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Economics Dissertation Topics

Published by Alvin Nicolas at January 11th, 2023 , Revised On April 16, 2024

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 .

2024 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 2023

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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Frequently Asked Questions

How to find economics dissertation topics.

For economics dissertation topics:

• Follow economic news and debates.
• Study emerging areas like behavioral economics.
• Analyze policy gaps or challenges.
• Review economic theories and their applications.
• Explore data-driven research opportunities.
• Seek topics aligning with your passion and career aspirations.

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The Law of the EU has gained a growing amount of academic attention, especially since the UK decided to leave the union. Concerns are growing about how EU law will continue to impact the UK constitution.

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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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The dilemma I faced in getting Thesis proposal for my M Phil programme is taken away. Your article would be a useful guide to many more students.Thank you for your guidance.

Thanks for the feedback, John! Your opinion is very important for us!

I wants it for msc thesis

These are very helpful and concise research topics which I have spent days surfing the internet to get all this while. Thanks for making research life experience easier for me. Keep this good work up.

Thank you, Idris!

Glad to hear that! Thank you for your feedback, Idris!

Excellent research

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A very well written, clear and easy-to-read article. It was highly helpful. Thank you!

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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

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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?

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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

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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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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

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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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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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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.

Department of Economics

4: dissertation and project guidelines, dissertation and project guidelines, dissertation guidelines for msc economics and msc economics and international financial economics.

The main aim of the dissertation is to encourage independent study and to provide a foundation for future original research. In terms of learning, the dissertation should provide you with a number of research skills, including the ability to:

• Define a feasible project allowing for time and resource constraints;
• Develop an adequate methodology;
• Make optimal use of library resources;
• Access data bases, understand their uses and limitations and extract relevant data;
• Work without the need for continuous supervision.

Topic selection and allocation of supervisors

Your first task is to determine your dissertation topic and possible supervisor. Topics will be suggested by module lecturers, especially on the optional modules, and by members of faculty. In the Spring Term you will have Research Methods lectures that explicitly direct you to sources of inspiration. Alternatively, you may already know the topic you wish to pursue. A word of advice: it is critical that you choose a topic that you are really interested in and not something that you think sounds good.

Information on potential supervisors will be made available in a spreadsheet, which gives you a list of all supervisors available for 2023-2024, along with their main areas of interest and their suggested dissertation topics. Alternatively, you can browse the staff personal web pages for information, or approach members of staff directly with your research ideas.

Students need to approach their potential supervisor and confirm supervision with them in writing (an email is sufficient). Note that supervisors will only be able to accept a limited number of students each. If you have a preferred supervisor in mind approach them early with a clear idea of a topic you would like to pursue to avoid disappointment.

Once you have decided on a topic you should go to the online form on the dissertation webpage. On this form, you are asked to indicate:

(i) your thesis title, and

(ii) a short (max 200 words) description of your planned research.

(iii) your dissertation supervisor (if you have reached an agreement with a supervisor).

The deadline for submitting this form is 12.00 noon on Monday 8 April 2024 (week 28).

If you have not made an agreement with a supervisor then you will be asked to sign up for one of the remaining supervisors on Tabula, and the slots will be filled on a first-come first-served basis. You will be notified of the date and time for doing this by email.

By the start of week 34 of the Summer Term, i.e. Monday 20 May 2024 (week 34) , all students will be allocated supervisors.

Changes in title must be agreed with the supervisor. A request for a change in supervisor must be made directly to the Director of Graduate Studies (Taught Degrees). Changes will only be made if both original and new supervisor agree.

Timetable for Summer Term

Students are expected to stay in the UK during the Summer Term and will be delivering their presentations in-person.

Monday 8 April 2024 (week 28) - 12.00 noon

Deadline for submission of proposed title of dissertation and prospective supervisors online form Link opens in a new window .

Monday 20 May 2024 (week 34)

MSc dissertation supervisors announced.

Wednesday 29 May 2024 (week 35)

Deadline for submitting ethical scrutiny form (if applicable).

Monday 3 June - Fri 14 June 2024 (weeks 36/37)

During this period supervisors will arrange for all supervisees to give short in-person presentations of their ideas.

Monday 24 June 2024 (week 39)

Deadline for submitting Dissertation Proposal by e-submission.

Wednesday 11 September 2024 (week 50)

Dissertation submission deadline for MSc in Economics and MSc in Economics and International Financial Economics.

Wednesday 5 March 2025 (week 23)

Dissertation submission deadline (for resit candidates).

The role of the supervisor

The role of the supervisor is:

• To advise you on the feasibility of your chosen topic and ways of refining it;
• To provide some references to the general methodology to be used;
• To provide general guidance to the literature review and analysis of the chosen topic.

Supervision will take place mainly or entirely during the summer term. This means that both you and your supervisor need to use the time efficiently. The role of the supervisor during the summer term is to help you develop your dissertation proposal and then to mark and provide feedback on your proposal. During the summer vacation the expectation is that you will be working independently, and your supervisor’s role will be to read and make some comments on a final draft of your work.

Additional support to develop research skills

In the Spring Term we run Research Methods lectures and workshops to equip you with the necessary skills required for research and help to prepare you for your dissertation. The weekly sessions will explain the dissertation process, how to select your topic, what makes a good dissertation, how to complete literature reviews and identify your data. We will continue to build on your skills in econometrics packages with a session on STATA. A Library dissertation training session will explain available resources and how to access databases. A detailed schedule for the lectures and workshops will be announced in the Spring Term.

We provide weekly surgeries in the summer term and vacation to help answer queries about your topic and deal with software and econometric problems. Full details of this facility will be circulated in week 34 of the Summer Term.

It is very important that you identify appropriate data source(s) for your dissertation if you are doing an empirical topic, and you should discuss the availability of sources with your supervisor an early stage.

Some organisations will only supply data on the condition that it would be stored on the Department's secure servers and that the Department would take legal responsibility for it. Unfortunately, the Department is unable to meet these conditions, and in this situation, you would need to use an alternative data source.

Please also be aware that the Department does not typically pay for data sets or cover other costs relating to MSc dissertation data collection (for example, surveys). Therefore, please identify data that are already available or can be acquired free of change. Our Economics Academic Support Librarian, Jackie Hanes, is happy to help you find the information you need for your research, show you how to use specific resources, or discuss any other issues you might have. Her email address is [email protected].

Ethical scrutiny

At Warwick, any research, including dissertations for Masters degrees, that involves direct contact with participants, through their physical participation in research activities (invasive and non-invasive participation, including surveys or personal data collection conducted by any means), that indirectly involves participants through their provision of data or tissue, or that involves people on behalf of others (e.g. parents on behalf of children), requires ethical scrutiny.

Note that your research does not require ethical scrutiny if it does not involve direct or indirect contact with participants. For example, most research involving previously existing datasets where individual-level information is not provided, or where individuals are not identified, or using historical records, does not require ethical scrutiny, and this is likely to include most research conducted in the Department. Research involving laboratory or field experiments, or the collection of new individual level survey data, always requires ethical scrutiny.

It is your responsibility to seek the necessary scrutiny and approval, and if in doubt, you must consult your supervisor.

If your research work requires ethical scrutiny and approval, checks are conducted within the Department in line with rules approved by the University’s Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee. Please consult with your supervisor and complete the Department’s form for ethical approval of student research Link opens in a new window .

The form should be submitted to the Postgraduate Office by Wednesday 29 May 2024 (week 35).

The dissertation proposal

There are two parts to the dissertation proposal: a presentation and a written proposal.

First, you will be required to present your proposed topic to your supervisor and fellow students in a group. This will help you focus your ideas, especially via feedback from other students and your supervisor. Please note that some supervisors will organise individual meetings for presentations. The presentations should take the following format:

• The presentation will be delivered in-person.
• You will have 10-15 minutes each, comprising your 5-10 minute presentation followed by five minutes of discussion and comment;
• The presentation should either use Powerpoint or PDF;
• You must identify the title of your proposed research, the research objective, the data and any computing/statistical tools required (for example, Stata);
• The research objective should be briefly expanded into a justification of why you want to study this question — why it is important followed by a short description of what you intend to do;
• One slide is adequate for covering related literature.

Then, based on your presentation and any feedback you receive, you have to write a detailed dissertation proposal to include a literature review and research plan. This should be a maximum length of 1,000 words excluding all appendices, footnotes, tables and the bibliography.

Please note that your supervisor will not comment on a draft of your proposal before you submit it.

The dissertation proposal will be assessed and carries a mark worth 10% of the mark for the dissertation module as a whole. The deadline is Monday 24 June 2024 (week 39) and you should submit your proposal electronically via Tabula.

Dissertation format

The dissertation is worth 90% of the total mark for the dissertation module. There is no minimum word length and concise expositions are encouraged. The dissertation should be a maximum length of 8,000 words, excluding acknowledgements, appendices, footnotes, words in graphs, tables, notes to tables and the bibliography. Note there is a limit of 15 pages for the appendices, footnotes, and tables. Abstract words, quotations and citations count towards the word limit.

We recommend that you use Microsoft Word or Scientific Word, both of which can easily insert equations. The first page of the dissertation itself should include the title, your name, date and any preface and acknowledgements. Pages and sections must be numbered. We have no particular preference for how you format your dissertation. The structure of your dissertation will be decided upon by yourself and your supervisor. We have published some top past dissertations and proposals Link opens in a new window to show you what headings/sub headings other students have used, and how the dissertation might be organised. Every dissertation will normally include:

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Results/Discussion

References should be collected at the back in alphabetical order and should contain sufficient detail to allow them to be followed up if required: at a minimum you should cite author, date of publication, title of book or article, journal of publication or book publishing company.

Submitting your dissertation

Your MSc dissertation must be submitted electronically via Tabula under module code EC959. The name of the PDF file should be your student ID number. As well as the PDF of your dissertation, you should submit your “log” (output) file, noting that you will need to upload the .PDF file and the .txt output file at the same time – if you upload them separately the second file may overwrite the other. Please note that we reserve the right to ask to see further details of your data and any econometric and other programmes you have used to analyse it. So, we advise you to keep electronic copies of data and programs (including do-files if applicable) until after the Exam Board has met.

At the same time, you must also submit a completed Dissertation Submission Form Link opens in a new window . No paper copies of your dissertation are required.

Deadlines and extensions

There will be two deadlines each year for MSc dissertations. The September deadline applies to all MSc students who have passed their examinations at the first attempt and are not taking any re(sit) exams in September. The March deadline will be for those students who are doing re(sit) exams in September, and for those who may have asked for an extension due to mitigating circumstances.

Students who are doing one re(sit) exam and are able to hand in their dissertation for the September deadline will be permitted to do so, on the understanding that this is done at their own risk; the dissertation will not be considered if they have not met the criteria for the taught component of the MSc (see the section on MSc Exam Schemes Link opens in a new window ). In the case of two re(sit) exams, we strongly advise you to defer your dissertation until March of the following year. However, if you really feel you have to do your dissertation over the summer, for example, because you are going straight to a job, or for other reasons, you must discuss the situation with your supervisor, and obtain his/her agreement. Please note that we cannot give you a short deadline extension in September because you have got resit examinations. If you have failed or missed three or more exams, we require you to defer the writing of your dissertation until after the September exams, without any exceptions.

If you cannot make your September or March deadline due to medical, or other mitigating circumstances, you must fill in an extension request form, available on Tabula. If your application is approved, you will be permitted to submit your dissertation by the agreed extension date or the next biannual deadline (either March or September). You need to supply suitable medical or other evidence within one week of submitting the extension request. The evidence you provide should cover a substantial part of the dissertation period detailing why you were unable to work on the dissertation. Please note that extensions will not be granted for short-term illnesses or being in full- or part-time employment.

Assessment and feedback

To achieve at least a pass, a dissertation must demonstrate a high level of competence in both analysis and expression. This can be achieved in several ways, for instance by:

• Providing a critical survey of some area of the subject. This should be written in such a way as to take the non-specialist reader from the beginnings of the topic up to the frontiers. It should integrate and synthesise existing ideas, demonstrate the relationships between them and assess their significance. It is not enough to simply catalogue previous work. However lengthy the bibliography is, a dissertation which shows no deep grasp of the motivation, content and structure of the literature will fail. Though ‘originality’ in the sense of a demonstrable theoretical or empirical innovation is not required in order to pass, it is expected that some degree of original thought will be needed to place the ideas of others in a coherent setting;
• Applying techniques developed by others to a data-set not previously used for that purpose, with a clear motivation for doing so;
• Examining the robustness of an existing theoretical model to changes in its underlying assumptions, with a clear motivation for doing so.

At least two examiners will assess your dissertation. Markers will use the 20-point scale shown in the next section when marking the proposal and dissertation (though note that the final mark agreed by first and second dissertation markers is not restricted to the 20-point scale to enable averaging if appropriate).

No feedback on the result of your dissertation is possible until after the Exam Board meets in November 2024, when your mark and comments will be provided through Tabula. Second markers are not required to write comments, though they can do so if they wish. If the second marker does write comments these can be included separately, or they can be combined into a joint report.

20-point marking scale

Research project guidelines for msc behavioural and economic science.

You will carry out novel research in the area of behavioural science. You will work within one of the departments’ labs, designing and running independent empirical work that addresses a current research question. You will have the support of experts in the field and will produce research suitable for publication in an international journal.

Projects are:

• Empirical (that is an experiment, computer program, survey or observational study);
• Physically safe and ethically acceptable (conform to the British Psychological Society Code of Conduct);
• Practical in terms of demands on time, equipment, number of subjects required and laboratory space.

Potential research project topics will be provided in the Spring Term. When the topics are published, please do contact supervisors. You will indicate your project preferences via an online form, with projects allocated centrally.

You must read the British Psychological Society Code of Human Research Ethics. If you are conducting research using the internet, you must also read the British Psychological Society guidelines on internet mediated research. Both documents can be found on the BPS website Link opens in a new window .

At Warwick, any research that involves direct contact with participants, through their physical participation in research activities (invasive and non-invasive participation), that indirectly involves participants through their provision of data or tissue and that involves people on behalf of others (e.g. parents on behalf of children) requires ethical scrutiny. It is your and your supervisor’s joint responsibility to ensure that ethical approval is secured, and this should take place very early in the Summer Term.

If you consider that ethical approval is necessary, please consult with your supervisor and submit the relevant form for ethical approval to [email protected] Link opens in a new window . When there are multiple students on the same project, we will only require one form.

Format and submission

Projects might typically contain one or two experiments or a significant econometric analysis of a large data set. The research in the report should be of a publishable standard. This normally means that the research is relevant and innovative, that there are no major methodological flaws and that the conclusions are appropriate.

With your supervisor choose an appropriate target journal. The formatting of the dissertation must be as for submission to your target journal. Write up your report following the journal submission guidelines. Include on the front page of your report the name of the journal you select. Avoid writing in a more generic 'thesis style' as you may have done for past projects.

Project reports, excluding appendices, should not exceed 20,000 words, and should normally be much shorter. Your target journal may well have a word or page limit which you should follow.

Appendices of test material, raw data, protocols, etc. need not be submitted with your project, but copies of these materials must be given to your supervisor (see below).

No paper copies are required. Please submit online through Tabula as a PDF.

You must retain all of the data that you collect. You must submit all of your data directly to your supervisor when you submit your project. Ideally, you should also submit R scripts (or another language) for the complete analysis of your data.

There will be two deadlines each year for MSc projects. The first will be in August and the second one will be in March. The August deadline will be for all MSc students who have passed their examinations at the first attempt and those with the option to proceed to the project. The March deadline will be for those students who are required to do one or more re(sit) exams in September, either for core modules, or for optional modules where a mark of less than 40 was achieved at the first attempt. The March deadline is also for those who may have asked for an extension due to mitigating circumstances.

Students who are required to re(sit) one exam and are able to hand in their project for the August deadline will be permitted to do so, on the understanding that this is done at their own risk; the project will not be considered if they have not met the criteria for the taught component of the MSc (see the section on Exam Schemes Link opens in a new window ). In the case of students being required to take two re(sit) exams, our advice is that you defer your project until March of the following year. Please note that we cannot give you a short deadline extension in August/September because you have got resit exams. If you have failed or missed three or more exams, we require you to defer the writing of your project until after the September exams, without any exceptions.

If you cannot make your August or March deadline due to medical, or other mitigating circumstances, you must fill in an extension request form, available on Tabula. If an application is approved, the student will be permitted to submit their dissertation by the agreed extension date or the next biannual deadline (either March or August). You need to supply suitable medical or other evidence within one week of submitting the extension request. The evidence you provide should cover a substantial part of the project period detailing why you were unable to work on the dissertation. Please note that extensions will not be granted for low-level and short-term illnesses, or being in full- or part-time employment.

References should be in the style of your target journal. Minimally they should contain the author, date of publication, title of book or article, journal of publication and volume or book publishing company. Almost all journals are very specific about referencing. If there is no guidance (very unlikely) follow the APA conventions.

Assessment is based upon the project report. In assessing reports, some of the points markers will have in mind are:

• How well has the student been able to formulate the research question or hypothesis and establish why it is an important question to ask? How precise is the hypothesis?
• How well does the student know relevant theoretical and empirical literature and can they frame the research question in the light of such literature?
• How clearly has the student described the design and procedure of the investigation and specified the subject sample(s) investigated? (Could the reader replicate the investigation on the basis of the information given?)
• How clearly and how thoroughly has the student been able to describe and analyse the data obtained? How well does the student understand the logic of descriptive and inferential statistics? Can the student explore findings intelligently and not simply number-crunch?
• How well does the student interpret the findings in relation to the original rationale for the investigation? How aware is the student of limitations in the design of the investigation (also important for meta-analysis and analysis of existing data sets) or in the way the research question was formulated? How well can the student point to what might next be done in the light of what has been learned from the investigation?
• What is the overall quality of writing, presentation, organisation and attention to detail?

At least two examiners will assess your project, employing the criteria described elsewhere in this handbook. No feedback on the result of your project is possible until after the Exam Board meets in November 2024, when your mark and comments will be provided through Tabula. Second markers are not required to write comments, though they can do so if they wish. If the second marker does write comments these can be included separately, or they can be combined into a joint report.

UCL Department of Economics

The MSc Dissertation

From June – early September students undertake a research project, lightly supervised by a member of faculty , and submit a 10,000 word dissertation on or before the deadline in early September. A good dissertation will be a piece of original research, the best dissertations are published . The three-months dissertation project gives you the opportunity to acquire and enhance a number of skills including research skills, project management, organisation, software and writing.

The research methods course supports you in this project, providing training in:

• Research and academic writing skills
• Software (Matlab, Python, R, and Stata)
• Empirical econometric skills.

In total, over 30 hours of lecture support skill acquisition directly relevant to the dissertation project. Helpdesks are also provided during the dissertation writing period. Dissertations fall into four categories:

Empirical Empirical dissertations typically take an econometric model from an existing paper and applying it to a new data set and / or extending it. Such a project involves:

•     A brief critical literature review of your chosen area
•     Finding and understanding your dataset
•     Learning the appropriate software
•     Implementing your model
•     Understanding, criticising and checking the robustness of your results.

Examples of recent empirical dissertations are:

•     Corruption and Education in the Developing World
•     Analysis of Chinese Stock Market Efficiency
•     UK Wage Flexibility in the Aftermath of the Great Recession
•     Hedonstic wage estimation and the market for head teachers: Evidence for England
•     Does Microcredit Crowd Out Traditional Moneylending? An Example From Hyderabad.
•     Estimating the Competitive Structure of the UK Petrol Retail Industry
•     The impact of paid work on women’s empowerment.

Theoretical Theoretical dissertations typically take model from an existing paper and extending it in some interesting way. Such a project involves:

•     Acquiring a deep understanding of your model, in the context of the core material you’ve covered

Examples of recent theoretical dissertations are:

•     An Investigation of a Network Targeting Model with Bounded Rational Consumers
•     The finite sample performance of single equation models of ordered choice
•     Rotating Savings and Credit Associations: A Theoretical Analysis
•     News aggregators and search engines: Thumping entrants in the newspapers industry
•     Disaster risk in a New Keynesian model

Policy Policy dissertations undertake a critical analysis of some previously unexplored policy or policy issue. Such a project involves:

•     A description of the economic principles involved in the policy decision
•     A critical appraisal of existing or proposed policies.

Note policy dissertations may often involve an empirical component Examples of recent dissertations are:

•     An assessment of the second round of quantitative easing policy in the UK: A BVAR approach
•     Capital controls on outflows during financial crises: Are they effective?
•     The technological factors in the economies of developing countries: Comparison of the effectiveness of public policies on innovation in Chile for local research and inward technology transfer
•     Welfare participation by immigrants in the UK
•     A study upon market structure characterised by regulation: Information and oligopoly conditions.

Analytical Survey An analytical survey dissertation provides a clear outline of the intellectual development of the a particular area. Such a project involves:

•     A thorough understanding of the literature in your chosen area
•     Explaining the extent to which different contributors were addressing similar of different questions and in what sense and how far one contribution marks a significant improvement over earlier ones.
•     Critically assessing the different contributions and of the field as a whole.

Examples of recent dissertations are:

•     Heterogeneous Adaptive Learning in Real Business Cycle Models
•     The Great Moderation: A critical survey since the crisis
•     What are the social costs and benefits of reversing innovations in mortgage markets?
•     What explains the top income surge?
•     A survey on observational learning and informational cascades: Are observational conditions simple enough to warrant simple predictions?

"I feel the course provided me with a far more sophisticated understanding of macroeconomic policy and a wealth of useful technical econometrics skills"

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Still have questions?  Follow the link below to a list of frequently asked questions.  

Economics Handbook for MSc Students

If you have any questions please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions section of this website.

For further information please see the UCL pages for current students , or contact: [email protected]

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80 Economics Research Topics

FacebookXEmailWhatsAppRedditPinterestLinkedInGreetings to all economics students looking for captivating research topics to embark on their journey of theses or dissertations at diverse academic levels. This invaluable resource is here to cater to your needs. As a vibrant and indispensable field, economics delves into the complexities of economies, markets, and financial systems. As you venture into economics […]

Greetings to all economics students looking for captivating research topics to embark on their journey of theses or dissertations at diverse academic levels. This invaluable resource is here to cater to your needs.

As a vibrant and indispensable field, economics delves into the complexities of economies, markets, and financial systems. As you venture into economics research, the significance of choosing the right topic cannot be understated. Your contribution to economic theories, policies, and practices can be profound. Whether you’re an undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral student, our comprehensive list of research topics in economics spans a wide array of economic subjects, including macroeconomics, microeconomics, international trade, development economics, and behavioral economics. With these intriguing topics, you can engage in profound analysis and critical thinking and make your mark on the ever-evolving landscape of economics. Let’s embark on this exciting journey together, exploring the world of economics research and discovering the perfect topic that resonates with your passions and academic aspirations!

A List Of Potential Research Topics In Economics:

• Assessing the impact of corporate social responsibility on firm performance and reputation.
• Investigating the determinants of economic growth in emerging markets.
• The influence of immigration policies on the UK labor market and economic growth.
• Investigating the impact of labor market regulations on employment and job protection.
• Analyzing the effects of trade agreements on UK industries and international trade flows.
• Analyzing the relationship between corruption and economic development.
• Analyzing the effects of income tax policies on labor supply and workforce participation.
• The role of trade agreements in promoting labor and environmental standards.
• Assessing the effects of currency devaluation on export-oriented industries and trade balance.
• Investigating the impact of income redistribution policies on poverty and social welfare.
• Assessing the impact of financial innovation on financial stability and market efficiency.
• Investigating the determinants of foreign portfolio investment in emerging markets.
• Assessing the impact of foreign aid on economic governance and institutional quality.
• Investigating the effects of income inequality on health outcomes and healthcare spending.
• Investigating the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in developing countries.
• Investigating the impact of foreign direct investment on the host country’s economic development.
• Analyzing the effects of technological advancements on productivity and economic competitiveness in the UK.
• The role of foreign aid in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).
• The role of social protection programs in reducing income inequality and poverty.
• Analyzing the impact of trade tariffs on international trade and welfare.
• Investigating the determinants of consumer behaviour and its implications for economic policies.
• Investigating the effects of international sanctions on economic growth and trade flows.
• Analyzing the effects of public debt on interest rates and government borrowing costs.
• Investigating the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK economy and policy responses.
• The impact of international trade agreements on export competitiveness and market access.
• The role of entrepreneurship in economic development and job creation.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of the UK government’s fiscal policies in addressing economic challenges post-Brexit.
• The role of financial inclusion in reducing poverty and income inequality.
• Analyzing the economic consequences of natural disasters and their implications for disaster risk management.
• The role of technology adoption in enhancing agricultural productivity and rural development.
• Assessing the impact of population ageing on economic growth and social welfare systems.
• Assessing the effectiveness of monetary policy in controlling inflation and stabilizing the economy.
• Analyzing the relationship between infrastructure investment and economic growth.
• The role of economic incentives in promoting environmental conservation and sustainability.
• Assessing the economic consequences of healthcare reforms and universal health coverage.
• The influence of government infrastructure investments on regional development and economic growth in the UK.
• Analyzing the role of financial markets in promoting economic growth and investment.
• Analyzing the relationship between population growth and economic development.
• Analyzing the relationship between energy prices and economic growth in industrialized nations.
• The role of multinational corporations in international trade and technology transfer.
• The role of regional economic integration in promoting trade and investment flows.
• Investigating the drivers of income mobility and economic opportunities for disadvantaged groups.
• Assessing the challenges and opportunities of transitioning to a low-carbon economy in the UK.
• The role of remittances in promoting economic development and poverty reduction.
• Analyzing the effects of monetary policy on asset prices and financial stability.
• Analyzing the relationship between income distribution and economic growth.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of fiscal policies in addressing economic recessions.
• Assessing the impact of automation on labour market dynamics and job displacement.
• Investigating the impact of income inequality on social cohesion and economic development in the UK.
• Analyzing the effects of income tax reforms on individual savings and investment behaviour.
• The role of behavioural economics in understanding consumer decision-making and market outcomes.
• The relationship between education and economic growth in developing countries.
• Analyzing the relationship between economic freedom and economic development.
• Investigating the impact of education and skills development on UK labour market outcomes and productivity.
• Assessing the effects of government subsidies on industry competitiveness and innovation.
• Analyzing the effects of technological innovations on productivity and economic growth.
• The role of renewable energy policies in promoting sustainability and economic growth in the UK.
• The impact of Brexit on trade and economic relations between the UK and the European Union.
• Assessing the effects of trade liberalization on employment and wages in emerging economies.
• Investigating the impact of education and skills development on labour market outcomes.
• Assessing the effects of exchange rate volatility on international trade and investment.
• Investigating the effects of financial development on economic growth and income distribution.
• Investigating the effects of monetary policy on asset price bubbles and financial instability.
• Investigating the impact of financial crises on macroeconomic stability and policy responses.
• The role of economic policies in addressing income disparities and regional development.
• Assessing the effects of population ageing on pension systems and retirement policies.
• Assessing the impact of economic sanctions on foreign direct investment and international trade.
• Analyzing the effects of government debt on economic growth and stability.
• The role of monetary policy in controlling inflation and exchange rate stability.
• Assessing the effects of income inequality on social cohesion and political stability.
• Assessing the effects of foreign aid on economic development in recipient countries.
• Investigating the impact of immigration on the host country’s labour market and economic performance.
• The role of public-private partnerships in infrastructure development and economic growth.
• The role of central banks in financial stability and monetary policy transmission mechanisms.
• Assessing the effectiveness of carbon pricing policies in mitigating climate change and promoting sustainable development.
• Assessing the implications of housing market dynamics on the UK’s wealth distribution and financial stability.
• Analyzing the effects of trade protectionism on international trade and investment.
• The impact of economic globalization on income inequality in developing countries.
• Assessing the role of the Bank of England in ensuring financial stability and monetary policy management in uncertain times.
• The impact of technological advancements on labour market dynamics and employment patterns.

In conclusion, this comprehensive list of economics research topics provides many opportunities for students to pursue their theses or dissertations at various academic levels. Whether you are an undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral student, these thought-provoking topics cover a broad spectrum of economic issues, from analyzing the impact of global events like Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic to investigating the effectiveness of fiscal policies and trade agreements. Delving into these research areas can lead to in-depth analysis, critical insights, and valuable contributions to the field of economics. So, as you embark on your research journey, choose a topic that aligns with your interests and academic aspirations and prepare to make meaningful discoveries in the dynamic world of economics.

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201 Economics Dissertation Topics Ideas and Examples

Economics dissertation topics are crucial for students seeking to delve into the complexities of economic theory and practice. From macroeconomics to microeconomic analysis, selecting the right dissertation topic is paramount for academic success. One compelling area for exploration could be “Economics Dissertation Topics: Unraveling the Dynamics of Supply and Demand in Contemporary Markets.” This topic […]

Economics dissertation topics are crucial for students seeking to delve into the complexities of economic theory and practice. From macroeconomics to microeconomic analysis, selecting the right dissertation topic is paramount for academic success.

One compelling area for exploration could be “Economics Dissertation Topics: Unraveling the Dynamics of Supply and Demand in Contemporary Markets.” This topic allows students to examine how market forces interact in various industries, exploring factors such as consumer behavior, pricing strategies, and the impact of technological advancements.

Another intriguing avenue could be “Economics Dissertation Topics: Exploring the Role of Government Intervention in Economic Development.” This topic offers a chance to investigate the efficacy of government policies in promoting growth, mitigating market failures, and addressing income inequality.

Additionally, “Economics Dissertation Topics: Sustainability and Environmental Economics” presents a timely focus on the intersection of economics and environmental concerns, exploring concepts such as carbon pricing, renewable energy adoption, and the economics of climate change mitigation.

For those interested in international economics, “Economics Dissertation Topics: Globalization and Trade Dynamics” offers a rich field for inquiry, examining issues such as trade agreements, exchange rate regimes, and the implications of globalization on income distribution.

Moreover, “Economics Dissertation Topics: Behavioral Economics and Decision-Making” provides an opportunity to delve into the fascinating realm of human psychology and its influence on economic choices, investigating phenomena such as irrational behavior, biases, and nudges in decision-making processes.

In conclusion, the selection of economics dissertation topics plays a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of research and academic exploration, offering students the opportunity to delve into pressing issues and contribute meaningfully to the field of economics.

Table of Contents

Political Economy:

• a. The Impact of Political Institutions on Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis
• b. Political Determinants of Income Inequality: Evidence from Developing Countries
• c. The Role of Corruption in Shaping Economic Policies: A Cross-Country Study
• d. Political Stability and Foreign Direct Investment: A Panel Data Analysis
• e. Populism and Economic Policies: A Case Study of Recent Trends
• f. Best  Political Economy Dissertation Topics

Behavioral Economics:

• a. Nudging Strategies for Improving Retirement Savings Behavior
• b. The Influence of Social Norms on Consumer Decision Making: An Experimental Study
• c. Behavioral Biases in Financial Markets: Implications for Investor Behavior
• d. Psychological Factors in Debt Repayment: A Behavioral Analysis
• e. The Impact of Framing Effects on Environmental Decision Making
• f. More Behavioral Economics Dissertation Topics Examples

Managerial Economics:

• a. Pricing Strategies in Oligopoly Markets: A Game Theory Approach
• b. Cost-Benefit Analysis of Vertical Integration in the Pharmaceutical Industry
• c. Optimal Resource Allocation in Project Management: A Managerial Perspective
• d. Risk Management Strategies for Multinational Corporations: A Case Study Approach
• e. Decision Making under Uncertainty: The Role of Managerial Judgment
• f. More  Topics for Dissertation in Managerial Economics for Students

Monetary Economics:

• a. Central Bank Independence and Inflation Targeting: Lessons from Emerging Economies
• b. The Effectiveness of Quantitative Easing in Stimulating Economic Growth
• c. Exchange Rate Volatility and Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Developed Economies
• d. Monetary Policy Transmission Mechanisms in Developing Countries: A VAR Analysis
• e. The Role of Digital Currencies in Shaping the Future of Monetary Policy
• f. More Monetary economics dissertation topics ideas

Economic Geography:

• a. Urbanization and Economic Development: A Spatial Analysis
• b. Regional Disparities in Economic Growth: A Study of Infrastructure Development
• c. The Impact of Transportation Infrastructure on Regional Trade Patterns
• d. Clusters and Innovation: Exploring the Geography of Knowledge Spillovers
• e. The Role of Economic Geography in Shaping Global Supply Chains
• f. More Economic geography dissertation topics examples

Public Economics:

• a. Taxation and Income Redistribution: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Progressive Tax Systems
• b. The Economics of Public Goods Provision: A Case Study of Healthcare Systems
• c. Fiscal Policy and Economic Stability: Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis
• d. Social Welfare Programs and Labor Market Participation: A Longitudinal Analysis
• e. The Impact of Government Spending on Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Comparison
• f. More Public economics dissertation topics Ideas

Financial Economics:

• a. Financial Market Integration and Economic Growth: Evidence from Stock Market Co-movements
• b. Asset Pricing Models: Testing the Efficient Market Hypothesis in Emerging Markets
• c. Financial Innovation and Systemic Risk: A Case Study of Derivatives Markets
• d. Corporate Governance and Firm Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Executive Compensation
• e. The Role of Behavioral Finance in Explaining Asset Price Bubbles
• f. More Financial Economics Dissertation Topics Ideas

Experimental Economics:

• a. Trust and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas: Insights from Experimental Games
• b. The Effect of Incentive Structures on Risk Preferences: An Experimental Approach
• c. Behavioral Responses to Economic Incentives: A Laboratory Experiment
• d. Gender Differences in Economic Decision Making: An Experimental Study
• e. The Role of Social Networks in Facilitating Economic Exchange: Experimental Evidence
• f. More Experimental economics dissertation topics Ideas

Environmental Economics Research Topics:

• a. Market-Based Mechanisms for Environmental Regulation: A Comparative Analysis
• b. Valuation of Ecosystem Services: Methodological Approaches and Policy Implications
• c. The Economics of Climate Change Adaptation: Assessing Costs and Benefits
• d. Environmental Policy and Technological Innovation: A Study of Renewable Energy Adoption
• e. The Role of Behavioral Economics in Promoting Sustainable Consumption Patterns
• f. More Environmental Economics Dissertation Topics Ideas and Samples

Health Economics Dissertation Topics:

• a. Healthcare Financing and Access to Health Services: A Comparative Study
• b. The Economics of Health Behavior: Insights from Behavioral Economics
• c. Pharmaceutical Pricing and Access to Medicines: A Global Perspective
• d. The Impact of Healthcare Reforms on Health Outcomes: Evidence from Policy Changes
• e. The Economics of Aging: Long-Term Care and Retirement Planning
• f. More Health economics dissertation topics Ideas and Examples

Business Economics:

• a. Market Entry Strategies for International Expansion: A Comparative Analysis
• b. The Economics of Innovation: Determinants and Impacts on Firm Performance
• c. Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Profitability: A Meta-Analysis
• d. Mergers and Acquisitions: Economic Drivers and Performance Outcomes
• e. The Economics of Digital Transformation: Implications for Business Strategy
• f. More Business economics dissertation topics Ideas and Examples

Agricultural Economics Dissertation Topics:

• a. Agricultural Productivity and Rural Development: A Case Study of Subsistence Farming Communities
• b. Price Volatility in Agricultural Commodity Markets: Causes and Consequences
• c. The Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Production: Adaptation Strategies for Farmers
• d. Agricultural Policy Reforms and Market Efficiency: Lessons from Agricultural Subsidy Programs
• e. Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security: Balancing Economic and Environmental Objectives
• f. More Agricultural Economics Dissertation Topics Examples

Development Economics Research Topics:

• a. Foreign Aid and Economic Development: Evaluating Effectiveness and Efficiency
• b. Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation: Evidence from Impact Evaluations
• c. Structural Transformation and Economic Growth: A Comparative Study of Developing Economies
• d. Inequality and Development: Exploring the Relationship between Income Distribution and Growth
• e. The Role of Institutions in Economic Development: A Cross-Country Analysis
• f. More Development economics Dissertation Topics Ideas

General dissertation topics in economics for college students

Here is a list of economics undergraduate dissertation topics also this list is useful for those looking for dissertation topics in economics for postgraduates:

• The impact of monetary policy on economic growth
• The effect of international trade on economic development
• The role of financial development in economic growth
• The impact of tax policy on income inequality
• The relationship between inflation and unemployment
• The effect of education on economic productivity
• The influence of immigration on the labor market
• The role of technology in economic growth
• The impact of corporate governance on firm performance
• The relationship between economic growth and environmental quality
• Covid-19 and Economy: Research to identify the impacts of coronavirus on the economy. Economy Factors: Factors responsible for job creation and job destruction in the United Kingdom
• Economic growth: How are economic growth and unemployment connected in your country?
• Emerging economies: How do the inflows of capital influence emerging economies?
• What are the causes of capital inflows?
• Economic Deflation: Economic Deflation Concerns in the United-Kingdom
• Gender Pay-Gap: Analyzing the Components of the Gender Pay-Gap in the UK – What are the Main Components of the Gender-Pay Gap, and to What Extent do they Contribute to this Inequality?
• Economic Growth: Does Foreign Direct Investment Influence Economic Growth in Rapidly Growing Economies? An Examination of China and India
• The Role of Free Trade and Openness in the Growth and Development of South-Asia
• Growth of Economic Level: Is the Worldwide Internet Affecting the Local Proximity and Contributing to the Growth of Economic-Level
• The Reasons for Regional Divergence in the Selected Countries and the Comparison between Poor and Well-Developed Regions
• The Utilization of Farming Economics-Implication into Public Institutions-Sector as Means of Economic Development in Agrarian-Countries
• Nonstandard Economical Approaches That Were Brought by Emigrants to the US and Their Contribution to Economic-Prosperity
• The Modern Job-Market Analysis within the Period of 20-Years – the Most Applicable Professions of Nowadays
• The Shocking Therapy – the Potential Application for the Development of the Economics in the Countries of the Third World
• Analyzing the Components of the Gender Pay Gap in the UK – What are the Main Components of the Gender Pay Gap, and to What Extent do they Contribute to this Inequality?
• Role of local ethics and culture in shaping-entrepreneurial economic development in various businesses
• European regional policy: To discuss the role of the “European regional policy” in shaping or modifying places in the UK.
• Causes of regional diversity.
• Analysis and comparison between the richest and poorest places of the UK.
• A critical analysis of diversity in entrepreneurial attitudes in rural and urban areas.
• What are the measures taken by the new president of America to rebuild the economy?
• A look into an economically deprived country – Costa Rica
• America is on the verge of economic disaster.
• Causes for the failure of the automotive industry in the United States of America
• Changes that the American economy has gone through after the catastrophic incident of 9/11 2001.
• How does the world economic crisis have affected the American economy?
• What is the role of privatization in the country’s economic growth?
• The economic condition after the catastrophe of World War II
• What is the role of inflation in the overall economic status of a country?
• Why does money’s worth decrease with time?
• Shedding light on different economic theories that got both succeeded and failed.
• Effects of nationalization on the overall economic growth of a country
• What is Laissez-Faire ?
• Countries that have a Laissez-Faire system installed
• How did the civil war affect the economy of the United States of America?
• The global financial crisis led to a global economic breakdown.
• Causes of the drastic growth in China’s economy
• A brief overview of economic models
• What do you mean by the fiscal policy?
• What are the principles of macroeconomics?
• What is environmental economics?
• Study of the economic behavior of small groups
• What is behavioral economics?
• An introduction to devalued market inventories.
• What is the cost of production theory of value?
• Relationship between inflation and economic growth
• Relationship between rate of unemployment and economic growth
• Relationship between stock returns and inflation
• Relationship between bonds returns and inflation.
• Effect of micro-financing initiatives on an individual household
• Factors to improve individual’s purchasing power.
• Effect of commercial bank loans on the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a developing country
• Impact of AIDS disease on the development of African countries
• Impact of technological tools on agricultural retail business
• Effect of competitors on supply chain management of a product
• Impact of changing labor markets on consumer purchasing power
• Effect of the fiscal policy on social welfare in a developing country
• Effect of international trade activities on the economic development of a developing country
• Importance of commercial banks in agriculture development of a county.
• Effect of foreign trade activities on the economic growth of a developing country
• The impact of fiscal policy on economic growth
• The role of innovation in economic development
• The effect of exchange rate regimes on trade and investment
• The influence of political institutions on economic policymaking
• The relationship between income distribution and economic growth
• The impact of economic globalization on labor markets
• The role of infrastructure in economic development
• The influence of demographic change on the economy
• The impact of environmental regulations on firm competitiveness
• The relationship between corruption and economic performance

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Students in the School of Economics at the University of Nottingham consistently produce work of a very high standard in the form of coursework essays, dissertations, research work and policy articles.

Below are some examples of the excellent work produced by some of our students. The authors have agreed for their work to be made available as examples of good practice.

Undergraduate dissertations

• The Causal Impact of Education on Crime Rates: A Recent US Analysis . Emily Taylor, BSc Hons Economics, 2022
• Does a joint income taxation system for married couples disincentivise the female labour supply? Jodie Gollop, BA Hons Economics with German, 2022
• Conditional cooperation between the young and old and the influence of work experience, charitable giving, and social identity . Rachel Moffat, BSc Hons Economics, 2021
• An Extended Literature Review on the Contribution of Economic Institutions to the Great Divergence in the 19th Century . Jessica Richens, BSc Hons Economics, 2021
• Does difference help make a difference? Examining whether young trustees and female trustees affect charities’ financial performance. Chris Hyland, BSc Hons Economics, 2021

Postgraduate dissertations

• The impact of Covid-19 on the public and health expenditure gradient in mortality in England . Alexander Waller, MSc Economic Development & Policy Analysis, 2022
• Impact of the Child Support Grant on Nutritional Outcomes in South Africa: Is there a ‘pregnancy support’ effect? . Claire Lynam, MSc Development Economics, 2022
• An Empirical Analysis of the Volatility Spillovers between Commodity Markets, Exchange Rates, and the Sovereign CDS Spreads of Commodity Exporters . Alfie Fox-Heaton, MSc Financial Economics, 2022
• The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season and Labour Market Transitions . Edward Allenby, MSc Economics, 2022
• The scope of international agreements . Sophia Vaaßen, MSc International Economics, 2022

Thank you to all those students who have agreed to have their work showcased in this way.

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ECON48060: DISSERTATION (INTERNATIONAL) (MSC ECONOMICS)

It is possible that changes to modules or programmes might need to be made during the academic year, in response to the impact of Covid-19 and/or any further changes in public health advice.

Prerequisites

Corequisites, excluded combinations of modules.

• Dissertation (MSc Economics) (ECON47060)
• To provide students with the opportunity to conduct an in-depth investigation at an advanced level of an issue which is applicable and relevant to their degree subject.
• The dissertation should be theoretically underpinned and should normally involve undertaking empirical research, but may be a critical essay that draws upon academic literature.
• To provide students with the opportunity to undertake research abroad at a partner University.
• The dissertation and the research process.
• Planning a research project and ethical issues.
• Students review the literature and choose a dissertation topic, which is formally approved by the Board of Examiners. It should be one that is suitable for in-depth investigation, and relevant to their degree route.
• In producing the dissertation, students will make use of and manage library facilities, databases and other learning resources.
• Before going abroad, students attend information briefings on undertaking their dissertation abroad and are assisted with the application process by the MSc Study Abroad team. In addtion, students are monitored and supported by the MSc Study Abroad team while abroad, and have a mentor from the partner institution.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of the module students should have:
• a critical understanding of a relevant topic through utilisation of appropriate techniques of research and analysis.

Subject-specific Skills:

• To be able to effectively organise, structure and manage a research project at an advanced level, including undertaking critical appraisal of relevant literature, and apply critical judgement and discrimination.
• To have developed the ability to operate independently on a research topic and exercise appropriate judgement in the selection of material.
• To have further developed the skills of inquiry, quantitative and qualitative research design, experimental research, data collection and information retrieval, bibliographic search, measurement and analysis, interpretation and presentation of results.
• To have developed advanced skills of research, analysis and scholarly expression in a chosen topic.

Key Skills:

• Written Communication
• Planning and Organising
• Problem Solving and Analysis
• Using Initiative
• Computer Literacy
• Self-discipline, time management and the ability to work autonomously

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures will be used to cover general aspects of the dissertation process, including ethics.
• Students work independently on their research, analysis and writing up while abroad, under the guidance of a supervisor in Durham and a mentor abroad whose main responsibility is to check progress. Normally the student will meet their supervisor before going abroad and will regularly keep in touch with their supervisor while abroad, via email or Skype. In addition, the student will normally meet their mentor while abroad on no more than three occasions.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative assessment, formative assessment, more information.

If you have a question about Durham's modular degree programmes, please visit our Help page. If you have a question about modular programmes that is not covered by the Help page, or a query about the on-line Postgraduate Module Handbook, please contact us.

Prospective Students: If you have a query about a specific module or degree programme, please Ask Us .

Current Students: Please contact your department .

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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Dissertations

The dv410 dissertation is a major component of the msc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education., research design and dissertation in international development.

The DV410 dissertation is a major component of the MSc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education. The objective of DV410  is to provide students with an overview of the resources available to them to research and write a 10,000 dissertation that is topical, original, scholarly, and substantial. DV410 will provide curated dissertation pathways through LSE LIFE and Methods courses, information sessions, ID-specific disciplinary teaching, topical seminars and dissertation worksops in ST. With this in mind, students will be able to design their own training pathway and set their own learning objectives in relation to their specific needs for their dissertation. From the Autumn Term (AT) through to Summer Term (ST), students will discuss and develop their ideas in consultation with their mentor or other members of the ID department staff and have access to a range of learning resources (via DV410 Moodle page) to support and develop their individual projects from within the department and across the LSE. 

Prizewinning dissertations

The archive of prizewinning dissertations showcases the best MSc dissertations from previous years. These offer a useful guide to current students on how to prepare and write a high calibre dissertation.

2022-OW (PDF) The Politics of Political Conditionality: How theEU Is Failing the Western Balkans Pim W.R.Oudejans Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management 

2022-GN (PDF) An Empirical Study of the Impact of Kenya’sFree Secondary Education Policy on Women’sEducation Nora Geiszl Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2022-JC  (PDF) Giving with one hand, taking with the other:the contradictory political economy of socialgrants in South Africa Jack Calland Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2022-GL (PDF) State Versus Market: The Case of Tobacco Consumption in Eastern European and Former Soviet Transition Economies Letizia Gazzaniga Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2022-ER (PDF) Reproductive injustice across forced migration trajectories: Evidence from female asylum-seekers fleeing Central America’s Northern Triangle Emily Rice Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2022-LICB  (PDF) The effects of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) on child nutrition following an adverseweather shock: the case of Indonesia Liliana Itamar Carillo Barba Winner Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development 2022-SC (PDF) Fiscal Responses to Conditional Debt Relief:the impact of multilateral debt cancellation on taxation patterns Sara Cucaro  Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2022-RM  (PDF) Navigating humanitarian space(s) to provideprotection and assistance to internally displacedpersons: applying the concept of ahumanitarian ‘micro-space’ to the caseof Rukban in Syria Miranda Russell  Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-CC  (PDF) International Remittances and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating Resilient Remittance Flows from Italy during 2020 Carla Curreli Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance and Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2021-NB  (PDF) Reluctant respondents: Early settlement by developing countries during WTO disputes Nicholas Baxtar Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management (Specialism: Applied Development)

2021-CD  (PDF) One Belt, Many Roads? A Comparison of Power Dynamics in Chinese Infrastructure Financing of Kenya and Angola Conor Dunwoody  Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Studies

2021-NN  (PDF) Tool for peace or tool for power? Interrogating Turkish ‘water diplomacy’ in the case of Northern Cyprus Nina Newhouse Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2021-CW  (PDF) Exploring Legal Aid Provision for LGBTIQ+Asylum Seekers in the American Southwest from 2012-2021 Claire Wever Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-BP  (PDF) Instrumentalising Threat; An Expansion of Biopolitical Control Over Exiles in Calais During the COVID-19 Pandemic Bethany Plant Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-HS  (PDF) A New “Green Grab”? A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Exclusion in the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) Project, Kenya Helen Sticklet Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-GM  (PDF) Fuelling policy: The Role of Public Health Policy-Support Tools in Reducing Household Air Pollution as a Risk-Factor for Non-Communicable Diseases in LMICs Georgina Morris Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development 

2021-LC  (PDF) How do women garment workers employ practices of everyday resistance to challenge the patriarchal gender order of Sri Lankan society? Lois Cooper Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development 

2020-LK  (PDF) Can international remittances mitigate negative effects of economic shocks on education? – The case of Nigeria Lara Kasperkovitz Best Overall Performance Best Dissertation Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

“Fallen through the Cracks” The Network for Childhood Pneumonia and Challenges in Global Health Governance  Eva Sigel Best Overall Performance Health and International Development 

2020-AB  (PDF) Fighting the ‘Forgotten’ Disease: LiST-Based Analysis of Pneumonia Prevention Interventions to Reduce Under-Five Mortality in High-Burden Countries Alexandra Bland Best Dissertation Prize  Health and International Development   

2020-TP  (PDF) Techno-optimism and misalignment: Investigating national policy discourses on the impact of ICT in educational settings in Sub-Saharan Africa Tao Platt Best Overall Performance Development Studies 

2020-HS  (PDF)  “We want land, all the rest is humbug”: land inheritance reform and intrahousehold dynamics in India Holly Scott Best Dissertation Prize Development Studies   

2020-PE  (PDF)  Decent Work for All? Waste Pickers’ Collective Action Frames after Formalisation in Bogotá, Colombia  Philip Edge Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management

2020-LC  (PDF)  Variation in Bilateral Investment Treaties: What Leads to More ‘Flexibility for Development’? Lindsey Cox Best Dissertation Prize Development Management

2019-GR (PDF) Political Economy of Industrial Policy: Analysinglongitudinal and crossnationalvariations in industrial policy in Brazil andArgentina Grace Reeve Best Overall Performance Development Studies 

2019-MM (PDF) The Securitisation of Development Projects: The Indian State’s Response to the Maoist Insurgency Monica Moses Best Dissertation Prize Development Studies 

2019-KM (PDF) At the End of Emergency: An Exploration of Factors Influencing Decision-making Surrounding Medical Humanitarian Exit Kaitlyn Macneil Best Overall Performance Prize Health and International Development

2019-KA (PDF) The Haitian Nutritional Paradox: Driving factors of the Double Burden of Malnutrition Khandys Agnant Best Dissertation Prize Health and International Development   

2019-NL (PDF) Women in the Rwandan Parliament: Exploring Descriptive and Substantive Representation Nicole London Best Dissertation Prize Development Management 

2019-CB (PDF) Post-conflict reintegration: the long-termeffects of abduction and displacement on theAcholi population of northern Uganda Charlotte Brown Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2019-NLeo (PDF) Making Fashion Sense: Can InternationalLabour Standards Improve Accountabilityin Globalised Fast Fashion? Nicole Leo Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2019-AS (PDF) Who Controls Whom? Evaluating theinvolvement of Development FinanceInstitutions (DFIs) in Build Own-Operate (BOO)Energy Projects in relation to Market Structures& Accountability Chains: The case of theBujagali Hydropower Project (BHPP) in Uganda Aya Salah Mostafa Ali Best Dissertation Prize African Development 

2019-NG (PDF) Addressing barriers to treatment-seekingbehaviour during the Ebola outbreak in SierraLeone: An International Response Perspective Natasha Glendening India Best Overall Performance Prize African Development 

2019-SYJ (PDF) The Traditional Global Care Chain and the Global Refugee Care Chain: A Comparative Analysis Sana Yasmine Johnson Best Dissertation Prize Best Overall Performance Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

2018-JR (PDF) Nudging, Teaching, or Coercing?: A Review of Conditionality Compliance Mechanisms on School Attendance Under Conditional Cash Transfer Programs Jonathan Rothwell Best Dissertation Prize African Development 

2018-LD (PDF) A Feminist Perspective On Burundi's Land Reform Ladd Serwat Best Overall Performance African Development 

2018-KL (PDF) Decentralisation: Road to Development or Bridge to Nowhere? Estimating the Effect of Devolution on Infrastructure Spending in Kenya Kurtis Lockhart  Best Dissertation Prize and Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2018-OS (PDF) From Accountability to Quality: Evaluating the Role of the State in Monitoring Low-Cost Private Schools in Uganda and Kenya Oceane Suquet Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2018-LN (PDF) Water to War: An Analysis of Drought, Water Scarcity and Social Mobilization in Syria Lian Najjar Best Dissertation Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2018-IS  (PDF) “As devastating as any war”?: Discursive trends and policy-making in aid to Central America’s Northern Triangle Isabella Shraiman  Best Overall Performance  International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2017-AR (PDF) Humanitarian Reform and the Localisation Agenda:Insights from Social Movement and Organisational Theory Alice Robinson Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2017-ACY (PDF) The Hidden Costs of a SuccessfulDevelopmental State:Prosperity and Paucity in Singapore Agnes Chew Yunquian Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Managament 

2017-HK  (PDF) Premature Deindustrialization and Stalled Development, the Fate of Countries Failing Structural Transformation? Helen Kirsch Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme Development Studies

2017-HZ  (PDF) ‘Bare Sexuality’ and its Effects onUnderstanding and Responding to IntimatePartner Sexual Violence in Goma, DemocraticRepublic of the Congo (DRC) Heather Zimmerman Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2017-KT  (PDF) Is Good Governance a Magic Bullet?Examining Good Governance Programmes in Myanmar Khine Thu Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme Development Managament 

2017-NL  (PDF) Persistent Patronage? The DownstreamElectoral Effects of Administrative Unit Creationin Uganda Nicholas Lyon  Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme African Development 

2016-MV  (PDF) Contract farming under competition: exploring the drivers of side selling among sugarcane farmers in Mumias             Milou Vanmulken  Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation                                                      Dev elopment Management                

2016-JS  (PDF) Resource Wealth and Democracy: Challenging the  Assumptions of the Redistributive Model              Janosz Schäfer  Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Studies                

2016-LK   (PDF) Shiny Happy People: A study of the effects income relative to a reference group exerts on life satisfaction             Lajos Kossuth Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance                                     Development Studies  

2015-MP (PDF) "Corruption by design" and the management of infrastructure in Brazil: Reflections on the Programa de Aceleração ao Crescimento - PAC.             Maria da Graça Ferraz de Almeida Prado                                                          Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation                                          Development Managment                                                                                  

2015-IE (PDF) Breaking Out Of the Middle-Income Trap: Assessing the Role of Structural Transformation.                                                                               Ipek Ergin                                                                                                   Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

2015-AML (PDF) Labour Migration, Social Movements and Regional Integration: A Comparative Study of the Role of Labour Movements in the Social Transformation of the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community.             Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen                                                                                Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation                                   Development Management

2015-MM (PDF) Who Bears the Burden of Bribery? Evidence from Public Service Delivery in Kenya                     Michael Mbate                                                                                                   Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Management

2015-KK (PDF) Export Processing Zones as Productive Policy: Enclave Promotion or Developmental Asset? The Case of Ghana. Kilian Koffi Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation African Development

2015-GM (PDF) Forgive and Forget? Reconciliation and Memory in Post-Biafra Nigeria. Gemma Mehmed Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2015-AS (PDF) From Sinners to Saviours: How Non-State Armed Groups use service delivery to achieve domestic legitimacy. Anthony Sequeira Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2014-NS (PDF) Anti-Corruption Agencies: Why Do Some Succeed and Most Fail? A Quantitative Political Settlement Analysis. Nicolai Schulz Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

2014-MP (PDF) International Capital Flows and Sudden Stops: a global or a domestic issue? Momchil Petkov Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

2014-TC (PDF) Democracy to Decline: do democratic changes jeopardize economic growth? Thomas Coleman Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

2014-AK (PDF) Intercultural Bilingual Education: the role of participation in improving the quality of education among indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico. Anni Kasari Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Management

2014-EL (PDF) Treaty Shopping in International Investment Arbitration: how often has it occurred and how has it been perceived by tribunals? Eunjung Lee Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Management

2013-SB (PDF) Refining Oil - A Way Out of the Resource Curse? Simon Baur Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

2013-NI (PDF) The Rise of ‘Murky Protectionism’: Changing Patterns of Trade-Related Industrial Policies in Developing Countries: A case study of Indonesia. Nicholas Intscher Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Studies

2013-JF (PDF) Why Settle for Less? An Analysis of Settlement in WTO Disputes. Jillian Feirson Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

2013-LH (PDF) Corporate Social Responsibility in Mining: The effects of external pressures and corporate leadership. Leah Henderson Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

2013-BM (PDF) Estimating incumbency advantages in African politics: Regression discontinuity evidence from Zambian parliamentary and local government elections. Bobbie Macdonald Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Studies

WP145 (PDF) Is History Repeating Itself? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Women in Climate Change Campaigns. Catherine Flanagan Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP144 (PDF) Disentangling the fall of a 'Dominant-Hegemonic Party Rule'. The case of Paraguay and its transition to a competitive electoral democracy. Dominica Zavala Zubizarreta Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP143 (PDF) Enabling Productive Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Critical issues in policy design. Noor Iqbal Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP142 (PDF) Beyond 'fear of death': Strategies of coping with violence and insecurity - A case study of villages in Afghanistan. Angela Jorns Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

WP141 (PDF) What accounts for opposition party strength? Exploring party-society linkages in Zambia and Ghana. Anna Katharina Wolkenhauer Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance Development Studies

WP140 (PDF) Between Fear and Compassion: How Refugee Concerns Shape Responses to Humanitarian Emergencies - The case of Germany and Kosovo. Sebastian Sahla Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance Development Management

WP139 (PDF) Worlds Apart? Health-seeking behaviour and strategic healthcare planning in Sierra Leone. Thea Tomison Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP138 (PDF) War by Other Means? An Analysis of the Contested Terrain of Transitional Justice Under the 'Victor's Peace' in Sri Lanka. Richard Gowing Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

WP137 (PDF) Social Welfare Policy - a Panacea for Peace? A Political Economy Analysis of the Role of Social Welfare Policy in Nepal's Conflict and Peace-building Process. Annie Julia Raavad Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP136 (PDF) Women and the Soft Sell: The Importance of Gender in Health Product Purchasing Decisions. Adam Alagiah Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance Development Management

WP135 (PDF) Human vs. State Security: How can Security Sector Reforms contribute to State-Building? The case of the Afghan Police Reform. Florian Weigand Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP134 (PDF) Evaluating the Impact of Decentralisation on Educational Outcomes: The Peruvian Case. Siegrid Holler-Neyra Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Management

WP133 (PDF) Democracy and Public Good Provision: A Study of Spending Patterns in Health and Rural Development in Selected Indian States. Sreelakshmi Ramachandran Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP132 (PDF) Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Transfer to Developing Countries: a Reassessment of the Current Debate Marco Valenza Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP131 (PDF) Traditional or Transformational Development? A critical assessment of the potential contribution of resilience to water services in post-conflict Sub-Saharan Africa. Christopher Martin Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

WP128  (PDF) The demographic dividend in India: Gift or curse? A State level analysis on differeing age structure and its implications for India's economic growth prospects. Vasundhra Thakurd Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP127  (PDF) When Passion Dries Out, Reason Takes Control: A Temporal Study of Rebels' Motivation in Fighting Civil Wars. Thomas Tranekaer Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP126  (PDF) Micro-credit - More Lifebuoy than Ladder? Understanding the role of micro-credit in coping with risk in the context of the Andhra Pradesh crisis. Anita Kumar Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation Development Management

WP124 (PDF) Welfare Policies in Latin America: the transformation of workers into poor people. Anna Popova Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP123  (PDF) How Wide a Net? Targeting Volume and Composition in Capital Inflow Controls. Lucas Issacharoff Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP117 (PDF) Shadow Education: Quantitative and Qualitative analysis of the impact of the educational reform (implementation of centralized standardised testing). Nataliya Borodchuk Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP115 (PDF) Can School Decentralization Improve Learning? Autonomy, participation and student achievement in rural Pakistan. Anila Channa Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP114 (PDF) Good Estimation or Good Luck? Growth Accelerations revisited. Guo Xu Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation Development Studies

WP113 (PDF) Furthering Financial Literacy: Experimental evidence from a financial literacy program for Microfinance Clients in Bhopal, India. Anna Custers Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP112 (PDF) Consumption, Development and the Private Sector: A critical analysis of base of the pyramid (BoP) ventures. David Jackman Winner of the Prize for Best Disseration Development Management

WP106 (PDF) Reading Tea Leaves: The Impacy of Mainstreaming Fair Trade. Lindsey Bornhofft Moore Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP104 (PDF) Institutions Collide: A Study of "Caste-Based" Collective Criminality and Female Infanticide in India, 1789-1871. Maria Brun Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP102 (PDF) Democratic Pragmatism or Green Radicalism? A critical review of the relationship between Free, Prior and Informed Consent and Policymaking for Mining. Abbi Buxton Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP100 (PDF) Market-Led Agrarian Reform: A Beneficiary perspective of Cédula da Terra. Veronika Penciakova Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Studies

WP98 (PDF) No Business like Slum Business? The Political Economy of the Continued Existence of Slums: A case study of Nairobi. Florence Dafe Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

WP97 (PDF) Power and Choice in International Trade: How power imbalances constrain the South's choices on free trade agreements, with a case study of Uruguay. Lily Ryan-Collins Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Dissertation Development Management

WP96 (PDF) Health Worker Motivation and the Role of Performance Based Finance Systems Africa: A Qualitative Study on Health Worker Motivation and the Rwandan Performance Based finance initiative in District Hospitals. Friederike Paul Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Dissertation Development Management

WP95 (PDF) Crisis in the Countryside: Farmer Suicides and the Political Economy of Agrarian Distress in India. Bala Posani Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management

WP94 (PDF) From Rebels to Politicians. Explaining Rebel-to Party Transformations after Civil War: The case of Nepal. Dominik Klapdor Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP92 (PDF) Guarding the State or Protecting the Economy? The Economic factors of Pakistan's Military coups. Amina Ibrahim Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

WP91 (PDF) Man is the remedy of man: Constructions of Masculinity and Health-Related Behaviours among Young men in Dakar, Senegal. Sarah Helen Mathewson Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Studies

Graduate programmes

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You are here Postgraduate > MSc in Economic Policy > Course Structure > Dissertation

Dissertation

Module code: tbc.

• ECTS Credit : 30
• Mandatory/Optional : Mandatory
• Module Coordinator : All eligible teaching staff, including adjunct staff, from the Economics Department in Trinity and ESRI may supervise
• Period : Year 2 Michaelmas term

Module Content

The dissertation is an in-depth individual research study of a particular issue within the field of Economic Policy. Students should demonstrate their capabilities to engage with academic literature in the field of Economics and both an understanding of and an ability to apply analytics techniques to assess defined economic policy challenges. Students are required to analyse their research issue using the concepts, techniques and tools introduced to them in the core modules. Students will be expected to demonstrate a good understanding of the applicability of these techniques and an ability to communicate their work to a broad policy relevant audience effectively and efficiently.  Students will be encouraged to select dissertation topics of relevance to the Irish public sector.

This module builds on Module 8, Research methods.  Students focus their dissertation topics in the third semester and will be assigned supervisors aligned to their research topics.    Students will meet with their supervisor throughout the term of this dissertation module and supervisors will provide feedback on the research question, the literature review, the methodology and the first draft of the dissertation.

Learning Outcomes

Module assessment.

Student will receive formative feedback from their supervisor on their research question, the literature review, the methodology and the first draft of the dissertation.  One overall mark will be provided for the dissertation and will be based 100% on the final bound dissertation submitted on 30th November of the second year of the programme. 

Dissertation Topics

Our writers have completed these articles, with each one of them containing a bunch of great dissertation topics on a particular subject. By browsing through them you will find hot Economics, Finance, HRM, Law, Management, Marketing and many other dissertation topics. If you are planning to write your dissertation – these articles will help you as the topics listed are up-to-date, manageable and suitable either for undergraduate or postgraduate level. Moreover, if you wish our writers to write your dissertation on any other listed topics – we would be happy to help once you place your order .

Politics Dissertation Topics and International Relations Dissertation Topics

It is absolutely vital to choose the right topic for your dissertation. The correct choice will give you the best opportunity of achieving a high grade. Essentially, you are looking to pick a topic and …

Nursing Dissertation Topics

A dissertation or a thesis is a well-documented discourse on specific research topics produced as the written form of an individual’s research, and is especially a part of higher academic qualifications. The essential feature of …

Marketing Dissertation Topics

Marketing is a broad and exciting field of study that intertwines with related subjects such as Psychology, Sociology, Business, and even Anthropology. The field of marketing is always evolving, so there are plenty of ‘gaps’ in …

Law Dissertation Topics

Completing a dissertation can be a daunting task for any student. However, this is especially true for law students. Any issue that is tackled in a law dissertation should be framed carefully. To successfully complete …

Human Resources Dissertation Topics

Human Resources (HR) is an exciting topic that combines theories from both Business and Psychology. This is such a broad field of study, so there are literally thousands of titles you could choose from when …

History Dissertation Topics

Writing a dissertation serves as the primary project of the academic element of your university experience. It is an opportunity to delve deeper into an academic topic of particular interest to you and your primary …

Finance Dissertation Topics & Accounting Dissertation Topics

Choosing a great topic for your finance or accounting dissertation may seem incredibly challenging, especially since the subject can cover such a wide range of different areas. It is important to find a topic that …

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 …

Culture and Fashion Dissertation Topics

The relationship between culture and fashion is intrinsic and dynamic. Cultures across the world use clothing to make statements on the nature of power relations, personal relationships, and hierarchies within communities. The links are diverse …

Business Dissertation Topics

2020 was a year of drastic change, with many businesses shut down by the pandemic. However 2021-22 onwards promises rapid economic growth, as business activity sharply expands. So, to help you out we’ve provided a …

MSc Finance Dissertation Topics

A master’s degree in Finance can open many avenues of employment and research. Your degree can be tailored to suit your preferences because it incorporates a large number of specialisations. If you’re looking to add …

Renewable Energy Dissertation Topics

Renewable energy is a topic which is at the forefront of energy development. The global drive to manage, mitigate and prevent climate change has seen the contribution of renewable energy, as an alternative to traditional …

Art History Dissertation Topics

Art History, the study of objects made by humans for the purposes of aesthetic pleasure is a wide and varied area for study. Clearly, there is a huge scope for art historical study with many …

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Economics Dissertation Topics

Microeconomics.

• To what extent does the concentration in the industry determine individual firm profitability?
• How does competition in the market determine corporate strategies for growth?
• Impact of the covid pandemic on the market entry modes practised by corporations.
• How do models of funding of non-profit organisations affect their sustainability?
• Privatization of Public Enterprises and its implications on economic policy and development
• Fraud and Abuse in Non-profit Organizations
• Antitrust Practices and Market Power in the UK
• Effect of antitrust regulations on the performance of the IT sphere in the UK
• Antitrust regulation of horizontal mergers
• Challenges for the industry from digitalisation
• How changes in industrial structure affected economic growth in China?
• How can Brexit change industrial policies in the UK?
• Effect of covid on the entertainment industry
• Perspectives of the alternative energy industry over the world
• Contribution of smart materials to the development of the construction industry
• Transformation of consumer tastes over the last two decades
• How do local culture and mentality affect entrepreneurial behaviour and inclination to running a business?
• How does the behaviour of single-person households differ from the behaviour of couple-based households?
• Product life cycle in the era of digitalisation
• Influence of IT on product development
• Crowd funding as a driver of product development
• How did Covid-19 affect economic inequality?
• Dynamics of the Gini index as an indicator of income distribution
• Forces behind income inequality in the UK
• Is economic equilibrium attainable in the modern world?
• How will equilibrium change after the covid-19 pandemic
• The effect of trade liberalisation on general economic equilibrium
• Impact of the informal sector of the economy on welfare
• Potential consequences of the unconditional income introduction
• Effect of covid-19 on income distribution in the UK
• Collective decision-making in social networks
• Collective decision making on mergers and acquisitions
• Analysis of decision making on tourism destinations
• How uncertainty affects decision making?
• Career perspectives in the knowledge economy
• The effect of covid on uncertainty in a particular market
• Job search from the perspective of behavioural economics
• The role of emotions in personal investing strategies
• What drives customers to change mobile operators?

Macroeconomics

• How do demand and supply control market forces in the UK?
• Should the neoclassical growth model be revised in conditions of the modern world?
• How does covid affect aggregate spending in the UK?
• Do interest rates affect consumption in the UK?
• Does consumption depend on the country’s currency exchange rate?
• What industries were hit by covid most of all in terms of production?
• Do consumer prices move synchronously in EU countries under the regime of inflation targeting?
• What counter-cyclical measures can help to mitigate economic turmoil?
• How do oil prices affect business activities in oil importing and oil-exporting countries?
• How do interest rates affect investment activities?
• Analysis of money supply in developing and developed economies
• Is interest rates an effective instrument of inflation control in developing countries?
• Forward Guidance as an Instrument of Monetary Policy: Experiences and Prospects
• Does money supply influence rates of economic growth?
• Is austerity an appropriate instrument of reducing national debt?
• Influence of political situation on macroeconomic regulation in the UK.
• How do macroeconomic policies affect capital structure of firms?
• How do recommendations of international organisations (WB, WTO, IMF) affect macroeconomic policies of developing countries?
• The use of big data in behavioural economics at the macrolevel
• Public policy formulation through the lens of behavioural economics
• How to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of behavioural macroeconomics?

International Economy

• International trade as a factor of growth of developing economies
• The effect of IT on restructuring international trade
• How IT progress changed international value chains
• How did covid affect international business activities?
• The most prospective developing markets for international business
• Tendencies in international factor movements over the last decade
• Are there preconditions for creating new currency unions anywhere in the world?
• Latest tendencies in international finance: liberalisation or restrictions?
• Is the current global financial system viable?
• The most prospective regional trade unions
• What are the most attractive destinations for FDI right now?
• The impact of FDI on economic growth in developing countries
• How will the inauguration of Joe Biden change the US-China relations?
• Macroeconomic drivers of local armed conflicts
• Comparison of macroeconomic structure of the US and China
• The impact of globalisation on poverty
• Does IT affect poverty in the global scale?
• How does globalisation influence corruption in the global scale?

Financial Economics

• Reaction of financial markets to covid-19
• How mutual funds change their risk-taking strategies depending on different incentives
• How did financial markets react to the Biden win?
• How FinTech companies affect the sphere of financial services
• The latest accomplishments in the sphere of financial engineering
• How IT changes competition in the sphere of financial services
• Has covid changed corporate governance practices in the UK?
• The effect of corporate governance procedures on capital structure in developing countries
• Does IT progress influence companies’ investment in R&D?
• Behavioural finance and its influence on investing decisions
• Is behavioural finance able to completely explain investment decisions?
• How personal characteristics of an investor explain their investment decisions
• Patterns in spending of single-person households and couple households
• Has covid changed inclination to saving among households?
• The role of mediators in the mortgage market

Labour and Demographic Economics

• Economic effects of changes in demographic structure
• The relationship between the number of children and family wellbeing in developing countries
• Does the child-free movement have a real impact on demographic situation in the UK?
• Does Affirmative Action Reduce Gender Discrimination in the Labor Market? Recent Evidence for Developing Countries
• Has covid changed the demand for labour in the EU?
• Digitalisation and changes in labour market
• The influence of marital status on income
• How does marital status impacts labour force structure?
• What are the reasons behind regional wage inequality in the EU.
• Influence of uberisation on labour force structure.
• The demand for refugee labour force in the EU.
• Benefits and disadvantages of being self-employed
• Strategic HR management and trade unions
• A critical analysis of collective bargaining in the context of the UK
• Do all participants of the single market have the same collective bargaining conditions?
• The influence of regional disparity of income on labour mobility
• How has covid changed unemployment patterns in the UK?
• What is the contribution of immigrant workers to GDP of the UK?
• Differences in labour standards between top-5 European football leagues
• An overview of labour laws in the tourist sector across EU countries
• UK labour regulations: drawbacks to be amended in the future

Development Economics and Innovation

• What are the most relevant indicators of economic development?
• The influence of population growth on developing economies: case study of India.
• Exploring the relationship between migration and economic development
• How do land regulations affect the pace of development in developing countries?
• Ecovillages: regulation and development prospects
• What are the residential location preferences of the new generation of millennials?
• Instruments of funding innovations
• Issues of protecting intellectual property rights of start-ups
• Impact of technological change on productivity in the manufacturing industry
• How does trade openness affects aggregate productivity of the economy? On the sample of Australia
• What affects productivity in the long run?
• The impact of structural change on productivity in developing economies
• Economic development in Russia: effects of privatisation
• Economic implications of climate change in developing countries
• Economy wide effect of free trade agreements: the case of developing countries

Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, Environmental and Ecological Economics

• The effect of technology on productivity of the agricultural sector in developing countries.
• How do labour force flows affect agricultural sector performance in an emerging economy?
• Managing livestock farm as a business: issues and benefits
• Sustainable management practices in fish industry
• Benefits and methods of energy conservation
• Influence of renewable energy sources: economic, social and environmental aspects
• Management of non-renewable sources in the context of Germany.
• How does depletion of resources affect the UK economy?
• Methods of monitoring and control of non-renewable resources
• What is the potential of the solar energy in the world market of energy?
• Opportunities, benefits and drawbacks of alternative energy sources
• What are the main sources of risk in the sphere of renewable energy?
• Water management and conservation policies: A comparative study of the UK and Malaysia.
• The influence of climate policies on economic development.
• How can innovations contribute to the development of an eco-friendly economy?

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Dissertation Topics

• Updated on  
• Apr 24, 2023

The final step in a PhD or Master’s course is the submission of a dissertation . A dissertation is a research paper that summarises the research conducted and includes findings either on a question or a topic chosen by the student. It is important as it demonstrates a student’s knowledge of the subject and ability to use research methods to define a topic. Students are required to select a dissertation topic of their choice. Choosing a topic can be confusing so this blog helps you understand how to narrow down a dissertation topic and provides a list of dissertation topics in various disciplines.

This Blog Includes:

Empirical dissertation, non-empirical dissertation, different types of research methods for dissertation, how to choose a dissertation topic, list of dissertation topics subject-wise, economics dissertation topics, mba dissertation topics, medical dissertation topics, arts and humanities dissertation topics, law dissertation topics, science dissertation topics, social science dissertation topics, psychology dissertation topics, dissertation topics in education, what makes a good dissertation topic, types of dissertation.

There are mainly two types of dissertations- empirical and non-empirical. The choice of the dissertation depends mainly on your field of study.

An empirical dissertation involves collecting data and researching through methods where conclusions of the study are strictly drawn from concretely empirical evidence, and therefore “verifiable” evidence. It focuses on collecting and analyzing original data. Students can conduct research using qualitative and quantitative research methods like case studies, surveys, observation, laboratory experiments, and interviews.  Empirical research tests hypotheses in order to arrive at valid research outcomes and assumptions are tested.

A non-empirical dissertation involves the use of theoretical data and working with existing research or other texts, presenting original analysis, and argumentation, but there is no original data. It focuses more on theories, methods, and their implications for educational research. Non-empirical research theorizes the logical assumptions of research variables and assumptions are entirely theorized.

Also Read: Dissertation Topic in Finance

Two types of primary research for the dissertation include qualitative and quantitative research methods:

• Quantitative Research Methods gather information through numerical data. It is used to quantify opinions, behaviors, or other defined variables. It can be used to study a large group of people. The information is gathered by performing statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques. Examples of quantitative research methods include surveys, experimental research, correlational research, longitudinal study, cross-sectional, causal-Comparative research, descriptive research, etc
• Qualitative research methods gather non-numerical data. It is used to find meanings, opinions, or underlying reasons from its subjects.  It is associated with studying human behavior from an informative perspective. It aims at obtaining in-depth details of the problem. Examples of qualitative research methods include case studies, Observational methods, one-on-one interviews, focus groups, text analysis, etc
• Mixed method research is where quantitative and qualitative methods of research are combined

Also Read: Dissertation vs Thesis

When it comes to choosing a topic for your dissertation, many students find themselves confused. Here are some tips that will help you narrow down a topic for your dissertation:

• First, check the requirements of your course
• Since your dissertation and research will take time, probably months, you should select a topic that interests you. 
• Start by brainstorming and researching your field of study
• Get inspired by previous students’ work and research
• Make a list of broad topics you find interesting. Shortlist the one on which you can do research.
• Narrow down your topic by picking a niche
• Try to pick something original and a small and specific topic. Remember not to be too vague or too narrow
• Consider the type of research to want to perform and whether the topic has academic and social relevance
• Ask your lecturers or supervisor for advice and get your topic approved

Here are all the subject-wise dissertation topics to explore:

• Comparing the Economies of Developed  vs Developing Countries
• How Social Networks Contribute to the Growth of the Global Economy
• Covid-19 Implications on the Economy
• Consumer Behavior and Eco-Friendly Production
• Gender Wage Gap: Legislative and Ethical Issues Dealing with Salaries in Developing Countries
• How China’s Production Influences the Global Economy
• Micro-financing Institutions and the Level of Poverty in Developing Countries
• How Oil Consumption Influences Global Economy
• The impact of local and regional cultures on shaping entrepreneurial economic development.
• How do habits and routines affect productivity? The case of (an industry).
• Research to identify the impacts of Coronavirus on banking and the future of banking after the pandemic
• How Globalization leads to Mergers and International Economic Cooperation
•  Role of the World Bank in the International Economy
• Technological innovations and their influence on green and environmental products.
• Fiscal policy and the global economy: The scope for, and benefits from, international Coordination Fiscal and labor market policies in response to Covid-19 in different countries
• Is Online Marketing Effective for Technological Startups?
• How Globalization Impacts Small Business
• The Specifics of Instagram Marketing and Advertisement Placement
• Consumer behavior during a recession.
• Brands Influencing Consumers Buying Behaviors – A Case Study On (Brand/Company)
• The Influence Of Advertising On Consumer Behavior
• Evaluation of best HR practices for improving employee commitment
• Strategies to continually maintain customers’ satisfaction and trust levels in an electronic shopping
• Surviving political turmoil
• Digital marketing during the COVID-19 crisis.
• Recent research and responses of various countries for the treatment of COVID-19.
• Is it good to take antibiotics during the infection of microbes in the human body?
• Exploring the ethical dilemmas faced by healthcare professionals during COVID-19: Establishing policies for best practice.
• Management of Drug Dependency Programs
• Detailed assessment of the long-term usage of steroids on the overall health conditions of individuals.
• Communication and Public Health during the Pandemic
• Implementation of Modern Recovery Programs in Hospital Care System
• Challenges in recognizing rare infectious diseases
• Epidemics versus pandemics
• Sequelae and effective diabetes management
• How Capitalism Contributed to the Development of Conceptual Art
• Shift in Gender Roles in Marvel Comic Books in the Last 20 Years
• Social Networks’ Impact on Slang Language
• How has Globalization Influenced Cultural Relativism?
• New Ethics in a Digital Age
• Economical, Social and Political Causes and Results of the Great Depression
• Effects of the Industrial Revolution concerning World War I.
• Body Image and Social Construction of Normality
• Warfare and Violence in Ancient Times
• The history of design in various periods of human existence
• How Gender Roles and Stereotypes Influence the Divorce Process
• The Rise of Cyber Crimes and Punishments
• Race Discrimination in Modern Law System
• A deeper look at the history of the death penalty.
• Did the US involvement in Iraq provide justice or violate the law?
• Analyzing the impact of trade unions and their work
• Assessing the mediating role of corporate social responsibility in companies’ performance.
• Evaluating the implications of Brexit on the protection of intellectual property rights in the UK.
• Section 377 and the Dignity of Indian Homosexuals
• Legal Issue of Child Labor in the Third World Countries
• Modern Technology that Contributes to Biology Science
• Effects of Pesticide Use on the Quality of Water
• The Concept of Uncertainty in Quantum Physics Based on Particle-Wave Duality
• String Theory and Black Holes
• Discovery of New Species: Can We Expect More?
• How to Fight Mercury Contamination in the Environment
• Could Ebola be Used As a Biological Weapon?
• Solid-state physics and its modern implication in different fields.
• The Future of Synthetic Chemistry
• Nearby Galaxies and Young Stellar Clusters
• Political Reasons Behind Gender Inequality
• Tectonic Theory and Forecasting of Earthquakes
• The role of mass media in the electoral process of a state or a country and how its influence dictates the results of an election.
• The process of the formation of coral reefs and their use.
• Effect of Deglaciation on the polar volcanoes
• Contraction of One’s Identity in Urban Landscape
• Youth Activism and Social Work
• Emission profile of a fast-food restaurant
• Post 9/11 Pakistan-Afghanistan relations and their impact on world politics
• The gap between ideology and competency of foreign political powers
• Correlation Between Raise of Social Networks and Anxiety Disorders Among Teenagers
• Correlation Between Patient’s Immune System and Mental Health
• Treating Strategies for Patients with PTSD
• Preparing Patients With Anxiety to Return to the Workplace
• Media violence and children
• Relapse in the addictive behaviors
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) From A Neurosciences And Behavioural Approach
• How does separation between parents cause distress among children
• The mental health of homeless people
• Why is there an increase in eating disorders among the youth?
• Social Anxiety and social depression effects on an introverted child
•  Workplace Bullying and its Psychological Impact on Employees’ Performance
• Impact of Covid-19 on mental health
• childhood trauma and outline its effects
• A study of long-term psychological effects of divorce on the adult children of divorcees
• Impact of the Internet on the social life of Students.
• Educational assessment of students using virtual reality technologies
• Interaction between students of different ethnicities based on a differentiated approach
• Harassment Prevention of younger students in School
• Illegal behavior of students in high-school 
• Importance of self-studying for students
• Development of Time management for students
• Personal development of teachers in educational institutions
• The role of Sustainability in educational institutions
• The rising cost of academic education

Something that will allow you to produce “a polished piece of work within a limited amount of time and with a limited amount of cost.” A good dissertation topic seeks to challenge and subdue the existing assumptions and theories. It introduces a new and unique perspective on the status quo. Here are some defining factors of a good dissertation topic:

• Choose a topic you love to research and unravel
• A topic that challenges the pre-existing theories in your discipline
• Seeks practical, philosophical, and social solutions and answers

Hopefully, this blog assisted you in finding out popular dissertation topics. If you require any assistance regarding your application process while enrolling for your further studies, our experts at Leverage Edu are just one click away. Call us anytime at 1800 572 000 for a free counseling session!

Team Leverage Edu

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