climate change on economic growth
• Analysis of the European Union Emission Trading System in great detail
• Is resource management for waste scarce? A microeconomics explanation of opportunity costs
• Effects of wildlife protection on the economy

Interesting Economics Research Topics

• What role does entrepreneurship play in economic development?
• How do automation and artificial intelligence affect the labor market?
• Discuss the Economics of healthcare systems and policies in developing countries.
• Explain the effects of trade agreements on income distribution.
• How does foreign aid affect economic development?
• Explain the impact of monetary policy on financial markets and inflation.
• Discuss the effects of income inequality on social mobility.
• How does tax reform impact business investment?
• Explain the role of microfinance in alleviating poverty.
• How does behavioral economics impact personal savings habits?

Final Words

From the list of economics research topics recommended in this blog, choose any topic of your choice and craft a top-quality research paper or essay. It is not necessary that you need to use the suggested topic as it is, you can also modify the research topic and write your academic paper. In case, you are unsure how to select the right topic and write a persuasive economics research paper, get in touch with us immediately.

We have a team of professional writers who are experts in the field of economics to assist you in drafting a plagiarism-free economics research paper on the best topics as per your requirements on time. Moreover, by taking our economics assignment help service online, you can also submit flawless and well-structured research papers deserving of an A+ grade.

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Undergraduate Dissertations in Economics

A practical guide

1. Introduction

2. the uk experience, 3. the dissertation life-cycle, 4. an alternative to the dissertation.

Emeritus Professor Peter Smith , University of Southampton  First published 2009  Revised version July 2016

https://doi.org/10.53593/n169a

For many students, the dissertation is the culmination of their undergraduate careers, and a rewarding and satisfying experience that gives them the opportunity to undertake an in-depth study of a topic that interests them. However, it can also become a traumatic and disillusioning venture for students who do not engage with the research, or who have a bad experience with some aspect of the dissertation process.

This chapter sets out to share good practice and provide guidance for co-ordinators, curriculum planners and supervisors, highlighting danger areas and providing discussion of some of the more contentious aspects of the dissertation process.

A key aim of any honours degree programme in the UK is to encourage students to become independent learners. This is no easy task in an environment in which many students arrive from school or college with preconceived notions of what is meant by study, and an array of expectations about the support they will receive from academic staff, not to mention the feedback and interaction with staff that they can expect.

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) in August 2008 set out the Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland , which contains the following descriptor for a Bachelor’s degree with honours:

‘Bachelor's degrees with honours are awarded to students who have demonstrated:

• a systematic understanding of key aspects of their field of study, including acquisition of coherent and detailed knowledge, at least some of which is at or informed by, the forefront of defined aspects of a discipline
• an ability to deploy accurately established techniques of analysis and enquiry within a discipline
• to devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems, using ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of a discipline
• to describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in the discipline
• an appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge
• the ability to manage their own learning, and to make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (e.g. refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to the discipline).’

(Source:   http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Framework-Higher-Education-Qualifications-08.pdf  )

In the context of an economics programme, where in many cases students can arrive at university with no prior knowledge of the discipline, it is ambitious to think that students will be able to use ideas and techniques ‘at the forefront’ of the discipline after only three years of study, especially if this is really to be the aim for all honours students. On many programmes, the dissertation has become the prime vehicle by which students find an opportunity to become independent learners and to confront current research. For many students, the dissertation is the culmination of their undergraduate careers, and a rewarding and satisfying experience that gives them the opportunity to undertake an in-depth study of a topic that interests them. However, it can also become a traumatic and disillusioning venture for students who do not engage with the research, or who have a bad experience with some aspect of the dissertation process.

After a brief investigation of the current experience in the UK, this chapter is organised around the typical life-cycle of a dissertation, divided into a series of stages:

• laying the foundations
• topic selection
• early practicalities
• supervision
• progress monitoring
• data issues
• dissertation structure
• academic integrity.

As background to this chapter, a brief email survey was undertaken to gather information about the role of the undergraduate dissertation in economics departments across the UK. A report on this survey may be found in Appendix 1 .

From the survey it seems that dissertations are a part of the majority of Economics programmes in the UK. However, there are significant differences in the way in which the dissertation module is organised, and the way that students experience the dissertation.

A particular issue is whether all students should be required to complete a dissertation as part of their undergraduate programme. In some institutions, the dissertation is indeed compulsory for everyone, but elsewhere it is restricted to single honours students, or to those students who obtain an average of 60% or more in their second year. The QAA’s descriptor quoted above suggests that all students should receive some exposure to research, but clearly joint honours students are likely to find this more challenging than the specialists, having acquired less in-depth familiarity with either of their chosen disciplines.

Where joint honours students are required to take the dissertation, it may be necessary to adjust the expectations in terms of content. For example, whilst a single honours student with some exposure to econometrics may be expected to undertake some empirical work, it would be unreasonable to expect a joint honours (e.g. Politics and Economics) student to have the same familiarity with econometric methods. It has been known for students to try to teach themselves econometrics, which can prove disastrous.

Whether the dissertation should be limited to the better students is a moot point. On the one hand, it could be argued that weaker students should have equal access to the dissertation option; it may even be that there are some students who may achieve a better result on the dissertation where they can immerse themselves in a topic and produce a polished piece of work, than they could produce under examination conditions or in a problem-set-oriented assessment. On the other hand, experience suggests that weaker students require more supervision, and are more likely to resort to practices that breach academic integrity guidelines.

For these reasons, it may be necessary (or desirable) to provide alternative ways of exposing joint honours and weaker students to research methods. This will be discussed later in section 4 .

Where the dissertation is compulsory for all students, the organisation of the module causes concern. When there are large numbers of students requiring supervision, the load on individual staff members becomes heavy – especially given that some topic areas (and some staff members) tend to be more popular with students than others. It may then be necessary to find some way of spreading the supervision load across available staff or accommodating differences through a workload management system. Spreading the load evenly may result in inconsistency in the supervision provided, which can be very difficult to monitor effectively.

Another major impact on the dissertation has been the rise of the internet, and the ease with which students are able to find material. This can lead to excessive reliance on sites such as Wikipedia, and makes it imperative to be able to monitor standards of academic integrity. Almost all of the survey respondents reported using TurnitinUK, whether as routine for all dissertations submitted, for a random sample or for suspect cases. The traditional remedy of holding vivas for all student dissertations becomes extremely costly when large numbers of students are involved (one institution reported that more than 500 dissertations are submitted in a typical year). Nonetheless, this practice appears to have survived in some economics departments.

3.1 Laying the foundations

3.2 topic selection, 3.3 some early practicalities, 3.4 supervision, 3.5 early progress monitoring and the dangers of the last minute rush, 3.6 data issues, 3.7 dissertation content and structure, 3.8 submission, 3.9 assessment, 3.10 academic integrity.

There is a sense in which the whole of learning and teaching in a programme can be seen as preparation for the dissertation, as it provides the opportunity for students to draw holistically upon the range of material that they have studied during their programme. However, the dissertation is a very different exercise from anything else that they will have been required to undertake and specific preparation is needed.

First, some training in research skills will need to be provided. This may or may not take place as part of a specific module within the programme that is devoted to preparation for the dissertation, perhaps in the penultimate year of study. This needs to include general discussion of research in economics, and the ways in which economists undertake research and scholarship. It is important to remember that this is likely to be a wholly new experience for most students, who may be well drilled in problem solving and mathematical exercises, but who may not have had much exposure to the practicalities of economic research.

The booklets by Greenlaw (2006) and Neugeboren (2005) may be useful references for students at this stage of the process, or they may wish to visit the "Doing a dissertation" tab of the Studying Economics website run by the Economics Network.

Included in this research training it is important to provide some guidance in library skills and the use of evidence in economics research. Being able to evaluate evidence, to weigh up the importance of a set of results and to be aware of the limitations of the evidence produced are challenging skills for students to develop.

There are different approaches to providing such research methods training. It may be that library staff will be able to provide sessions in library skills. It may be wise to incentivise students by awarding a small percentage of the dissertation marks for a library skills exercise. For example, students could be required to undertake an online literature search related to their chosen topic and produce a preliminary reading list. This has the added benefit for forcing them to start their research at an early stage of proceedings.

Depending on programme structure, some students may have had extensive exposure to statistical and econometric methods, so may be accustomed to handling data and interpreting results. However, there may still be a difference between running some regressions in response to a specific exercise during an econometrics module and devising a model to allow testing of a specific hypothesis.

Where students have not been exposed to econometrics, this will clearly affect the scope and nature of research that they can undertake. It may be that they are restricted to a theoretical approach or a literature review style of project, or that they need to find alternative ways of presenting evidence. Where there is a mixture of single and joint honours students it may well be that there are students working on similar topic areas, some of whom know some econometrics and others not. This can create particular pressures on the joint honours students, who may feel obliged to try to use techniques with which they are unfamiliar. This is almost always disastrous. It also becomes important that the skills base of students is taken into account during the assessment process, so that students without training in econometrics are not unduly penalised by markers.

It is increasingly crucial to provide clear guidance on academic integrity at an early juncture. Section 3.10 explores this issue in more depth.

Where there are large numbers of international students, support may need to be provided in academic writing. Indeed, such support may be necessary more generally, given that so many economics assessments are based on problem sets and exercises, rather than on extended continuous prose. There is some evidence that the writing skills of UK students may also need to be further developed in this context.

From a student perspective, finding a topic for the dissertation is a critical step. One of the key strengths of the dissertation is its capacity to engage the student by arousing interest and motivating through a sense of discovery. However, it can also be a stressful part of the process, especially for some weaker students who may not have strong ideas about topics that might inspire interest, and who may be daunted by the prospect of undertaking the task. Failure to find the right topic can be a recipe for a weak dissertation that does not fulfil the intended outcomes.

When the numbers of students looking for dissertation topics are relatively small, then it may be that students can be left to choose their own topics – probably subject to the availability of an appropriate supervisor or the submission of a coherent research proposal. With large numbers of students, this laissez-faire approach may not be feasible.

An alternative approach is to provide students with a list of topics from which they can choose. These topics may be closely circumscribed, or may simply offer a general topic area, leaving the student to focus on a specific research question within that topic area.

The advantage of providing very general topics is that that it leaves the responsibility of formulating a specific research question with the student. This is a key part of research in economics, of course, so it is good (albeit challenging) for the student to have to think about how to go about it. It also has the benefit of giving the student ownership of the question to be investigated, which helps to provide motivation.

Where there are large numbers of students, topic choice can be handled online.

Students can submit their preferences through a webpage, and asked to specify their top four choices and rank them. Students can then be allocated to topics and supervisors, with no guarantee that they will get their first choice – depending on whether certain topics are over-subscribed.

It is helpful for students if a selection of past dissertations is made available to current students to provide some guidance on what is expected of them. However, if the same topics appear for too many successive years, there may be the obvious danger of plagiarism. Even where this does not extend to actual copying, there is the danger that students will simply adopt the same dissertation structure as used by previous students rather than working through this part of the process on their own.

Top tips: dissertation topics

There are several ways in which students can find (or be allocated) the topic for their research.

Students find their own topic, and then look for a supervisor

This may work where the number of students is limited, but may be more difficult to manage when numbers increase. Some staff members are likely to be overwhelmed with requests, especially if they happen to have taught popular second year modules.

Students may also congregate around topics of recent interest – the financial crisis, the impact of migration, or the economics of Brexit…

Others may delay thinking about their topic until it is too late, or may choose topics that prove to be impracticable.

Staff declare topic areas in which they are prepared to supervise projects

This seems to work for a number of institutions. Topics here may be defined broadly – labour economics, development economics, or monetary economics. This may also produce bunching around some staff members.

A list of topic areas is provided

This entails listing key areas of economics – public economics, behavioural economics etc. Students are then allocated a supervisor, where possible a supervisor with a specific interest in that area. Bunching can be ameliorated by not guaranteeing that the allocated supervisor will be an expert in that field. After all, at undergraduate level, detailed knowledge of the topic area may not be crucial.

A list of topics is provided

More specific titles could be provided, rather than general areas. Some staff may prefer this, but others may not. Too specific a topic may attract no students at all (there are only so many undergraduates burning to undertake research into theoretical issues in econometrics).

For example, a topic such as ‘Child labour in less developed countries’ offers wide scope for tackling the issue in different ways and different contexts. A more specific topic such as “Are household members altruistically linked? an examination based on the Mexican anti-poverty programme Progresa’ is much more prescriptive, and may deter students.

There will always be students with fixed ideas about what they wish to research, and these should be accommodated where possible and plausible.

Legislation impinges on the dissertation process, and students may all be required to complete risk assessments before they start their research. The impetus from this comes from Health and Safety legislation in place since 1992, and many universities require such assessments for undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking research. The need for this is perhaps more obvious where students are carrying out experiments in the physical sciences, but may also be important in the social sciences. There may also be a need to seek ethics approval, especially where research involves the use of human subjects, for example, where students intend to undertake surveys or to conduct experiments using human participants.

Given that most economics dissertations tend to be desk studies that do not involve the use of human subjects, the bureaucracy may be viewed as superfluous. Nonetheless, compliance with the law is essential. This may be especially important where economics as a discipline is part of a wider School of Social Sciences. Sociologists who decide to interview local drug dealers as part of their dissertation research clearly face rather different risks and ethical issues than an economist who decides to estimate a consumption function from macro data.

Sample forms can be viewed in Appendix 2 . The ethics form is designed for a School of Social Sciences. The expectation is that the vast majority of economics projects will qualify to skip from question 1 to question 15, thus minimising the paperwork whilst still complying with the demands of the legislation.

Given the requirements of the Data Protection Act, it is also advisable to ask students to give permission for their completed dissertations to be made available within the university for succeeding generations of students. This then allows a database of previous dissertations to be mounted on an internal website or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) such as Blackboard or Moodle.

It is also important at the outset to be absolutely clear about some aspects of the dissertation. In particular, students seem to get very exercised about word length. In many UK undergraduate economics programmes, the dissertation counts as a double module in the final year – for example, 15 ECTS, or a quarter of the assessment for the year. Given the importance of this piece of work (especially where the final year carries a heavy weight), it is probably appropriate for the dissertation to carry a word length of 7,500 to 10,000 words. Notice that this may depend on institutional demands set by your School, Faculty or at University level.

Top Tips on the word limit

• Be explicit from the start about what is included and not included in the word count. When students get near to submission time, the chances are that they will be hitting the limit, and will want to exclude as much as possible from the count. To remove ambiguity, it is wise to be clear.
• Acknowledgements
• Table of contents
• Bibliography
• Figures (i.e. diagrams, maps)
• Tables of data
• Prohibit the widespread use of appendices – otherwise, students will simply carve chunks of material out of the main text and stash it away at the back in the hope that it will not count. Make it clear that appendices will be part of the word count (perhaps allowing some appendices to be exempt, e.g. raw data, with the express permission of the supervisor).
• Then state that everything else counts. Students will still find questions to ask (what about footnotes?), but if you have been explicit you will be on reasonably firm ground – and you can point out that the rules are the same for everyone.
• In order to enforce the word limit, you will probably need to impose penalties for exceeding it. A sliding scale is probably best – say, 1 percentage point per 100 words (or part thereof) by which the dissertation exceeds the limit. This provides students with the incentive to learn to be selective and to avoid waffle in presenting their report. And it seems to work!

The provision of good supervision is crucial to the success of the dissertation. In many institutions facing increasing student numbers, the amount of contact between staff and students on a one-to-one basis is in decline. Indeed, it may be that the supervision of the dissertation provides the single most important opportunity for students to interact on a personal basis with a member of the academic staff. Some students may be intimidated by this, but if the relationship works, it can be mutually rewarding as an educational experience.

As in many other areas of learning and teaching, it is important to manage student expectations of the supervision process. It is helpful for students to be told clearly what they can expect from their supervisor. This may be expressed in terms of an entitlement, rather than being left open-ended. Such an entitlement could be expressed in terms of a number of meetings that each student is entitled to have with their supervisor or it could be expressed in hours. Experience with operating such a system is that although some students may request assistance above their entitlement – and this need not be prohibited within the scheme – others may choose not to avail themselves of their full entitlement. In the context of encouraging students to become independent learners, it may not be desirable to insist that all students attend for a given number of sessions. It is this that makes the entitlement system an attractive way of specifying what is the normal expectation for supervisory contact.

Such an approach has the added benefit of helping to manage the supervisors’ expectations of the process. Supervisors need to know what is expected of them in terms of reading drafts, marking, length and frequency of meetings, and so on. It is also crucial that both supervisors and students have the same expectations of what is involved. Being explicit about this is thus crucial for both groups.

Achieving consistency of supervision provision is one of the challenges, especially when large numbers of students are in need of supervision. Just as some students may need more help than others, it is also important to be aware that some supervisors may be more comfortable in the role than others, or more prepared (or able) to make themselves available.

It is also common for certain topic areas to be more popular than others – and for some supervisors to be more popular than others. If unregulated, this can lead to a situation in which some members of staff find that they have much heavier loads than their colleagues.

Some fair way of allocating supervisory responsibilities may thus be needed. One possibility is to ensure that supervisory loads are recognised as part of a workload management system, in which there is a trade-off between supervisory responsibilities and other forms of teaching contact. An alternative is to allocate loads evenly across available staff. This may require allocating students to topics that are not their first choice, or requiring supervisors to oversee topics of which they have little specialist knowledge. This needs to be monitored carefully to safeguard the student experience. However, at the undergraduate level, specialist knowledge of topic areas may be less crucial than at masters’ or doctoral level.

There may be benefits from group supervision of students following similar topics, not only in terms of economies of scale, but also because the students may be able to learn from each other. Economies of scale may arise because much of the advice given to students will be common – the central importance of economic analysis, the need for a literature review, the interpretation of evidence, how to avoid plagiarism and so on.

At my university, each supervisor is responsible for between six and ten students. It may be highly time-consuming to meet each supervisee separately on a one-to-one basis, but there are some issues that can be readily communicated in group sessions, perhaps even in combination with a colleague supervising in similar topic areas.

A first meeting could take place early in the year, or at the end of the penultimate year, when students have been allocated their topics and supervisors. This would be a preliminary briefing meeting, to answer questions and concerns, highlight some key relevant readings and data sources, and explain how the supervision will be conducted. Some preliminary explanation of how to structure a good dissertation is also provided, together with some discussion of what is meant by academic integrity.

At a second meeting each student could be asked to talk about their topic, outline their progress to date, identify their research question (if they have formulated it) and comment on any problem areas that they have encountered.

A third meeting could be held towards the end of the first term. By this time, students will have been required to submit an interim report, in which they sketch out their proposed research, including an explanation of their research question, and the methodology that they propose to use in order to investigate their question. This is an opportunity to provide feedback and progress to date, to suggest future directions and to identify potential problems.

A fourth meeting could be held towards the end of the second term. Before this meeting, you could invite each student to submit an extract from the first chapter, including their explanation of their research question. In the meeting, you could comment on writing styles and referencing, and provide an opportunity for questions. The importance of maintaining standards of academic integrity also needs to be stressed.

Students should also be encouraged to meet up on a one-to-one basis if they have questions that are specific to their own research.

In some institutions, this is taken one step further, through the provision of a whole module (normally in the second year) that deals with research methods. The economies of scale in doing this are even greater, of course, as one individual (or a relatively small number of staff) can provide the generic advice that all students need in approaching the dissertation. Such dedicated modules are not always popular with students, who may see the material as being fragmented and of little relevance to them at the time. In other words, they may need to be convinced that they really will need this material at a later stage. Such modules are not always popular with the staff either. They may not be appealing to teach, and also put pressure on the curriculum. When so much other material has to be covered in the second year, there may be a reluctance to use up a whole module on research methods that could have been used to provide more micro theory or econometrics.

A frequent complaint about students undertaking undergraduate dissertations is that they leave everything until the last minute. The pressures of other coursework items and mid-term or mid-year examinations may encourage students to devote their time to these, as the dissertation seems less urgent.

There are various ways of trying to encourage students to start work on their research early, and not to rely on a late rush. It may be worth drawing an analogy in early discussions with them. Few students would think of arriving at an exam with only a few minutes to go, and thus finding they have no time to answer the questions. So, why should they think they can fritter away their dissertation time and start work on it when it is too late to do it justice?

However, as economists, we understand about incentives, and thus realise that exhortation alone will not suffice. We need to provide good incentives if we expect students to start work early.

One possibility is to require students to give a presentation of their intended research at an early stage of proceedings. This could be a presentation to their peers with a member of academic staff present. It would even be possible to designate a discussant for each presentation or for a small percentage of the overall mark to be attached to it. However, as soon as numbers begin to grow, this option begins to become very costly in time and effort. Ensuring consistency in the assessment becomes problematic – although if it is a very small percentage of the overall mark, this may be less crucial. If the presentation becomes more than a small percentage, then the logistics of enabling appropriate external examining becomes a potential issue.

An alternative is to introduce an interim report or research proposal that has to be submitted at an early stage. Again, attaching a modest percentage of the overall marks to this report has good incentive effects, and provides an early check to identify students that are not engaging with the process, or who have unrealistic grandiose plans for solving the world’s problems in 10,000 words. It is also a good opportunity to provide formal feedback – an important consideration when the paucity of feedback is a common criticism emerging from questionnaire surveys.

It may be helpful to ask students to submit draft material (or even chapters) to provide a framework for discussion in supervisory meetings – and to do so before the meeting takes place. There is nothing worse than having a student arrive to discuss their work clutching their precious draft, only to find that the time is mainly spent in the supervisor reading it, rather than being able to discuss it. It should be made clear that this is not for the purpose of proof-reading, which is not the supervisor’s responsibility. It may be worth setting a timetable for such discussions at the beginning of the year – which then forces the student into a regular schedule of work. Of course, your institution’s rules may prohibit the reading of draft material. You may also think that it is possible to go too far in helping the student, as this may militate against encouraging independent work and time management. However, it can make for more productive supervisory meetings – and anything that highlights that you are providing feedback may pay dividends in national student surveys.

The other task that must be tackled at an early stage is data hunting. Students embarking on empirical work – probably for the first time – almost always have over-optimistic views of the data that are likely to be available. Perhaps a student has been to a course in development economics that has stressed the importance of human capital formation in stimulating improvements in agricultural productivity. An interesting project might be to examine the effect of primary schooling on agricultural productivity in rural Zanzibar. Or to examine the effect of overseas assistance on the provision of health care in Papua New Guinea. Panic then sets in when it transpires that, with only a few weeks remaining, there are no data to be found.

Again, this is partly a question of managing student expectations – and of getting students to hunt for their data as early as possible.

Of course, there is a time inconsistency problem here. We tell the students that they must look for data as soon as possible… but we also tell them that they should think about the underlying economics of their topic first, in order that they know what data they will require. Without this proviso, the danger of data-mining is high. Students told to look for data early may well see what they can find, run a few regressions and then see if they can find a theory that will match their results.

There is a lot of data readily available on the internet. This brings good and bad news. The good news is that there are more data accessible on a wide range of economic topics that students can readily obtain. This expands the range of topics on which they can undertake empirical work – and they are aided and abetted in this by the software at their disposal to enable them to produce lots of results. The bad news is that the scope for doing foolish things and getting nonsense results is also much expanded. The ease of use of today’s software makes it very easy to produce results that go way beyond the competence and understanding of the students. Indeed, a key part of the supervisor’s role may be to rein in the over-enthusiastic student to ensure that the work undertaken is appropriate for the topic being investigated, and the reasonable ambition of the student given knowledge and understanding of statistical and/or econometric methodology. This reining in has to done in a sensitive way, so as not to discourage or dishearten. A fine line to tread.

Provide web links to the most relevant data sources.

Providing web links to key recommended data sources is wise. This can be accomplished through a dedicated dissertation webpage or VLE. The links can then be tailored to the needs of a particular cohort of students. There is also a helpful section on the Economics Network website that provides links to freely available data .

One obvious situation in which this can be an issue is where a student has received no training in econometrics, but has heard of ‘regression’ and perceives that no dissertation is complete without it. There may be some bright students out there who can teach themselves regression along the way and produce sensible results. But for every one such student, there are likely to be countless others who will be unable to produce coherent results. For the econometrically untrained, more modest objectives need to be set for the analysis of empirical data. However, the collection of data, and the marshalling of evidence in support (or not) of an hypothesis, is a central part of research in economics. In some cases, students may sign up for an optional course in econometrics for which they are ill-prepared. This has a doubly damaging impact, as they may fail the module as well as finding themselves no better off for the research.

Another pitfall is where a student with some econometric training collects data and runs some regressions, but is unable to produce results that are consistent with any known economic theory. Panic then sets in. Can economic theory really be so wrong? It takes confidence for a novice researcher to look at a set of seemingly meaningless results with equanimity. It may then be for the supervisor to reassure, and to point out how many possible explanations there are for seemingly contradictory results. Perhaps the data do not measure what the model demands. Perhaps a more sophisticated econometric methodology is required. Perhaps there are omitted variables. And so on. The student researcher may then need to be persuaded that it is perfectly OK to present weak results, so long as some awareness is shown that the analysis has limitations, and that there are many possible reasons for the seeming contradictions.

It is important to remind students of the key objective of the dissertation – namely, to showcase what they have assimilated during their degree programme. If they can show competence in applying economic analysis and (perhaps) econometric techniques in a topic area of their choice, then they are on their way to a reasonable mark. They will not be submitting their dissertation to Econometrica .

‘The secret of happiness lay in limiting the aspirations.’ Thomas Hardy in The Woodlanders .

Students who have spent most of their undergraduate careers solving problems and tackling exercises are likely to need specific help in constructing a coherent argument through continuous prose and appropriate structuring of material. Furthermore, the dissertation will require them to move beyond the descriptive to analysis and evaluation. These are also key skills that may only be developed through the dissertation in many economics undergraduate programmes.

There are several guides available providing advice to students on how to structure a report on a piece of economic research (e.g. Neugeboren (2005); Greenlaw (2006) ).

A typical structure

From Neugeboren (2005)

Students need further guidance to keep an appropriate balance between the key components. The temptation is to use up too many words in the early sections in introducing the topic and describing the background. This is especially tempting in relation to some projects. For example, a student investigating a question in the context of a particular country may begin by describing the economic conditions of that country, so that the report comes to resemble something more appropriate for economic history or geography than economics. On the other hand, there may be a temptation to take some of the economic analysis for granted, thus missing the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of economic analysis and thereby showcasing their skills to the examiner. This question of knowing what to include and what to omit is a tricky one, and an area in which supervisors will need to be ready to offer guidance. Another challenge is for students to be evaluative and analytic, going beyond description.

At the outset, students often find it intimidating to launch themselves on writing an 8,000 or 10,000 word report. It is important to find a way of overcoming this. One way is to encourage students to draw up a chapter plan at an early stage. This could be based on the general pattern set out above, with the students being asked to draft a few sentences describing the intended content of each chapter, and a target word count. This has the advantage of breaking the overall task into a sequence of shorter pieces of work, which may be less intimidating. Making some examples of previous dissertations available for students to consult may also be helpful, as they are able to see what can be achieved, as well as getting a feel for how to structure a long report.

Make sure there is no ambiguity about the deadline for submission and the penalties for missing it.

Another danger point comes at submission time. Be clear about the conditions under which an extension might be granted and how and whether this might be authorised. In addition, be clear about the conditions in which an extension will not be granted. For example, you might want to be explicit that extensions will not be granted for frivolous reasons or because ‘my computer crashed’. There are good reasons for being strict about this. One of the skills that students derive from producing a dissertation is project management. Meeting deadlines will give students the opportunity to practise time management. A student who does not understand the need to keep back-up copies of files will have a rude awakening in the world of work. Furthermore, a student granted an extension is likely to find that there are knock-on effects in terms of exam preparation.

Assessment is a crucial part of the dissertation process and entails a number of problematic issues.

It is important that students have a clear idea of what is expected of them in producing a dissertation. Unlike the problem sets and exercises that characterise much of assessment in economics, there cannot be a specific mark scheme for the dissertation. However, it is possible to provide a set of grade descriptors designed for the dissertation, showing the characteristics that markers will be looking for in allocating marks to the final product. This helps in forming student expectations and provides transparency. A sample set of descriptors is available in Appendix 3 . These descriptors can be tailored to local requirements. Asking markers to highlight a copy of the descriptors for each student being assessed indicating how well they have performed on each aspect is a good way of reaching comparability of standards across markers, and providing feedback to students afterwards.

There is no universal agreement that this approach is desirable. It has been argued that marking to descriptors enforces too much conformity and inhibits markers from examining with their own personal and professional judgement. However, this may be an argument for framing the descriptors in such a way that they are not overly prescriptive, but yet identify the intended outcomes on which the assessment of the dissertation should be based. When large numbers of students are involved, it may be that personal and professional judgement has to be harnessed in order to ensure equity in treatment.

Another way of trying to manage student expectations is through some element of peer- or self-assessment – not necessarily as part of the summative assessment. For example, students could be encouraged to evaluate a fellow student’s research proposal or presentation. Alternatively, a self-assessment checklist could be required as part of the dissertation submission, itemising key aspects of the dissertation. A sample self-assessment form is available through the Appendices .

Students may also gain confidence in their work if some portion of the summative assessment is derived from interim pieces of work, such as the research proposal, a presentation or library skills project. This can also incentivise students to manage their time and receive feedback on how they are progressing.

Achieving consistency in assessment is challenging, especially where the number of dissertations to be marked is large so that marking has to be spread between a relatively large number of staff members. Consistency is also difficult because of the wide range of dissertation topics that is possible. The use of descriptors can help here, as they are cast in general terms that do not vary across topics. The danger is that some markers will be more diligent than others in giving marks based on the descriptors. At department level, this could be monitored by constructing a spreadsheet to compare mean marks (and the standard deviation) for each pair of markers. This may help to reassure external examiners that marking has been carefully undertaken — as well as ensuring equality of treatment for students.

The nature of the dissertation is such that it is difficult to maintain anonymity in the marking, so this is one type of assessment where double-blind marking must be retained, rather than some form of sample moderation process.

Where the economics dissertation can be taken by both single honours students and those following joint honours, it is important for markers to be aware of what is reasonable for particular students to produce. A politics and economics student should not be penalised for avoiding econometric work, nor should a single honours economics student be penalised for lacking background in political science.

One of the issues on which practice varies between universities is the question of whether the supervisor should or should not be one of the markers of the dissertation. Some argue that the supervisor should be excluded from the assessment process in order to ensure independence of the marking, whereas others argue that the supervisor is able to identify the extent to which the student had received assistance as part of the supervisory process. Consistency may be more likely where marking is organised to mix up the pairings of first and second markers.

Given the ubiquity of the internet, it has become impossible to discuss undergraduate dissertations without also discussing the greater opportunities for student plagiarism. The internet provides students with access to a vast range of material, and anecdotal evidence suggests that many students arrive at university with at best a sketchy understanding of methods of scholarship and standards of academic integrity.

Inculcating a sense of what constitutes academic integrity at an early stage in the degree programme is critical. This approach – stressing that there are expected standards for student work – is to be preferred to instructing students simply to ‘avoid plagiarism’. The notion of avoiding plagiarism is almost tantamount to telling students not to get caught, whereas setting expected standards is a more positive tack to take.

The importance of academic integrity is reflected in the fact that there is a whole chapter in this Handbook by Jeremy Williams devoted to the topic. The detail of this discussion will not be repeated here, where the focus will be on academic integrity in the dissertation.

Jeremy Williams identifies three types of plagiarist. The ‘lazy plagiarist’ takes the work of another author and puts his or her own name to it, and may use a ‘cheat’ site in order to purchase a dissertation or part thereof. The ‘cunning plagiarist’ uses the work of another author or authors, but changes things sufficiently to avoid detection. ‘Cut-and-paste’ characterises this approach. The ‘accidental plagiarist’ does not even realise that they are plagiarising – for example, they may have taken notes on a journal article in the early stages of their research without realising that they were simply noting down the original author’s words. They then construct their dissertation from those notes. In some cases, students from a Confucian tradition may believe that in reproducing the words of the experts they are paying them a compliment, and may find it culturally difficult to criticise or even amend what has been printed in a textbook. The use of anti-plagiarism software will throw up examples of all three types.

In the email survey of UK economics departments, most made use of TurnitinUK as a way of identifying whether plagiarism has taken place. The convenience of this is that a dissertation submitted via a VLE can be automatically screened for overlap with TurnitinUK’s growing database. The disadvantage is that the output produced by the software requires very careful interpretation. The software produces a Similarity Index (SI), which quantifies the degree of overlap with material in the database. A high SI does not necessarily indicate plagiarism, but it does help to highlight which dissertation submissions are suspicious.

An important practical point to remember is that when students submit their dissertation they should not only be asked to sign a declaration stating that the work is their own, but also that they understand what is meant by academic integrity and that their dissertation will be checked by TurnitinUK.

Sample declaration for students to sign on submission:

I understand that by signing the declaration below, I have read and accepted the following statements:

• I have read and understood the University’s Academic Integrity Statement for Students, including the information on practice to avoid given the Statement and that in the attached submission I have worked within the expectations of this Statement.
• I am aware that failure to act in accordance with the Academic Integrity Statement for Students may lead to the imposition of penalties which, for the most serious cases, may include termination of the programme.

I consent to the University copying and distributing any or all of my work in any form and using third parties (who may be based outside the EU/EEA). This may include the use of anti-plagiarism software (e.g. TurnitinUK) to verify whether my work contains plagiarised material, and for quality assurance purposes.

Perhaps more valuable than its diagnostic properties is the deterrent value of TurnitinUK. The very fact that all dissertations are to be screened may encourage students to take care in their work. If this does not suffice, then a practical demonstration may be effective.

Encouraging good academic practice

Find a brief paper written by a member of staff in the department and submit it to TurnitinUK. Then hack the article about. Include some quotations (some with, some without quotation marks), paraphrase some passages, introduce some new material. Submit the revised version to TurnitinUK.

Arrange a session for all students writing a dissertation, and show them the TurnitinUK output on the amended version. Let them see what we see as examiners. Point out the key examples of bad practice that we can readily recognise.

This exercise can have a dramatic effect. In one academic year, I (as the School’s Academic Integrity Officer) had to investigate 10 breaches of academic integrity in economics dissertations. Penalties were imposed in all cases. The following year, having demonstrated the examiner’s eye view of the TurnitinUK output, not one single case emerged.

More difficult to detect is where students commission a third party to produced their dissertation for them – either to order, or off the peg from subscription websites. TurnitinUK may or may not identify these cases, although I have known one case where the dissertation that had been purchased was picked up because some paragraphs from it were used as an advert on the website, and were thus caught by TurnitinUK. The risks of being caught may be lower for this form of cheating – but the penalties are likely to be more severe.

An important part of the fight for academic integrity is to make sure that all supervisors are familiar with your university’s procedures for dealing with breaches of academic integrity, and with how to interpret the TurnitinUK output. This is a key part of ensuring consistency in supervision and equity of treatment across students. It is wise to make sure that the general principles of academic integrity are covered in joint sessions to all students, rather than this being left as part of the responsibility of the individual supervisor. Student handbooks also need to carry clear guidance on your institution’s policies and procedures.

More discussion on academic integrity may be found in the Handbook chapter by Jeremy Williams and the more recent chapter by Carlos Cortinhas .

If it is accepted that all honours students should be exposed to ‘current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in the discipline…’ (QAA), then can the dissertation be avoided?

It could be argued that if we provide research-led teaching , then this in itself ensures that students will fit the bill in terms of exposure to research. But what do we mean by ‘research-led teaching’? Does it mean that academic staff are given the opportunity to teach in their specialist research areas? Is that enough? How do we ensure that students engage with this process? If we cannot be sure about the answer to these questions, then is the dissertation the only solution?

To some extent, a research-led approach can be embedded within the normal curriculum. Modules can be designed in such a way as to enhance the students’ ability to develop critical and evaluative thinking skills and thereby support and promote independent learning. This approach can be reinforced by a research-led approach to assessment and may be most straightforward in econometric or other quantitative methods modules, where students can be required to find, analyse and interpret their own data. A similar approach can be adopted for other modules. A development economics module can require students to prepare a report on a particular country; students could be required to evaluate a recent report from the CMA . Such exercises can encourage and engender a sense of discovery and engage students in a reflective and self-critical process. There is much more discussion or undergraduate research in economics in KimMarie Goldrick’s chapter in this Handbook .

An alternative approach would be to run a seminar or tutorial-based module, in which students are required to provide critical evaluation of recent research, probably through the vehicle of appropriate journal articles. This sort of exercise can also provide students with the opportunity to develop their presentation skills, and could be part of a module that also includes sessions on aspects of research in economics. Such presentations could be given in a quasi-conference setting, if the number of students permits.

A well-organised dissertation can be the most rewarding part of the student experience. However, this may require careful thought and planning if it is not to turn into a nightmare. Here are some key points to remember as the dissertation life-cycle unfolds:

• Think about how research training will be provided
• Ensure that students are guided towards a feasible topic
• Be aware of the legislative context
• Give early rules on word length
• Manage student and supervisor expectations of the supervisory process
• Look for a coherent way of allocating students to supervisors
• Set intermediate targets to prevent students leaving too much to the last minute
• Be aware of data issues
• Provide guidance in terms of how to structure a dissertation
• Offer clear guidelines for the assessment process, so that students know what is expected of them
• Be unambiguous in setting deadlines and the rules for extensions
• Explain academic integrity and monitor adherence

Students can benefit greatly from undertaking a dissertation. The process can capture their interest and give them confidence to engage in independent work. The finished product can be used to sell their abilities to potential employers, by showcasing their skills. Supervisors can add to the experience by making sure that students are aware of these benefits. Furthermore, students often enjoy their dissertation work.

Greenlaw, S. A. (2006) Doing Economics: A guide to carrying out economic research. Boston: Houghton Miffin. ISBN 9780618379835

Neugeboren, R. (2005) The Student’s Guide to Writing Economics. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415701235

"Doing a dissertation" in the 'Studying economics' section of the Economics Network website.

If you Google 'dissertations in economics' you will find many websites that claim to provide help and guidance. Some of these will be helpful to students e.g. the guide by Paul Dudenhefer ; other links take you to guides provided by various Universities for their students. However, care is needed here, as students may also find offers from tutors prepared to write their dissertations at a price...

Other chapters in the Handbook for Economics Lecturers augment this guide. In particular:

KimMarie McGoldrick, Undergraduate Research in Economics

Jeremy B. Williams, Plagiarism: Deterrence, Detection and Prevention

• The undergraduate dissertation in UG economics in the UK: A brief survey
• Risk assessment form
• Ethics checklist
• Grade descriptors
• Self-assessment form
• 52787 views
• Views on request

Topics for master's theses

Topics for master's theses.

The Department of Economics would like to present the following ideas for topics:

• Department of Economics
• MSC in Economics and Business Administration
• Master's thesis
• Apply for master's thesis supervisor

Behavioural Economics

Do you feel lucky, punk.

Background:

High-achieving persons often attribute part of their success to luck – that is, exogenous events outside their own control. Random events have been shown to play a decisive role in shaping people’s life trajectories. However, people may also differ in what they infer from the same objective outcome, which could have repercussions for their long-term financial success. In this master thesis, students will get the chance to conduct an economic experiment to shed light out on why some people feel lucky: is it because they are overly optimistic about the frequency of lucky events, or because they neglect unlucky events? The thesis will then explore how these personal traits correlate with basic economic preferences, personal characteristics, and real investment behavior.

Key references: 

Kaufman (2018), “The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized”, Scientific American

Profile: ECN, ECO, BUS, FIN, STR

Supervisor: Mathias Ekström

Paying with money or paying with personal data

During the last years concerns have been raised regarding the business model of several tech companies, which base their revenues on advertisements from third parties in exchange of customers’ personal data. From a consumers’ perspective, an important question behind this growing debate is how to quantify a price on personal data. Do consumers attach the same value to their personal data as they do to money? Is it even possible to put a price on your personal data? Previous literature has found a mismatch between willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) the sharing of personal information, but understanding behind this gap has not been fully explored. This master thesis project should conduct experiments to study a trade-off between paying with money and paying with personal data. In particular, it should explore potential explanations that could explain the mismatch between WTP and WTA of privacy.

Key references:

Acquisti, Alessandro, Leslie K. John, and George Loewenstein (2013). “What is privacy worth?.” The Journal of Legal Studies 42.2, 249-274.

Winegar, A. G. and C. R. Sunstein (2019). “How much is data privacy worth? A preliminary investigation.” Journal of Consumer Policy 42(3), 425–440.

Brynjolfsson, E. and Collis, A. (2019). “How Should We Measure the Digital Economy?”

Harvard Business Review, 97(6): 140-48. doi: 10.1257/aer.20170491

Collect your own data either by conducting an experiment on the online labor market Amazon Mechanical Turk or by doing a survey experiment.

Supervisors: Researchers from FAIR and Telenor Research.

UNDERSTANDING PATERNALISM

The extent to which it is acceptable to restrict the freedom of individuals in order to promote their own best interest is at the core of much political debate about the relationship between the state and its citizens: Should the state institute mandatory retirement savings, require motorcyclists to wear helmets or refuse to enforce certain types of contracts? Questions about the legitimate role of paternalism are also important in many interpersonal relationships, in particular between parents and their children, and people’s views on these matters may be of great importance for understanding their willingness to accept inequality in society. The master thesis project should conduct experiments to study a person’s willingness to reduce another individual’s freedom in order to promote that individual’s best interests. For example by studying how the willingness to act paternalistically depends on the characteristics of the individuals whose freedom is being restricted, such as how well informed they are, their competence, and their age.

Julian Le Grand & Bill New (2015): Government Paternalism: Nanny State or Helpful Friend? Princeton University Press, 2015

Suitable for profiles:   ECO, ECN, STR, INB, ENE

Supervisor: Alexander W. Cappelen

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL PREFERENCES: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM INTERNATIONAL PILOTS

We are seeking master students who would like to write their master thesis as part of a project on the development of fairness preferences. The project is a collaboration between FAIR professors Alexander W. Cappelen and Bertil Tungodden.

We have recruited children from kindergartens and schools in Bergen to take part in a lab experiment we are implementing in September 2018. We have also collected comparable data for adults from Norway and Shanghai as well as for children from kindergartens and schools in Shanghai.

Almås, Cappelen, Sørensen and Tungodden (2010): “Fairness and the Development of Inequality Acceptance”, Science 328(5982): 1176–1178. (2) Almås, Cappelen, Salvanes, Sørensen and Tungodden (2017): “Fairness and family background”, Philosophy, Politics and Economics 16(2) 117-131. (3) Cappelen, List, Samek and Tungodden (2016): “The Effect of Early Education on Social Preferences”, NBER Working Paper No. 22898.

Suitable for:

NHH master students who are interested in helping to implement pilot experiments internationally during the fall and in writing their master thesis as part of the project are welcome to send an e-mail to Adriana Condarco-Quesada. It should include your name, your CV and a short note on why you would like to write your master thesis on this subject. Please also send any questions you might have regarding the project to Adriana.

Supervisor:   Bertil Tungodden

The role of the telco industry towards screen addiction

In the context of conducting fair business practices, a relevant question in the telecommunication industry is whether telco companies should allow and push for unlimited internet data usage. The particular issue at stake is whether providing unlimited data package would push consumers into increasing their social media use and their phone in general, and consequently increasing screen addiction. Telco companies obviously gain by costumers using more their phones. However, this issue raises ethical considerations regarding overdose and potential addiction consequences, which may eventually backfire on the companies’ long term profitability. The master thesis project should conduct experiments or surveys to gather information about people’s perspective on the role of telco companies towards screen use. In particular, it should focus on understanding the view on companies’ interventions when the consumer lacks the will power and/or intrinsic motivation to reduce his/her data consumption.

Alter, A. (2017). “Irresistible: The rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked”. Penguin.

Supervisors:  Researchers from  FAIR and Telenor Research.

WHAT DRIVES CONSUMERS TO CHANGE ELECTRICITY PROVIDER?

In markets characterized by subscription services, such as electricity, banking and telecommunications, we often find that consumers change providers or plans to a very low extent despite considerable price differences between seemingly similar (or even homogenous) products. There are many potential explanations for this phenomenon, e.g., lack of information, costs of switching, and strong preferences for particular providers. Understanding the sources of passive consumer behavior is important for both regulation, business planning, government policy and market design. We find clear signs of consumer passivity also in the Norwegian electricity retail market, and data sources available to this supervisor can allow a talented student to shed light on some of the potential channels.

von der Fehr and Hansen (2010): "Electricity Retailing in Norway", The Energy Journal 31: 25-45 (Basic reference); Hortacsu et al (2015): "Power to Choose? An Analysis of Consumer Inertia in the Residential Electricity Market", NBER Working Paper No. 20988 (Advanced reference)

Data:  Monthly data on number of subscriptions and sales (kWh) for the largest retailers within local areas will be provided by the supervisor, as well as weekly contract prices and monthly visitor statistics for the contract comparison website of the Competition Authority. Wholesale electricity prices and other useful market statistics can be gathered from Nordpool.

Suitable for profiles:  ECO, ECN, ENE, BUS, FIE, INB

Supervisor:   Morten Sæthre

Energy efficiency and electricity consumption: Drivers of green technology adoption

(Note: Theses under this topic can be eligible for an  Equinor scholarship for master theses .)

Description:

Assessments of potential savings from energy efficiency investments have suggested the existence of an "Energy Efficiency Gap"; that consumers do not undertake energy efficiency investments with even large positive returns. Though the conclusion has been hotly debated in the academic literature, we still lack a solid understanding of drivers and barriers to energy efficiency adoption, which is necessary for designing appropriate policies. Currently, most countries employ some combination of regulation and subsidies to increase energy efficiency, e.g., 100-300 mNOK in yearly Enova subsidies for households in Norway.

Under this topic, you will contribute to our understanding of green technology adoption under the supervision of one or more experienced researchers with competences targeted to different approaches and research questions. Examples of specific projects are "Inattention and green technology: Do temporary shocks to electricity prices spur adoption?", "Does increased electricity demand lead to energy efficiency investment: Evidence from electric vehicle take-up", and "Are green technology subsidies regressive?", "Constrained wallets or constrained minds: The role of mental budgeting and relative thinking in green technology investment", or "Green loans vs investment subsidies: The optimal mix". The examples are far from an exhaustive list, and we encourage you to contact us if you could see yourself writing your master thesis within this topic and want to learn more.

Hunt Allcott and Michael Greenstone (2012) "Is There an Energy Efficiency Gap", Journal of Economic Perspectives 26, pp. 3-28

Hunt Allcott (2016) "Paternalism and Energy Efficiency: An Overview", Annual Review of Economics 8, pp. 145-176

Anna Sahari (2019) "Electricity prices and consumers' long-term technology choices: Evidence from heating investments", European Economic Review 114, pp. 19-53

Electricity prices and consumption data from Nordpool and Statistics Norway, Enova subsidies, statistics on sales of efficient heating systems. It might be possible to gain access to household data given availability and project needs.

Suitable for profiles:  BUS, ECN, ECO, ENE, FIN

(Tentative) supervisor:  Samuel D. Hirshman , Harim Kim,  Eirik G. Kristiansen ,  Mateusz Mysliwski  and/or  Morten Sæthre

Development Economics

Bulk buying and poverty.

Buying in bulk is a common way that consumers use to obtain lower prices on their purchases. There is now some evidence that low income consumers are not exploiting this strategy well, despite the large potential gains. The thesis will review the issue, and use an innovative detailed dataset from India to investigate it in a new setting.

Key References:

Brian Dillon, Joachim De Weerdt, Ted O’Donoghue, Paying More for Less: Why Don’t Households in Tanzania Take Advantage of Bulk Discounts?, The World Bank Economic Review , Volume 35, Issue 1, February 2021, Pages 148–179.

Suitable for profiles:  ECN, ECO

Supervisor:  Vincent Somville

High Frequency Poverty

Poverty is typically measured at annual level. High frequency data reveals that potentially many households cross the poverty line for significant periods even if they are not poor on average on an annual basis. The thesis will investigate transitory poverty using weekly financial diaries from India.

Jonathan Morduch. Rethinking Poverty, Household Finance, and Microfinance. Forthcoming in Handbook of Microfinance, Financial Inclusion, and Development, edited by Robert Cull and Valentina Hartarska. Forthcoming.

Supervisor: Bertil Tungodden

What effect daugthers have, globally?

There is some evidence from western countries that fathering daughters changes men’s attitudes towards women in general, and can also affect the household structure.

The students will use a global data base covering dozens of countries to investigate the global effects of daughters, and how they affect the economics of families.

Washington, Ebonya L. 2008. "Female Socialization: How Daughters Affect Their Legislator Fathers." American Economic Review , 98 (1): 311-32 .

Jan Kabátek, David C Ribar, Daughters and Divorce, The Economic Journal , Volume 131, Issue 637, July 2021, Pages 2144–2170.

Economic History

Bergen as a maritime capital.

The Norwegian consultancy group Menon publishes an annual list of “The leading maritime capitals of the world”. Bergen is not included in the list of 15 cities evaluated in the report, but has been included in a longlist of 30 nominated cities that are benchmarked according to a set of 24 indicators. The aim of the thesis would be to analyze a) the basis for the ranking; and b) measures that would make Bergen a leading maritime capital.

Key literature: Menon report

Data: developed together with the supervisor

Suitable for profiles: STR, INB, BUS

Supervisor: Stig Tenold

BERGEN AS A MARITIME SERVICE PROVIDER

Bergen plays a key role as one of the leading maritime cities internationally. Bergen shipping companies have dominant positions in several markets (chemical tanker transport, open hatch bulk shipping), and there are also world-class companies in auxiliary services (in particular ship finance, insurance, ship registry). Combining historical perspectives and economic theory, the aim of the thesis would be to analyze to which extent the success of these auxiliary services is based on linkages to the local industry, and to which extent it is a result of the international orientation of the service providers themselves.

Data: Veritas, surveys developed together with the supervisor

Innovation and the patent system

Intellectual property rights are usually associated with the patent system – patents and patent laws. The relationship between patents and innovations has been studied extensively, for example how patent laws create incentives to invent, promote innovation and encourage economic growth. Historical or modern data analysis do, however, give no clear answers, and there is a potential for research that addresses several questions: Does the existence of strong patent laws encourage innovation?  What proportion of innovations is patented? Is this share constant across industries? How does patenting and licensing affect the diffusion of knowledge? Such questions have only to a limited extent been studied in a Norwegian context.

Key reference:

P. Moser, ‘Patents and Innovation: Evidence from Economic History’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 27 (1), 2013.

Patent and innovation statistics from the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) and Patentstyret. Norwegian policy documents, company annual reports.

Suitable for profiles: ECO, ECN, STR, INB, BUS

Supervisor: Bjørn L. Basberg

The gender wage gap

How large is the gender wage gap and why do we observe a gender wage gap. These are important questions that occupy economists, business operations and politicians. Students can address this question empirically by documenting the gender wage gap with international data (e.g. OECD, Eurostat, ILO) or national data sets. An interesting focus is to look at young adults or young adults in the NEET (not in education and employment) group.  It could be interesting to compare the measure across data sources and discuss differences and explanations.

There is also a new data source made available for research for young adults in developing countries which could be explored in this thesis (see Bandiera et al. (2022). Other macro-data sources that could be explored and compared across countries, demographic groups and time are found on the webpages of the OECD, Eurostat and ILO. Students could also use historical data for a thesis on this topic.

Key References: 

Bandiera, Oriana, Ahmed Elsayed, Andrea Smurra, and Céline Zipfel. 2022. "Young Adults and Labor Markets in Africa."  Journal of Economic Perspectives , 36 (1): 81-100.

Kunze, A. (2018). The gender wage gap in developed countries.  The Oxford handbook of women and the economy , 369-394.

Fields: economics, labour markets, developing countries, developed countries, empirical, econometrics

Profile: ECON

Supervisor: Astrid Kunze

Environmental & Resource Economics

Climate change in the arctic and economic activities.

The climate change is evident in the Arctic in the way of increased temperatures, decreasing ice and consequently increased accessibility. Maritime transport, fisheries and resource exploitation (mineral oil in particular) are industries that already are pushing the frontiers further north. Since the Arctic Ocean is surrounded by several national states (Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway and Denmark / Greenland), the political tension in the region has increased in a classic ‘race for property rights’ that has historic parallels. Other non-Arctic nations, China in particular, shows increased interest in the region.

There are many potential issues and questions that could be analyzed in an economic framework. What have been the recent trends, and how do businesses and stakeholders view the future? How does the government-business interaction play out in different countries involved? The climate change involves changes in both costs and benefits. How could this be modelled and analyzed?

A.S. Crépin et.al., ‘Arctic Climate Change, Economy and Society (ACCESS): Integrated Perspectives’, Ambio, Dec. (46) 2017, 341-354 and G. Eskeland and L.S. Flottorp, ‘Climate Change in the Arctic: A Discussion of the Impact on Economic Activity’, in Glomsrød et.al. (eds.), The Economy of the North, SSB, 2006.

Data: Climate change reports, government papers and statistics, business prospects.

Suitable for profiles: ECN, STR, INB, BUS.

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES IN THE ANTARCTIC REGION

The Antarctic region has a long history of resource exploitation (sealing, whaling). Today, human activity in the region is dominated by science, but there are also industries like fisheries, tourism and bio-prospecting. Such industries have to a small extent been analyzed in an economic context and several questions are interesting to pursue. What is the economic scale of these operations? What is the economic and financial importance for the companies involved? Are management and regulatory systems sufficient?

B.L. Basberg, ‘Perspectives on the Economic History of the Antarctic Region’, International Journal of Maritime History, VO. XVIII (2), 2006,

Data: Economics and business statistics on tourism from the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) and on fisheries from the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES ON TOURISM IN THE POLAR REGIONS

Polar tourism, especially ship born cruise tourism both in the Arctic and in the Antarctic has increased for many years. Business prospects and plans seem to indicate that this will continue.

There are, however, serious challenges ahead. The climate change involves increased accessibility, but also alters the unique experience that constitutes the rationale for the industry. Concerns about long travels is also a factor that creates uncertainties about future demand for such travels.

Several questions could be analyzed about this industry in an economic context. Is it possible, within a traditional business model, to create an environmental and social sustainable industry? There seems to be large future uncertainties connected both to the supply and the demand side in this market. How could that be modelled and analyzed?

M. Lamers and B. Amelung, ‘Climate Change and its Impact for Cruise Tourism’ in M. Lück et. al. (eds), Cruise Tourism in Polar Regions. Promoting Environmental and Social Sustainability? London 2010, p. 147-165.

Data:  Climate change reports, statistics and reports from the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO), tour operator plans and annual reports.

Suitable for profiles: ECN, STR, INB, BUS

Reflections of climate change: suffering and regret

With increasing consumption and production of many goods and services, the humanmade effects on climate change are getting bigger and bigger. For some activities the potential effects are well-known, such as plastic taking at least 400 years to dissolve completely in the nature. For some other activities the effects can be ambiguous and unknown to the consumers, such as the impact of an e-mail box size on the environment. When there is ambiguity about the consequences of their actions, people may suffer from both the direct effects of climate change and the regret from contributing this. The master thesis project should investigate regret and regret aversion when making decisions have potential consequences for the climate. Treatment variation could be driven by using manipulated regret lotteries for consumption (or digital) decisions.

Imas, A., Lam´e, D., Wilson, A. J. (2020). Reversals between one-shot and repeated decisions in incentive design: the case of regret. Mimeo

Robinson, P. J., Botzen, W. J. (2018). The impact of regret and worry on the threshold level of concern for flood insurance demand: Evidence from Dutch homeowners. Judgment and Decision Making , 13(3), 237-245.

Volpp, K. G., John, L. K., Troxel, A. B., Norton, L., Fassbender, J., Loewenstein, G.

(2008). Financial incentive–based approaches for weight loss: a randomized trial. Jama , 300(22), 2631-2637.

Zeelenberg, M., Pieters, R. (2007). A theory of regret regulation 1.0. Journal of Consumer Psychology , 17(1), 3-18.

Collect your own data either through a survey experiment or by conducting an online experiment on a crowdsourcing platform.

Firms & Ethics

Diversity in firms, top leadership, financial and technology sector.

Societies and firms increasingly become diverse in terms of gender, sexual orientation, ethnic background, language background, age. Gender imbalances are particularly pronounced when we look at top leadership, but also sectors such as the financial and technology sector. But the goal of firms of increasing diversity is not restricted to gender balance, but also other demographic characteristics such as age, ethnic background etc.

Equality is high on the political agenda and more and more firms acknowledge that in order to recruit the best workers they need to make diversity and inclusive worklife part of their strategic goals. Firms increasingly integrate gender equality and business ethics as part of their corporate management strategy.

A masterthesis in this area can be an empirical thesis where students assemble or collect novel data that allow to measure diversity in firms and policies that firms design to increase diversity. Students could measure corporate social responsibility along various dimensions and investigate whether such policies do lead to improved firm performance. Students could also study in their thesis more conceptually why firms care about diversity.

Depending on the study profile of the student this thesis can focus on financial outcomes, socio-economic outcomes, careers or theory and empirical methods.

SNF database merged with other data (for Norway)

Orbis database (for international study)

Suitable for profiles: ECON, STR, BUS, FIN

Do business organisations in Europe use diversity and inclusive worklife policies?

I am looking for master's students who collect data from business organisations in Europe, a sample or as many as possible,  to measure whether business organisations D&I policies (e.g. a webpage) and what policies they have. This thesis can take different forms depending on the interests and skills of the students. The thesis could take a focus on the discussion what D&I are, how to categorize those and then how to measure the outcomes of interest. The collection of the data demands a plan how to collect these data (manually from webpages, scaping, or other methods). The thesis may have the design of the data collection as the main part, hand-collection of data or developing an algorithm. Students may also use the plan if there is time to collect a small sample. The most ambitious plan is to collect a large sample that may be merged with other data. If the latter part is the main part, the literature overview of D&I and the more conceptual discussion may be shorter. Instead there could be some empirical descriptive analysis part of the thesis. This thesis leaves a lot of space for the students to find their own focus matching with their interests.

References:

Hospido, L., Laeven, L., & Lamo, A. (2019). The gender promotion gap: evidence from central banking.  The Review of Economics and Statistics , 1-45.

Kalev, A., Dobbin, F., & Kelly, E. (2006). Best practices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate affirmative action and diversity policies.  American sociological review ,  71 (4), 589-617.

Fields: organisations, labour markets, equality, diversity in firms, empirical

Profiles: ECON, STR, FOR

Do universities in Europe have diversity and inclusive worklife policies

I am looking for master's students who collect data from universities in Europe, a sample or as many as possible,  to measure whether universities and economic faculties in Europe have D&I policies (e.g. a webpage) and what policies they have. This thesis can take different forms depending on the interests and skills of the students. The thesis could take a focus on the discussion what D&I are, how to categorize those and then how to measure the outcomes of interest. The collection of the data demands a plan how to collect these data (manually from webpages, scaping, or other methods). The thesis may have the design of the data collection as the main part. Students may also use the plan if there is time to collect a small sample. The most ambitious plan is to collect a large sample  that may be merged with other data on representation of women among Professors in Economics. If the latter part is the main part, the literature overview of D&I and the more conceptual discussion may be shorter. Students could collect data on universities overall, or focus on departments of Economics, or Engineering or other fields. This thesis leaves a lot of space for the students to find their own focus matching with their interests.

Auriol, E., Friebel, G., Weinberger, A., & Wilhelm, S. (2022). Underrepresentation of women in the economics profession more pronounced in the United States compared to heterogeneous Europe.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ,  119 (16), e2118853119.

Profiles : ECON, STR, FOR

Supervisor : Astrid Kunze

Firm behaviour, recruitment and personnel policies

I am looking for masterstudents who are interested to work together with a firm and evaluate certain firm policies and personnel data. The thesis may require designing a survey, preparing confidential data, analysing data collected by the firm. Topics may be on performance evaluation, recruitment, careers, firm performance, accounting. The students could also come with their own ideas.

If students have interest or an idea please get in touch early in the process of planning the masterthesis.

Data: They will be prepared together with the supervisor.

Suitable for profiles:  ECON, BUS, ECN, FIN, STR

Supervisor:   Astrid Kunze

Who should get internet?

Background: 

Access to broadband internet has been found to increase employment and wages, labour productivity, financial technology and banking, education, among other things. A question that still needs to be answered is how to evaluate the expansion of broadband internet in developed countries, where penetration rates are already very high. For example, in Norway 11% of the population does still not have access to internet broadband. A recent public debate has raised the issue on whether the Norwegian government should step in and extend the coverage to the entire population. The master thesis project should investigate people’s perspectives on broadband expansion in Norway. It should, for example, elicit the willingness to pay for (fast) broadband and evaluate different scenarios in a cost and benefit analysis of a potential public investment. Moreover, based on previous evidence that connectivity can enable higher economic productivity, the project could explore whether resources for the broadband expansion should be allocated to all the uncovered areas or whether they should only focus on the most productive areas with more growth potential.

Akerman, Anders, Ingvil Gaarder, and Magne Mogstad (2015). ”The skill complementarity of broadband internet.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 130.4 : 1781-1824.

M. Bhuller, T. Havnes, E. Leuven and M. Mogstad (2013). “Broadband Internet: An Information Superhighway to Sex Crime?” Review of Economic Studies , 80, 1237-1266.

International Trade & Globalization

How are global value chains affected by the pandemic and recent geopolitical events.

An important aspect of the trends towards more globalisation since the turn of the century, has been the increasing importance of ever more complex (global) supply chains in many industries. The unprecedented technological development in information and communication technology (ICT), combined with more integrated markets and reduced transportation and transaction costs, have made it both technically feasible and economically profitable to split the production process and produce parts and components in various parts of the world. This is often called global value chains (GVC).

From the beginning of the corona pandemic, spring 2020, it became clear that many of these supply chains are very vulnerable to market disruptions, be it in production in various regions or in transportation and international infrastructure. Supply shortages and long delivery times for key components and products have had a significant negative impact on firms and industries in all parts of the world, and many firms have had to reconsider their global value chains.

The present geopolitical situation adds to the pressure on supply chains and exposes the vulnerability of relying on certain sources of raw material and key parts and components in various industries.

Possible approaches:

Given the general picture above, several master thesis topics are possible, depending on the interests of the students. Here are some suggestions:

• Choose an industry (or a firm) and study how the global supply chains in that industry developed before the pandemic and how they have changed recently.  Assess how the pandemic and the geopolitical situation have affected the situation and what the future development might be.
• Choose several industries and compare their development over time both before and during the pandemic.  
• There could also be room for a more theoretical thesis, perhaps with examples from various industries, in which the basis for growing GVC-trade over a long period is analysed, followed by a discussion of why and how the recent events have had such a negative impact in GVCs, and what the future development may be. 

Possible majors:   ECN, ECO, BUS, STR (depending on the focus of the thesis)

Possible supervisors:   Linda Orvedal , Jan I. Haaland or other faculty members from the Department of Economics

How will BREXIT and the new trade agreements affect Norway and Norwegian industry?

The UK decision to leave the EU (BREXIT) will have implications not only for the UK and the EU, but also for other countries.  After a long period of debate and negotiations, the UK and the EU agreed on the new “Trade and Cooperation Agreement” on the 24 th December 2020.  The agreement has been in place since 1 st January 2021, although parts of it is still debated.  In June 2021 Norway, together with the other EEA countries (Iceland and Liechtenstein), agreed on a free-trade agreement with the UK.

Both the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the UK and the EU and the new free-trade agreement between the UK and the EEA countries will have profound implications for trade between the UK and Norway, for many reasons.  First, the UK is an important trading partner for Norway, for goods and services, as well as when it comes to investments and mobility of labour.  All of this have been affected by Brexit, even if new agreements are in place. Secondly, through the European Economic Area (EEA) Norway is part of the EU single market, but not part of the EU Customs Union. Hence, the UK’s departure from the EU customs union will have implications for Norway’s trade both with the EU and the UK.  And thirdly, Brexit has initiated a new discussion about the EEA (EØS) agreement in Norway; hence the implications may be even more serious. 

Approach:  

There could be many interesting ways of approaching the question of how BREXIT may affect Norway and Norwegian industry. One approach could be to take a general national view and discuss possible implications of BREXIT and the new trade agreements for overall trade and economic interactions between the UK and Norway. Another approach could be to select a particular industry and study the possible implications for that industry. And a third option could be to focus on the implications of a possible future change in the trade relations between the EU and Norway. All three approaches would need a good combination of theoretical understanding of trade agreements and possible future trade regimes, and empirical observations and analysis of the actual trade relations between the two countries.

Standard international economics textbooks for the understanding of trade policies and trade agreements.  www.wto.org for more specific information about the multilateral trade system and regional trade agreements. For BREXIT the literature is evolving constantly.  A good source is UK Trade Policy Observatory ( https://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/uktpo/ ) with many blogs and reports on recent developments.  When it comes to the new trade agreement between Norway and the UK, there are so far few independent analyses of possible consequences, but official information about the agreement is given on the governments’ webpages: Norwegian Government: https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/inngar-historisk-frihandelsavtale-med-storbritannia/id2857147/   UK Government’s: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/united-kingdom-signs-free-trade-deal-with-norway-iceland-and-liechtenstein

Data: Industrial characteristics and trade data.

Possible majors: ECN, INB

Possible supervisors: Jan I. Haaland and Linda Orvedal

Sustainability and global value chains

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) cover a number of areas of great importance for both national and multinational companies, and many companies use the SDGs both in their strategies and in marketing as something they will contribute to.  Areas like decent work and economic growth (SDG8), industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG9), responsible consumption and production (SDG12), climate action (SDG13) all have direct links to companies, but the same is true for most of the SDGs. For some key areas, like human rights and labour conditions, there are also more specific international agreements and rules that companies are obliged to adhere to.

A key feature of international business today, is the reliance on global value chains (GVC for short, also called global supply chains), where the final products are made up of parts and components produced by a number of suppliers and sub-suppliers in different parts of the world.  Some of these GVCs are very complex, and it is not easy for the companies to keep track of the whole supply chain.  Yet, the companies’ responsibility to adhere to national and international rules, as well as their commitment to contribute to the SDGs, cover not only their own parts of the production process, but the whole supply chain.

How do multinationals go about to keep track of their GVC and to ensure that their obligations and commitments to e.g. human rights, labour conditions and/or environment issues are fulfilled throughout the supply chain?

There could be several approaches to this research question, depending on the students’ interest.  One possibility is to choose an industry or a firm and try to map the situation for that industry/firm.   Another possibility could be to start out with international rules and regulations in one or a few areas (e.g. human rights, or climate emissions) and to study how various industries relate to the regulations and how this affects their global value chains.   

Possible majors:   ECN, ENE, BUS, STR (depending on approach)

The war in Ukraine – implications for key markets in Europe and globally

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has affected the European and world economy in many ways. Energy and food markets have been disrupted with huge implications for both Europe and the rest of the world, but other markets have also seen significant changes due to the war. The market implications follow directly from the fact that the war prevents Ukraine from producing and exporting many products, as well as from the economic sanctions towards Russia and the Russian reactions.  Although the immediate and short-term effects have been huge, it is still too early to say what the longer-term effects may be.

Two possible approaches: 

• Choose an industry/product, study how the war has affected the international markets for that industry so far, and try to assess how the future development may be.
• Look at the broader picture and assess how various international markets have been affected and what the future development may by. 

Possible majors:   ECN, ECO, ENE (depending on approach)

Labour Economics

Do flexible pay schemes explain the rise of wage inequality.

In most developed countries, wage inequality has increased in the last decades. A popular explanation is that it is increasingly common to have pay set at the worker rather than at the sectoral level. This leaves more room for wage negotiations, potentially driving labor market inequality. This master thesis aims to assess the role of flexible pay setting in developing wage inequality using unique data on workers’ pay components (e.g., overtime, bonuses). You will have access to microdata for 25 European countries (SES data) to implement your analysis. 

Lemieux, Thomas, MacLeod, W Bentley and Parent, Daniel. 2009. "Performance Pay and Wage Inequality" The Quarterly Journal of Economics , 124 (1): 1-49.

Profile:  ECON

Supervisor: Antoine Bertheau

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LABOUR MARKETS

Despite the fact that great gender convergence in employment is observed in labour markets, large gender differences remain. Women earn 16 per cent on average less in terms of hourly wages than men in the EU. Women also work in very different occupation and industries than men. True, if we compare men and women in the same job and in the same firm, we find very small wage differences; however, very few men and women work in the same job in the same firm. There are many more differences in labour markets between men and women which invites to important research questions suitable for a masterthesis. You could look for questions related to graduates in economics and business administration (use data from NHH. e.g.). You could study questions at the national level for Norway or another country, or internationally. International evidence is very important to learn and valuable to your career if you work, for example, in a company that does trade with EU and the world. Germany is a country important to learn about, since it is one of the main trading partners of Norway, followed by the UK etc.

•   SIAB (German register data, employer-employee matched panel, 1975-2015

•   SOEP (Socio Economic Panel for Germany, 1984-2016)

• Mikrodata.no at NSD provides access to the Norwegian register data

•    NHH annual graduate survey

Suitable for profiles:  ECN, FIN, STR

HOW DID THE INTERNET CHANGE THE CHANNELS OF JOB SEARCH?

People that search for a job have several options to find it: read newspapers, go to employment agencies, browse the web and mobilize their local networks of friends and relatives. Networking has increasingly become important for job search. Social networks are an important source of information in the labor market and many workers find jobs through friends and relatives. On the other hand, an increasing number of people use the Internet to look for new jobs. One reason online job search has become so popular is that it has changed the search process considerably. Employment websites allow job seekers to access thousands of job offers and use intelligent filter mechanisms to find suitable vacancies.

Key references: Kuhn, P. J. and M. Skuterud (2004): “Internet Job Search and Unemployment Durations," The American Economic Review, 94, 218-232.

Data: Norwegian Labor Force Survey

Suitable for profiles:   ECO, ECN, STR, INB, BUS

Supervisor: Aline Bütikofer

Human capital, apprenticeship training, aspirations to success, early career, youth unemployment and youth labour markets

Some research has debunked the argument that job-hopping can propel a person onward and upward more rapidly than would be possible by staying in one place. In this thesis students can study and quantify mobility during the early career after first entry into the labaour market and after completion of education.  How do high achievers perform during the early career who eventually will fill top positions. Students could also analyse how women versus men’s early career looks like. Is it important to be mobile, or how long is it optimal to stay in the first job?

The thesis can focus more on firms and careers and strategic human capital or take a more labour economics and empirical methods direction.

See an example of a paper here:

Bonet, R., Cappeli, P.,  Hamori, M.  (2020). “Gender differences in speed of advancement: an empirical examination of top executives in the fortune 100 firms”.  Strategic Management Journal , Vol. 41 (4): 708-737

This project requires individual panel data on employment and wage histories.

•  SIAB (German register data, employer-employee matched panel, 1975-2015)

•  SOEP (Socio Economic Panel for Germany, 1984-2016)

•  Mikrodata.no at NSD provides access to the Norwegian register data

Suitable for profiles: ECON, BUS, ECN, FIN, STR

Labour markets, gender differences and family policy

Despite the fact that great gender convergence in employment is observed in labour markets, large gender differences remain. Women earn 16 per cent on average less in terms of hourly wages than men in the EU. Women also work in very different occupation and industries than men. True, if we compare men and women in the same job and in the same firm, we find very small wage differences; however, very few men and women work in the same job in the same firm. In addition, differentials build up over careers and these may not be reflected in cross-sectional differentials.

There is a great need for studies focusing on occupations, industries, and selected groups. Students could look for questions related to graduates in economics and business administration using data from NHH surveys.). Students could study questions on labour markets and policies fighting unfair differences at the national level for Norway or another country, or internationally (EIGE database).

International evidence on labour markets is very important to learn and valuable to your career if you work, for example, in a company that does trade with EU and the world. Labour is the main input factor to the firm. Germany is a country important to learn about, since it is one of the main trading partners of Norway, followed by the UK etc.

• EIGE database, ILO
• SIAB (German register data, employer-employee matched panel, 1975-2015
• SOEP (Socio Economic Panel for Germany, 1984-2016)
• NHH annual graduate survey

Macroeconomics

Assessing the norwegian macroeconomic policy framework.

The design of monetary and fiscal policy has moved towards a rule based framework, exemplified by the so-called Taylor rule or the “Handlingsreglene” governing the management of the oil fund in Norway. How does monetary and/or fiscal policy respond  to shocks affecting the Norwegian economy? Are the responses of macroeconomic policy stable over time. How did the economy and financial markets respond to the introduction of these rules?

Clarida, R., J. Gali and M. Gertler. (1999). The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective, Journal of Economic Literature 37(4): 1661-1707. J. Taylor (2000). Reassessing Discretionary Fiscal Policy. Journal of Economic Perspectives 14(3): 21-36.

Suitable for profiles:   ECN, ECO, FIE

Supervisor: Gernot Doppelhofer

Business Cycles and Gender

Men and women work in different sectors, which are differently susceptible to business cycle fluctuations. In the US, the stereotype is that men work in the construction sector, which is highly business cycle sensitive, while women work in the education sector, in which hours worked do not fluctuate much over the business cycle. There are also differences in the aggregate behavior of hours worked in the group of people living in one-person households and those living in couple households. Are the same patterns true in Norway as well? What could the reason be for why / why not?

Albanesi, S. and A. Şahin (2018). The Gender Unemployment Gap. Review of Economic Dynamics 30, 47–67. Olsson, J. Singles, Couples, and Their Labor Supply: Long-run Trends and Short-run Fluctuations. Working paper.

Suitable for profiles:   ECN, ECO

Supervisor: Jonna Olsson

Economic growth and the input factor labor

How much does the input factor labor account for in the national product in Norway? A Norwegian minister once said in public: Women are more worth than oil in Norway. Is that true and how can we measure the contribution over time? In this thesis students can conceptionally think about a growth model and how to measure the contribution of labour to growth and the level of production in an economy. This could include a literature survey and an overview of estimates for different countries and time periods. Then they can take the model to Norwegian data or other data to estimate the contribution. For the empirical estimations the students could explore Norwegian register data accessible on microdata at NHH. This is a sketch of the idea and the students can develop their own ideas.

Fields: macro-economics, labour economics, empirical, econometrics

Profiles: ECON

Supervisors: Astrid Kunze

How Prevalent is Downward Rigidity in Nominal Wages in Norway?

Since Keynes, macroeconomists typically assume that wages are rigid, i.e., cannot be adjusted downward. However, the empirical evidence is still scant. In Norway, we now have good data to test this assumption empirically. The master thesis would aim to assess the degree of wage rigidity using rich Norwegian administrative datasets (on firms and their employees). 

Elsby, Michael W. L, Solon, Gary (2019) How Prevalent is Downward Rigidity in Nominal Wages? International Evidence from Payroll Records and Pay Slips, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 185-201.

Suitable for profiles: ECN

Is there a Beveridge curve in the Norwegian housing market?

Originally, the Beveridge curve measures the relationship between the number of vacant positions and the number of unemployed people in the labour market. It gives expression to the existence of search frictions in this market. But the housing market is also characterised by such frictions: it takes time for a buyer to find a suitable house and for a seller to get in touch with a buyer. 

This project would consist in (i) collecting monthly data about the number of buyers searching for a house, e.g., based on data about visits during house showings, (ii) collecting data about the number of houses for sale, and (iii) estimating the relationship between both variables during the business cycle. Focus can be on the housing market for one of the larger cities in Norway.

Genvose and Han (2012) Search and matching in the housing market. Journal of Urban Economics.

Gabrovski and Ortego-Marti (2019) The cyclical behavior of the Beveridge curve in the housing market.

Gabrovski and Ortego-Marti (2022) On the slope of the Beveridge curve in the housing market.

Data: Data from eiendomnorge.no, real estate agencies

Suitable for profiles: ECN, ECO, FIN, BAN

Supervisor: Fred Schroyen

NOWCASTING AND PREDICTING THE NORWEGIAN ECONOMY

A large number of indicators have been proposed to predict the current and future state of the economy. Many macroeconomic or financial data are being reported at different points in time and some are subject to revisions. The measurement of current and future economic conditions is essential for the conduct  of macroeconomic policy, dating of business cycles and household or financial decision making . What are important factors predicting current and future economic activity and financial variables, such as exchange rates, stock prices, …?

Stock, J. and M. Watson. (1999). Forecasting Inflation. Journal of Monetary Economics v44(2): 293-335

Price changes among manufacturing firms

To understand how prices are adjusted, and why, is very important, for both consumers, firm-owners and -managers, regulators and macro economists. The typical IO question; How does a firm set the price or quantity in relation to other market participants? Macro economists: Monetary policy has only a real effect if prices (and wages) are sticky (think of the IS-LM or AD-AS models). Price adjustment costs and their nature are central for industrial organization and the macro economy. What do we know empirically about the micro behaviour of firms? Do we see some patterns in firms’ price setting? Do we observe immediate responses to demand-, technology-, and cost-shocks?

Based on survey information from Statistics Norway about product prices in the manufacturing industry, merged with register data on firms’ revenues, costs, investments, and labour demand there are several topics for empirical master theses on pricing behaviour, either seen through the lenses of an IO scholar, or a macro economist.

Data: 

As the data include highly sensitive information, it is necessary to apply for access to the data.

Suitable for profiles:  ECN

Supervisor:  Prof. Øivind A. Nilsen

The price development on the real estate market in a non-Scandinavian country

In many European countries, the housing market is characterized by soaring prices.  Is this price evolution reflecting a development in the underlying fundamentals for this market, or are actual prices and fundamentals little connected, thereby possibly indicating a price bubble?  Using quarterly data on real estate prices, this project would estimate a model for the housing market allowing for both fundamentals and error-corrections mechanisms.

Bergman and Sørensen (2021) The interaction of actual and fundamental house prices: a general model with an application to Sweden, Journal of Housing Economics 54 .

Data:  Real estate price statistics, housing stock statistics, national account data

Suitable for profiles:  ECN, ECO,FIN.

Supervisor:  Fred Schroyen

Corporate sustainability, firm performance and economic growth

Firms, consumers, investors and stakeholders more generally are increasingly informing their decisions based on  environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials. 

Policies are put in place fostering ESG reporting. Governments are implementing regulations requiring organisations to increase transparency in areas such as diversity, equal pay, carbon emissions and complying with responsible working conditions. On the 21st of April 2021, the EU commission announced the adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in line with the commitment made under the European Green Deal. The proposed directive will also entail a dramatic increase in the number of companies subject to the EU sustainability reporting requirements across the EU countries.

The hypothesis or claim is that sustainable growth is the only way to build a successful business and have a lasting impact on our environment and society. More empirical research is needed in this area and this topic area offers opportunities for mastertheses in, for example,  macroeconomics, public economics, management, finance, and resource economics.

Examples of research questions for masterthesis:

Collect data on how many firms report on ESG and make reports publicly available in Norway or the EU. Here students can focus on one aspect or a subset.

What is the quality of ESG reporting and are firms pursuing the attempted goals? E.g. what is the quality of firms’ reports on gender equality and gender diversity consistent with national statistics? Students can collect their own data for a subset of Norwegian firms and compare these to Norwegian micro-statistics or indicators based on firm-level data.

Consultancies are providing guidance and software to help firms report on ESG. An interesting thesis could contain collecting data on these and organise an overview of the work of consultancies in this area, e.g. on equality and gender diversity or environment. This material could then be critically assessed comparing it to main indicators and challenges in terms of equality and D&I.

Students interested in macroeconomics could quantify the contribution of human capital to growth and discuss the expected chances coming from ESG reporting and the transition of the economy.

Data sources and methods:

• Firm level data collected by the students (could use hand collection, text analysis, scaping, or other methods)
• Firm level data: SNF database, BoardEx Data
• Regression analysis (programs STATA or R)
• OECD data, EIGE data (on equality, wages, education, job titles)

Gillan, S. L., Koch, A., & Starks, L. T. (2021). Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance.  Journal of Corporate Finance ,  66 , 101889.

Post, C., & Byron, K. (2015). Women on boards and firm financial performance: A meta-analysis.  Academy of management Journal ,  58 (5), 1546-1571.

Miller, A. R. (2018). Women and leadership in Averett, S., & Hoffman, S. D. (Eds.). (2018).  The Oxford handbook of women and the economy . Oxford University Press.

Kunze, A. (2020): Kjønnsmessig mangfold i ledelsen" (Gender diversity in top management), Magma, No. 320, Årgang 23, 3/2020.

Fields: macroeconomics, public economics, management, finance, and resource economics

If you are interested please get in touch with Prof. Astrid Kunze, Assoc. Prof. Krisztina Molnar, or Antoine Bertheau

Microeconomics & Industrial Organization

Competition and pricing in the european airline industry.

The airline industry is comprised of large, capital-intensive firms competing on prices, availability and prices, making decisions over prices, routes to operate and fleet. Important features of competition is price discrimination, use of loyalty programs and entry in or exit from specific routes, in the face of potentially tough competition and volatile demand over the business cycle. The European and Norwegian airline industry has changed dramatically over the years, with changing technologies, travel habits, regulations, taxation and industry structure. The rise of low-cost carriers from the late 90s and early 2000s and the strategic responses of flag carriers, for instance by reducing prices in response to even merely the threat of entry has been important for the development of the industry we see today, in addition to the growing domestic, regional and international policy debates on how to handle the carbon footprint of the sector in later years.

There are many possible directions for a thesis on this topic, for instance:

• What factors determine how an incumbent airline responds to increased threat of entry on a route?
• How would carbon taxation influence fleet choices and competition in the industry?
• What is the effect of loyalty programs on demand and competition?
• Differences in price discrimination across routes and carriers: What are the main drivers?
• Aircraft investment and the business cycle: A recipe for hysteresis?

Key literature:

Goolsbee, A. and Syverson, C. (2008) "How Do Incumbents Respond to the Threat of Entry? Evidence from the Major Airlines", Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123, pp. 1611–1633

Borenstein, S. and Rose, N. L. (1994) "Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry", Journal of Political Economy, 102, pp. 653–683

"Aviation Industry Leaders Report 2022: Recovery through Resilience", KPMG, edited by Victoria Tozer-Pennington 

Data: Data on number of passengers and prices for separate routes, airlines and ticket classes can be made available by supervisors.

Suitable for profiles: BAN, BUS, ECN, ECO, ENE, FIN

Possible supervisors: Lars Sørgard , Mateusz Mysliwski , Morten Sæthre

DO ECONOMIC BOOMS AND BUSTS AFFECT SLEEPING PATTERNS AND THE NUMBER OF HOURS OF LEISURE ACTIVITIES?

Although health is usually thought to worsen when the economy weakens, substantial recent research suggests that mortality actually declines during such periods. Could this decline in mortality be explained by people enjoying more free time and more sleep during recession?

Christopher J. Ruhm (2000): “Are Recessions Good for Your Health?” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115 (2): 617-650.

Data: Norwegian time use survey 1971-2010

DO SMOKING POLICIES AFFECT SMOKING BEHAVIOR AND DO BETTER-EDUCATED INDIVIDUALS REACT FASTER TO POLICY CHANGES?

The strong correlation between education and health, even after controlling for income, has been recognized as a robust empirical observation in the social sciences and economic literature (Deaton and Paxson 2003; Lleras-Muney 2004). The decision to smoke or not to smoke is a conscious choice that directly affects the health status and ultimately the mortality of individuals. It therefore provides an interesting opportunity to investigate how education, by influencing behaviors, affects health outcomes.

Damien de Walque (2010): “Education, Information, and Smoking Decisions: Evidence from Smoking Histories in the United States, 1940–2000” Journal of Human Resources, 45:682-717.

Data: Norwegian smoking habit survey from 1973-2011

Suitable for profiles:   ECO, ECN, (STR, INB, BUS)

(Note: Theses under this topic can be eligible for an Equinor scholarship for master theses .)

Suitable for profiles: BUS, ECN, ECO, ENE, FIN

(Tentative) supervisor:  Samuel D. Hirshman , Harim Kim, Eirik G. Kristiansen , Mateusz Mysliwski and/or Morten Sæthre

HOW CAN WE EXPLAIN CEO PAY?

There is a widespread suspicion that top managers and other key person are overpaid. They are frequently lavishly rewarded when the firm is lucky and not penalized when the firm is unlucky. Some receive discretionary severance pay that the firms are not committed to pay. Pay structure and level seem to depend on the owner structure. There are a large set of observations that are puzzling if you believe that owners should provide cost efficient incentives to managers. The project might examine pay structure in a particular industry or across countries and compare observations with empirical predictions from analytical models.

Bebchuk, L. A. and J. M. Fried (2004) Pay without performance: The unfulfilled promise of executive compensation, Harvard University Press

Suitable for profiles: ECO, ECN, FIN

Supervisor: Eirik Gaard Kristiansen

How should we pay for drugs? Is Netflix a model?

Health plans negotiate rebates on list prices with drug companies. If the net price is sufficiently low, the health plan may decide to include the drug in their plan so that the drug is reimbursed and available for patients. The current model is that health plans pay a uniform net price per unit purchased from the drug company. Recently, there has been proposed a different payment regime – called the Netflix model. Instead of paying a uniform price, proponents of the Netflix model argue that health plans should instead pay a fixed (subscription) fee to the drug company for getting access to the drug at marginal costs (or zero costs). The argument is that two-part tariffs is more efficient given the high innovation costs and low production costs. Opponents argue that the Netflix model will extract more consumer surplus and lead to higher costs for health plans. Some countries and health plans are now testing the Netflix model, which also seems to be relevant for the new covid-19 vaccine.

Barros, P. and X. Martinez-Giralt (2012) Health economics: an industrial organization perspective. Routledge. Chapter 17

The Economist (2019): The antibiotic industry is broken. Take inspiration from the entertainment industry. Leader.

Suitable for profiles: ECN, ECO, BUS, STR

Supervisor: Kurt R. Brekke

Data:  Data from eiendomnorge.no, real estate agencies

Suitable for profiles:  ECN, ECO, FIN, BAN

MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND FIRMS

We know very little about the management practices in Norway. International data have shown that great differences exist between family businesses, multinationals and that the public sector has relatively worse management practices. Questions related to measurement and comparison of management practices invite to a great number of research ideas for a master thesis. You can explore  existing data sets, and create extended data by merging additional firm level information.

Corecon. Empirical Project 6: Measuring Management Practices

Data:  World Management Survey

Suitable for profiles:  ECN, FIN, STR.

Maximum likelihood estimation of a demand system

The almost ideal demand (AID) system was developed by Deaton and Muellbauer (1980).  It specifies a household’s set of demand functions for different goods and services.  The AID system combines flexibility and consistency with theoretical properties with a specification for the demand equations that allows for tractable estimation.

However, one of the weaknesses of the AID system is that the crucial property of negativity (that compensated demand functions should always slope downwards—the “law of demand”) cannot be imposed under estimation without giving up the flexibility of the system.

To remedy this weakness, Moschini (1998) suggested incorporating the negativity property “at the mean data point”, i.e., to make sure that if the household has the average income level and faces the average prices in the dataset, then its behavior respects the “law of demand”.  While not solving the problem completely, this is a big step forward.

The purpose of the thesis would be to write a maximum likelihood estimation programme in Stata that incorporates Moschini’s restriction, and use it on household budget survey data for Norway to obtain estimates for income and price elasticities.  

Deaton A and J Muellbauer (1980) An almost ideal demand system, American Economic Review 70 , 312-336.

Moschini (1998) The semi-flexible almost ideal demand system, European Economic Review 42 , 349-364.

Data: Household budget survey data collected by Statistics Norway (SSBs Forbruksundersøkelsen 1999-2012 )

Suitable for profiles : ECO, ECN

Merger remedies: Is the cure effective in restoring competition?

Mergers that restrict competition should be stopped by competition authorities. However companies may propose remedies that reduce or eliminate the competitive harm to get the merger cleared. Such remedies can be structural or behavioral. Structural remedies imply usually that competing activity are divested to a new or existing company in the market. Behavioral remedies are usually commitments to abstain from various forms of anti-competitive behavior for a given period after the merger. Merger remedies can be a win-win in the sense that the harm to competition can be solved and otherwise profitable mergers can be carried out. However recent studies show that this instrument in merger control is inefficient in restoring competition and that mergers that are cleared with remedies tend to result in price increases after the merger. Why is that? Is the problem mainly related to behavioral remedies? Are there inherent incentive or information problems? How can merger control be improved? This project should combine theory and data. Data can be made available upon request.

Kwoka, J. (2015): Mergers, merger control and remedies: a retrospective analysis of US policy. The MIT Press.

Supervisor: Lars Sørgard

The market for gift cards

In Norway, and in many other countries, gift cards have become popular. Both firms, organisations, and private persons buy gift cards as presents during the Christmas season or on occasions like birthdays. Like money, gift cards give the recipient a wider variety of things to choose from.  At the same time, gift cards are more memorable than an envelope with cash. But gift cards come with restrictions. They can only be used in certain stores/chains of stores, and they expire after a well-defined period. For these reasons, a second-hand market for gift cards has developed. You can buy gift cards on finn.no or Ebay at a discount of their nominal value.

Offenberg, Jennifer Pate (2007) "Markets: Gift Cards", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21, pp. 227-238. 

Data:  Data from Finn.no, "Bygavekort" Bergen

Suitable for profiles: ECN, ECO

Possible supervisors: Fred Schroyen

THE PEAK-END-RULE AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The peak-end-rule says that the most memorable parts of an experience is the peak (i.e the most enjoyable period) and the end. Daniel Kahneman and co-authors have for example shown that you can make patients better off by simply extending a painful medical treatment with a more joyful period at the end. The idea of this thesis proposal is to test the peak-end theory in a relevant, high-stake, real-world environment. In particular, the aim is to combine data from e.g. the Premier League in England  with regional data on domestic violence and other offensive behavior, and test whether football fans are more upset, and therefore make more criminal acts, when their team lost because of a goal occurring in the final minutes of the game as opposed to the same nominal loss, but were the score was determined earlier in the game. The thesis will also include a replication of the paper by Card and Dahl (2011) on prospect theory and violence

Key reference: 

Card and Dahl (2011), Family Violence and Football: The Effect of Unexpected Emotional Cues on Violent Behavior, Quarterly Journal of Economics

The use of budget survey data to estimate demand functions

In many countries, the statistical office regularly carries out a household budget survey.  Such a survey documents how households allocate their budget over different commodity and service groups.  The same statistical office also constructs price indices for different consumption categories.  Using these two data sources, the project would consist in estimating a system of demand functions that describes the price and income sensitivity of the different consumption categories, and in testing the microeconomic properties of such functions.  Estimation can be carried out with existing user friendly Stata programmes.

Banks J, R Blundell and A Lewbell (1997) Quadratic Engel Curves and Consumer Demand, Review of Economics and Statistics 79 , 527-539

Data:  Household budget survey data and price indices for your country

Suitable for profiles:  ECN, ECO.

Public Economics

Four topics on challenges in the electricity markets.

There is a dramatic transition taking place in energy markets, where renewable energy is about to replace energy based on fossil fuels. In Europe coal, gas and oil is about to be replaced by renewable energy such as solar power and wind power. One challenge, though, is that the renewable energy is intermittent. For example, wind power produces for full capacity in some time periods, and have zero production in other time periods. This irregularity may lead to increased volatility in electricity prices, with very low prices when the wind is blowing and very high prices else.

In the Norwegian electricity market more than 90 % of its production of electricity comes from hydro power. In contrast to renewable energy such a wind power, hydro power is flexible since water can be stored in reservoirs. Such a flexibility is valuable, since one can reallocate production such that it produces when it is most needed. On the other hand, the total supply of energy in a hydro power system during a year is dependent on the weather. In a wet year with a lot of rain, the total production in Norway is approximately 30 % higher than the domestic consumption. However, in a dry year the domestic supply is lower than the domestic demand.

Due to a move from fossil fuels to electricity, the domestic demand is expected to increase the next years in Norway (and other countries). Unless Norway expands production substantially in the coming years, which is unlikely given the (lack of) decisions that have been made concerning new power plants, the next ten years the periods with excess supply in the Norwegian electricity market will be fewer than before.

The present crisis, with gas being decisive for the prices in the electricity market for the whole of Europe, adds to the challenges Europe is facing with the transition to renewable energy. There is at present an ongoing debate in Europe whether there is a need for a structural reform of the market design of the electricity market. Some question the coordinated system of export or imports of electricity, while others question the model where the producer with the highest costs sets the price (the so called merit order system).

• Describe the present market design for electricity, and discuss pros and cons of the system that is used today. In particular, discuss how suitable such a system is for a future situation with much more intermittent electricity production (especially wind and solar power).
• Consider the situation for Norway, with mostly hydro power. Discuss how Norway can gain from trade with the rest of Europe. In particular, what are the pros and cons of building more transmission lines (or scrapping some existing ones) between Norway and surrounding countries.
• In Norway there is a rather high seller concentration in situations with bottlenecks on the transmission lines, and then markets becoming national or even smaller than that. Discuss how a producer with market power can behave in such a system, and whether there are any structural reforms that can curb any potential harmful exploitation of market power.
• There are some large producers in the Norwegian electricity market, with water reservoirs that makes it possible to store water even from one year to another. Discuss how such a player should allocate its sales of water in order to maximize profits, and relate your predictions from theory to what you observe in this market.

Possible majors: ECN, ECO, BUS, STR (depending on the focus of the thesis)

Possible supervisors: Depending on the approach you choose, but Lars Sørgard or other faculty members from the Department of Economics

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THE NORWEGIAN INCENTIVE SCHEMES FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES?

Several countries, including U.S.A., Canada and Norway, have introduced incentives to encourage the sale of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. There is a debate over the effectiveness of these policies in achieving the desired policy goals, such as reductions in CO2 emissions. The Norwegian incentive scheme is notable for high subsidies as well as other extensive benefits, including exemption from the registration tax, free toll roads, free parking, and programs for building charging stations. More detailed knowledge about the effects of specific parts of the incentive scheme would be helpful, both to inform possible improvements of the incentive schemes, but also for planning purposes in businesses and local governments. There are several open questions regarding the effect of the rich incentive scheme. One question regards how much the different policies contribute to increasing electric vehicle sales. A related question is whether they have differential impact on which modes of transportation consumers substitute away from, e.g., whether consumers substitute away from regular cars, public transport and biking, both at the intensive and the extensive margin. A master thesis on this topic could focus on one or several specific policies and subquestions.

Fearnley et al (2015): "E-vehicle policies and incentives - assessment and recommendations", TØI report 1421/2015; Chandra et al (2010): "Green drivers or free riders? An analysis of tax rebates for hybrids vehicles", Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 60: 78-93; Holtsmark (2012): "Elbilpolitikken - virker den etter hensikten?", Samfunnsøkonomen 5: 4-11

Data: Detailed data about car ownership including some usage measures per vehicle can be provided by the supervisor, in addition to data on tollroads and charging stations.

Suitable for profiles: ECO, ECN, ENE, BUS, FIE, INB

Supervisor: Morten Sæthre

REGULATION OF FINANCIAL MARKETS: HOW CAN THE POLITICAL PROCESS PRODUCE VERY DIFFERENT REGULATIONS ACROSS COUNTRIES?

Improved financial market regulation ensure that information is widely spread and investors can trust information and contracts. However, not all parties benefit from better regulation. For example, some established firms dislike that new entrants obtain financing, demand for labour may increase which again will increase wages.  In an influential book, Rajan and Zingales describe how financial regulation across countries can be explained by political forces in favour and against better regulation. A possible project would be to discuss how strong labour unions, industry structure, openness to trade and other institutional characteristics can explain the current regulation in Norway. The project might combine insights from analytical approaches discussed in Tirole with the empirical literature discussed in the book by Rajan and Zingales.

Rajan R. G. and L. Zingales (2003), Saving capitalism from the capitalists Princeton University Press.

Tirole, J (2006) The theory of Corporate Finance, see chapter 16 on Institutions, Public Policy and the Political Economy of Finance, Princeton University Press.

TECHNOLOGY MARKETS: HOW TO (NOT) SELL TECHNOLOGIES?

The best innovators are often not the best producers. Many patented technologies with different owners need to be used together in order to produce a valuable product. Consequently, there should be a vivid market for technology transactions. However, many claim that the market is smaller than expected and not working very well. Knowhow is not easy to sell: None are willing to buy something before they have seen it, and when they have seen it (and can use it) why should they pay for it? Will the patent system solve the problem or can patenting prevent investments in new technologies. You might use Apple (or another firm) as a motivating example for a study of how firms might organize sales and purchases of technologies?

Bessen, J. and M.J. Meurer, (2008) Patent failure: How judges, bureaucrats, and lawyers put innovation at risk, Princeton University Press.

Jaffe, A. B. and J. Lerner (2004): Innovation and its Discontents: How our broken patent system is endangering innovation and progress, and what to do about it, Princeton University Press

Suitable for profiles: ECO, ECN, FIN, STR

The death of Queen Elizabeth II.-a Monetary policy shock

Queen Elizabeth II. died on 8 September 2022. The queen liked to "keep calm, and carry on" whatever happened. In contrast to this spirit, the next day Bank of England announced delaying their upcoming pre-scheduled monetary policy meeting from 15 to 22 September. The rescheduling was unexpected, i.e., an exogenous monetary policy shock. This time it was not an unexpected decision but an unexpected `lack of.` Financial markets expected a new interest rate hike. However, for a further week, interest rates stayed the same.

The thesis investigates the effect of this unexpected delay of MPC decisions on financial markets. Our method to isolate this story from other news events is to use high-frequency data in a narrow window around the announcement.

Nakamura, Emi, and Jón Steinsson. Forth- coming. “High Frequency Identification of Monetary Non-Neutrality: The Information Effect.” Quarterly Journal of Economics

Supervisors:   Markus Karlman and Krisztina Molnar  

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When it comes to global economic governance, less can be more if you want increased cooperation, stability, and equitable growth

HKS Professor Dani Rodrik says his new paper shows that a “light model” of international trade governance can reduce U.S.-China tensions and lead to more equitable prosperity worldwide.

In an era of great power rivalry and escalating tensions between the United States and China, how should global economic policymakers approach governance to foster greater cooperation, reduce conflict, and promote equity and shared prosperity? Tread lightly, says Harvard Kennedy School Professor Dani Rodrik . In a new paper in the Journal of Government and Economics titled " How to smooth U.S.-China economic relations for the benefit of the global economy: A light model of global economic governance ," Rodrik argues for a less-is-more approach that emphasizes transparency and restricts trade rules to those that are truly necessary. Recent history, he writes, has shown that heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all global economic governance has disadvantaged developing countries and empowered nativist, populist politicians in regions that suffered job losses due to globalization. Rodrik is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy and co-director of the Reimagining the Economy project at HKS 

Q: In your paper, you argue for a “light” model of global economic governance to smooth U.S.-China economic relations and benefit the global economy. What measures does a light economic governance model include and what does it exclude? 

The basic distinction is between addressing the most egregious policy barriers at the border—especially beggar-thy-neighbor policies—versus a more ambitious agenda of trying to remove all obstacles to the flow of trade and finance even if these encompass domestic regulations. My colleague Robert Lawrence has called this the difference between “shallow integration” and “deep integration.” So countries might negotiate over import tariffs or export restrictions, but industrial policies or financial regulations, for example, would remain largely outside the remit of global rules or trade agreements.

Q: What evidence is there that more intensive global governance and trade rules—a “heavy” or “deep integration” model—have been unnecessary or counter-productive? 

The deep integration model had two undesirable side effects. First, it made it harder for developing countries to engage in industrial policies or other structural policies to diversify and upgrade their economies and to shelter themselves from the destabilizing effects of short-term capital flows, because of real (or self-imposed) constraints on their policy autonomy. It was countries such as China who disregarded such constraints and made full use of industrial policies and capital controls that performed the best. Others who followed the deep integration model and relied on trade agreements and openness to foreign capital as their sole growth strategy, such as Mexico, did quite poorly. 

Second, it prevented policy makers in advanced economies from taking seriously and addressing the adverse labor market effects of growing imports from China and elsewhere. During the 1970s and 1980s, before globalization got supercharged, it was common for countries to put up informal trade barriers—typically “voluntary” export restrictions administered by exporting countries—which limited the shock. These were safety valves for the trade system, and even though economists complained about “protectionism,” such measures did the job of regime maintenance (in the words of our late colleague John Ruggie). After the 1990s, policymakers’ response to these dislocations was to shrug their shoulders and tell the losers this is how globalization worked and there was nothing to be done. This was one of the key failings of mainstream politicians, which in turn empowered the populists. We have plenty of evidence now that regions that lost jobs to imports from China or Mexico became the breeding grounds for the nativist populists.

“The future of the global economic order depends first and foremost on how the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China will evolve.”

Dani rodrik.

Q: One of the main building blocks of the light governance model is what you call a “transparency-enhancing process for policymaking.” What is that process and why is increased transparency important? 

In an interdependent global economy, it is inevitable that many policies that target national economic well-being as well as domestic social and environmental priorities will have some undesirable side effects on other nations. This is the case, for example, when nations engage in policies to fix important market failures or address national security concerns. Often such policies are needed and legitimate, and trade partners have to be permissive and understanding. Such policies have to be distinguished from those that are explicitly beggar-thy-neighbor—that is, policies that generate benefits at home because of the harms they produce for other nations.  

If we are going to live in a world where national policymakers have greater autonomy to address domestic priorities, as I think we have to, it will be important for them to communicate their motivations both to their domestic audiences and to other governments. This is to build trust and mutual understanding. For example, when the United States imposes export controls on “sensitive technologies” or imposes restrictions on Chinese investments on U.S. soil on the basis of national security, we need much better explanation on (a) what the national security objective really is, and (b) how the export or investment in question undermines the objective. Otherwise, national security can turn into a blanket justification for all kinds of policies that either do not really address national security or (as in the case of the U.S.) take too expansive view of it.

Q: How would a light governance model smooth U.S.-China relations? And how would it work in the context of the current slowdown in what had been China’s robust growth over the last three decades? 

It would be a good first step if each side were to give up on hypocrisy and recognize the similarity of their approaches. The United States continues to criticize China for allegedly pursuing mercantilist and protectionist policies and violating the norms of a “liberal” international order. For their part, Chinese policymakers accuse the United States of turning its back on globalization and waging economic warfare on China. Neither side seems to be aware of the irony that the United States has taken a page from the Chinese playbook, while U.S. departures from the “liberal order” are readily recognizable to Chinese policy makers from their own practices.   

Q: How would a light economic governance model achieve an overall global economic benefit? 

The future of the global economic order depends first and foremost on how the bilateral relationship between the United States and China will evolve. So anything that smooths this critical relationship would be very good news for the world economy. Second, as these two powers build a certain degree of trust and understanding, this would also contribute to an environment where they play a positive role in providing critical global public goods (such as decarbonizing the world economy and global public health).    

Photograph by STR/AFP/Getty Images

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MIT economics to launch new predoctoral fellowship program

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The MIT Department of Economics is launching a new program this year that will pair faculty with predoctoral fellows.

“MIT economics right now is historically strong,” says Jon Gruber, the Ford Professor of Economics and department head of MIT economics. “To remain in that position involves having the resources to stay on the cutting edge of the research frontier, and that requires the use of predocs.”

The nature of economic research has changed enormously, adds Gruber, due to factors like the use of large datasets, innovations in experiment design, and comprehensive data analysis, all of which require the support of predocs. This new research model empowers economists to address national and global challenges in profound and much more effective ways.

The new predoc program is made possible by an ongoing major fundraising initiative in the department. 

Gruber gave credit to Glenn Ellison, the Gregory K. Palm (1970) Professor of Economics and former department chair, for working closely with Roger Altman, MIT Corporation member and the former head and current member of the visiting committee, to craft a vision for the future of the department that will ultimately include up to 24 predocs that would work for economics faculty at MIT. 

“It’s a great vision. They put a lot of work into it,” Gruber says.

With significant support from the Altman Family Fund, Gruber explains, the predoc program will be able to ramp up, providing predocs to the department’s junior faculty. He expects six predocs to start in the department this fall.

“We’ll have a wide range of junior faculty who will be using these predocs for a bunch of really interesting and important questions that are very data- and research-intensive,” Gruber says.

Tobias Salz, the Castle Krob Career Development Associate Professor of Economics, is one of the faculty members already benefiting from a pilot of the new program. He’s working on a large project on the search engine market.

“I am working with a predoctoral research fellow who has been instrumental in many parts of the project, including the design of an experiment and data analysis,” says Salz. “Initially, I was only able to hire him for one year, but with the new funding I am able to extend his contract. The predoctoral program has therefore helped ensure continuity on this project, which has made a big difference.”

Nina Roussille, assistant professor of economics, says her work will greatly benefit from collaborating with a predoc. Several of her projects either require the analysis of large, administrative datasets or the implementation of large-scale experiments.

“This kind of work will be greatly enhanced and streamlined with the help of a predoc to construct, clean, and analyze the data, as well as to set up the experiments and study their effects. This will free up some of my time to participate in more projects and allow me to focus my efforts on high-yield tasks, such as data analysis and paper writing,” says Roussille.

Roussille adds that she’s excited about the opportunity to mentor a young economist on the path to a PhD.

“They’ll greatly benefit from the vibrant research environment of the MIT economics department,” she said.

Gruber sees the program as mutually beneficial for both the predocs and the faculty.

“The advantage for the predoc is they get research experience and they get to know a faculty member,” adds Gruber. “The advantage for the faculty is they get to work with someone who wants to excel and make an impression with the person they research for.”

Beyond establishing the predoc program, this current fundraising initiative prioritizes building resources for faculty research in the Department of Economics. In addition to the gift from the Altman Family Fund to establish the predoctoral fellowship program, this fundraising initiative has secured several other significant contributions, including:  

• the creation of the Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professorship Fund, through the support of Dan Rubinfeld, PhD ’72;
• the Thapanee Sirivadhanabhakdi Techajareonvikul (1999) Professorship Fund, established by economics undergraduate alumna and her husband, Aswin Techajareonvkul MBA ’02;
• another endowed professorship in the department, through the support of an anonymous donor;
• the creation of the Locher Economics Fund, which will provide discretionary resources to support faculty research for the department, through the support of Kurt ’88, SM ’89, and Anne Stark Locher; and
• a gift to create the Dr. James A. Berkovec (1977) Memorial Faculty Research Fund in Economics, established by Ben Golub, ’78, SM ’82, PhD ’84.

To date, almost $30 million has been secured for these purposes, and efforts are ongoing.

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