master in finance thesis topics

Research Topics & Ideas: Finance

120+ Finance Research Topic Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

If you’re just starting out exploring potential research topics for your finance-related dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of finance-centric research topics and ideas.

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Finance Research Topics

• Corporate finance topics
• Investment banking topics
• Private equity & VC
• Asset management
• Hedge funds
• Financial planning & advisory
• Quantitative finance
• Treasury management
• Financial technology (FinTech)
• Commercial banking
• International finance

Corporate Finance

These research topic ideas explore a breadth of issues ranging from the examination of capital structure to the exploration of financial strategies in mergers and acquisitions.

• Evaluating the impact of capital structure on firm performance across different industries
• Assessing the effectiveness of financial management practices in emerging markets
• A comparative analysis of the cost of capital and financial structure in multinational corporations across different regulatory environments
• Examining how integrating sustainability and CSR initiatives affect a corporation’s financial performance and brand reputation
• Analysing how rigorous financial analysis informs strategic decisions and contributes to corporate growth
• Examining the relationship between corporate governance structures and financial performance
• A comparative analysis of financing strategies among mergers and acquisitions
• Evaluating the importance of financial transparency and its impact on investor relations and trust
• Investigating the role of financial flexibility in strategic investment decisions during economic downturns
• Investigating how different dividend policies affect shareholder value and the firm’s financial performance

Investment Banking

The list below presents a series of research topics exploring the multifaceted dimensions of investment banking, with a particular focus on its evolution following the 2008 financial crisis.

• Analysing the evolution and impact of regulatory frameworks in investment banking post-2008 financial crisis
• Investigating the challenges and opportunities associated with cross-border M&As facilitated by investment banks.
• Evaluating the role of investment banks in facilitating mergers and acquisitions in emerging markets
• Analysing the transformation brought about by digital technologies in the delivery of investment banking services and its effects on efficiency and client satisfaction.
• Evaluating the role of investment banks in promoting sustainable finance and the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria in investment decisions.
• Assessing the impact of technology on the efficiency and effectiveness of investment banking services
• Examining the effectiveness of investment banks in pricing and marketing IPOs, and the subsequent performance of these IPOs in the stock market.
• A comparative analysis of different risk management strategies employed by investment banks
• Examining the relationship between investment banking fees and corporate performance
• A comparative analysis of competitive strategies employed by leading investment banks and their impact on market share and profitability

Private Equity & Venture Capital (VC)

These research topic ideas are centred on venture capital and private equity investments, with a focus on their impact on technological startups, emerging technologies, and broader economic ecosystems.

• Investigating the determinants of successful venture capital investments in tech startups
• Analysing the trends and outcomes of venture capital funding in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, or clean energy
• Assessing the performance and return on investment of different exit strategies employed by venture capital firms
• Assessing the impact of private equity investments on the financial performance of SMEs
• Analysing the role of venture capital in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship
• Evaluating the exit strategies of private equity firms: A comparative analysis
• Exploring the ethical considerations in private equity and venture capital financing
• Investigating how private equity ownership influences operational efficiency and overall business performance
• Evaluating the effectiveness of corporate governance structures in companies backed by private equity investments
• Examining how the regulatory environment in different regions affects the operations, investments and performance of private equity and venture capital firms

Asset Management

This list includes a range of research topic ideas focused on asset management, probing into the effectiveness of various strategies, the integration of technology, and the alignment with ethical principles among other key dimensions.

• Analysing the effectiveness of different asset allocation strategies in diverse economic environments
• Analysing the methodologies and effectiveness of performance attribution in asset management firms
• Assessing the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria on fund performance
• Examining the role of robo-advisors in modern asset management
• Evaluating how advancements in technology are reshaping portfolio management strategies within asset management firms
• Evaluating the performance persistence of mutual funds and hedge funds
• Investigating the long-term performance of portfolios managed with ethical or socially responsible investing principles
• Investigating the behavioural biases in individual and institutional investment decisions
• Examining the asset allocation strategies employed by pension funds and their impact on long-term fund performance
• Assessing the operational efficiency of asset management firms and its correlation with fund performance

Hedge Funds

Here we explore research topics related to hedge fund operations and strategies, including their implications on corporate governance, financial market stability, and regulatory compliance among other critical facets.

• Assessing the impact of hedge fund activism on corporate governance and financial performance
• Analysing the effectiveness and implications of market-neutral strategies employed by hedge funds
• Investigating how different fee structures impact the performance and investor attraction to hedge funds
• Evaluating the contribution of hedge funds to financial market liquidity and the implications for market stability
• Analysing the risk-return profile of hedge fund strategies during financial crises
• Evaluating the influence of regulatory changes on hedge fund operations and performance
• Examining the level of transparency and disclosure practices in the hedge fund industry and its impact on investor trust and regulatory compliance
• Assessing the contribution of hedge funds to systemic risk in financial markets, and the effectiveness of regulatory measures in mitigating such risks
• Examining the role of hedge funds in financial market stability
• Investigating the determinants of hedge fund success: A comparative analysis

Financial Planning and Advisory

This list explores various research topic ideas related to financial planning, focusing on the effects of financial literacy, the adoption of digital tools, taxation policies, and the role of financial advisors.

• Evaluating the impact of financial literacy on individual financial planning effectiveness
• Analysing how different taxation policies influence financial planning strategies among individuals and businesses
• Evaluating the effectiveness and user adoption of digital tools in modern financial planning practices
• Investigating the adequacy of long-term financial planning strategies in ensuring retirement security
• Assessing the role of financial education in shaping financial planning behaviour among different demographic groups
• Examining the impact of psychological biases on financial planning and decision-making, and strategies to mitigate these biases
• Assessing the behavioural factors influencing financial planning decisions
• Examining the role of financial advisors in managing retirement savings
• A comparative analysis of traditional versus robo-advisory in financial planning
• Investigating the ethics of financial advisory practices

The following list delves into research topics within the insurance sector, touching on the technological transformations, regulatory shifts, and evolving consumer behaviours among other pivotal aspects.

• Analysing the impact of technology adoption on insurance pricing and risk management
• Analysing the influence of Insurtech innovations on the competitive dynamics and consumer choices in insurance markets
• Investigating the factors affecting consumer behaviour in insurance product selection and the role of digital channels in influencing decisions
• Assessing the effect of regulatory changes on insurance product offerings
• Examining the determinants of insurance penetration in emerging markets
• Evaluating the operational efficiency of claims management processes in insurance companies and its impact on customer satisfaction
• Examining the evolution and effectiveness of risk assessment models used in insurance underwriting and their impact on pricing and coverage
• Evaluating the role of insurance in financial stability and economic development
• Investigating the impact of climate change on insurance models and products
• Exploring the challenges and opportunities in underwriting cyber insurance in the face of evolving cyber threats and regulations

Quantitative Finance

These topic ideas span the development of asset pricing models, evaluation of machine learning algorithms, and the exploration of ethical implications among other pivotal areas.

• Developing and testing new quantitative models for asset pricing
• Analysing the effectiveness and limitations of machine learning algorithms in predicting financial market movements
• Assessing the effectiveness of various risk management techniques in quantitative finance
• Evaluating the advancements in portfolio optimisation techniques and their impact on risk-adjusted returns
• Evaluating the impact of high-frequency trading on market efficiency and stability
• Investigating the influence of algorithmic trading strategies on market efficiency and liquidity
• Examining the risk parity approach in asset allocation and its effectiveness in different market conditions
• Examining the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence in quantitative financial analysis
• Investigating the ethical implications of quantitative financial innovations
• Assessing the profitability and market impact of statistical arbitrage strategies considering different market microstructures

Treasury Management

The following topic ideas explore treasury management, focusing on modernisation through technological advancements, the impact on firm liquidity, and the intertwined relationship with corporate governance among other crucial areas.

• Analysing the impact of treasury management practices on firm liquidity and profitability
• Analysing the role of automation in enhancing operational efficiency and strategic decision-making in treasury management
• Evaluating the effectiveness of various cash management strategies in multinational corporations
• Investigating the potential of blockchain technology in streamlining treasury operations and enhancing transparency
• Examining the role of treasury management in mitigating financial risks
• Evaluating the accuracy and effectiveness of various cash flow forecasting techniques employed in treasury management
• Assessing the impact of technological advancements on treasury management operations
• Examining the effectiveness of different foreign exchange risk management strategies employed by treasury managers in multinational corporations
• Assessing the impact of regulatory compliance requirements on the operational and strategic aspects of treasury management
• Investigating the relationship between treasury management and corporate governance

Financial Technology (FinTech)

The following research topic ideas explore the transformative potential of blockchain, the rise of open banking, and the burgeoning landscape of peer-to-peer lending among other focal areas.

• Evaluating the impact of blockchain technology on financial services
• Investigating the implications of open banking on consumer data privacy and financial services competition
• Assessing the role of FinTech in financial inclusion in emerging markets
• Analysing the role of peer-to-peer lending platforms in promoting financial inclusion and their impact on traditional banking systems
• Examining the cybersecurity challenges faced by FinTech firms and the regulatory measures to ensure data protection and financial stability
• Examining the regulatory challenges and opportunities in the FinTech ecosystem
• Assessing the impact of artificial intelligence on the delivery of financial services, customer experience, and operational efficiency within FinTech firms
• Analysing the adoption and impact of cryptocurrencies on traditional financial systems
• Investigating the determinants of success for FinTech startups

Commercial Banking

These topic ideas span commercial banking, encompassing digital transformation, support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the evolving regulatory and competitive landscape among other key themes.

• Assessing the impact of digital transformation on commercial banking services and competitiveness
• Analysing the impact of digital transformation on customer experience and operational efficiency in commercial banking
• Evaluating the role of commercial banks in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• Investigating the effectiveness of credit risk management practices and their impact on bank profitability and financial stability
• Examining the relationship between commercial banking practices and financial stability
• Evaluating the implications of open banking frameworks on the competitive landscape and service innovation in commercial banking
• Assessing how regulatory changes affect lending practices and risk appetite of commercial banks
• Examining how commercial banks are adapting their strategies in response to competition from FinTech firms and changing consumer preferences
• Analysing the impact of regulatory compliance on commercial banking operations
• Investigating the determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty in commercial banking

International Finance

The folowing research topic ideas are centred around international finance and global economic dynamics, delving into aspects like exchange rate fluctuations, international financial regulations, and the role of international financial institutions among other pivotal areas.

• Analysing the determinants of exchange rate fluctuations and their impact on international trade
• Analysing the influence of global trade agreements on international financial flows and foreign direct investments
• Evaluating the effectiveness of international portfolio diversification strategies in mitigating risks and enhancing returns
• Evaluating the role of international financial institutions in global financial stability
• Investigating the role and implications of offshore financial centres on international financial stability and regulatory harmonisation
• Examining the impact of global financial crises on emerging market economies
• Examining the challenges and regulatory frameworks associated with cross-border banking operations
• Assessing the effectiveness of international financial regulations
• Investigating the challenges and opportunities of cross-border mergers and acquisitions

Choosing A Research Topic

These finance-related research topic ideas are starting points to guide your thinking. They are intentionally very broad and open-ended. By engaging with the currently literature in your field of interest, you’ll be able to narrow down your focus to a specific research gap .

When choosing a topic , you’ll need to take into account its originality, relevance, feasibility, and the resources you have at your disposal. Make sure to align your interest and expertise in the subject with your university program’s specific requirements. Always consult your academic advisor to ensure that your chosen topic not only meets the academic criteria but also provides a valuable contribution to the field. 

If you need a helping hand, feel free to check out our private coaching service here.

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200 Finance Dissertation Topics: Quick Ideas For Students

Finance dissertation topics are on-demand in the 21st century. But why is this so? It may perplex you how everyone is up and down looking for interesting, quality finance topics. However, the answer is simple: because fascinating finance dissertation topics can earn students bonus points.

We will delve into that in just a second. Your finance topic dictates the difficulty of the assignment you are going to handle. Landing on the right topic means that you will not have to toil as much as when you pick a highly complex topic. Does it make sense?

Let’s explore the nitty-gritty of finance dissertation papers before we get into mentioning the top-rated finance research topics list.

What Is A Finance Dissertation?

As the name goes, finance dissertation is a kind of writing that investigates a particular finance topic selected by the student. The topics range from the stock market, banking, and risk management to healthcare finance topics.

This dissertation provides the student with a degree of academic self-confidence and personal satisfaction in the finance field. Finance writing requires extensive research to create a persuasive paper in the end.

Writing Tips For Finance Dissertations

Are you uncertain concerning what you need to do to compose a top-notch finance dissertation? Worry no more! Our professional writers have put together some essential suggestions to kick you off. In the next few minutes, you will be in a position to create a perfect finance dissertation painstakingly:

• Narrow down your topic : Trim down your finance topic to a specific niche. It should focus on one region; either micro-finance, macro-finance, or internet banking.
• Verify your facts : Finance is a field that includes a lot of statistical data to be followed logically. Therefore, verify facts and figures with reliable sources before opting to use them in your paper.
• Write concisely : Unlike other papers with long narrative tales, you should encapsulate a finance paper into a tight, concise paper. The rule of ‘short is sweet’ technically applies here at great length.
• Arrange your data neatly : A paper that is stuffed with numerals and charts all over may turn down a reader at first sight. For an impressive finance thesis, know-how and when to use your data.
• Write simply : Avoid jargon that may confuse an ordinary reader. Where a need is for technical terms to be used, illustrate them with relatable examples. Simplicity is gold in a finance dissertation. So, use it well.

With these tips and tricks, you are all set to start writing your finance paper. We now advance to another crucial part that will make sure your finance paper is refined and at per with your institution’s academic standards.

General Structure of a Finance Dissertation

It is crucial to consult your supervisor regarding your dissertation’s research methodology, structure, style, and reasonable length. Depending on the guidance of your supervisor, the structure may vary. Nonetheless, as a general guide, ensure the following sections are part and parcel of your dissertation:

• Introduction: State the problem that you intend to address in your dissertation. It also includes a definition of key terms, the relevance of the topic and a summary of hypotheses.
• Theoretical and empirical literature, hypotheses development and contribution: It provides the theoretical framework of your study. The hypotheses are based on the literature review.
• Data and methodology: State the model (i.e. dependent and key independent variables) that you want to use the drawing on theoretical framework or economic argument that you may employ for your analysis. Define all control variables and describe the data used to test the hypothesis.
• Empirical results: Describe the results and mention whether they are consistent with the hypotheses and relate them with the existing evidence in the literature. You will also describe the statistical and practical/economic significance of your findings.
• Summary and conclusion: Summarize your research and state the general conclusion with relevant implications.

It is important to have all the dataset you want to use readily available before finalizing the topic. The dataset is essential for testing your hypotheses.

There are thousands of research topics for finance students available all over the internet and academic books. You only have to browse and lookup for the latest research or refer to past readings or course lectures.

Even though this exercise may look simple enough on the surface, it takes a lot of time to consider what makes for interesting finance topics adequately. Not all ideas you find will achieve the academic requirements that your supervisor expects from you.

Here is a list of freshly mint topics to use for numerous finance situations:

Impressive Healthcare Finance Topics

Healthcare involves more than just treating patients and administering injections. There are finance aspects that also come into play, including:

• Strategies for marketplace achievement in turbulent times: Medical staff marketing
• Effects of the employer executive compensation and benefits plan after the Tax Reform Act of 1986
• Improving profitability through accelerating philanthropic giving to healthcare systems
• Acceleration and effective information strategies for cash management in hospitals
• Finding the system’s solution to health care cost accounting
• How hospitals spend money from charitable organizations and donor funding
• Models of enhancing cost accounting efforts by improving existing information sources
• Strategies of increasing cash flow with a patient accounting review
• A systematic review of productivity, cost accounting, and information systems
• A study of the cost accounting strategies under the prospective payment system
• How to manage bad debt and charity care accounts in hospitals
• Achieving more value from managed care efforts in healthcare systems
• Strategies of achieving economies of scale through shared ancillary and support services
• Profitable ways of financing the acquisition of a health care enterprise
• Effects of mergers and acquisitions on private hospitals
• Measuring nursing costs with patient acuity data in hospitals
• Affordable treatment and care for long-term and terminal diseases
• Survey of the organization and structure of a hospital’s administration concerning financing
• Impact of culture and globalization on healthcare financing
• Discuss the necessity for universal health coverage in the United States

Finance Management Project Topics

If you are a finance management enthusiast, this section will impress you the most:

• The impact of corrupt bank managers on its sustainability
• How banks finance small and medium-scale enterprises
• Loan granting and its recovery problems on commercial banks
• An evaluation of credit management in the banking industry
• The role of microfinance banks in the alleviation of poverty in the US
• Comparative evaluation strategies in mergers and acquisitions
• How to plan and invest in the insurance sector and tax planning
• Impact of shareholders on decision-making processes on banks
• How diversity in banks affects management and leadership practices
• Credit management techniques that work for small scale enterprises
• Appraisal on the impact of effective credit management on the profitability of commercial banks
• The impact of quantitative tools of monetary policy on the performance of deposit of commercial banks
• Financial management practices in the insurance industry and risk management
• The role of the capital market in economic development
• Problems facing financial institutions to the growth of small scale business in the USA
• Why training and development of human resources is a critical factor in bank operations
• The impact of universal banking financial system on the credibility
• Security threats to effective management in banks
• The effect of fiscal and monetary policy in controlling unemployment
• The effects of financial leverage on company performance

Topics in Mathematics With Applications in Finance

Mathematics and finance correlate in several ways in that they borrow concepts from each other. Here are some of the mathematics concepts that apply to finance paper topics:

• Linear algebra
• Probability theory
• Stochastic processes
• Regression analysis
• Value at risk models
• Time series analysis
• Volatility modelling
• Regularized pricing and risk models
• Commodity models
• Portfolio theory
• Factor modelling
• Stochastic differential equations
• Ross recovery theorem
• Option, price, and probability duality
• Black-Scholes formula, Risk-neutral valuation
• Introduction to counterparty credit risk
• HJM model for interest rates and credit
• Quanto credit hedging
• Calculus in finance and its application

International Finance Topics

International finance research topics deal with a range of monetary exchanges between two or more nations. Below is a list of international research topics in finance for you to browse through and pick a relevant one:

• A study of the most important concepts in international finance
• How internal auditing enhances good corporate governance practice in an organization
• Factors that affect the capital structure of Go Public manufacturing companies
• A financial engineering perspective on the causes of large price changes
• Corporate governance and board of directors responsibilities
• An exploratory study on the management of support services in international organizations
• An accounting perspective of the need for theorizing corporation
• Impact of coronavirus on international trade relations
• Is business ethics attainable in the global market arena
• How exchange rates affect international trading
• The role of currency derivatives in shaping the global market
• How to improve international capital structure
• How to forecast exchange rates
• Ways of measuring exposure to exchange rates fluctuations
• How to hedge exposure to exchange rates fluctuations globally
• How foreign direct investment puts individual countries at risk
• How to stabilize international capital markets
• A study of shadow banking in the global environment
• A comparative analysis of Western markets and African markets
• Exploring the monetary funding opportunities by the International Monetary Fund

Corporate Finance Research Topics

These 20 topics have the potential to help you write an amazing corporate finance paper, provided you have the will to work hard on your paper:

• Short- and long-term investment needs for working capital trends
• Identifying proper capital structure models for a company
• How capital structure and an organization’s funding of its operations relate
• Corporate finance decision making in unstable stock markets
• The effect of firm size on financial decision making incorporates
• Compare and contrast the different internationally recognized corporate financial reporting standards
• Evaluate the emerging concept integrated reporting in corporate finance
• Managing transparency in corporate financial decisions
• How technological connectivity has helped in integrated financial management
• How different investment models contribute to the success of a corporate
• The essence of valuation of cash flows in financial and non-financial corporates
• Identify the prevalent financial innovations in the USA
• Ways in which governance influences corporate financial activities
• Impact of taxes on dividend policies in developed nations
• How corporate strategies related to corporate finance
• Implications of the global economic crisis in the backdrop of corporate finance concepts
• How information technology impact corporate relations among companies
• Evaluate the effectiveness of corporate financing tools and techniques
• How do FDI strategies compare in Europe and Asia?
• The role of transparency and liquidity in alternative corporate investments

Finance Debate Topics

These finance debate topics are formulated in keeping with emerging financial issues globally:

• Is China’s economy on the verge of ousting that of the US?
• Does the dynamic nature of the global market affect the financial alienations of countries?
• Is Foreign Direct Investment in retail sector good for the US?
• Is it possible to maintain stable oil prices in the world?
• Are multinational corporations good for the global economy?
• Does the country of origin matter in selling a product?
• Are financial companies misusing ethics in marketing?
• Why should consumer always be king in marketing messages?
• Does commercialization serve in the best interest of the consumer?
• Why should companies bother having a mission statement?
• Why should hospitals receive tax subsidies and levies on drugs?
• Is television the best medium for advertisement?
• Is the guarantor principle security or a myth?
• Compare and contrast market trends in capitalism versus Marxism states
• Does the name of a business have an impact on its development record?
• Is it the responsibility of the government to finance small-scale business enterprises?
• Does budgeting truly serve its purpose in a company?
• Why should agricultural imports be banned?
• Is advertising a waste of company resources?
• Why privatization will lead to less corruption in companies

Finance Topics For Presentation

Is your group or individual finance presentation giving you sleepless nights just because you do not have a topic? Worry no more!

• The role of diplomatic ties in enhancing financial relations between countries
• Should banks use force when recovering loans from long-term defaulters?
• Why mortgages are becoming difficult to repay among the middle class
• Ways of improving the skilled workforce in developing
• How technology creates income disparities among social classes
• The role of rational thinking in making financial decisions
• How much capital is necessary for a start-up?
• Are investments in betting firms good for young people?
• How co-operatives are important in promoting communism in a society
• Why should countries stop receiving foreign aids and depend on themselves?
• Compare and contrast the performance of private sectors over public sectors
• How frequent should reforms be conducted in companies?
• How globalization affects nationalism
• Theories of financial development that is still applicable today
• Should business people head the finance ministry of countries?
• The impact of the transport sector on revenue and tax collection
• The impact of space exploration on the country’s economy
• How regional blocs are impacting developing nations
• Factors contributing to the growth of online scams
• What is the impact of trade unions in promoting businesses?

Finance Research Topics For MBA

Here is our best list of top-rated MBA financial topics to write about in 2023, which will generate more passion for a debate:

• Evaluate the effect of the Global crisis to use the line of credit in maintaining cash flow
• Discuss options for investment in the shipping industry in the US
• Financial risk management in the maritime industry: A case study of the blue economy
• Analyze the various financial risk indicators
• Financial laws that prevent volatility in the financial market
• How the global recession has impacted domestic banking industries
• Discuss IMF’s initiatives in tackling internal inefficiency of new projects
• How the WTO is essential in the global financial market
• The link between corporate and capital structures
• Why is it important to have an individual investment?
• How to handle credit crisis in financial marketing
• Financial planning for salaried employee and strategies for tax savings
• A study on Cost And Costing Models in Companies
• A critical study on investment patterns and preferences of retail investors
• Risk portfolio and perception management of equity investors
• Is there room for improvement in electronic payment systems?
• Risks and opportunities of investments versus savings
• Impact of investor awareness towards commodities in the market
• Is taxation a selling tool for life insurance
• Impact of earnings per share

Public Finance Topics

These interesting finance topics may augur well with university students majoring in public finance:

• Financial assistance for businesses and workers during Coronavirus lockdowns
• Debt sustainability in developing countries
• How we can use public money to leverage private funds
• Analyze the use of public funds in developed versus developing countries
• The reliability of sovereign credit ratings for investors in government securities
• Propose a method of analysis on the cost-benefit ratio of any government project
• The role of entities in charge of financial intermediation
• The reciprocity and impact of tariff barriers
• Impact of the exempted goods prices on the trade deficit
• Investor penalties and its impact in the form of taxes and penalties
• Public government projects that use private funds
• Ways of measuring the cost of sustainability
• Maintaining economic growth to avoid a strong recession
• The impact of the declining income and consumption rates
• Effects of quarantine and forced suspension of economic activity
• Innovative means of limiting the scale of pandemic development
• The growing scale of the public debt of the public finance system
• A critical analysis of the epidemiological safety instruments used in countries
• The growing debt crisis of the state finance system
• How to permanently improve and increase the scale of anti-crisis socio-economic policy planning

Business Finance Topics

You can address the following business finance research papers topics for your next assignment:

• How organizations are raising and managing funds
• Analyze the planning, analysis, and control operations and responsibilities of the financial manager
• Why business managers should take advantage of the federal stimulus package
• Economical ways of negotiating for lower monthly bills
• Evaluate the best retirement plans for entrepreneurs
• Tax reform changes needed to spearhead businesses to the next level
• How politicians can help small businesses make it to the top
• Setting up life insurance policies from which you can sidestep the banks and loan yourself money
• Why every business manager should know about profit and loss statements, revenue by customers and more.
• Advantages of creating multiple corporations to business entrepreneurs
• Why good liquidity is a vital weapon in the face of a crisis
• Reasons why many people are declaring bankruptcy during the coronavirus pandemic
• Why you should closely examine the numbers before making any financial decisions
• Benefits of corporations to small scale business ventures
• How to start a business without money at hand
• Strategies for improving your company’s online presence
• Discuss the challenge of debt versus equity for small-scale businesses
• The impact of financial decisions on the profitability and the risk of a firm’s operations
• Striking a balance between risk and profitability
• Why taking the ratio of current assets to current liabilities is important to any business

You can use any of the hot topics mentioned above for your finance dissertation paper or opt for our thesis writing services. We have competitive finance dissertation writing experts ready to tackle your paper to the core.

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50 Best Finance Dissertation Topics For Research Students 2024

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Finance Dissertation Made Easier!

Embarking on your dissertation adventure? Look no further! Choosing the right finance dissertation topics is like laying the foundation for your research journey in Finance, and we're here to light up your path. In this blog, we're diving deep into why dissertation topics in finance matter so much. We've got some golden writing tips to share with you! We're also unveiling the secret recipe for structuring a stellar finance dissertation and exploring intriguing topics across various finance sub-fields. Whether you're captivated by cryptocurrency, risk management strategies, or exploring the wonders of Internet banking, microfinance, retail and commercial banking - our buffet of Finance dissertation topics will surely set your research spirit on fire!

What is a Finance Dissertation?

Finance dissertations are academic papers that delve into specific finance topics chosen by students, covering areas such as stock markets, banking, risk management, and healthcare finance. These dissertations require extensive research to create a compelling report and contribute to the student's confidence and satisfaction in the field of Finance. Now, let's understand why these dissertations are so important and why choosing the right Finance dissertation topics is crucial!

Why Are Finance Dissertation Topics Important?

Choosing the dissertation topics for Finance students is essential as it will influence the course of your research. It determines the direction and scope of your study. You must make sure that the Finance dissertation topics you choose are relevant to your field of interest, or you may end up finding it more challenging to write. Here are a few reasons why finance thesis topics are important:

1. Relevance

Opting for relevant finance thesis topics ensures that your research contributes to the existing body of knowledge and addresses contemporary issues in the field of Finance. Choosing a dissertation topic in Finance that is relevant to the industry can make a meaningful impact and advance understanding in your chosen area.

2. Personal Interest

Selecting Finance dissertation topics that align with your interests and career goals is vital. When genuinely passionate about your research area, you are more likely to stay motivated during the dissertation process. Your interest will drive you to explore the subject thoroughly and produce high-quality work.

3. Future Opportunities

Well-chosen Finance dissertation topics can open doors to various future opportunities. It can enhance your employability by showcasing your expertise in a specific finance area. It may lead to potential research collaborations and invitations to conferences in your field of interest.

4. Academic Supervision

Your choice of topics for dissertation in Finance also influences the availability of academic supervisors with expertise in your chosen area. Selecting a well-defined research area increases the likelihood of finding a supervisor to guide you effectively throughout the dissertation. Their knowledge and guidance will greatly contribute to the success of your research.

Writing Tips for Finance Dissertation

A lot of planning, formatting, and structuring goes into writing a dissertation. It starts with deciding on topics for a dissertation in Finance and conducting tons of research, deciding on methods, and so on. However, you can navigate the process more effectively with proper planning and organisation. Below are some tips to assist you along the way, and here is a blog on the 10 tips on writing a dissertation that can give you more information, should you need it!

1. Select a Manageable Topic

Choosing Finance research topics within the given timeframe and resources is important. Select a research area that interests you and aligns with your career goals. It will help you stay inspired throughout the dissertation process.

2. Conduct a Thorough Literature Review

A comprehensive literature review forms the backbone of your research. After choosing the Finance dissertation topics, dive deep into academic papers, books, and industry reports, gaining a solid understanding of your chosen area to identify research gaps and establish the significance of your study.

3. Define Clear Research Objectives

Clearly define your dissertation's research questions and objectives. It will provide a clear direction for your research and guide your data collection, analysis, and overall structure. Ensure your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

4. Collect and Analyse Data

Depending on your research methodology and your Finance dissertation topics, collect and analyze relevant data to support your findings. It may involve conducting surveys, interviews, experiments, and analyzing existing datasets. Choose appropriate statistical techniques and qualitative methods to derive meaningful insights from your data.

5. Structure and Organization

Pay attention to the structure and organization of your dissertation. Follow a logical progression of chapters and sections, ensuring that each chapter contributes to the overall coherence of your study. Use headings, subheadings, and clear signposts to guide the reader through your work.

6. Proofread and Edit

Once you have completed the writing process, take the time to proofread and edit your dissertation carefully. Check for clarity, coherence, and proper grammar. Ensure that your arguments are well-supported, and eliminate any inconsistencies or repetitions. Pay attention to formatting, citation styles, and consistency in referencing throughout your dissertation.

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Finance Dissertation Topics

Now that you know what a finance dissertation is and why they are important, it's time to have a look at some of the best Finance dissertation topics. For your convenience, we have segregated these topics into categories, including cryptocurrency, risk management, internet banking, and so many more. So, let's dive right in and explore the best Finance dissertation topics:

Dissertation topics in Finance related to Cryptocurrency

1. The Impact of Regulatory Frameworks on the Volatility and Liquidity of Cryptocurrencies.

2. Exploring the Factors Influencing Cryptocurrency Adoption: A Comparative Study.

3. Assessing the Efficiency and Market Integration of Cryptocurrency Exchanges.

4. An Analysis of the Relationship between Cryptocurrency Prices and Macroeconomic Factors.

5. The Role of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in Financing Startups: Opportunities and Challenges.

Dissertation topics in Finance related to Risk Management

1. The Effectiveness of Different Risk Management Strategies in Mitigating Financial Risks in Banking Institutions.

2. The Role of Derivatives in Hedging Financial Risks: A Comparative Study.

3. Analyzing the Impact of Risk Management Practices on Firm Performance: A Case Study of a Specific Industry.

4. The Use of Stress Testing in Evaluating Systemic Risk: Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis.

5. Assessing the Relationship between Corporate Governance and Risk Management in Financial Institutions.

Dissertation topics in Finance related to Internet Banking

1. Customer Adoption of Internet Banking: An Empirical Study on Factors Influencing Usage.

Enhancing Security in Internet Banking: Exploring Biometric Authentication Technologies.

2. The Impact of Mobile Banking Applications on Customer Engagement and Satisfaction.

3. Evaluating the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Internet Banking Services in Emerging Markets.

4. The Role of Social Media in Shaping Customer Perception and Adoption of Internet Banking.

Dissertation topics in Finance related to Microfinance

1. The Impact of Microfinance on Poverty Alleviation: A Comparative Study of Different Models.

2. Exploring the Role of Microfinance in Empowering Women Entrepreneurs.

3. Assessing the Financial Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions in Developing Countries.

4. The Effectiveness of Microfinance in Promoting Rural Development: Evidence from a Specific Region.

5. Analyzing the Relationship between Microfinance and Entrepreneurial Success: A Longitudinal Study.

Dissertation topics in Finance related to Retail and Commercial Banking

1. The Impact of Digital Transformation on Retail and Commercial Banking: A Case Study of a Specific Bank.

2. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in Retail Banking: An Analysis of Service Quality Dimensions.

3. Analyzing the Relationship between Bank Branch Expansion and Financial Performance.

4. The Role of Fintech Startups in Disrupting Retail and Commercial Banking: Opportunities and Challenges.

5. Assessing the Impact of Mergers and Acquisitions on the Performance of Retail and Commercial Banks.

Dissertation topics in Finance related to Alternative Investment

1. The Performance and Risk Characteristics of Hedge Funds: A Comparative Analysis.

2. Exploring the Role of Private Equity in Financing and Growing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

3. Analyzing the Relationship between Real Estate Investments and Portfolio Diversification.

4. The Potential of Impact Investing: Evaluating the Social and Financial Returns.

5. Assessing the Risk-Return Tradeoff in Cryptocurrency Investments: A Comparative Study.

Dissertation topics in Finance related to International Affairs

1. The Impact of Exchange Rate Volatility on International Trade: A Case Study of a Specific Industry.

2. Analyzing the Effectiveness of Capital Controls in Managing Financial Crises: Comparative Study of Different Countries.

3. The Role of International Financial Institutions in Promoting Economic Development in Developing Countries.

4. Evaluating the Implications of Trade Wars on Global Financial Markets.

5. Assessing the Role of Central Banks in Managing Financial Stability in a Globalized Economy.

Dissertation topics in Finance related to Sustainable Finance

1. The impact of sustainable investing on financial performance.

2. The role of green bonds in financing climate change mitigation and adaptation.

3. The development of carbon markets.

4. The use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in investment decision-making.

5. The challenges and opportunities of sustainable Finance in emerging markets.

Dissertation topics in Finance related to Investment Banking

1. The valuation of distressed assets.

2. The pricing of derivatives.

3. The risk management of financial institutions.

4. The regulation of investment banks.

5. The impact of technology on the investment banking industry.

Dissertation topics in Finance related to Actuarial Science

1. The development of new actuarial models for pricing insurance products.

2. The use of big data in actuarial analysis.

3. The impact of climate change on insurance risk.

4. The design of pension plans that are sustainable in the long term.

5. The use of actuarial science to manage risk in other industries, such as healthcare and Finance.

Tips To Find Good Finance Dissertation Topics 

Embarking on a financial dissertation journey requires careful consideration of various factors. Your choice of topic in finance research topics is pivotal, as it sets the stage for the entire research process. Finding a good financial dissertation topic is essential to blend your interests with the current trends in the financial landscape. We suggest the following tips that can help you pick the perfect dissertation topic:

1. Identify your interests and strengths 

2. Check for current relevance

3. Feedback from your superiors

4. Finalise the research methods

5. Gather the data

6. Work on the outline of your dissertation

7. Make a draft and proofread it

In this blog, we have discussed the importance of finance thesis topics and provided valuable writing tips and tips for finding the right topic, too. We have also presented a list of topics within various subfields of Finance. With this, we hope you have great ideas for finance dissertations. Good luck with your finance research journey!

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i research for my dissertation project topics in finance, what is the best topic for dissertation topics for mba finance, what is the hardest finance topic, how do i choose the right topic for my dissertation in finance, where can i find a dissertation topic in finance.

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Dissertation Topics in Finance: 50+ Examples for Inspiration

by  Antony W

May 9, 2023

Finance is an interesting field to study that deals with how humans obtain funds and how they handle the investment.

As a student taking a master’s degree or Ph.D. course in finance, you’ll need to write a dissertation project before graduation.

What’s a better way to start the project than to look for the best dissertation topic in finance?

Unfortunately, choosing the right topic fast can be quite a big challenge, in part because finance is a wide subject that covers different areas.

While the rule of thumb when it comes to picking a topic for your dissertation is to identify an area you’re passionate about, the topic you select must be relevant, manageable, and useful with respect to a career path in finance.

We want to make your work easier with this guide, so you can have an easy time working on your assignment. B

elow you’ll find 50+ examples of topics related to finance. With that many choice, it should be easy for you to identifying one interesting topic you can explore further in a 100 to 300 pages long dissertation .

There are many factors to consider when choosing a dissertation topic in finance.

At the end of the, though, you need to make sure that the topic you choose falls within the area of your expertise and is interesting enough to explore. Here are 50+ ideas to get you started:

Ethics in Accounting Dissertation Topics

Accounting is a profession that, by its very nature, requires a higher level of trust and ethical code of conduct for better financial reporting.

Many questions have emerged from the increase in ethical scandals in accounting, and some of these require further studies. Some of the topics to consider in this area include:

• Profits vs. whistleblowing in the workplace What is the best course of action?
• Banking on Ethics: A Look at Ethics in the Banking Profession
• Managers’ judgment has a role in financial reporting.
• Using accounting methods to reduce tax liabilities. Isn’t that unethical?
• Can accounting control systems ever prevent all occurrences of company fraud and unethical behavior?
• Transfer pricing and tax avoidance Methods for teaching ethics to university accounting students that work.
• Is an auditor’s independence only a perception or a reality?
• Accounting, ethics, and the missing links: a case study from the United Kingdom
• Contradiction in action: An broadening of the debate on Corporate Social Responsibility.
• The Ethics of Tax Evasion as Perceived in the United Kingdom

Internet Banking Dissertation Topics

The debut of internet banking changed the way individuals and businesses manage their transactions.

These days, it’s easy to send and receive money right from the comfort of your home, and this practice alone has made online banking quite significant.

If you’re focusing on internet banking, your dissertation can focus on any of the following topics:

Best practices for online banking and transactions in terms of security.

• Future Internet banking advancements in the United Kingdom.
• Will Fintechs be there in the long run?
• Internet banking services in the United Kingdom vary greatly: A comparison study.
• How have the internet and mobile banking altered the corporate landscape?
• Is digitization causing havoc in the financial industry?
• Internet banking usage: A comparison between young and old people
• A comparative assessment of digital innovation in the banking business in Europe and the United Kingdom.
• The economic and financial consequences of internet banking

Microfinance Dissertation Topics

Microfinance has a wider audience, which is why there’s more effort in place to enhance its growth through banking and corporate sector.

Here are some topics that you can investigate:

• What are the barriers to the establishment of a fully-fledged microfinance sector in the United Kingdom?
• An investigation on the influence of microfinance in emerging economies.
• Microfinance is becoming more popular in the UK banking business.
• Considering the fast growth of international microfinance.
• Access to financial services for the poor, including microfinance and microcredit: A Eurozone empirical study
• Factors that influence the success of microfinance institutions.
• Is microfinance empowering women all across the world?
• How crucial is credit and other financial services to economic development and investment?
• A strategic study, debate, and suggestions for assessing the demand for collective investment plans in the United Kingdom.
• Microfinance’s influence on poverty reduction and economic growth

Alternative Investment Dissertation Topics

Financial market is more volatile now than ever before, and that alone prompts many investors to consider alternative means of spending their money.

Some of the sectors investors are willing to tap into due to high returns and less volatility include mutual funds, private equity, and hedge funds.

This sector still requires more investigation, especially since alternative investments don’t correlate to the current stock market. Some topics to consider include:

• Index and mutual funds are becoming increasingly popular.
• Hedge Funds: A new investment option for institutional investors and an entry into the retail market.
• Hedge funds: are they risk diversifiers, return enhancers, or both?
• Experiment evidence for investment diversification in alternative investment vehicles.
• An assessment of the function and performance of UK capital markets as an alternative source of funding to banking.
• The regulatory interference and enforcement authority in alternative investments.
• The causes for the continuing rise of hedge funds and their implications for the UK financial market
• The UK’s private equity market and numerous investors
• Private equity investment in the European Union: Prospects for the Future

Accounting Standards Dissertation Topics

There’s a higher demand to maintain strict and high standards in accounting practices in many countries.

Yet these standards have raised a number of important questions that existing studies haven’t addressed. So several ideas that you could focus on in your dissertation include:

• What is the standard for reporting on sustainability?
• An examination of the likely effects of Brexit on the UK’s accounting standards and framework.
• How have changes to the Companies Act and the Corporate Governance Code changed the function and duties of UK accountants over the last decade?
• An inquiry into accounting outsourcing from the UK’s point of view.
• An examination of accounting outsourcing from the standpoint of the United States.
• Is the existing set of accounting standards meeting its goals?
• The balanced scorecard: “Holy Grail” for law firms?
• The growing demand for social and environmental information disclosure: Implications for large organizations

Retail and Commercial Banking Dissertation Topics

Retail and commercial banks may be on the decline, but they’re still an important part of the banking industry.

That’s so especially since they continue to play a big role in reaching out to semi-urban and rural populations that need financial services.

This segment of financial study focuses on examining how the baking sector has changed to accommodate the constantly changing demands of banking on the different segments of the economy.

Here are some topics to focus on in your dissertation:

• How have banks influenced the growth of SMEs in the United Kingdom?
• Change agents in the European Retail Banking Sector: An Analysis and Implications for Local Commercial Banks
• Changes and preferences brought about by customer needs are driving the evolution of retail banking.
• Inventory management in mobile banking: A case study of underdeveloped nations
• In the UK banking business, what is the link between equity, pricing, and performance?
• Financial services to the rural population: a study of retail banking problems in the United Kingdom
• An examination of how information technology has revolutionized financial services in the United Kingdom.

Cryptocurrency Dissertation Topics

Cryptocurrency is currently more than a lucrative class of investment in the digital economy. It’s an area that has attracted the attention of many investors all over the world.

Despite its popularity, Cryptocurrency doesn’t have sufficient academic research yet, and therefore there’s a need to read and research further into the field.

If Cryptocurrency is your area of study as a finance student, here are some dissertation topics to consider:

• Are we ready to demonetize the globe with cryptocurrency?
• How to calculate risk and return in the crypto finance industry.
• Is the cryptocurrency market influenced by technical analysis?
• Are cryptocurrencies suitable for swing trading?
• Is it feasible to make cryptocurrencies less volatile by employing a derivative strategy?
• Are the returns on the cryptocurrency market sustainable?
• What is the investing potential of other alt currencies in the face of Bitcoin and Ethereum’s dominance?
• Cryptocurrency asset price. Do the standard theories apply in this case?
• Why are banks so adamantly opposed to digital currency?
• Cryptocurrencies are compared to other asset types.
• What role do derivative goods play in crypto currencies?

If you’ve scanned through the topic ideas that we’ve given you in this guide, you’ve more than likely realized that there’s a lot to explore. So whether you’re interested in cryptocurrency, accounting, retail and commercial baking, or other areas of finance, you should find the right topic to explore in your research.

The goal is to choose a topic that interests you, but you also need to make sure it’s within your area of study. When in doubt, talk to your instructor. 

About the author 

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

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Published by Nicolas at January 17th, 2024 , Revised On January 23, 2024

How To Write A Finance Thesis (With Free Topics)

The word “thesis” can evoke a range of emotions in a finance student – excitement, trepidation, and perhaps even a healthy dose of imposter syndrome. This guide is your roadmap to writing a stellar finance thesis. Before reading this, make sure that you know whether you are writing a dissertation or a thesis .

Table of Contents

What Is A Finance Thesis

A finance thesis is an academic document that explores a specific topic within the field of finance in a detailed and comprehensive manner. It is a substantial piece of scholarly work typically required as part of an advanced degree program, such as a master’s or a Ph.D. in finance or a related discipline.

The primary purpose of a finance thesis is to demonstrate the author’s understanding of financial concepts, theories, and methodologies, as well as their ability to conduct original research and contribute new insights to the field.

Structure Of A Finance Thesis

A finance thesis follows a typical research paper format but with an in-depth analysis of each section. Here are the elements that you must include in your finance thesis. 

Introduction   

To captivate your audience from the outset, begin with a compelling hook that sparks interest in your finance thesis. This could be a thought-provoking statistic, a relevant anecdote, or a compelling question. By engaging readers early on, you set the tone for an impactful thesis.

Following the hook, provide a brief but comprehensive overview of the background and context of your finance thesis. Explain the relevance of your chosen topic. This section serves as a foundation for readers, ensuring they understand the context before delving into the specifics of your research.

Introducing The Thesis Statement

The crux of your introduction lies in presenting a clear and concise thesis statement . Articulate the main argument or hypothesis of your finance thesis. Ensure that it is specific, focused, and indicative of the direction your research will take. This roadmap prepares your readers for the journey they are about to embark on throughout the remainder of your thesis.

Literature Review

In the literature review section, write about the existing body of knowledge related to your finance thesis. Provide a comprehensive review of relevant literature, identifying key theories, concepts, and empirical studies. Demonstrate your understanding of the current state of research in your chosen area and highlight any gaps or unresolved questions that your thesis aims to address.

• Identify key academic journals and publications in your field.
• Critically analyze relevant research papers , and understand their methodologies and findings.
• Build upon existing research by identifying gaps or proposing alternative approaches.
• Take meticulous notes and maintain proper citation practices.

Methodology

Clearly articulate the methods and procedures employed in your research. Detail the rationale behind your chosen methodology, whether it involves quantitative or qualitative approaches, surveys, case studies, or a combination. 

By providing a transparent account of your research design, you establish credibility and enable others to replicate or validate your findings.

Present the findings of your research in a systematic and organized manner. Use tables, graphs, and charts to illustrate key data points. Ensure that the results align with your research questions and hypotheses . 

This section should be objective, presenting the outcomes without interpretation or analysis—save that for the next section.

Engage in a critical analysis and interpretation of your results in the discussion section. Relate your findings to the existing literature and theories. Address any unexpected results and explore their implications. 

Consider the limitations of your study and propose avenues for future research. This section is where you showcase your analytical skills and contribute to the scholarly conversation in your field.

Summarize the key points of your thesis, emphasizing the significance of your findings in the broader context of finance research. Revisit your thesis statement and demonstrate how your research has contributed to the understanding of the topic. Leave your readers with a lasting impression and a sense of closure.

Abstract And Acknowledgments

Craft a concise yet informative abstract that provides a snapshot of your entire finance thesis, including the research question, methods, results, and conclusions. In the acknowledgment section, acknowledge the contributions of others who have supported and influenced your research journey. 

Express gratitude for mentorship, guidance, and any financial or logistical assistance received during the thesis process.

The finance homework we write have:

• Precision and Clarity
• Zero Plagiarism
• High-level Encryption
• Authentic Sources

Bonus Finance Thesis Tips

• Seek guidance and support: Use your advisor, professors, and peers for feedback and mentorship.
• Manage your time effectively: Prioritize tasks, set realistic deadlines, and avoid procrastination.
• Maintain a healthy work-life balance: Take breaks, exercise, and prioritize your well-being.
• Celebrate your achievements: Recognize your progress, reward yourself for milestones reached, and enjoy the journey!

Free Finance Thesis Topics

Here is a list of free finance thesis topics to help you start your journey. These topics will help you, especially if you are studying at a university in Canada .

• The Role of Financial Education in Improving Personal Financial Management
• Impact of Interest Rate Changes on Investment Decisions
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Financial Derivatives in Risk Management
• Behavioural Biases in Investment Decision-Making
• Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis
• The Influence of Credit Rating Agencies on Financial Markets
• Dynamics of Exchange Rates and International Trade: A Comparative Study
• Private Equity Investments and Value Creation in Portfolio Companies
• Assessing the Impact of Regulatory Changes on Banking Sector Stability
• Islamic Finance: Principles and Practices in Contemporary Banking

MBA Finance Thesis Topics

• Mergers and Acquisitions: Evaluating the Financial Performance and Success Factors
• Credit Risk Management in Commercial Banks: A Comparative Analysis
• Financial Innovation and its Impact on Investment Strategies
• Portfolio Management Strategies for Long-Term Wealth Creation
• Analysis of the Relationship between Dividend Policy and Stock Prices
• Financial Distress and Corporate Turnaround Strategies: A Case Study Approach
• Impact of Corporate Governance on Financial Reporting and Transparency
• Real Options Analysis in Capital Budgeting: A Comparative Study
• Role of Microfinance in Promoting Financial Inclusion and Poverty Alleviation
• Hedging Strategies in International Financial Management: A Case Study of Multinational Corporations

Master Thesis Finance Topics

• The Impact of Financial Technology (FinTech) on Investment Strategies
• Analyzing the Efficiency of Financial Markets: A Study of Random Walk Hypothesis
• Venture Capital and Start-up Financing: Trends and Challenges
• Corporate Financial Strategy: An Empirical Analysis of Successful Companies
• The Role of Central Banks in Economic Stability: Lessons from Recent Financial Crises
• Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology: Implications for the Financial Industry
• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Investing: Performance and Trends
• Derivatives and Risk Management: A Comparative Study of Hedging Strategies
• Financial Modeling for Valuation: Techniques and Applications
• Sustainable Finance and Green Investments: Assessing Long-Term Viability

Accounting And Finance Thesis Topics

• The Impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on Corporate Accounting Practices
• Fraud Detection and Prevention in Financial Statements: A Case Study Approach
• Auditor Independence and the Quality of Financial Reporting
• Blockchain Technology in Accounting: Opportunities and Challenges
• Corporate Governance and Financial Reporting Quality: An Empirical Analysis
• Tax Planning Strategies for Multinational Corporations: A Comparative Study
• The Role of Accounting Information in Investment Decision-Making
• Sustainability Reporting: Assessing the Integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Factors
• Financial Statement Analysis for Credit Risk Assessment: A Comparative Study of Industries
• Impact of Accounting Information Systems on Organizational Performance

Banking And Finance Thesis Topics

• The Role of Banking in Economic Development: A Comparative Study
• Analysis of the Impact of Interest Rate Changes on Banks’ Profitability
• Digital Transformation in Banking: Opportunities and Challenges
• Credit Risk Management in Commercial Banks: A Case Study Approach
• Islamic Banking and Finance: Principles and Contemporary Practices
• Financial Inclusion and its Impact on Economic Growth: A Global Perspective
• Regulatory Compliance and Risk Management in the Banking Sector
• The Effectiveness of Central Bank Policies in Controlling Inflation
• Financing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): Challenges and Solutions
• Financial Market Integration and its Implications for Banking Institutions

Corporate Finance Topics For Thesis

• Capital Structure Decisions: An Empirical Analysis of Firm Performance
• Corporate Valuation Methods: A Comparative Study of DCF, Comparable Companies, and Precedent Transactions
• Dividend Policy and its Impact on Shareholder Value
• Financial Distress and Restructuring Strategies: A Case Study Analysis
• Mergers and Acquisitions: Value Creation and Integration Challenges
• The Role of Corporate Governance in Shaping Financial Policies
• IPOs and Firm Performance: A Longitudinal Analysis
• Working Capital Management: Strategies for Efficient Cash Conversion
• Corporate Risk Management: Hedging Strategies and Their Effectiveness
• Financial Fraud in Corporations: Detection and Prevention Measures

Public Finance Thesis Topics

• Government Expenditure and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis
• Tax Policy and Economic Development: Case Studies from Emerging Economies
• Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Infrastructure Development: Successes and Challenges
• Fiscal Policy and Macroeconomic Stability: An Empirical Investigation
• The Impact of Social Welfare Programs on Poverty Alleviation
• Analysis of Government Debt: Causes, Consequences, and Management Strategies
• Efficiency of Public Sector Budgeting: A Comparative Study
• Environmental Taxation and its Role in Sustainable Development
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Anti-Corruption Measures in Public Finance
• The Role of Fiscal Federalism in Regional Development: Lessons from Different Countries

Sports Finance Thesis Topics

• Financial Management in Professional Sports Franchises: Challenges and Strategies
• Impact of Sports Sponsorship on Brand Equity and Financial Performance
• Economic Impact of Major Sporting Events: A Case Study Approach
• Player Contract Valuation and Negotiation Strategies in Professional Sports
• Revenue Generation in Sports: Analysis of Ticket Sales, Broadcasting Rights, and Merchandising
• Financial Fair Play Regulations in Football: Implications and Effectiveness
• Investment and Financing in Sports Facilities: Case Studies of Stadium Construction
• Sports Betting and its Economic Impact on Sports Organizations
• Athlete Endorsements and their Influence on Corporate Financial Performance
• Risk Management in Sports Finance: A Comparative Analysis of Leagues and Teams

Sustainable Finance Thesis Topics

• Impact Investing: Evaluating Social and Environmental Returns
• Integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Criteria in Investment Decision-Making
• Green Bonds and Sustainable Capital Markets: Trends and Challenges
• Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: Assessing Transparency and Accountability
• Climate Finance and its Role in Mitigating Climate Change
• Sustainable Banking Practices: A Comparative Analysis of Global Banks
• The Influence of Sustainability Ratings on Investment Decisions
• Circular Economy and Sustainable Finance: Promoting Resource Efficiency
• Measuring the Social Impact of Microfinance Institutions
• Sustainable Real Estate Investments: Green Building and ESG Considerations

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best topic for thesis in finance.

The best topic for a finance thesis depends on individual interests and goals, but potential options include behavioural finance, risk management, fintech innovation, sustainable finance, or financial market anomalies. Choose a topic that aligns with your passion and contributes to the field’s knowledge.

How do I choose a dissertation topic for finance?

Choose a finance dissertation topic by identifying your interests, exploring current financial trends, considering gaps in existing literature, consulting with professors or industry professionals, and ensuring the topic aligns with your academic and career goals.

How do you select a research topic in finance?

Select a finance research topic by assessing your interests, identifying gaps in existing literature, staying updated on industry trends, consulting with mentors, and ensuring the topic aligns with your academic and career objectives. Aim for relevance, originality, and contribution to financial knowledge.

What are the finance research topics for MBA?

Finance research topics for an MBA may include investment analysis, financial risk management, behavioural finance, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, the impact of financial technology (fintech), sustainable finance, or financial market efficiency. Choose a topic aligned with your interests and career goals.

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Digital Commons @ USF > Muma College of Business > Finance > Theses and Dissertations

Finance Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Do Industries' Political Profiles Affect Their Portfolio Return Performance? , Shaddy S. Douidar

Do Firms Overreact to the Enactment of Corporate Laws: Evidence from Anti-Price Gouging Laws , Mario Marshall

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Essays on CEO Personal Characteristics and Corporate Outcomes: Athlete CEOs and Foreign CEOs , Kirill Pervun

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Predictors of Economic Outlook in Stability Operations , Juan Carlos Garcia

The Warren Buffett Project: A Qualitative Study on Warren Buffett , Christian G. Koch

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Closing America’s Retirement Savings Gap: Nudging Small Business Owners to Adopt Workplace Retirement Plans , Peter W. Kirtland

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Growth Options and Corporate Goodness , Linh Thompson

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Essays on the Tax Policy and Insider Trading , Han Shi

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Two Essays on Lottery-type Stocks , Yun Meng

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Two Essays on IPOs and Asset Prices , Gaole Chen

Essays on the impact of CEO gender on corporate policies and outcomes , Nilesh Sah

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Essays on Corporate Finance , Hari Prasad Adhikari

Two Essays on Individuals, Information, and Asset Prices , Joseph Mohr

Two Essays on Investment , Bin Wang

Two Essays on Corporate Finance , Qiancheng Zheng

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Two Essays on Mergers and Acquisitions , Dongnyoung Kim

Two Essays on Politics and Finance , Incheol Kim

Two Essays on Stock Repurchases-The Post Repurchase Announcement Drift: An Anomaly in Disguise? and Intra Industry Effects of IPOs on Stock Repurchase Decisions , Thanh Thiet Nguyen

Two Essays on Investor Distraction , Erdem Ucar

Two Essays on Politics in Corporate Finance , Xiaojing Yuan

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

On The Efficiency of US Equity Markets , Mikael Carl Erik Bergbrant

Two Essays on the Sell-side Financial Analysts , Xi Liu

Two essays on Corporate Restructuring , Dung Anh Pham

Two Essays on Corporate Governance , Yuwei Wang

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

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Dissertation Topic in Finance

• Updated on  
• Jan 11, 2024

Also known as the study of investments, Finance is a combination of two interrelated subjects – how money is handled and the process of obtaining money. One of the reasons why postgraduate students struggle with their Finance dissertation topics is that they do not spend enough time planning it. It is important for students to be extremely careful while writing a finance dissertation as it contributes a lot to their respective degrees. This blog provides you with the best topics, a dissertation structure, and more. 

What is a Finance Dissertation?

Finance dissertations, as the name implies, are pieces of writing that study a certain finance topic chosen by the student. The subjects covered include anything from the stock market to banking and risk management to healthcare finance. This dissertation gives the student academic self-assurance and personal happiness in the subject of finance. Finance writing necessitates substantial research in order to produce a compelling report.

Why Finance Dissertation Topics Are Important

The majority of students have no idea why finance dissertation themes are so crucial. However, put yourself in the shoes of your lecturer. You’ve already read hundreds of theses. The majority of them covered the same ground — issues that you’re already tired of hearing about. Then there’s a topic with a distinct, intriguing theme. Something that piques your interest and entices you to read more. Wouldn’t you give those pupils some extra credit? You’d do it! This is why there are so many fantastic finance dissertation topics. You can get extra points for your efforts. The topic of your paper might mean the difference between a good and a terrific grade.

Tips to Find Excellent Dissertation Topics on Finance

It’s difficult to come up with anything unique and interesting. There are, nevertheless, ways to come up with interesting ideas. Here are a few pointers on how to locate them:

• Read a fantastic finance dissertation and find for areas where further study is needed.
• Go to the library and read a couple theses to get some ideas.
• Inquire with a writing agency about some ideas from one of their professional dissertation writers.
• In writing forums and blogs, ask for assistance. If you ask gently, people will give you some excellent suggestions.
• Look for ideas on the internet, but don’t use them exactly as they are. Make them distinctive by changing them.
• Talk to other students who are working on their dissertations and find out what other ideas they had before settling on the present topic.

Writing Tips for Finance Dissertation

• Narrow down your topic : Your financial topic should be narrowed down to a certain niche. It should concentrate on a single area, such as microfinance, microfinance, or online banking.
• Verify your facts: Finance is a topic that requires a great deal of logical analysis of statistical data. As a result, double-check facts and statistics using credible sources before using them in your paper.
• Write concisely: You should condense a financial paper into a tight, succinct work, unlike other papers with extended narrative narratives. At this length, the adage of ‘short is sweet’ theoretically applies.
• Arrange your data neatly: A report that is crammed with numbers and graphs may turn off a reader at first glance. Know how and when to utilise your data for a great financial thesis.
• Write simply: Avoid using jargon that might be confusing to a non-technical reader. When technical terminology are required, utilise accessible examples to convey them. In a finance dissertation, simplicity is king. So make good use of it.

How to plan your Work on a Finance Dissertation?

Dissertation submission is very important to obtain a PG Degree. You are supposed to submit the work by the end of your study course, so by the last year of your degree, you may have got enough ideas and problems dealing with finance. While starting with a finance dissertation topic you should always remember that the purpose of a Finance Dissertation is to demonstrate your research ability, how you analyze specific data and come up with a conclusion. Mentioned below is a step to step guide for you to start working with:

Step 1 : Choose a relevant and interesting topic for your research

Step 2 : Discuss and receive feedback from your supervisor

Step 3 : Finalise the research methods to prove the significance of the selected topic

Step 4 : Gather the required data from relevant sources

Step 5 : Conduct the research and analyse the acquired results

Step 6 : Work on the outline of your dissertation

Step 7 : Make a draft and proofread it. Discuss with your advisors if any changes are to be made

Step 8 : Make the required corrections. 

Step 9 : Draft the final dissertation

Also Read: Check out the Top Course in Finance

How to structure a Finance dissertation?

There are so many different ways you can structure your dissertation. But the most common and universally accepted way is as follows:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology
• Analysis of the data and Significance/Implications of the acquired results

Also Read: Executive MBA in Finance

Finance Dissertation Topics

Finance is an extensive field, you can explore a lot of areas related to finance to choose a dissertation topic. Here we’ve mentioned the best finance dissertation topics to make it easier for you:

Finance Dissertation General Topics 

Mentioned below are some of the topics related to the recent issues in the world:

• The negative impact of microfinance in developing countries.
• The effects of population growth on economic growth in China
• Cryptocurrency: Are we ready to digitalise the monetary world?
• Analyzing the financial statements of VISA and MasterCard
• Why do banks oppose digital currency?
• Risks and benefits associated with digital money transferring technology

Also Read: Top MBA course to pursue

Topics related to India

• Investing in India’s technology sector – obstacles and opportunities
• Foreign investment and its effects on economic growth in India
• The effect of corporation investments in the economic development of the community
• Comparing financial development in Asia and Europe
• Did the banks help Small Medium Enterprises to grow in India in the last 5 years?
• The Indian Economic Crisis of 1991

Best MBA Dissertation Topics

Be careful while choosing an MBA Dissertation Topic as it involves more intense study. Make sure the topic you’ve chosen remains within your field of study. We’ve listed some of the best topics you can choose for an MBA Dissertation:

• Management skills an entrepreneur need
• The place of communication for effective management in the workplace
• How technology took over management
• The impact of good leadership in an organization
• How does a strong social media presence affect a company’s marketing strategies?
• Human resource management in non-profit organizations
• The importance of employee motivation programs on productivity
• Management’s socio-cultural background and how it influences leadership relationships
• How do employment benefits impact employee and company’s productivity?
• Business team performance in multinational corporations

Best Finance Universities in the USA

MBA Dissertation Topics

• Study on Future Options in Markets in India
• Gold as an Investable Commodity in India
• Study on Impact Of Corruption On FDI Inflows In India
• The Impact Of The Money Supply On Economic Growth In India
• Capital Structure Of The Business Enterprises In Delhi NCR
• GST And Its Effect on MNC Manufacturing Companies
• Analysis of the Insurance Industry in India
• Analysis of HDFC Bank Finance
• Comparative analysis of HDFC Bank with ICICI bank
• Comparison of Market Share in Public Sector Banks VS Private Sector Banks

Banking Dissertation Topics 

• The impact of online banking on the world.
• Risk factors and security issues that are inherent in online banking.
• Fraud and identity theft is accomplished via internet banking.
• Advantages and disadvantages of internet banking for consumers.
• Risk management in investment banking
• The rise of growing banking sectors in developing nations.
• Issues surrounding banking in China’s growing economy.
• The impact of the Federal Reserve on the United States and global economy
• Banking and asset-liability in management.
• The strategies to use online banking technology to attract customers.

All you need to know about  a Banking Course 

Accounting Dissertation Topics

• Case study of the impact of industry and public knowledge on the market share index’s fluctuation
• Significance of auditing for large corporations
• Examining India’s country’s tax scheme
• What to consider when investing in financial markets?
• From an accounting perspective, risk-taking in companies and its effects
• Evaluate the differences and similarities between external and internal auditors
• Can taxation be considered a human rights policy? Analyse the problem
• What are the consequences of India’s current tax structure on individuals with a lower income?

Accounting courses

Research Project Example

We’ve included a Finance Dissertation Research Example with reference to a Finance Dissertation Structure:

• The Indian Economic Crisis of 1991 – The title of your Finance Dissertation must focus on your research objective.
• Abstract  – The 1991 Indian economic crisis was…………….. imports and other external factors. The abstract part must include a summary of the research problem or objective of the research, the research design and a summary of the results.
• Introduction – The introduction must reflect your research on the Indian Economic Crisis of 1991 in a way that the audience already gets to know what the research is going to include. 

           3.1 Background (background of the study) 

           3.2 Problem Statement (significance of the problem in context)

           3.3 Purpose/Research Questions (What caused the Crisis, how was the crisis revived etc.)

• Review of Literature – The Review of Literature Section must include a theoretical rationale of the problem, the importance of the study, and the significance of the results.
• Methodology – The Methodology Section must include the description of the subjects, research methods used in the data collection and any limitations issues involved.
• Significance/Implications (Results of the Discussion)

*Please note that the above-mentioned structure is only for your reference to get an idea of writing a Finance Dissertation.

Choosing the right topic for your Finance dissertation to plan the work, all the above-mentioned aspects must be given equal importance. This blog has included the best dissertation topic in finance in MBA, accounting, and banking you can choose while writing a dissertation.

Final Consideration and Conclusion

Finance research papers and dissertations should be prepared in a way that answers the core question while also being relevant to the remainder of the study. For example, if the dissertation’s major question is “what is the link between foreign exchange rates and the interest rates of a specific country,” the dissertation should provide suitable illustrations to help illustrate the topic. It should also go through the major and minor concerns that are relevant to this topic. Furthermore, utilise proper language to ensure that the article is readily understood by readers. The overall purpose of the project is to produce a well-written, well-researched, and well-supported dissertation.

It takes around 2 years to complete an MBA in India while 1 year to complete a full-time MBA in other countries.

A finance dissertation must be 100-300 pages long.

It takes around 5 years to obtain a Doctorate in Finance.

Hopefully, this blog assisted you in finding out your finance dissertation topics and structure for your course. 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 counselling session!

Damanpreet Kaur Vohra

Daman is an author with profound expertise in writing engaging and informative content focused on EdTech and Study Abroad. With a keen understanding of these domains, Daman excels at creating complex concepts into accessible, reader-friendly material. With a proven track record of insightful articles, Daman stands as a reliable source for providing content for EdTech and Study Abroad.

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Home » Blog » Dissertation » Topics » Finance » 80 Finance Research Topics

80 Finance Research Topics

FacebookXEmailWhatsAppRedditPinterestLinkedInWelcome to a valuable resource for finance students seeking compelling research topics for their theses or dissertations at various academic levels. As you embark on your research journey, selecting the right topic is crucial to explore and contribute to the ever-evolving landscape of finance. Finance is a fascinating field that delves into money management, investments, […]

Welcome to a valuable resource for finance students seeking compelling research topics for their theses or dissertations at various academic levels. As you embark on your research journey, selecting the right topic is crucial to explore and contribute to the ever-evolving landscape of finance.

Finance is a fascinating field that delves into money management, investments, and financial decision-making. Whether you are an undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral student, our comprehensive list of topics covers a wide range of themes, including corporate finance , investment banking , financial markets , personal finance , behavioural finance, international finance, public finance, real estate finance, quantitative finance, fintech and digital finance, sustainable finance, financial risk management, financial derivatives, Islamic finance, financial economics, corporate governance, financial management, financial econometrics and many more in which you can find research topics as per your need.

With these thought-provoking finance research topics, you can engage in in-depth analysis and critical thinking and contribute to advancing knowledge in the dynamic world of finance. Let’s dive in and discover the perfect dissertation topic that aligns with your interests and academic aspirations!

A List Of Potential Research Topics In Finance:

• Evaluating the effectiveness of credit rating agencies in predicting corporate defaults.
• The role of behavioural biases in individual investment decision-making.
• An in-depth review of the challenges and opportunities of sustainable finance in the context of emerging economies and its potential for driving economic growth.
• The impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning on financial decision-making.
• An analysis of the factors influencing individual investment decisions in the stock market.
• An extensive review of the literature on the effectiveness of financial education programs in enhancing consumer financial literacy and behaviour.
• A systematic review of the literature on the efficiency of blockchain technology in financial transactions and its implications for future adoption.
• Exploring the implications of climate change on financial markets and investments.
• The role of financial institutions in promoting sustainable development and green finance.
• The impact of international trade and exchange rate fluctuations on corporate performance.
• Exploring the adoption and usage of mobile banking services by consumers.
• The role of microfinance in poverty alleviation and economic development.
• The impact of regulatory changes on the UK housing market and mortgage lending.
• Examining the relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth.
• The impact of financial literacy on personal financial management and well-being.
• Evaluating the risk management strategies of UK banks during times of financial turbulence.
• The role of big data analytics in financial risk assessment and management.
• The implications of supply chain disruptions and trade restrictions on global financial markets post-COVID-19.
• Analyzing the relationship between executive compensation and firm performance.
• The implications of remote work and digitalization on financial services and cybersecurity post-pandemic.
• An investigation into the factors affecting foreign direct investment inflows in developing countries.
• Evaluating the long-term effects of the pandemic on corporate financial decision-making and capital structure choices.
• Exploring the challenges and opportunities of sustainable finance in emerging economies.
• The relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial risk management.
• Evaluating the impact of macroeconomic factors on stock market volatility.
• The influence of cultural dimensions on financial decision-making in global markets.
• Exploring the determinants of initial public offering (IPO) underpricing.
• An investigation into the causes and consequences of financial crises.
• The role of government stimulus packages in mitigating the economic effects of the pandemic: a case study of selected countries.
• A comparative review of the efficiency and effectiveness of different financial risk management strategies employed by multinational corporations in managing currency and interest rate risks.
• Analyzing the relationship between financial leverage and firm profitability.
• An analysis of the effectiveness of financial derivatives in managing market risk.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of financial education programs on consumer behaviour.
• Corporate social responsibility and its influence on financial performance.
• An analysis of the factors influencing corporate dividend policy.
• The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on financial markets and investor behaviour: a comparative analysis of different sectors.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of risk management strategies in financial institutions.
• The impact of blockchain technology on financial transactions and security.
• Analyzing the impact of financial innovation on banking sector stability.
• The impact of Brexit on the UK financial services industry: a comparative analysis before and after the transition period.
• Analyzing the role of fintech companies in disrupting traditional financial services in the UK.
• Analyzing the link between financial development and income inequality.
• A comparative review of traditional mutual funds’ performance and risk characteristics versus exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in different market conditions.
• A critical review of the impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms on financial decision-making and risk management practices.
• An assessment of the effectiveness of the Bank of England’s monetary policies during economic crises.
• Assessing the resilience of financial institutions during the COVID-19 crisis and their risk management strategies.
• The impact of corporate tax policies on firm financial performance and investment decisions.
• The impact of central bank policies and unconventional monetary measures on economic recovery post-COVID-19.
• The influence of corporate social responsibility on investor decision-making.
• The role of crowdfunding platforms in financing small and medium-sized enterprises.
• Assessing the financial inclusion initiatives and their effectiveness in reaching underserved communities in the UK.
• The impact of trade wars and tariffs on international trade and investment flows.
• Exploring the implications of fintech innovation on traditional banking practices.
• Exploring the challenges and opportunities for sustainable finance and ESG investing in the aftermath of COVID-19.
• A comprehensive review of the literature on the determinants of initial public offering (IPO) underpricing and its implications for investors and issuers.
• Analyzing the relationship between corporate governance and firm valuation.
• An in-depth review of the literature on the impact of macroeconomic factors, such as inflation, interest rates, and exchange rates, on stock market returns and volatility.
• An analysis of the impact of interest rate policies on consumer spending and savings behaviour.
• The impact of mergers and acquisitions on shareholder value and firm performance.
• Analyzing the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance.
• Analyzing the impact of interest rate changes on consumer borrowing and spending behaviour in the UK.
• The influence of corporate governance practices on firm performance in the UK.
• Evaluating the impact of interest rate changes on asset prices and financial markets.
• Exploring the effectiveness of quantitative easing in stimulating economic growth.
• Analyzing the role of central banks in monetary policy formulation and implementation.
• Analyzing the role of fintech in facilitating financial inclusion and access to credit in a post-pandemic world.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of sovereign wealth funds in managing national wealth.
• The influence of financial regulations on market stability and investor protection.
• Examining the implications of foreign direct investment on host country economies.
• A critical review of the role of central banks in formulating and implementing monetary policies during economic crises and their effectiveness in stabilizing financial markets.
• An investigation into the determinants of bank profitability in different market conditions.
• Exploring the adoption and usage of digital payment methods in the UK post-covid-19.
• Investigating the determinants of corporate capital structure and financing choices.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of financial market regulations in preventing market manipulation.
• The role of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in influencing financial market dynamics.
• An extensive literature review on the impact of financial regulations and corporate governance on firm performance and shareholder value.
• The role of the UK’s green finance initiatives in promoting sustainable investments and environmental protection.
• The role of venture capital in supporting startups and fostering innovation.
• Analyzing the effects of cryptocurrency adoption on traditional financial markets.
• Examining the role of behavioural finance in explaining market volatility during the pandemic and beyond.

In conclusion, if you are a finance student searching for compelling research topics for your dissertation at any degree level, this comprehensive list has you covered. Finance is a dynamic and ever-evolving field that offers many areas to explore and contribute to. Whether you are an undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral student, selecting the right research topic is paramount to embarking on a successful and fulfilling dissertation journey. Remember to choose a topic that aligns with your interests, expertise, and research objectives, as it will pave the way for a rewarding exploration into the fascinating world of finance. Happy researching!

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Thesis Topics

General area of thesis supervision:.

Empirical Finance, Quantitative Finance, Risk Management, Parameter and Model Uncertainty, Forecasting

Open Topics:

Seminars (e.g. seminar in finance).

• COVID-19 and impacts on financial markets (moments/cross-sectional moments)
• Ambiguity/Parameter Uncertainty and Real Option Portfolios (Literature Review)
• Predicting Equity Risk Premia via Machine Learning this paper
• Factor Momentum: Does it exist in statistical factors?
• Uncertainty and Google searches Dzielinski, (2012)
• Predicting the equity premium with ambiguity, which measure performs best?
• Predicting stock returns with ambiguity vs measuring the current level of ambiguity from the markets
• Predicting the equity premium with cross-sectional moments using simple ML rather than OLS and auto-encoders rather than principal components.
• Turbulence before and after elections. Is there a relationship to the measure of political uncertainty of Kelly et al. (2016) ?
• Uncertainty and Volatility. Conduct a literature review.

Thesis (Mainly master thesis)

Please be aware, that I will only supervise theses, where the Research Proposal fulfills the following requirements:

• Either use exactly one of the topics given below, or
• Suggest a topic that is closely related to one of those given below. If so, the main paper to base your research on must have been published (or accepted for publication) in one of the Top Finance Journals (preferrably A+, but at least A in this ranking ).
• For the Research Pitch/Proposal I suggest to take a very close look at Robert Faff’s Webpage on pitching research , especially on the Finance examples.

Political Finance:

• Relationship between Populism and Financial Markets (Data available)
• The cost of populism (relate to corruption and economic freedom indices)
• Election Portfolios: Drivers of Betting Quotes and Stock Returns
• Based on data from this (conditionally accepted) AER paper see how financial markets did perform during this time

Innovative Finance - Machine Learning in Finance:

• Multivariate Predictability in Assets and Factors. Apply Machine Learning techniques to exploit linear and nonlinear predictability.
• Machine Learning in Asset Management. Clustering/Shrinking, Factor Models and the Covariance Matrix
• Optimal Portfolio Building using Machine Learning Techniques (investigate possible modifications of the loss function)
• Predicting the Equity Premium with Machine Learning and turbulence measures rather than anomaly returns (see this paper )

Innovative Finance - Cryptocurrencies:

• The predictability of cryptocurrency returns and the transfer/reference currency
• Delisting Bias in aggregate CC returns
• Machine learning and crypto currencies
• Efficient portfolio formation for crypto currencies
• Factor investing in crypto currencies
• A cryptocurrency turbulence index

Innovative Finance - Uncertainty (Parameter/Financial/Macro-Financial/Portfolio …):

• NEW: History-aware ambiguity measures: is there something turbulence can learn from probability uncertainty and vice-versa?
• NEW: Macro-Financial Uncertainty and the work of Rossi & Sekhposyan, 2017 and Rossi, Sekhposyan & Soupre, 2016 . Relate the various indices to each other. What measures what? How can we find out what the best measure of uncertainty is? (see also Bekaert et. al, 2022 )
• The term structure of uncertainty: Uncertainty (Unusualness/Turbulence) in good times, uncertainty in bad times and uncertainty about bad times. Investigate the term structure of uncertainty and its implications on (e.g.) asset prices.
• Within- and cross-country uncertainty (data available). What drives (international) asset prices?
• Higher (Co)Moment Uncertainty and Stock Returns: The case of the Covid-19 crash (also relate to coskewness risk)
• Follow Redl (2018) and link elections to macro/financial uncertainty
• Closely related: Check how much macroeconomic uncertainty/parameter uncertainty relate to the results of Pflueger, Siriwarda & Sunderam (2018): A Measure of Risk Appetite for the Macroeconomy
• Some more uncertainty: Replicate this paper using our Macro-Uncertainty Index
• Financial Turbulence and the Estimation of Tail Risk

Asset Pricing:

• What is the optimal number of portfolios to build for long-short factor premia? Is building portfolios the right way? A good starting point is this paper (ONLY FOR TOP STUDENTS)
• What is the optimal number of partitions (portfolios) for the calculation of cross-sectional predictors (e.g. cross-sectional volatility)? Which cross-section delivers the best predictor of the equity premium? (ONLY FOR TOP STUDENTS, I CAN PROVIDE DATA AND PARTS OF THE CODES). See also Walter et. al, 2022, Non-Standard Errors in Portfolio Sorts
• All about factor momentum and expected returns: Hanlin Yang (2020): Decomposing Factor Momentum . See also Eshani and Linainmaa (2019): The Inevitability of Momentum and Eshani and Linainmaa (2019): Factor Momentum and the Momentum Factor ) Gupta and Kelly (2019): Factor Momentum everywhere
• Factor Momentum: Factor Uncertainty and Factor Momentum Performance.

Asset Selection:

• Robust portfolios: Estimation & Empirics

Pension Finance

• Dollar-Cost Averaging vs Lump-Sum Investments in the context of market predictability (market timing) and life-cycle investments.

Theses Supervised:

• Performancevergleich und -entwicklung von aktiv und passiv gemanagten Schweizer Aktienfonds im Zeitraum von 2008 bis 2019 (BSc)
• Parameter Uncertainty and Equity Premium Prediction via Machine Learning Techniques (MSc)
• Factor Momentum Performance in Characteristics based Portfolios (MSc)
• Measurement and comparability of impact investing in asset management (MSc)
• Predicting stock returns in the presence of breaks by following the approach from Smith and Timmermann (2021): Evidence from the European market (MSc)
• Parameter Uncertainty and Portfolio Management (PhD Mentoring)
• Machine Learning in Financial Economics (PhD Mentoring)
• The Risk Premium of Critical Raw Materials - A Signal for Priority Needs in Realising the European Green Deal (MSc, A. Caroline White)
• Empirical asset pricing via Machine Learning: Evidence from the Cryptocurrency Market (MSc, A. Stefan Macanovic)
• Inflation-Hedged Portfolios within the European Stock Market (MSc, A. Fabian Köffel)
• Sub-portfolio Optimization (BSc, A. Jasminko Kulenovic)
• Stock Market Prediction With Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Networks (BSc, A. Elizabeth Sanyal)
• Robust Portfolio Optimization with Deep learning - Using past Forecast Errors to Improve Return Predictions (MSc, A. Markus Wabnig, best Master in Finance 2022)
• The EUR/CHF Exchange Rate and Euro Area Stress (MSc, A. Nicolas Tschütscher, best Master Thesis in Finance 2022)
• Incorporating ESG Score Changes in Portfolio Management via Deep Learning (MSc, A. Lukas Müller)
• Neural Network for KPI based Time Series Sales Forecasting (MSc, A. Niklas Leibinger)
• Optimal Portfolio Building using Deep Learning Techniques (MSc, A. Michael Metz)
• Economic Uncertainty Premia in U.S. Stock Markets during the COVID-19 Pandemic (MSc, A. Leo Pitscheneder)
• Cryptocurrency: Delisting Bias in the coinmarketcap database (BSc, A. Fabian Köffel)
• Multivariate Factor Forecasting and Smart Beta Investments (MSc, A. Dominik Brändle)
• Evaluating Dollar-Cost Averaging under the Aumann-Serrano Framework (MSc, A. Jonas Sterk)
• Impact of ESG exclusion on firms’ cost of capital (MSc, A. Fabian Müller)
• Sales Forecasting with Machine Learning (MSc, A. Johannes Gassner)
• Investors’ herding in the German equity options market: Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis (MSc, A. Dmytro Livshyts)
• “Long/Short” Momentum-Strategie am Kryptowährungsmarkt (BSc, A. Timothy Rist, best Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration 2020)
• Momentum meets Uncertainty (MSc, A. Dominik Kaiser, best Master Thesis in Finance 2020)
• Changes in Investor Attention and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns: Evidence from Thomson Reuters and Google Trends (MSc, A. Emanuel Broger)
• Künstliche Intelligenz und Anwendungsmöglichkeiten in der Vermögensberatung (MBA, A. Lukas Schäper)
• Stock Price Prediction for Portfolio Management Using Recurrent Neural Networks and Machine Learning (EMBA, A. Jensen Chang)
• Cross-Sectional Volatility and the Prediction of Factor Premia (MSc, A. Maibach, Runner-Up Finance Award)
• Multi-Factor Timing (MSc, B. Jäger, Winner of Finance Award, best Master Thesis in Business Science)
• Stock Age as Proxy for Uncertainty of Parameters (MSc, S. Sturzenegger)
• The Influence of News Coverage on Stock Returns – Evidence from European Markets (MSc, A. Person)
• Portfolio Optimization in a Cryptocurrency Environment: An Omega Optimization (BSc, D. Brändle, Runner-Up Finance Award)
• Liquid betting against beta revisited: Evidence from all over the world (MSc, L. Salcher)
• From IPO to Obsolete: Stock Age related investment strategies (MSc, P. Thoma)
• Eurex index dividend futures hedging (MSc, A. Spiegel)
• Predicting Equity Bear and Bull Markets: International Evidence (MSc, L. Liepert)
• The North Korea threat and its effect on global stock markets: The case of South Korea, Japan and the USA (BSc, M. Wabnig)
• Liquidity and the Polish Stock Market: Empirical Tests of Asset Pricing Models and Inclusion of Liquidity Factors (MSc, P. Ruzicka)
• Dynamic Asset Allocation Strategies and An Optimisation Framework: How Optimal is Optimised? (MSc, F. Balz)
• Prediction of the Monthly Sovereign Yield Spread Changes in EMU Countries from 2000 to 2016 using the Illiquidity Measure ‘Noise’ in Bond Prices (MSc, P. Heise)
• Using momentum to improve low-volatility strategies: Evidence from the US stock market (BSc, M. Amann)
• Terrorism and its effect on financial markets (MSc, S. Geiger)
• Prognose von Aktienrenditen - Eine empirische Forschung über die Vorhersagbarkeit der zukünftigen Renditen des Swiss Performance Index anhand von Renditen - Dispersionen (BSc, B. Jäger)
• Betting Against Beta (MSc, C. Lamprecht)
• Cross-Sectional and Option-Implied (Higher) Moments and the Predictability of Historical Volatility: US Study (MSc, O. Vukovic)
• The Relationship between Commodities and the Stock Market - Empirical Evidence for the Eurozone (MSc, P. Kain)
• The Effectiveness of Constant and Time-Varying Futures Optimal Hedge Ratios - Empirical Evidence from the European Stock Market (MSc, E. Panagakou)

Sebastian Stöckl

Assistant professor in financial economics (tenure-track).

My research interests include Financial and Economic Uncertainty as well as Empirical Asset Pricing.

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 uniqueness to your degree, a simple way to do so is to complete your thesis in the specific specialization that you want to pursue in the future.

Some upcoming areas of research in the field of finance have been discussed here. But they’re neither exhaustive nor exclusive of other aspects of finance. You can tailor your thesis to highlight your unique set of skills. Irrespective of what you choose to research, it is a good idea to look into whether a large volume of existing research is accessible. This can be a determining factor in your success because the studies of the past are guides, benchmarks, and advisors for the research of the future.

Corporate Restructuring

Personal finance and wealth management, financial technology, financial markets in the aftermath of covid-19.

Students often restrict themselves to exploring mergers and acquisitions because they are the most popular form of corporate restructuring. However, if you only look beyond the obvious, corporate restructuring offers rich and diverse opportunities for further research. Since corporate restructuring is affected by the micro factors of the firm, industry, and country; there is an immense potential for continued research in the area. Some relevant ways in which corporate restructuring can be explored is by combining it with recent events in a country or industry’s financial markets.

• Firm value from corporate restructuring in USA – Comparing bankruptcies, and management buyouts to determine which is better for the shareholders.
• Has there been an increase in corporate restructuring activity within the UK in the aftermath of the pandemic lockdowns?
• Are certain corporate restructuring practices more popular in specific industries than others? A pan-industry exploration of the EU
• Do corporate restructuring activities of financially distressed companies differ significantly from those of profitable businesses?
• What are the economic implications of corporate breakups on the firm’s financial performance in the long-term?
• What are the common factors that can predict corporate restructuring activity? Are these factors equally significant across countries?
• What are the financial implications of privatizing public sector undertakings of India?
• Does a restructuring of the financial sector improve a country’s economic growth? A comparative analysis of Brazil, Ghana, and India.

One of the key components of a good thesis is its uniqueness and freshness. Your advisor is likely bored of the common perspectives adopted by students conducting a research project. Therefore, it is always a good idea to consider a topic from an alternative perspective. Personal finance and advancements in wealth management are more likely to be overlooked by students who focus more intently on research into market-based events. Personal finance and wealth management are rarely studied from the perspective of how it varies across traditional and Islamic financial perspectives. Changing your perspective will offer a unique insight into the field.

• How does finance literacy affect the investment decisions of consumers?
• Are the determinant factors affecting financial literacy common for developing and developed countries?
• How do personal finance practices vary across customers of conventional and Islamic banking firms?
• What offers better value to customers – traditional wealth management services or AI based wealth management software?
• How do Islamic wealth management strategies vary from conventional wealth management strategies?
• How have Covid-19 and global lockdowns affected the wealth management practices of HNIs?

The world of finance has been rocked with several distinctive events in the last decade. In the last decade, there have been technological advancements in the finance industry that are at par with the introduction of credit and debit cards in the 1950s. Peer-to-peer lending, machine learning, and cryptocurrencies are some of the most disruptive technologies to have been incorporated into the world of finance. Why not study these if you’re looking for unexplored research ideas?

• What is the relationship between movements in cryptocurrencies and global financial market movements?
• What are the significant factors that drive cryptocurrency movements across markets?
• How can AI and machine learning influence trading activities in cryptocurrency markets?
• What is the financial impact of peer-to-peer lending and microfinance on the conventional loan industry?
• Can machine learning yield accurate price predictions for cryptocurrencies?
• Is it possible to improve the returns on responsible investment portfolios using machine learning and AI?
• How has machine learning and data analytics affected the financial sector of developing countries?
• How have digital wallets affected consumer behaviour and use of online bank transfers and credit cards?
• What are the factors that lead to the adoption and preference of mobile wallets over other forms of financial transactions?
• What is the impact of machine learning and data analytics on the prediction accuracy of loan default in peer-to-peer lending?
• In the world of data analytics and machine learning, are analyst reports and predictions still relevant and capable of driving market movement?

Finally, it’s always interesting to see how one event can create a ripple effect throughout the complex global financial markets. In the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, all areas of research can be revisited to determine how it was affected by the event. Just like the global financial crisis of 2007-08 allowed researchers to study the existing macrocosm of finance in relation to one specific event, the pandemic allows for the same exploration. You also have the benefit of exploring the world of finance in a relevant, recent manner, which is likely to make your study applicable to the real world.

• Is the economic implication of covid-19 on global financial markets comparable to the impact of the financial crisis of 2007-08?
• Is there a significant difference in how financial markets across the globe reacted to the announcement of first and subsequent lockdown announcements? An event study.
• How have the covid-19 lockdowns and safety measures affected tourism-based economies?
• What was the global impact of the issuance of stimulus cheques in the US during the covid-19 lockdowns?
• How has the global pandemic affected the global derivatives market?

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Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Finance Group

Writing a master thesis in corporate finance.

Students who would like to write a Master thesis in the area of Corporate Finance must have completed the Financial Economics concentration, and attend either the Hauptseminar Corporate Finance or Financial Economics. In addition it is recommended that students take Advanced Corporate Finance, the Case Seminar Corporate Finance, and Private Equity. The purpose of the Hauptseminar is to introduce students to scientific writing, and the requirements for writing a Master thesis in Corporate Finance.

To complete the Master program in four semesters we recommend the following semester plan.

All thesis topics will be in the area of corporate finance, and most theses will be of an empirical nature. Therefore, good econometric skills are essential. The course Econometric Methods, offered by Prof. Hautsch in the WS, is highly recommended. Familiarity with statistical software, such as Stata or SAS, is also important. Since the most relevant literature is in English, it is recommended to write the Diplom or Master thesis also in English, but this is not a necessity.

If you are interested in writing a Master thesis in the area of Corporate Finance contact Prof. Adam or one of his assistants to discuss a suitable thesis topic and expected completion time. Currently we offer theses topics in the following areas:

• Corporate Risk Management
• Mutual Funds
• Behavioral Corporate Finance
• Syndicated Loans
• Credit Rating Agencies
• Financial Regulation

You should budget at least six months for completing your thesis. It is also possible and encouraged to write a thesis jointly with another fellow student. This is not only more fun than writing by yourself but you can also benefit from economies of scale.

After obtaining a topic the next step is to write and orally defend a research proposal. During the defense you should explain why your topic is important, what new insights could potentially be gained from your thesis, and discuss your research methodology. It is important to demonstrate the feasibility of your project. After a successful defense you can submit the form „Anmeldung zur Masterarbeit“ to the institute’s secretary, Mrs. Bulwahn, and begin writing your thesis. Interim results should be presented at least once.

Master theses must be submitted in bound format (2 copies) by the due date to the Prüfungsamt. Each Master thesis must include a DVD containing the thesis, all data used, computer programs, and all references. Further information about how to write a thesis can be found here .

Exceptional Master theses will be nominated for the David-Kopf Hochschulpreis. See www.david-kopf.com for details.

In addition, you can participate in the following Master theses competitions:

• International Competition of Master Degree Thesis on Economics and Finance

Past Master and Diplom Theses

• Financial Risk Management Strategies of German Corporations
• Auswirkungen der Finanzkrise 2007/08 auf den deutschen Primärmarkt für Konsortialkredite
• Are real options priced by the market? Theory and Evidence from the Gold Mining Industry
• Estimating the Probabilitiy of Bankruptcy of Non-Financial Firms
• The Gold Lease Market
• Corporate Risk Management and Executive Compensation
• A Comparison of Risk Management Strategies in the Gold Mining Industry
• The Effects of the Introduction of the Euro on Corporate Financing Strategies and Corporate Investment
• The Value of Corporate Cash Holdings during Financial Crises
• The Syndication of Venture Capital Investments

Regeln der Prüfungsordnung für Abschlussarbeiten:

• Eine Abschlussarbeit muss im Prüfungsbüro angemeldet werden. Das vorgesehene Formular wird im Prüfungs- bzw. Studienbüro ausgegeben. Dabei werden auch die Zulassungsvoraussetzungen zur Abschlussarbeit geprüft.
• Die festgelegte Zeitbefristung beginnt mit dem Tag nach der Themenvergabe. Sie gilt ausnahmslos für alle Studierende. Ausnahmen kann ausschließlich der Prüfungsausschuss genehmigen. Dafür müssen triftige Gründe nachgewiesen werden.
• Der Prüfer muss das Thema und den Zeitpunkt der Ausgabe mittels des Anmeldeformulars aktenkundig machen. Nach der Themenvergabe muss es unverzüglich an das Prüfungsbüro weitergeleitet werden. Die Studierenden erhalten nach Eingang der Anmeldung vom Studien- bzw. Prüfungsbüro eine Kopie der Anmeldung.
• Die Einhaltung oder Überschreitung der Abgabefrist wird durch die direkte Einreichung der Arbeit beim Prüfungsbüro festgestellt und aktenkundig gemacht.

Rules from the examination order concerning the graduation theses:

• A thesis needs to be registered at the examination office. The corresponding form is available at the examination office or the study office. The preliminaries for a thesis will also be examined there.
• The administered deadline starts the day after the announcement of the thesis topic. It applies to all students without exceptions. Any exceptions can only be granted by the examination board. An exception requires grave reasons and proof.
• The examiner needs to register the topic and the deadline via the application form. After announcement of the topic it needs to be transferred to the examination office without delay. The students will receive a copy of the application form after the entry at the examination office or the study office.
• The compliance with or exceedance of the deadline will be determined through direct deliverance of the thesis at the examination office and registered officially.

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Master's Theses

General information.

The Finance Area will offer master's thesis topics for students every semester. There is a centralized allocation procedure for master's theses in the Area of Finance.  On this website you can find information on the centralized allocation procedure of master's theses topics. The actual topics, formal requirements and supervision specifics are subject to the policies of the individual chairs. Please refer to the respective chair websites for more information in these regards.

General Timeline

To enable the common allocation procedure, there is a fixed timline when it is possible to start writing a thesis and when to apply for topics. For a general timeline of this process please refer to this document . Note that the timeline cannot be changed due to individual requirements, e.g., due to time spent abroad or internships.

Prerequisites

You must have successfully completed a seminar with one of the chairs of the Finance Area (FIN 7XX) in order to participate. As most topics require to work empirically, some knowledge of statistics and econometrics is useful and participants should be motivated to undertake empirical work. You should write your thesis in English.

How Topics are allocated

The allocation of topics is carried out jointly for the participating chairs. Once the application period start, you will be required to fill out an online application form indicating your contact details, your seminar grade as well as your preferences regarding the different topis offered. The assignment is competitive and based on the grade of the seminar and your priority list from the master's thesis application form. In order to ensure a timely completion of the master program, priority will be given to students with a high semester count. It can happen that some students that apply in a given semester cannot be assigned a topic. Note that the probability that you will be assigned a topic will depend on both your seminar grade as well as how popular the topics on your preference list are.

Process Guide and Schedule

Contact person, kai mäckle, m.sc..

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Topics for master theses

The Department of Business and Management Science can offer the following Master Theses topics:

• Department of Business and Management Science
• Master's thesis

Investments, Insurance and Household Finance

Insurance (life insurance or non-life insurance).

Insurance topics can be divided into life insurance and non-life insurance. They address different kinds of risks. There are several types of products considered as life insurance:  payments to the policyholder's beneficiaries in the event of death, income to individuals unable to work due to a disability, pensions, etc. Non-life insurance is designed to protect against other types of risks, such as property damage or liability.

We can discuss your specific interests concerning insurance. For example, a possible thesis topic can be an analysis of a particular insurance product or methodology of insurance premium computation.

Supervisor: Roman Kozlov .

What determines donations to charitable causes in Norway?

Charitable donations by individuals are an important source of funding for social services and public goods. This study aims at identifying important factors that determine when and how people donate using detailed information on the Norwegian deposit lottery (pantelotteri) in which people are able to donate deposits they would receive for recycling bottles and cans. For example, how did individuals respond to insecurity during Covid-19? Do news of natural disasters affect donations? How long-lasting are these effects?

Supervisor: Maximilian Todtenhaupt .

Data på individnivå fra Statistisk sentralbyrå

Tjenesten microdata.no gir tilgang til variabler på individnivå om befolkning, utdanning, sysselsetting, inntekt, formue, gjeld, skatt, trygd, barnevern, valg og boforhold. Jeg har ikke et bestemt spørsmål i tankene, men veileder gjerne oppgaver som bruker disse dataene. Studenter som ønsker å gjøre dette kan få tilgang til microdata.no gjennom NHH. Bakgrunn fra et kurs i økonometri er sterkt å anbefale.

Supervisor: Øyvind Thomassen .

The black swans of climate risk: Compound events

Extreme weather events such as floods, heatwaves, droughts, and storms cause major economic losses to private and public sector alike. The latest IPCC report shows that the frequency, and to some extent the magnitude, of such events will continue to increase although there are exceptions. The probability of so-called ‘compound events’ – that two or more extreme events happen simultaneously or successively – will increase due to this ongoing trend.

Such events carry even more extreme economic losses and play a crucial role in evaluating climate risk, but they are not well constrained nor understood. In 2018, there was elevated risk for snow-driven flooding in central Norway, which was followed by one of the warmest and driest summers on record, which coincided with several climatically induced forest fires. Based on both historical data and climate predictions, the students will evaluate the probability and potential economic consequences of compound events today and in the future and provide insights and advice for the insurance industry. The industry partner for this thesis is Tryg.

Supervisor: Geir Drage Berentsen .

Inequality and the inheritance tax in Norway

Prior research argues that the inheritance tax is an important instrument to reduce inequality. In Norway, the inheritance tax was abolished in 2014. How did this effect income and wealth inequality in various parts of Norway? The aim of this thesis is to investigate these questions using micro-level data from Statistics Norway (SSB).

Did companies misuse government support during Covid-19?

Government support to firms during the Covid-19 pandemic was comprehensive and supposed to quickly reach businesses. This may have lead to some firms exploiting government funds that were not eligible. For example, some companies may have been reconstructed to utilize the support schemes and then initiate bankruptcies in parts of companies. It may also be of interest to look at risk factors that arise in companies that receive payments from several support schemes. This study will contribute to an evaluation of how well the grant schemes have worked.

Corporate solvency and government support during Covid-19

The lock-down of Norway on March 12, 2020 meant that many businesses had problems paying taxes and fees. In order to alleviate the burdens and avoid bankruptcies, the government, with effect from 12 June 2020, issued a regulatory provision that allows for deferral of payment for most tax and duty claims. This has led to a halving of bankruptcies compared with 2019 and raises several interesting, empirical questions: Have schemes led to companies being kept alive that would normally have gone bankrupt? How can the tax administration predict bankruptcy among firms?

Topics on mutual funds

I can provide data on equity mutual funds that can be used and extended with additional data to examine different research questions. Experience with programming in R/Stata/Python or similar is useful.

Supervisor: Andreas Ørpetveit .

Real investments

Analyze a given investment project, either accepted or planned, in order to show its value creation by calculating the related net present value (or using a different profitability measure). This problem is thus a parallel to company valuation, however, the time horizon will typically be shorter and including option characteristics may be more relevant. Besides, strategic and financial issues will be more prominent than accounting issues in this thesis.

Supervisor: Øystein Gjerde .

The Dynamics of Conflict through the Lens of Financial Markets

In a series of influential studies, scholars have identified that companies benefit from conflict. Arms companies are involved in smuggling, diamond mining companies exploit the chaos to secure extraction rights and corrupt officials disclose top secret information. Every conflict is different and firms will find a way to profit from the chaos.

Possible questions are: do these findings still hold in recent times, from for e.g. 2005 to 2020? Are the perpetrators different? Can we link perpetrators through their board composition? How connected are the boards of companies that violate embargoes? How does corporate governance influence illegal activities? 

Starting point: DellaVigna, S. and La Ferrara, E., 2010. Detecting illegal arms trade. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy , 2(4), pp. 26-57.

Supervisor: Evelina Gavrilova-Zoutman .

Consumer behavior and insurance

Supervisor: Aysil Emirmahmutoglu .

Performance evaluation for mutual funds

Supervisor: Trond M. Døskeland .

Identifying financial behavioral biases for households

Risk management.

Analyze a given company or a given line of business exposed to price risk from commodities/services sold or bought. May also be combined with currency risk. What is the level of risk, how do we measure it, which instruments are available to deal with this risk and how successful is the risk-reducing strategy, using these instruments. Hedging strategies are based on a combination of risk-reduction and expected values, so both components may be included in the analyses.

Supervisor: Øystein Gjerde .

Topics on Shipping economics and finance

We have comprehensive data on micro-level commodity trades, vessel behaviors, satellite-based information, in addition to the commodity and freight market data.  By addressing practical challenges faced by shipping companies, theses can be developed based on hands-on projects in collabration with shipping companies, banks or insurance companies. The following aspects serve as broad examples:

Topic 1: Trade flow and freight rate forecasting

Topic 2: Investment horizon. How to balance asset lifespan, carbon neutral regulation and investment costs.

Topic 3: Carbon costs in transportation

Topic 4: ESG disclosure in shipping & offshore industry

Topic 5: Climate change and credit risk in shipping & offshore

Supervisor: Haiying Jia

Topics on Marine Insurance

Topic 1: Marine accident analysis w.r.t. attributes such as trade, location, or crew

Topic 2: Automated underwriting in marine insurance

Topic 3: Risk exposure vs. financial return

Analysis of high-frequency supply data for oil tankers

Using unique daily spatial data for vessel employment, analyze how regional freight rate changes are driven by supply and demand, and whether the specifications and operator of a ship matters for its attractiveness in the market.

Supervisor: Haiying Jia .

Dividend taxation, abusive stock swap and loan transactions

A tax strategy among investors is to recast a dividend payment as a swap payment in order to take advantage of favoured tax treatment given to swap agreements involving non-US persons in the US. US stock dividents paid to non-US persons are subject to the dividend tax, whereas “dividend equivalents” paid to non-US persons as part of a swap agreement are not subject to any US tax.

Since a 2009 Senate hearing identified the tax evasion nature of these transactions, there has been little research on the topic. These transactions are likely the origin from which cum fraud schemes have arisen. Since 2009 the US has had reforms in their dividend tax and in the legislation surrounding the claiming of these dividend equivalents. What is the impact of these reforms on stock lending of US stocks?

Supervisor: Floris Zoutman  and Evelina Gavrilova-Zoutman

Dividend taxation, Cum-Cum Trading and Ex-Dividend Pricing

A common tax planning strategy among investors is to sell their stocks the day before dividends are due, and buy them back on the ex-dividend day. This strategy, known as cum-cum trading, allows investors to avoid paying dividend taxes. The Norwegian tax authorities are considering to implement policies that make cum-cum trading less attractive in order to generate more dividend tax revenue.

Your task will be to see how cum-cum trading relates to taxation and other policy variables, using international stock market data. Questions that you could answer in this topic are: Do stock market experience excess trade around the dividend day? Does excess trade relate to the dividend tax rate? Do stock prices reflect the level of the dividend tax? Are policies aimed at combating cum-cum trading effective in other countries?

Cum-cum trading strategies have been detected in Europe. Are they present in the Asian and South-American market? Are these trades a global problem that contributes to rising inequality?

Business Taxation

Agricultural policy, the environment and the price of necessities in norway.

It is well known that the price of necessities, especially food products in Norway is higher than in neighboring countries. An important determinant of the price of necessities consists in tariff barriers. Tariffs in Norway are among the highest in the developed world. Norway charges particularly high tariffs on meat and dairy products, but also substantial tariffs on fruit and vegetables. In neo-classical models of trade such tariffs generate a negative shock to consumer surplus that exceeds the gain in producer surplus. Moreover, in the recent context tariffs have become increasingly controversial because they contribute to already rising prices in supermarkets.

A recent paper by Shapiro (2021) also highlights the environmental impact of tariffs. On the one hand, Norwegian tariffs displace agricultural production from abroad to Norway. This is good for the environment if production in Norway is cleaner than abroad and vice versa. On the other hand, tariffs affect the relative price of clean (low emissions per unit of produced good) to dirty (high emissions) goods. Shapiro (2021) finds that tariffs, on average, increase the price of clean goods more than the price of dirty goods. That is, tariffs act as an implicit subsidy on pollution.

In this topic you can think of the following research questions:

• What is the benefit of the current tariffs to the Norwegian agricultural sector and how do they compare to the cost incurred by consumers?
• What is the environmental impact of Norwegian tariffs? Is Shapiro’s conclusion that tariffs, worldwide, harm the environment also valid for Norway’s tariffs? If so, how can Norway introduce greener tariffs?
• Anything else relating to tariffs that comes to mind.

Joseph S Shapiro, The Environmental Bias of Trade Policy, The Quarterly Journal of Economics , Volume 136, Issue 2, May 2021, Pages 831–886, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaa042

Floris Zoutman

Energy Subsidies in Europe: a cross-country analysis

Mainly, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine energy prices across Europe have increased tremendously. The price of natural gas, which prior to the invasion ranged between 50-100 euro per MWh peaked to more than 300 euro per MWh in September of 2022. Prices of other forms of energy, particularly electricity, have seen a corresponding incline. At the same time the consumption of electricity has dropped significantly. Between August 2022 and January 2023 European demand for natural gas dropped by 19.3 percent. This decline challenges the traditional view that the demand for energy is inelastic. At the same time, there is confounding variation in the form of changes in weather which hinder the possibility to estimate the causal relationship between the price of energy and the demand of energy.

In this thesis you will aim to estimate the price elasticity of energy using variation in energy policy. While all European countries faced similar increases in the price of energy, the policy response between countries differed substantially. In some countries, government offered little in the form of direct subsidies on energy. Other countries, like Norway, offered generous subsidies effectively shielding consumers from most of the price increase. If the demand for energy is elastic, we should see that higher subsidies result in more energy consumption. On the other hand, of the demand for energy is inelastic there will be no relation between the two variables.

Data on energy policies and energy/electricity consumption for several European countries.

Regression modes

Solving the Replication Crisis

Recently there are many calls to create a practice of replicating empirical research. In this topic students can choose one of more than 4000 published papers with data packages and attempt to replicate the tables and figures in the paper. While replicating a paper, the students would learn a given method of analysis. The individual contribution of students would be to implement an additional analysis such as machine learning with the purpose of corroborating the results or answering an additional question on the base of the data.

Website: https://replication.uni-goettingen.de/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Airbnb in Norway & electricity prices

The risk of accepting Airbnb guests is that they might run up all of your utilities. Are renters sensitive to this concern? Estimate the relationship between listings and electricity prices.

Scrape the Data from http://insideairbnb.com/get-the-data/ and determine whether Airbnb listings in the last 2 years respond to electricity prices.

Bank disclosures and corporate governance

Since 2015 European banks must disclose their operations in tax havens. These operations involve activities like complicated tax arbitrage strategies. While technically legal, tax arbitrage may be morally questionable and sometimes courts make rulings turning some tax arbitrage strategies illegal. How does the involvement of banks in tax havens correlate to their corporate governance? What is the relationship between a bank’s ethical credo and the ethicality of the bank’s behavior?

Starting point: https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/opening-the-vaults-the-use-of-tax-havens-by-europes-biggest-banks-620234/ .

Leak data and nationality

A recent article identified a set of 30 last names of individuals involved in mafia activities in Italy. Are these names mentioned in the Panama papers, Pandora papers or other leaks? What are the activities of the involved firms? Are these mentions consistent with money laundering.

Taxing foreign investors: an empirical analysis of recent reforms of the dividend withholding tax system

Foreign individual and institutional investors are a fundamental component of global capital markets. On the one side, attracting foreign portfolio equity investments is a key policy objective for many countries around the world given the related benefits. On the other side, they pose serious challenges from a tax collection perspective. Traditionally, countries around the world rely on withholding tax to ensure the proper collection of taxes on foreign investors. Yet, existing withholding tax systems are far from being ideal and reforming them is high on the political agenda in Norway and within the European Union. Recently Finland launched a new innovative system called TRACE to make the collection of such taxes easier. Norway has also a similar system since few years now. 

The master thesis should provide an overview of the two systems, compare them and analyses whether the introduction of such systems increased investment in those countries and/or affected dividend payment policy of domestic companies.

Supervisor:  Elisa Casi-Eberhard .

Digital residency program: a policy to boost the economy or a high-tech route for suspect funds?

In 2021, Palau launched its digital residency program, which offers foreigners a digital identity to access to all services within Palau’s emerging digital economy. However, Palau is not the first country to offer such a program. In 2014, Estonia was the first country to establish a digital residency program. It primarily targeted businesses that could start a EU based company and run it from anywhere, fully online.

For example, a foreign entrepreneur would be able to use his/her digital signature to conclude contracts throughout the European Union entirely remotely. So far, it has been a success with more than 50,000 applications as of 2019. Yet, anecdotal evidence suggests that the Estonian digital residency program has also been vulnerable to money laundering risks. What is the economic effect of such programs? Do they improve the business environment of a country or do they offer a high-tech route for suspect funds?

Supervisor: Elisa Casi  and Mohammed Mardan .

Inventors and tax havens

Inventors are an important source of innovation for any country. At the same time they are highly mobile and respond to tax incentives. Furthermore, the intellectual property they create (e.g. patents) can be used shift income to tax havens. How many inventors are involved in such tax avoidance behavior? This project will assess the importance of inventors in tax havens by combining data on international inventors with the Panama papers which have recently become available.

The Tax Haven Call

In political and institutional economy we think of countries as having extractive and inclusive institutions. Institutions are loosely defined as informal norms of behaviour. In an influential (but controversial) paper by Acemoglu et al. (2001) the type of institutions are shown to impact economic development. However, it is unclear whether what aspect of these informal norms have influenced countries like the Netherlands, Ireland and Bermuda to become tax havens?

Dharmapala and Hines (2009) have found that governance is an important factor that separates tax havens from non-tax havens. Better-governed small countries are more likely to be successful tax havens than badly governed small countries. Governance and institutions are closely related, but the link is not explored in this article.

In addition, the list of tax havens has expanded since 2009 and now we have continuous measures of secrecy and tax haven status, which can give better identification in re-examining the question: What makes a tax haven?

Starting point: Dharmapala, D. and Hines Jr, J.R., 2009. Which countries become tax havens?. Journal of Public Economics, 93(9-10), pp.1058-1068.

Wealth Taxation in Norway

The wealth tax is one of the most controversial aspects of the Norwegian tax system. Detractors believe that the wealth tax hurts economic growth by disincentivizing entrepreneurial activity and risk taking, and taking away a source of liquidity for business owners. Proponents argue that the wealth tax is a great instrument to reduce inequality.

In this project you will use data on Norwegian tax payers to evaluate the arguments of the detractors. Specifically, the goal is to understand i.) whether the arguments are valid empirically, ii.) how large the concerns are quantitatively. Specific research questions could be i.) does the wealth tax discourage individuals/business owners from taking risk, ii.) does the wealth tax reduce liquidity for small businesses, iii.) does the wealth tax reduce innovation or iv). does the wealth tax discourage savings. The answer of each of these four questions is of great practical relevance to policy makers that have to make a trade-off between the efficiency cost and the equity gain associated with the wealth tax.

Data: Individual tax return data

Literature:

• Berzins, Janis, Øyvind Bøhren and Bodan Stacesu (2019). Illiquid Shareholders and real firm effects: the personal wealth tax and financial constraints. Working Paper BI.
• Akcigit, U., Grigsby, J., Nicholas, T., & Stantcheva, S. (2018). Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century. NBER Working Paper.

Supervisor: Floris Zoutman

Using Textual Analysis to identify whether there is a gender gap in financial white collar crime

There is very little systematic evidence on the gender gap in crime. In particular, it is difficult to quantify it for financial white collar crime, as they do not find their way into police statistics and as there is little female presence on the top levels of companies.

In this project, we can use textual analysis tools to collect data from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on insider trading and other frauds. We can match the name of the defendant to a gender, and quantify what is the difference between males and females.

Then, we can correlate the gap, as well as the fraud itself, to past financial statements of involved companies in terms of gender representation in the board of the company and other indicators of company culture. Finally, we can compare the gap to other measures of female participation in the boardroom and determine whether white collar females seem more or less likely to commit crimes than white collar males. We can provide a partial answer to the question: Are companies going to become more responsible (do less criminal rule-breaking) if there are more females on the board?

Methods: Textual analysis, web crawling, R

Detecting Corruption in the Oil-For-Food Program

The Oil for Food Program (OFFP) was a relief effort orchestrated by the United Nations to help the people of Iraq after the Gulf War. It lasted from 1995 to 2003. Leaks from classified reports reveal that there has been rampant corruption, from the bank that handled the Iraq escrow account, to the trucking company that was supposed to handle the logistics of food transport. Even the then UN General Secretary Kofi Annan has been implicated in this corruption scandal. By looking at important events that influence the survival of the OFFP and stock prices of companies bidding for contracts, by virtue of insider trading, we can find an indirect proof for corruption.

The methodology for this thesis is the same as in DellaVigna, S. and La Ferrara, E., 2010. Detecting illegal arms trade. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2(4), pp.26-57.

COVID-19 and lockdown measures: understanding the mechanisms

During the COVID-19 pandemic most countries imposed Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) or lockdown measures in an effort to halt the spread of the disease. In a case study focusing on the Scandinavian countries we show that in Scandinavia the NPIs introduced by Norway and Denmark were extraordinarily effective in reducing the pressure on the health care system and mortality (Juranek and Zoutman 2020). In this thesis we want you to pick apart the mechanisms. Which NPIs are most effective in reducing the spread of the disease? When should countries introduce NPIs (traditional epidemiology suggests that early NPIs will be much more effective than the same NPIs introduced at later stages)? What is the relationship between mobility on the one hand, and the spread of COVID-19 on the other hand? All of these questions remain mostly unanswered and are of extreme importance to policy makers trying to stop a second (or third) COVID-19 wave, or trying to fight a new infectious disease in the future.

Data: the EU has created a database which contains an overview of all NPIs passed in EEA countries. The database also contains records on hospitalizations, which for many reasons is the most valuable measure in tracking the spread of the disease. Google has publicly available data on mobility. For Scandinavian countries we can also track data at the regional level.

Methods: the methods depend on the background and training of the student undertaking the thesis. Many meaningful relationship can be estimated through linear regression. However, it is also possible to use more advanced methods such as machine learning or epidemiological models.

Reference: Juranek, Steffen and Floris Zoutman (2020). “The Effect of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions on the Demand for Health Care and Mortality: Evidence on COVID-19 in Scandinavia” SSRN Working Paper.

COVID-19 and Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions: A cost-benefit analysis

All countries in developed countries have introduced Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) such as social distancing, handwashing, mask wearing and school closures, in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. The charge has up to now been lead almost exclusively by epidemiologists. In most countries economists are not included in the team of experts that advice the government on these decisions. That’s a pity, because economics, and especially, old-fashioned cost-benefit analysis has a lot to offer under these conditions. Roughly speaking NPIs all have their economic costs and benefits (i.e. their ability to halt the spread of COVID-19). From a cost-benefit standpoint it is possible to sort NPIs from “cheap” (high benefits, low costs) to “expensive” (low costs, high benefits). In case of a pandemic the objective of the government should be to keep the pandemic suppressed at the lowest possible cost. This means that we should pass NPIs in order from cheap to expensive. In particular, the most expensive measures should only be introduced in case cheaper methods do not suffice.

To give a practical example, handwashing is cheap in the sense that it has very little economic costs and is most likely quite effective at stopping the spread of COVID-19. Social distancing is relatively more costly as it comes with high economic costs (think for instance about spacing people out in classrooms, public transport etc.), and is probably not much more effective than handwashing. This does not imply that we should not practice social distancing, but it does imply that handwashing comes “first”.

In this thesis, you will do two things. First, you explain in more detail the principles of cost-benefit analysis applied to the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, you provide your best guestimates of the costs and benefits of NPIs passed in Norway using, for instance, academic literature, media sources and interviews with experts. Third, you apply your cost-benefit analysis with the guestimates to provide clear policy advice to Norwegian policy makers on which measures should come first.

Methods: cost-benefit analysis, literature review, interviews with experts

COVID-19 and the Labor Market: Understanding the Mechanisms

Juranek et al (2020) study the labor market in the Nordic countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that the pandemic has had disastrous consequences in terms of both unemployed and furloughed workers in all four countries. Sweden, comparatively does the best, and Norway is at the bottom (at least in the short run). Part of the difference in labor market outcomes is driven by differences in lockdown measures, which Sweden (in)famously abstained from, but there are also differences in labor market policies. Moreover, the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic itself may have a direct effect on labor markets. In this project, you will try to unpack the mechanisms focusing on data from the Nordic countries. As a first pass, you will extend the data of Juranek et al (2020) and replicate their analysis over a longer time frame. Afterwards, you will build a statistical model that disentangles the mechanisms between COVID-19 and the labor market using causal diagrams, regression analysis and/or machine learning tools. The results will be helpful in understanding how the pandemic affected labor markets, and guide policy makers in passing measures that fight the pandemic but minimize the damage to the labor market. Data: Labor market data from the Nordic countries available from the various statistical agencies, data on mobility available from Google and data on the spread of the pandemic, available from health institutes. Methods: Linear Regression, causal diagrams, machine learnings (the choice of methods can be adjusted based on the student’s background).

References: Juranek, Steffen, Jörg Paetzold, Hannes Winner and Floris Zoutman (2020) “Labor Market Effects of COVID-19 in Sweden and its Neighbors: Evidence from Novel Administrative Data” SSRN Working Paper

How do schools adapt to their physical infrastructure?

Does it matter for teaching practice whether the school is new, old, well maintained, run down, a permanent building or temporary modules ("barracks")?

Supervisor: Arnt-Ove Hopland

Data Science and Analytics

Use high frequency satellite data to estimate economic and environmental outcomes of energy production processes.

ESA’s Earth Online portal offers European research institutes direct and simple access to Earth Observation data coming from satellite missions operated directly by the European Space Agency and Third Party Missions. These data can be combined with ghgsat estimates to answer the following question: "How much carbon dioxide equivalent was released during the mining/extraction of a particular mine/oil & gas field?"

Supervisor: Giacomo Benini .

Gender gap in acting and sensitivity to sudden reputation changes

The value of a good reputation has changed in recent years. A simple internet search can show that no one can maintain a good reputation. This is especially relevant in jobs that are close to the public eye. Consider Johnny Depp who lost on a considerable income after he was dropped by movie studios during his divorce proceedings. The research question is: How much of the gender pay gap of film stars is due to reputation?

Scrape data from https://www.qscores.com/performer , and determine what is the price of a good reputation.

Social and economic networks

Networks are important in shaping behavior in many environments. For example, economic production and supply chains are organized as networks, new technologies diffuse in the economy through research and development collaboration networks. Social networks pervade our social and economic lives. They play a central role in the transmission of information about job opportunities and are critical to the trade of many goods and services. The presence of networks makes it important to understand which network structures can emerge and how networks impact behavior.

We can discuss your specific interests concerning with analysis of network models or/and analysis of real life networks. For example, a possible thesis topic can be online networks, networks in science and education (e.g. collaboration, co-authorship networks, citation networks), financial networks (e.g. influence of networks on financial decisions), trade networks, networks in labor markets.

Detailing the Value of Climate- and Environmental Surveillance on Sea food production

What’s the cost-benefit for using an integrated climate and environment surveillance on seafood production? The student will assess the impact and values associated with using a detailed monitoring tool called Clarify, which currently is employed by many seafood producers. The student will be given access to unpublished data afforded by Clarify that can be directly compared to other chains of the seafood production, including feeding, fish welfare, loss to sickness and slaughter. Additional climate data can also be made available to the student depending on emerging needs. This Master opens for a relevant exploration of how monitoring can strengthen seafood sustainability and resilience to the changing climate conditions that remain the key premise for seafood production. The industry partner for this thesis is Clarify.

Optimal placement and impact of offshore wind parks

In this thesis, the students will use historical weather data to investigate the potential of Norwegian wind power in a scenario where all the current offshore locations suggested by the NVE are in full production. Alternative locations derived from optimizing production output are available and can be compared to the sites suggested by NVE. A secondary goal is to use the results to investigate the impact on the European energy market. The industry partner for this thesis is Statkraft.

What are the optimal sites for future seafood production?

Wind conditions, sea currents, -temperature and -salinity are all important factors when considering new locations for ocean-based aquaculture facilities. Moreover, locations that are considered optimal today may not be suitable locations in the future due to climate change. In this thesis, the students will investigate the current optimal placements of aquaculture based on detailed historical data. By considering state of the art climate predictions, it can be investigated how these placements will change on different time horizons. The students should also discuss placement conflicts with fisheries and coastal shipping routes. The industry partner for this thesis is Clarify.

Economic impacts of climate change

Many social and economic activities are heavily affected by weather variables such as temperatures and precipitation. In this master thesis, the students will explore the relationship between weather variables and economic decisions made by Norwegian households and/or businesses. In addition, the students will explore how climate change, through its effect on temperatures and precipitation, will affect these economic decisions into the future.

Examples of relationships to explore are the effects of heatwaves on human mortality rates, extreme precipitation on agricultural production, or drought on hydropower production. The exploration can be either on the macro or micro level and can be in the form of either a statistical analysis or modelling exercise. For the prediction exercise, the students will have access to novel climate forecasts from the Climate Futures project. An interesting question to explore is how access to improved seasonal weather forecasts can mitigate the harmful economic impacts of climate change.

Investigating patterns in procurement data

Public procurement involves a large amount of money and involves a wide range of sectors. In Norway public procurement was almost 600 million NOK in the 2019 statistics and the public bought everything: from toilet paper and office supplies to new roads, high-tech hospital supplies and defense material. Data on official tenders (possibilities for contracting with the public sector) are announced on doffin.no and there is a special complaint committee dealing with disputes related to public contracts. This offers a rich amount of data to explore topics within public procurement.

For instance, sometimes a public entity can pretend to be looking for a contractor in a competitive manner, however the phrasing of the contract allows the entity to choose preferentially a predetermined contractor. This step can be part of a larger corruption kick-back scheme that is well-hidden beneath a veil of legality. There could also be differences in how public procurement in various dimensions (geographical, type of public entity, etc.). This topic allows students to investigate procurement tenders and complaints on decisions made to determine whether there is evidence of specific patterns or preferential treatment.

Necessary skills: web scraping, textual analysis, statistical/econometric analysis

Supervisors: Evelina Gavrilova-Zoutman and Malin Arve .

Textual analysis of topics in the facilities management literature

Using machine learning techniques to study the evolvement of the facilities management literature.

Supervisor: Arnt Ove Hopland .

Textual analysis of topics in the public choice literature

Using machine learning techniques to study the evolvement of the public choice literature.

Textual analysis of topics in the operations research literature

Using machine learning techniques to study the evolvement of the operations research literature.

Does climate change affect the probability distributions of weather at sea?

Using large amounts of global hindcasting data for weather variables, to investigate the spatial and temporal changes in the probability distributions for certain key drivers (e.g. wave height, wind speed) for chosen main trade routes in ocean transportation. The objective is to provide further insight in, for instance, seasonal and spatial patterns. Also to develop an algorithm that can match a vessel track in space and time with interpolated weather variables observable only at certain spatial nodes.

Supervisor: Professor Roar Ådland

Port operations and weather impact

Using empirical hindcast and forecast data for precipitation in selected South American ports, to assess and predict the impact of rain events and intensity on the loading of weather sensitive cargoes such as paper, grain etc.

Work in co-operation with shipping companies Western Bulk and/or G2Ocean.

Correcting witness reports through Machine Learning

It is well known that witness accounts on crime are often unreliable. The effects of stress or poor light on the victim can create a skewed perception of how the perpetrator looked. This, coupled with an unconscious discriminatory bias, leads to the victim reporting that the perpetrator was unknown or from the black racial minority. Often the witness report is based on an estimate – e.g. “ the perpetrator looked black, around 25 years”.

Comparing actual arrests to reports, we can try to put a number on the amount of witness error. By training a machine learning model on a subsample, we can try to predict the gender, race and age of unobserved criminals. This can impact the computation of statistics on black/white, male/female and young/old crime gaps. What if blacks are actually responsible for a very small fraction of crimes? What if females are responsible for more crimes? This could lead us to rethink current racial profiling strategies in crime detection.

Data: National Incident Based Reporting System, US

Starting point: Imbens, G.W. and Lemieux, T., 2008. Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice. Journal of econometrics, 142(2), pp.615-635. Fryer Jr, R.G., 2016. An empirical analysis of racial differences in police use of force (No. w22399). National Bureau of Economic Research

Nonlinear econometrics

A large portion of empirical research within economics and finance is based on linear models, of which the linear regression is by far the most prominent. Is this because we live in a linear world, or at least an approximately linear world, or is it the case that we implicitly close our eyes to important features i our data by not considering nonlinear methods on equal footing as traditional ones?

Questions like this may take your master project in several directions, such as (listed from least to most statistical/mathematical maturity recommended to complete the project, all of them benefit from programming skills):

1. To what degree is linear regression the main vehicle for measuring marginal effects of explanatory variables X to a response variable Y within economic research (within a certain field/ in Norway/ at NHH or otherwise suitably limited)? Why do researchers choose this method (convenience/interpretability of coefficients/easy presentation/theoretical foundations/...)?  Then, figure out to which degree such concerns can be addressed by a corresponding nonlinear model. A nice touch would be to re-do a recent linear study nonlinearly and see if there indeed are effects that were missed.

2. A bit more technical version of the point above is to write a thesis that revolves around the systematical development of a tool in your programming language of choice (such as R or Python) that implements as many needs as possible of the linearly oriented researcher in a nonlinear framework, with pre-work consisting of providing a theoretical foundation, and as post-work perhaps testing your «product» by trying to «sell it» to an experienced researcher.

3. Financial time series are typically nonlinear in the sense that the correlation coefficient does not, in general, give good descriptions of dependencies across time and space. This has naturally lead to the development of nonlinear methods to model financial processes. For example, the classical theory for portfolio allocation that Harry Markowitz introduced in the 1950s balances expected return (as measured by means) and risk (as measured by standard deviations and correlations) in order to provide the optimal distribution of wealth across different assets.

The Markowitz portfolio theory is very simple and easy to implement. But, it explicitly assumes that dependence between assets is linear, so the decades following its introduction have seen many attempts to improve the Markowitz method by modelling dependencies nonlinearly. Many authors note, however, that it is actually quite hard to attain higher returns using modern methods compared to the classical approach. This project may contain a survey of modern portfolio selection methods (which will require the ability to read fairly technical research papers), and a discussion part where we try to answer the question whether beating the classical approach indeed is «hard», and if so, why?

Supervisor: Håkon Otneim .

Energy Markets, Resource Management and Sustainability

Master thesis in cooperation with fjord miljø as in nordfjordeid.

Some highlights of the company:

• Developer of equipment to the fish farming industry
• Our mission is to provide equipment to protect fish from lice infection
• Our products are for example protection shields, upwelling system, filtration of surface water and monitoring environmental conditions by the use of sensors
• We are constantly seeking new developments to improve our solutions
• We are also in a progress of making new partners to have the option to supply complementary products which will supplement our existing products
• Main office is located in Nordfjordeid
• Contact person: Arild Heggland

Some aspects that could be the foundation of a master thesis:

• Market knowledge of Fjord Miljø and our products
• Market rating of Fjord Miljø
• How to improve knowledge and rating?
• Estimate willingness to pay for protection against lice infection
• Valuation of our products
• How do fish farmers consider new products to be useful in the future, these products will be specified later
• Where do fish farmers expect the industry to move on, landbased, closed containers in sea, continue as their producing today?
• Other relevant topics.

Supervisor: Stein Ivar Steinshamn .

Finance as resource allocation: Does ESG build real assets?

This study complements the many that have asked whether ESG (environment, sustainability and governance) is associated with higher or lower return on investment: Finance also creates real assets. Is there evidence, in our time, that preferences or policies, regulation, raises resource flows and asset creation (builds windmills, for instance).

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland .

The potential in renewable power

Contact Eskeland for Study design, as many approaches are on the table. One is the role of taxes (incl the new 'grunnrenteskatt'), another is new concessions and the role and shape of auctions, including contracts of difference; a third is offshore installations and how they are placed in terms of access to markets, etc.

Political Economy and Social Perspectives on the Climate Transition

NHH works with technically oriented partners (industry, ntnu, ife) on scenarios for the transition to a low-carbon economy. This thesis will combine such scenarios for the transition with perspectives from political economy (as with: who pays, and industry interests, and rich vs poor) and social acceptance.

Electric vehicles and de-carbonizing transportation

This topic is in collaboration with ENOVA.

Norway has pledged to reach almost net zero emissions by 2050. The transport sector is responsible for almost one-third of the emissions in Norway, and the use of passenger cars alone is responsible for almost 10%. Therefore, to reach net zero, it is vital to de-carbonize the Norwegian car fleet. A key strategy to reduce emissions from the transport sector is to induce households to replace their fossil fuel cars with electric vehicles. Although most of the new cars sold in Norway are electric, the national fleet of cars still contains 'only' electric vehicles 20%. Will all cars in the future eventually be electric? Or are there barriers preventing the switch to electric vehicles?

In this topic, students will explore the sources of emissions from the Norwegian car fleet and how these emissions can be reduced. The thesis will focus on two main issues:

1. Emissions from the car fleet in Norway: Emissions from the transport sector have been steadily falling. But the car fleet is projected to increase in the coming years, and the share of transport with car is also increasing.

a) What are the drivers of emissions? For example, number of miles driven per car, age of the cars, geographical distribution, etc.

b) How will these emissions evolve over time?

2. Switching from fossil fuel cars to electric vehicles: Purchasing and driving electric vehicles have been heavily subsidized by the government. But people are still driving fossil fuel cars.

a) What are the barriers to replacing your fossil fuel car with an electric vehicle? For example, economic, behavioral, social, etc.

b) How can we induce households to make the switch to electric?

This topic can be approached from many different angles and is suitable for a wide range of empirical methods.

Supervisor: Isabel Hovdahl .

Electric vehicles in Norway: Emission reductions versus lost tax tax revenue

An analysis of electrical vehicles in  Norway where reduced emissions are measured against  reduced tax revenue.

A number of topics in collaboration with the Maritime Cleantech cluster administration

• What branding effect will the use of green/emission-free logistics chains have for the fish farming industry?
• What is the willingness to pay on the part of cargo owners for the use of low- and zero-emission vessels in their logistics operations?
• Economic valuation of Maritime Cleantech as a cluster organisation.
• Hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels - how big a role can the production and distribution of these play for Norwegian value creation in 2050?
• Joint Norwegian investment for the maritime industry: how to position ourselves for increased exports of green technology? (Strategic/Marketing)
• Analysis of the market for green maritime technology in Southern Europe (can be built on research done by Innovation Norway in France, Spain and Italy)
• Size, scope and framework of incentive schemes for contracts for difference.
• Are end consumers willing to pay for green (maritime) transport? If so, how much?
• Profitability analyzes and CO2 reduction for conversion of existing vessels vs. new construction.
• Life cycle analyzes for ships - case speedboats and/or cargo ships - Lifetime of vessels - co2 emissions - conversion or measures that can reduce emissions during the ship's lifetime.
• Return scheme/ circular economy model for ships.
• Is there an update of the policy apparatus to support wider and more retrofit solutions for ships, to make them more energy efficient?

Possible topics in collaboration with Maritime Cleantech cluster partners with assistance from the cluster administration

• Shipping aims to halve its emissions by 2050. How should a shipping company approach this goal in terms of investment and redevelopment programmes? (Shipping company)
• How to market/sell green fuels and technologies that have not yet been demonstrated in the market? For example hydrogen, fuel cells etc. (fuel producers, FC producers and the like.)
• Strategy for marketing hydrogen/ammonia as a safe and secure green fuel (producers).
• Green innovation: How to change from traditional offshore to deliveries in new value chains (supplier industry, shipyards, shipping companies).
• Efficient/appropriate incentive/public/industrial structure for the production and supply of new energy carriers from wind farms and other offshore locations.

Evaluation of various ways for Norway to fulfill the Paris-agreement

The objective is to compare various ways Norway can fulfill the Paris-agreement with respect to consequences for the Norwegian economy and for global emissions among other things.

Can or will energy transition hold back development

Clean up and transition in the north sea, energy companies, esg and responsive strategies, esg in finance, and eus taxonomy, how suited are batteries to solve the intermittency problem.

A study of the efficiency and suitability of batteries in order to solve the intermittency problem associated with new renewable energy such as solar and wind power.

Hydrogen and its role in Europe's energy transition

Transport and co2 emission reductions (or any segment: maritime, aviation, cars, etc), war, crisis and energy in europe, green energy and guarantees of origin.

During the last years, governments around the world have implemented different policies to promote investments in renewable production capacity. One of the main instruments is a policy known as guarantees of origin. These guarantees operate as a guarantee for final consumers that the electricity they consume comes from renewable energy sources.

An important characteristic of the guarantees is that the producers are free to sell the electricity and guarantees separately. What we are observing is that while electricity from Norwegian hydropower is largely sold to consumers in Norway, the guarantees from Norwegian hydropower is sold to consumers in Germany and the Netherlands. Despite the growing importance of this policy, there are few studies of the impacts of guarantees of origin on renewable production capacity.

In this master thesis, the students will investigate the effect of this policy instrument on renewable electricity capacity in Europe. What has Norway’s role been in promoting renewable energy capacity through guarantees of origin? What has the interaction been between guarantees of origin and other incentives to boost investments in renewable production capacity? And what are the implications of the de-coupling of the sale of the electricity with the sale of the guarantees?

This topic of research is suitable for many different types of methods, depending on the interests and skills of the students. The thesis can be based on either a statistical analysis, case study or modelling exercise.

Supervisor: Isabel Hovdahl and  Mario Blázquez .

Analysis of catch data in Norwegian fisheries

Organizing and analyzing data from the Norwegian directorate of fisheries.

Econometric analysis of the sales of new cars in Norway

Supervisor:  Øyvind Thomassen .

Contact: [email protected] .

I have three data sets that you can use for the thesis: 1) price lists with car model variant and some technical characteristics, 2) new registrations of car model engine variants, by age and sex of the registered owner, 3) the annual rules for calculating the registration tax (engangsavgift). 

For most uses, you will want to merge data sets 1) and 2). This will entail some tedious data work (probably using Stata or R), because of a lack of exact common identifiers. 

The data go up to 2015, but it may be possible to obtain more recent data. 

There are many questions that could be answered with the data, including saying something about the effect of the favorable tax treatment given to electric vehicles, which probably explains their large market share in Norway. 

To choose this topic you must have taken a course in econometrics.

Econometric analysis of data from the government vehicle register

Like my topic ‘Econometric analysis of the sales of new cars in Norway’, this topic is based on data on cars in Norway. However, for this topic, I currently do not have the data, but I believe they can be obtained from Statens Vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration).

My other topic uses data on the flow of new cars. This topic uses data on the stock of cars. The two data sources could conceivably be combined.

Background from a course in econometrics is needed.

Natural resource extraction nearby: opportunity or concern for non-resource firms?

How does natural resource extraction such as oil&gas production affect nearby firms in other sectors, such as manufacturing and services? Potential agglomeration effects could benefit firms, but increased competition for labor or more corruption might harm firms. Since firms are the backbone of every modern economy, these considerations are crucial to understand whether natural resources are a blessing or a curse.

Supervisor: Paul Pelzl .

Topics on Environmental Economics

Potential topics are:

• Zero emissions (in shipping/buildings/road veh/airplanes): too much, or just right?
• Certificates of Origin for Electricity; Stepchild or rising star?
• A carbon cap for Norwegian farmers: Let forests do what cows and farmers cannot?
• Carbon footprint and economic analysis for a firm/sector
• Hydrogen: which part is failing: cars, hydrogen or filling and logistics
• A new look at biomass and biofuels: can photosynthesis propel transport
• Oceans in a sustainability strategy
• Solar power: if a leap lies ahead, what can trigger it
• Decentralized power generation in Norway: framework and business analysis
• Renewable power in Norway: shall it expand, and with what instruments
• A role for Norway as a battery for Europe’s intermittent power
• A business analysis of Norway’s three proposed carbon capture and storage projects (cement, fertilizer, waste dump)
• Analysis of emission reduction prospects in Norwegian transport
• Econometric analysis of demand for energy (or carbon) intensive goods, transport
• Forests: More wood and biomass in buildings: Economic analysis of climate prospects
• Financial markets: is there evidence of ‘sin portfolios’ or ‘virtue’ (or green/fossil)? The value of fossil assets / promises in financial markets
• Analysis of CO2 markets
• Modeling energy exchange in Northern Europe

Analysis of electric batteries and improvements in electricity networks

In cooperation with ENOVA

Contact: Gunnar Eskeland  (NHH) and  Børge Nilssen Stafne (ENOVA)

Logistics: improvements in efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions

Contact: Gunnar Eskeland  (NHH) and  Arnt Gunnar Lium (ENOVA)

Electricity in the transport sector: Economic and environmental effects

Regulation and benchmarking of natural monopolies in the energy sector.

Supervisors: Endre Bjørndal and Mette Bjørndal .

Pricing and congestion management in wholesale electricity markets

Integration of renewable energy sources in electricity markets, local flexibility markets and demand response in the electricity sector, integration of regional electricity markets and use of hvdc interconnectors, european integration of intraday and balancing markets, sustainable energy and development.

Around the world, the governments are imple- menting policies to foster the introduction of renewable energy. In that context, there are different research questions to develop in a master thesis that could contribute to develop a sustainable economic system.

• Which will be the relation between renewable energy and hydrogen?
• Which are the policies introduced in cities to reduce carbon emissions?
• Which will be the impact of the adoption of renewable energy in women unemploy- ment? Could the introduction of renewable energy increase the gender gap?
• Which will be the changes in the design of electricity markets induced by the intro- duction of renewable energy?
• Which is the relation between hydrogen and lithium batteries? Which is the best way to store electricity in the short-term and in the long-term?
• Which policies could be implemented to promote energy effciency?
• How do the electricity grid need to change to accommodate renewable energy?

Supervisor: Mario Blazques de Paz

Transmission constraints

Electricity markets are moving through the integration around the world. Moreover, the countries are increasing their investments in renewable production capacity to fulfil with the agreements in carbon emission reductions. In that context, the transmission grid plays a crucial role promoting the integration of electricity markets and accommodating the renewable production capacity into the system. In re- lation with this topic, there are different research questions that could be of interest to develop a master thesis.

• Which should be design of electricity markets in the presence of transmission con- straints.
• Could the integration of electricity markets in Europe increase competition? Which will be the impact of that integration in the investments in transmission capacity, and in renewable production capacity?
• Which should be the relation between the spot and the redispatch market when the transmission lines are congested? How we can design those markets to increase com- petition?
• How should the regulator design transmission tariffs to guarantee investments in trans- mission capacity, and transmission effciency?

Supervisor:  Mario Blazques de Paz

Incentives, Contracts and Firm Behaviour

How do natural disasters affect local business activity evidence from indonesia.

Besides having adverse humanitarian effects, natural disasters may have a large detrimental impact on local business activity in the affected region. On the other hand, unaffected yet nearby regions may experience a surge in business activity, as these regions compensate for the neighboring downturn. The aim of this master thesis is to quantify these and potentially other effects using Indonesian data on various types of natural disasters and on manufacturing, thereby shedding light on the economic effects of natural disasters across space. The thesis requires some training in econometrics and motivation to do a considerable amount of data work. Regarding business activity, data comes from the Indonesian manufacturing plant census and can be provided by the supervisor; regarding natural disasters, data comes from https://www.desinventar.net/. Please note that a thesis on this topic cannot be written in Spring 2023 due to parental leave of the supervisor.

Key references

• Kirchberger (2017): Natural disasters and labor markets . Journal of Development Economics , Volume 125, pages 40-58.
• Gignoux and Menendez (2016): Benefit in the wake of disaster: Long-run effects of earthquakes on welfare in rural Indonesia . Journal of Development Economics , Volume 118, pages 26-44.

Like my topic ‘Econometric analysis of the sales of new cars in Norway’, this topic is based on data on cars in Norway. However, for this topic, I currently do not have the data, but I believe they can be obtained from Statens Vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration). See information here: https://www.vegvesen.no/om-oss/om-organisasjonen/apne-data/api-for-kjoretoyopplysninger/utvidet-utlevering-av-kjoretoyopplysninger/

Economics of organization and management control

Including the use of bonus pay (case studies or across companies), how to measure performance, balanced scorecard (or alternative ways to use key performance indicators for management control purposes), drivers of profitability in an industry or a company, beyond budgeting, transfer pricing, and organizational boundaries.

Supervisor: Iver Bragelien.

Streaming markets for music and books

Supervisor: Øystein Foros .

Interplay between content providers and distributors in digital platforms

The appstore battle with music and app providers (the case of fortnite and spotify), the war among consoles 2020: sony (playstation 5-) vs microsoft (xbox series), konkurransen i mobilmarkedet.

Sammenligne f.eks. Norge og Finland som har ulik markedsstruktur. Mye deskriptiv empiri for å bedre forstå markedet og forskjellen mellom landene.

Supervisor: Øystein Foros .

Kulturminister Trine Skei Grande har nylig foreslått å utvide bokavtalen. Det vil gi en lengre fastprisperiode og høyere priser på opptil 65 prosent av bøkene. Den norske bokavtalen, som gir forleggerne rett til å sette en fast pris på nye bøker, er havnet i søkelyset til Efta-landenes overvåkningsorgan Esa. Nylig besvarte Nærings- og fiskeridepartementet (NFD), på vegne av den norske regjeringen, en rekke spørsmål fra Esa om forholdet mellom bokavtalen og EØS-avtalens eksplisitte forbud mot prissamarbeid i artikkel 53. Her kunne det være interessant å sammenligne med kommisjonens sak mot Amazon ift most-favored nation (MFN) klausuler.

Personalisert prising

Med utgangspunkt i prosjektet Moving towards the market of one? Competition with personalized pricing and endogenous mismatch costs, jobbe med applikasjoner? Kan også knyttet opp mot AI.

Shipping, Logistics and Operations Management

Impact of climate change on vessel operations.

Utilizing weather data and AIS data, we aim to evaluate the influence of climatic events on routine maritime trade operations. Significant events, such as the draught restriction in the Panama Canal due to severe droughts, have resulted in costlier transits and prolonged waiting time durations. This thesis can investigate the externality cost of severe weather patterns, such as intensified El Niño.

Supervisor: Gabriel Fuentes

Climate Policy and Its Effect on Maritime Trade

By quantifying shipping emissions, including greenhouse gases (GHGs) and sulfur, a thesis on this topic can investigate the impact of maritime climate-related policies on the overall trajectory of vessel emissions. There's ongoing debate surrounding regulations like the IMO 2020 Sulphur Cap and the introduction of measures like the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII). We will evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness of these regulations.

Decision Support for Maritime Investments Amid Uncertain Climate Policies

Maritime investments face uncertainties with evolving climate-related policies. A seemingly recent and valuable asset today might become obsolete or uncompetitive due to policy shifts in the near future. A thesis on this topic could aim to introduce a model that navigates potential scenarios related to the progression of climate policies.

Dark Fleet Economics in Grain and Oil Trade

The phenomenon of "dark fleets" refers to vessels that operate in hidden or illegal capacities, often eluding detection through various means. Leveraging a blend of AIS (Automatic Identification System) data and satellite optical imagery, we can observe the activities of these fleets, particularly in the grain and oil trade sectors. Your thesis could focus on the externalities of the dark fleet on the legal market or the effect on trading patterns.

Working with Vake.ai

Supervisor: Evelina Gavrilova-Zoutman and Gabriel Fuentes

Tourist management

In 2019 before the sanitary emergency started, Norway received 5.88 million tourists representing 7,04 billion dollars and 1,7% of its GDP, reaching the highest levels in 2017. In this year, the tourism industry represented nearly 4,2% of Norwegian GDP and attracted around 170 billion NOK in total tourism consumption. These numbers show the potential of this industry for economic growth and depict some challenges. Particularly when we put the number of tourists in relation to the population of the country, it becomes clear the necessity to take a closer look at current policies and opportunities from point of view of operation research. 

For the City of Bergen, the cruise industry is especially important. Bergen receives the largest number of cruise tourists in the country, making of it one of the most visited cities in Scandinavia. 

It might be interesting for cruise companies to have touristic recommendations for their passengers, itineraries that provide the most benefits out the visit, and ensure the passengers will be back to the ship on time. But also, from the city hall perspective, it might be desirable to have a more homogenous distribution of the visitors across town in order to avoid crowds. Additionally, according to Bergen’s urbanization plan, there could be desirable areas of the city where it is more interesting to bring visitors and the money they spend on their trip, in the frame of urban development, social welfare, and environment. 

In order to assess the different locations, it is necessary to understand the city trends, socio-economic indicators, passenger preferences, and tourist offers, among others. Then use this information as support for an optimization model, allowing to suggest the best routes, both for the tourists and the City of Bergen. 

Main supervisor: PhD-candidate Andres Felipe Velez Correa .

Helicopter fleet composition and allocation

In the oil and gas industry, helicopters are widely used for personnel and cargo transport between offshore platforms and heliports on the land. Therefore, the decision-making regarding the composition of the helicopter fleet and the allocation of this resource is vital for a stable operation of oil & gas exploration and extraction. Such tactical decision affects various aspects of an oil company, including contract utilization, carbon footprint, plan robustness and operating expenses.

However, the common practice in the industry is that the decision of fleet composition and allocation is still manually made based on demand forecast and individual’s experience. Such decision-making process cannot guarantee optimal solutions, is not scalable, and would likely lead to low resource utilization rate and high operating cost.

We are now seeing a clear trend in the oil and gas industry which is to apply automation in its various and complex decision-making process with the support of optimization. In terms of the helicopter fleet composition and allocation problem in this case, a decision support tool is expected to facilitate the decision of helicopter chattering and deployment with stochastic demand for the next planning period. Moreover, resource sharing, namely utilizing idle helicopter resources from other operators, is also a promising opportunity to increase the overall efficiency on an industry level and hence is becoming increasingly popular among different oil companies and helicopter operators.

With its trademark solution DaWinci as the industry standard in personnel logistics management, Quorum is the software supplier for many of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. Quorum Software Norway, as the market leader, is now cooperating with several major players in the oil and gas industry to address various new challenges with new software planning tools. This master project will take advantage of Quorum’s expertise in logistics management in oil and gas industry, and look at some of the following issues:

• Literature review on related problems and topics
• Mathematical formulation of the problem
• Study the uncertainty involved in this problem and methods to handle such stochasticity
• Study and develop necessary solution methods
• Analyze the numerical results based on a realistic problem instance from Quorum

Students choosing this project should expect to visit Quorum Software’s Bergen office to work alongside our optimization engineers for up to a week.

Collaborator: Quorum Software, contact person Xin Wang ( [email protected] ).

Supervisor: Yewen Gu .

What is the value of better weather forecasts?

Using empirical case studies to quantify how more accurate short-term weather forecasting can improve chartering decisions for a ship operator.

Working with company Western Bulk.

Evacuation of large passenger ships

Large cruise ships can be hard to exit in emergency situations and face unique challenges regarding evacuation. The ship’s steel hull has so far precluded the use of wireless technologies, which implies that all communications must be cabled-based, not even cell-phones work in an emergency. Another challenge is that evacuation plans are static and cannot be adapted as the emergency unfolds, something important in this context as different factors, such as winds, waves and tilting of the boat, affect passenger behaviour and the evacuation itself. In an ongoing project we try to develop a practical and theoretically sound stochastic and dynamic evacuation model for a large passenger ships aided by innovative wireless technology.

The project is in cooperation with NTNU (that covers the technical parts with respect to engineering and ship design) while NHH cover the dynamic modeling of an evacuation. The new wireless technology comes from ScanReach at Sotra - https://www.scanreach.com/ - and they are closely involved in the project.

Possible theses would cover aspects (to be agreed upon between supervisor and student) of modeling the evacuation or solving resulting models. There are many challenges in the modeling so that the resulting model is fast, which is required in an emergency.

Supervisor: Stein W. Wallace

Cargo Scheduling

For e.g. breakbulk and chemical shipping companies it is challenging to find out which cargoes fit best together into a voyage such that all cargoes can be transported on voyages and ships travel the least possible distance. The aim of this topic is to create a model with typical restrictions and find a good weighing of the different aspects of the objective function. In cooperation with Dataloy Systems, you can use data to develop and test your model as well as discuss the underlying concepts.

Supervisor: Julio Cesar Goez

Small city logistics

Urban population growth is driving an increase in the amount of freight that goes into and out of cities. That growth poses an increasing challenge to freight transportation in smaller compact cities with difficult topology, which is typical for most Norwegian cities and numerous cities abroad.

This transportation challenge is exacerbated by phenomena such as an increase in internet trade, the demand for fast delivery, and a reduction in the ownership of private cars in the city centre which could be used for shopping. The result is an increase in the total volume of freight, and more critically, in the total number of deliveries, normally managed by a large variety of transportation companies.

Unless planned for and regulated, a consequence might be increased traffic, with enhanced energy consumption, that competes for available space and may affect living conditions for a growing urban population.

This project will study small city logistics, with a focus on Bergen, to find the options available for the authorities, business models for a better city logistics setup, as well as mathematical modeling. Will be done in cooperation with the City of Bergen, Vestland County, Bergen Chamber of Commerce and Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET) at The University of Bergen. The project can be qualitative as well as quantitative.

The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway, and we offer two project grants of NOK 25,000.

Possible supervisors: Stein W. Wallace or Julio C. Goez .

Using autonomous vehicles to improve our emergency services

The aim of emergency medical services (EMS) is to provide timely assistance to emergencies in order to save lives. Within this service, quality and capacity have sometimes deteriorated because staffing is not satisfactory and because the organization and directives are not clear. My interest is to work on the use of autonomous vessels to help ameliorate the burden that EMS staffing represents in the case of boat ambulances, and to improve the logistics planning of the system.

The aim is to analyze the use of autonomous vessels to improve response times and coverage. For example, by combining autonomous vessels with geographic information systems, one may use real time information of potential patients to improve the deployment of the resources. In particular my interest is to explore the following key research topic: designing algorithms with predictive capabilities that can be included in real time systems and capable of managing a continuous feed of data points coming from users’ cell phones and other sources.

Supervisor: Julio C. Goez .

Repositioning of Empty Vessels in the Dry Bulk Shipping Market

Aim: find key drivers for decision-making process of repositioning empty vessels - current market conditions, sentiment - repeating patterns, etc.

Supervisor: Vít Procházka.

Logistics/sharing economy: Analytics for car-sharing models

Car-sharing provides short-term vehicle access to a group of user members who share the use of a vehicle fleet owned by a car-sharing organization that maintains, manages, and insures the vehicles. An example of this model in Bergen is bildeleringer. Managing the fleet involves decisions such as the size of the fleet, how to position and reposition the vehicles, maintenance schedules, and pricing approaches. Strong background on analytics required

Supervisor: Julio C. Goez

Optimization of requirements of cloud computing resources

The providers of online applications usually need to find the deployment of minimum cost for running it in the cloud. For the deployment, the planner on the application side must consider renting resources from cloud providers. However, there is a service level constraint that must be satisfied to ensure the quality of the service.

How to analyze the impact of introducing a scheduling software?

Scheduling takes an important role in making shipping as efficient as possible. We want to evaluate the quality of a schedule in practice. As the amount of information changes from what is available during planning to what is available when the plan comes into action, this is a complex problem. The aim of this topic is to find a model to evaluate a plan with respect to how it was used in practice. This will allow us to evaluate if companies improved their scheduling over time. Using data provided by Dataloy Systems, we want to test the model and for example analyse if the implementation of a scheduling software had a positive impact on the schedules.

Supervisors: Julio Cesar Goez

Modelling storage and capacity for scheduling for example for antarctic fishing

Fishing in the antarctic is a profitable business that is aiming to professionalize its scheduling. Fishing boats are fishing and at the same time producing various fish products on board, increasing their stock of fish products on board. On regular intervals they need to meet a cargo vessel to transfer all their cargo onto the cargo vessel. This is to avoid the fishing boat having to go all the way to the coast and losing valuable fishing time. We want to find a model that fits this operation and can be extended to other storage scenarios (storage on the cargo ship, storage at a warehouse the cargo ship delivers to)

Scheduling well in a single port

For a ship that should visit several terminals in a port to discharge cargo and load cargo scheduling these terminal visits is not trivial. Each terminal has an individual waiting list, each cargo potentially has a deadline when it needs to be discharged or loaded and additionally the ship is not allowed to be overloaded at any point in time. We are interested in a model to evaluate the quality of different solutions.

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Final theses

Application Process

To apply for a thesis, please send the following information to Aida Cehajic ( [email protected] ):

• Curriculum Vitae
• Current Transcript of Records
• A preference list indicating your preferred research area in one of our  competence fields

In the case of applying for a bachelor or master thesis please include Bachelor thesis - Application or  Master thesis - Application  in the subject. Please refrain from preliminary inquiries and always send all the documents listed above.

We do not explicitly post current topics of bachelor's and master's theses on the webpage. If you are interested in writing a thesis at the chair, please send us your preference list (see above). We will try to find a topic that fits your interests. A list of exemplary topics from the past can be found here .

Note:  If you want to work on a self-selected topic or if you want to write your thesis in cooperation with an industry partner, you are asked to hand in a short two-pager with a thesis proposal. This proposal should (at least) (i) define the research question, (ii) indicate the data and methodology to be used and (iii) discuss the related literature.           

NOTE: New bachelor's theses will start in September 2024. The application deadline is September 20, 2024. Please send your application to [email protected] .  After the registration is confirmed, the students will be invited to an info session, where the supervisor will provide all the details regarding the topic. The info session will take place in October 2024.

Afterwards, new bachelor theses will only be available as of February 2025. In the meantime, you can apply on a rolling basis since in exceptional cases, there might be topics available to be supervised individually.

Who can apply?

All students that have passed the course Corporate Finance can apply for bachelor theses.

For master's theses, students must have a specialization in "Finance & Accounting" from the Master in Management and Technology (TUM-BWL), or Finance and Information Management (FIM) degree program or should have passed two of the following four courses: Asset Management, Banking & Risk Management, Derivatives, or International Capital Markets and Investment Practice . If the grade of any of these courses is not in your transcript yet, please include it in the email body. In exceptional cases, students who passed only one of the four courses can apply for a master thesis at the department  (i.e., students should then explain why they could not pass two of these courses or demonstrate that they passed comparable courses). We will then see whether we can find a suitable topic for you. 

Additional requirements

It is expected that all students writing their bachelor or master thesis at our Chair visit our Finance Research Seminar  series. In this way, the students can familiarize themselves more with the current state of research in their respective fields. 

• Bachelor: 3 months
• Master thesis (MBA/EMBA): 3 months/6 months
• Master thesis (TUM-BWL/TUM-WIN): 6 months                        

A final thesis has to adhere to scientific standards. It is the duty of the student to become familiar with those standards. Guidelines concerning the thesis itself (formal requirements, layout, etc) can be found  here .

On a regular basis, there are workshops on Refinitiv Workspace and Datastream (see  TUMonline ). Students who wish to write their final thesis at our department are highly recommended to participate in these workshops in order to be able to handle financial data necessary for their thesis.

An overview of accessible databases is provided here : 

For other helpful student resources have a look at our  Student Resources section.

Please notice that legally binding are only the examination regulations that can be found on the website of the  TUM business faculty .

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Master Thesis in Finance

Analysis of current financial topics in corporate finance, derivatives, risk management or asset management.

Centralized Application Master Thesis Supervision Process (via ILIAS)

Each student who plans to write his / her master thesis in the next semester has to register in advance via the centralized Application Master Thesis Supervision process (closest application deadline prior to the planned starting term). We strongly recommend to apply for our department specific early approval process (outlined below), before registering via the ILIAS survey. For further information about the centralized Application Master Thesis Supervision process and the respective deadlines please reach out to the team of the Academic Advisory Service who take care of this procedure. 

Department Specific Early Approval Process (via E-Mail)

Due to the limited communication possibilities of the ILIAS survey, we strongly recommend to contact us in order to get an approval for supervision in advance of the centralized application deadline. Please send

a one-page topic proposal (including research idea, availability of data, methods, basic literature),  

an up-to-date CV ,

a current  transcript of records

and your contact details

in PDF format to  fin-education spam prevention @wiwi.uni-tuebingen.de

In order to be able to discover your field of interest, we recommend to search the relevant journals (The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Corporate Finance, Review of Derivatives Research, Journal of Derivatives etc.) or the website of the Junior Management Science (JUMS) , which is the academic journal to publish outstanding theses in business and management, for exciting questions.

Our early approval is based on the individual research quality, value added of supervision and capacity. We will contact you after your application.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Green finance'

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Chinyamunzore, Ephraim. "Green finance and green growth: towards sustainable development in South Africa." Master's thesis, Faculty of Commerce, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30355.

Forsbacka, Kristina. "Climate Finance and the Point of Green Bonds." Licentiate thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, Samhällsvetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-82363.

Manthata, Olympus. "Green Bonds as a more effective way of capitalizing the South African National Green Fund." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28990.

Freytag, Julia. "Challenges for Green Finance in India : An Analysis of Deficiencies in India’s Green Financial Market." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-180908.

Banga, Josué. "Essays on climate finance." Thesis, Université Grenoble Alpes, 2020. http://www.theses.fr/2020GRALE001.

Green, Michael Allan. "An outsourced offshore information processing model for Japanese finance sector multinationals / Michael Allan Green." Thesis, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/9610.

Pina, Joana Catarina Sampaio. "Equity research - Corticeira Amorim, SGPS, S.A. : green bonds – sustainable finance, but not for all." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/19337.

Fransman, Madeleine, and Beatrice Häll. "Green bonds - market barriers and investor motives." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-358227.

Sabbi, Enrico, and Triantafyllia Karampini. "Venture Capital & Green Ventures : Developing an Understanding of the Investment Decision." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-161360.

ter, Woort Sam, Lucía Tydén, and Casper Johansson. "In pursuit of green municipalities : An exploratory research of green bonds in the transition towards sustainability in Swedish municipalities." Thesis, Jönköping University, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-52930.

capolini, francesca, and robin horvat. "green bonds : does the greeness of the bond impact on the bond yield?" Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för ekonomistyrning och logistik (ELO), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-86027.

Tanskanen, Isabella. "Green Funds : An Analysis of the Product Specific Disclosures of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation 2019/2088." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Juridiska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-444049.

Andersson-Junkka, Emil, and Felix Malmström. "Green Is The New Black - A qualitative study on the motives and future of the Nordic green bond market from an underwriter perspective." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-187080.

Borthwick, Sarah. "The potential for 'green' fiscal policy measures to influence individuals' vehicle purchasing decisions in Scotland." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2015. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/8820.

Acheampong, Josephine. "Green Financing: Financing Circular Economy Companies : Case Studies of Ragn-Sellsföretagen AB and Inrego AB." Thesis, KTH, Entreprenörskap och Innovation, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-188677.

Queen, Irene T. "Green Bonds and Climate Change: State of the Art or Artful Dodge?" Miami University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1470352085.

Kivikoski, Lauri, and Robert Sandberg. "Individual investors' preferences regarding green bonds : A survey of Swedish investors." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-165057.

Backenroth, Sanna, and Casper Lindqvist. "A Green New World : How the Real Estate Sector is Working with Sustainable Financing in Regard to the EU Taxonomy." Thesis, KTH, Fastigheter och byggande, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-297930.

Mayer, Caroline, and Emelie Bergström. "Transition through Transparency : Assessing ESG Reporting and the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance." Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekonomi och organisation (Inst.), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-296649.

Ranchber, Susan. "Stimulating Green FinTech Innovation for Sustainable Development: An Analysis of the Innovation Process." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-359728.

Lillieroth, Helena, and Sofia Lillieroth. "Accelerating Green Bond Market Growth : The role of the EU Taxonomy and the EU Green Bond Standard." Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekonomi och organisation (Inst.), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-297239.

Ebadian, Mona, and Linda Ivarsson. "Green Finance and its Relation to Asset Classes : Analyzing the dependency structure with a DCC-GARCH and a cross-quantilogram approach." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Nationalekonomi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-177961.

AHMED, RABBU, and MOSTAFA CHARAFEDDIN. "The reallocation of capital towards green investments : A study on the EU Taxonomy Regulations." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för industriell teknik och management (ITM), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-299280.

Crépey, Stéphane. "Contribution a des methodes numeriques appliquees a la finance et aux jeux differentiels." Palaiseau, Ecole polytechnique, 2001. http://www.theses.fr/2001EPXX0012.

Tate, Terry Geonnie. "U.S. Corporate Energy Productivity, Greenhouse Gas Productivity, and Return on Equity." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5662.

Persson, Michaela. "Building Trust on the Green Bond Market : A Qualitative Study Examining the Investors' Perspective." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för industriell teknik och management (ITM), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-297853.

Lejdfelt, Lucas, and Felix Sandquist. "Framtiden för gröna obligationer : En studie kring investerares perspektiv och produktens betydelse för en hållbar omställning." Thesis, KTH, Fastigheter och byggande, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-276699.

Allred, E. Clay. "Knowledge, Norms and Preferences for Tamarisk Management in the Green and Colorado River Corridors of the Colorado Plateau." DigitalCommons@USU, 2012. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1224.

Cox, Marcus Z. "When and Where Does It Pay to Be Green: Intra- and Inter-organizational Factors Influencing the Environmental/Financial Performance Link." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc500091/.

Aiyadurai, Janusa, and Mathias Brenckert. "A Comparative Study on Green Mutual Equity Fund’s Financial Performance : International vs Domestic Fund Composition." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-172469.

Aassouli, Dalal. "L'eau, le soleil et le vent : des énergies pour le monde. Quels modes de financement "éthiques" ?" Thesis, Lyon, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017LYSEN001.

Fewell, Jason Edward. "The Effect of Lender-Imposed Sweeps on an Ethanol Firm's Ability to Invest in New Technology." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2009. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/29634.

Ahmadin, Muhammad S. "ESSAYS ON THE VALUE OF A FIRM’S ECO-FRIENDLINESS IN THE FINANCIAL ASSET MARKET." UKnowledge, 2014. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/31.

Norris, Samuel James. "Corporate Social Responsibility: A Financial Performance-Based Approach in Understanding CSR." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors1354842245.

Aristidou, Antonis. "Market microstructure issues related to the Greek capital market." Thesis, City University London, 2007. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/8515/.

Jungwirth, Michal. "Studie proveditelnosti - zavedení nového produktu na trh - zelené úvěry." Master's thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta podnikatelská, 2010. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-222537.

Karathanasopoulos, Andreas. "Modeling and trading the Greek stock market with artificial intelligence models." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 2011. http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/6106/.

Makrygiannakis, Georgios. "Reproducing budgeting and budgeting reproduction : cases on the adaptation of Greek hotels to the financial crisis." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2013. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/reproducing-budgeting-and-budgeting-reproduction(e1b4336a-66c3-4231-a86a-2473b78d0be3).html.

Fagerström, Johanna. "How China and Nordic countries conceptualise Corporate Social Responsibility : – A study of senior decision-makers’ statements within the banking sector." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Kinesiska, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-35145.

Glyptis, Loukas G. "The cost management and control of inter-organisational relationships : a case from the Greek shipping industry." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1323/.

Baralexis, Spyridon K. "Impact of general purchasing power accounting on Greek accounts." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2604.

Angolkar, Tejal. "The Effects of Macroeconomic Indicators and Event Shocks on Greek Stock and Bond Market Performance." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1423.

Alalou, Hannah Elizabeth. "Credit Instruments in the Late Roman Republic: Nomina in Cicero's Letters to Atticus." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1404.

Berger, Antoine. "Overreaction to the 2015 Greek debt crisis: a study on FTSE, CAC & DAX." reponame:Repositório Institucional do FGV, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10438/17320.

Calès, Sabrina. "L'oikonomos dans les cités grecques aux époques classique et hellénistique." Thesis, Bordeaux 3, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019BOR30045.

Varenio, Céline. "L'efficacité énergétique dans les bâtiments existants : déficit d'investissement, incitations et accompagnement." Phd thesis, Université de Grenoble, 2012. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00783705.

Lacour, Pauline. "Quantifier le contenu environnemental des relations économiques entre la Chine et le Japon : Analyse de trois canaux de transfert de technologies vertes." Phd thesis, Université de Grenoble, 2012. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00825647.

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Audige, Henri. "La stabilité financière face au risque de contagion." Thesis, Paris 10, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014PA100059/document.

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Our master in finance program curriculum strategically prepares students to master the transformative innovations that are disrupting the finance industry..

Our 15-month program features quantitative rigor, industry-relevant expertise, and a deep knowledge of complex theory, analysis, and decision-making. Students will matriculate in September, intern over the summer, and graduate the following winter.

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Class profile - by the numbers.

Learn more about the incoming class of Master in Finance students.

Percent of our undergrads who come to our program with a bachelor’s degree in economics. The remaining 67 percent have a variety of STEM and liberal arts backgrounds.

Number of different undergraduate institutions represented.

Number of countries represented in our incoming class.

The mean GPA of our incoming class. 3.66

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MBA vs. Master of Finance: What's the Difference?

Author: University of North Dakota April 18, 2024

Business is a vast field that encompasses various master's degree programs tailored to different specializations.

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Among these options, MBA vs. Master of Finance stands out as a common dilemma for individuals looking to advance their careers. These two programs offer distinct paths to success within the business world, each with its unique focus, curriculum, and career outcomes. So, let's explore the difference between an MBA and a Master's in Finance to help you make an informed decision about your academic and professional pursuits.

What is an MBA?

An MBA, or Master of Business Administration, is a graduate-level degree providing individuals with advanced business management and administration knowledge and skills. Such programs emphasize skill development in leadership, decision-making, problem-solving, and strategic thinking, preparing graduates for leadership roles in diverse industries and organizations.

What is a Master of Finance?

A Master of Finance degree, often abbreviated as MFin or MSF, is a graduate-level program focused on developing expertise in financial analysis, risk management, and investment strategies. This degree equips individuals with advanced quantitative and analytical skills essential for roles in corporate finance, investment banking, asset management, and financial consulting.

Key Differences Between MBA and Master of Finance

While at the same academic level, the Master of Business Administration and Master of Finance diverge significantly in their focus, curriculum, and eventual career trajectories.

Focus and Specialization

Understanding each degree's primary area of study and the depth and specificity of knowledge in that area is crucial for comparing MBA and Master of Finance programs.

An MBA program provides students with a holistic understanding of business management and administration. MBA students learn to analyze complex business challenges, make strategic decisions, and implement innovative solutions. The emphasis is on developing well-rounded professionals capable of leading organizations in dynamic and competitive environments.

Master of Finance

On the other hand, a Master of Finance degree focuses specifically on finance-related topics and provides students with an in-depth understanding of financial theory, analysis, and practice. The emphasis is on developing specialized skills and knowledge relevant to careers in finance, such as investment banking, corporate finance, asset management, and financial consulting. 

While there may be some overlap in curricula between MBA and Master of Finance programs, with both typically covering foundational business and finance topics to some extent, most courses differ significantly.

Typically, an MBA curriculum covers a wide range of subjects, including ones focused on leadership, business intelligence, economy, marketing, operations, human resources, and strategy. Moreover, MBA programs often include experiential learning opportunities such as case studies and simulations to reinforce theoretical knowledge with practical experience.

The curriculum of a Master of Finance program typically includes courses in financial analysis, investment management, risk management, financial modeling, and derivatives. Students learn to evaluate financial markets, assess investment opportunities, and manage financial risks effectively. Additionally, Master of Finance programs also often incorporate research assignments and industry partnerships to enhance students' practical skills.

Program Duration and Structure

The duration and structure of MBA and MFin programs vary across institutions and typically depend on factors such as study format and pace.

A full-time MBA program generally lasts about two years, with students completing a set curriculum of core and elective courses. However, the timeframe is modified when the program format changes. For example, part-time MBA programs allow students to spread their coursework over a longer period, often extending to three or four years to accommodate working professionals' schedules.

Additionally, online MBA programs offer flexible scheduling options, allowing students to complete their studies remotely within two to three years. UND offers a top-ranked, AACSB accredited online MBA program with an innovative curriculum and quality education in a synchronous online environment.

Master of Finance programs typically last shorter than MBA programs, ranging from one to two years for full-time students. Similarly, part-time options may be available, allowing students to extend their studies over a longer period to accommodate work or other commitments.

Admissions Criteria

Admissions criteria may vary from one program to another, reflecting each institution's unique priorities and standards. However, typically, you can expect the following:

MBA programs look for candidates with strong academic performance in their undergraduate studies, which indicates their ability to excel in a rigorous academic environment. Additionally, they often prioritize applicants with relevant work experience, demonstrating practical skills and leadership potential. Applicants for the MBA Program have a variety of undergraduate backgrounds, including engineering, business, liberal arts, etc.

Master of Finance programs typically prefer applicants with solid academic foundations in finance gained through a Bachelor of Finance degree . Candidates who have excelled in undergraduate coursework related to finance demonstrate a strong understanding of financial principles and methodologies, which is crucial for success in a Master of Finance program. 

Relevant professional experience in finance or related industries can enhance an applicant's candidacy, as it indicates practical knowledge and skills applicable to the field. 

Career Opportunities

While MBA and Master of Finance graduates may work in similar environments, they often pursue different career paths due to the distinct skill sets and knowledge acquired in each program. Let's explore the diverse career opportunities available to graduates of each program:

Graduates of MBA programs have a wide array of career options spanning various industries and functions, including:

• Operations Manager
• Business Development Manager
• Management Consultant
• Marketing Manager
• Entrepreneur/Startup Founder
• Project Manager
• Supply Chain Manager

Individuals with a Master of Finance degree can pursue specialized roles in the finance sector, such as:

• Financial Analyst
• Investment Banker
• Portfolio Manager
• Risk Analyst
• Financial Planner
• Corporate Finance Officer
• Financial Controller

Considerations for Choosing Between an MBA and a Master of Finance

Before choosing and pursuing one of these advanced business degrees, it's crucial to carefully consider various factors to ensure the best fit for your career aspirations and personal interests. Here are key considerations to ponder when choosing between an MBA and a Master of Finance.

Individual Career Goals and Aspirations

Your career goals and aspirations are key in determining whether an MBA or a Master of Finance aligns better with your objectives. While an MBA offers a broader perspective and prepares you for leadership roles across diverse industries, a Master of Finance provides specialized knowledge tailored for finance-centric positions. Whether you aim for executive leadership, entrepreneurship, or specialized finance roles, understanding how each program supports your career trajectory is essential.

Personal Strengths and Interests

Your strengths and interests should also guide your decision-making process. So, consider how the content and focus of each program resonate with your skills, preferences, and career aspirations. Reflect on whether you thrive in a multifaceted business environment or prefer delving deep into financial analysis and strategy, ensuring that your chosen path aligns with your strengths and passions for long-term satisfaction and success.

Industry Trends and Job Market Demands

Staying updated on current industry trends and job market demands is another crucial factor. Analyze how these trends may impact the value and demand for graduates in both fields across various sectors and roles. Understanding the evolving landscape of business management and finance will help you anticipate future opportunities and make strategic decisions aligned with market demands.

Return on Investment and Financial Considerations

Consider factors such as tuition costs, potential scholarships or financial aid opportunities, and the expected return on investment. Evaluate each program's salary potential, career advancement opportunities, and overall financial implications to ensure that your chosen path aligns with your financial goals and circumstances.

Potential for Career Advancement and Long-term Growth Prospects

Lastly, consider how the skills, knowledge, and network acquired through these programs may impact your career progression and future opportunities. By envisioning your long-term career goals and assessing the growth prospects offered by each degree, you can make a strategic decision that propels your career forward.

The Bottom Line

In the end, the choice between pursuing an MBA or a Master of Finance hinges on personal preferences, career goals, and individual strengths as both paths offer promising opportunities for personal and professional growth.

At UND, we understand the importance of tailored education and are here to support you in thriving in the business world.

Can I pursue an MBA or a Master of Finance degree online, or are they typically offered as on-campus programs? ( Open this section)

Both MBA and Master of Finance programs are often available in online formats, providing flexibility for students who prefer remote learning.

Can someone with an MBA pursue a career in finance, and can someone with a Master of Finance pursue a career in business administration? ( Open this section)

Yes, individuals with an MBA can pursue careers in finance, especially if they specialize in finance-related courses during their program. Similarly, individuals with a Master of Finance can transition into business administration roles, leveraging their financial expertise in managerial positions.

Can I pursue an MBA or a Master of Finance degree part-time while working, or are they primarily full-time programs? ( Open this section)

Of course! Many institutions offer part-time options for MBA and Master of Finance programs, allowing students to balance their studies with work commitments.

What types of financial aid or scholarships are available for students pursuing an MBA or a Master of Finance? ( Open this section)

Financial aid and scholarship opportunities vary depending on the institution and program. Students may be eligible for grants, scholarships, loans, or employer sponsorship programs.

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