thesis topics on economics

134 Economics Thesis Topics: Ideas for Outstanding Writing

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

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

The issue is:

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

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

📊 Microeconomics

📈 macroeconomics.

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

⭐ What Does a Thesis in Economics Look Like?

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

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

Or why not both!

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

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

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

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

🔥 Supreme Economics Thesis Topics List

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

👍 Economics Bachelor’s Thesis Topics

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

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

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

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

😲 Economics Master’s Thesis Topics

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

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

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

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

📑 More Economics Thesis Topics: Theme

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

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

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

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

• The connection between employment interest and money.

🤔 Development Economics

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

👨‍💼 Behavioral Economics

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

• Optimism and pessimism for future behavior.

💼 Financial Economics

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

🌱 Agricultural Economics

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

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

🤝‍Economic Sociology

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

📚 The List of Ph.D. Topics in Economics

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

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

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

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

📝 How to Select an Economics Thesis Topic

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

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

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

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

🔗 References

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2022 Economics Dissertation Topics

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

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

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

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

Topic 3: The impact of transaction cost on economic development

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dissertation Topics on Economics 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dissertation Topics Related to Economic Geography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Can ResearchProspect Help?

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

Dissertation Topics on Microeconomics

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic 3: Laws and their impact on British firms.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dissertation Topics on Employment Economics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dissertation Topics on Economic Sociology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic 43: Role of social entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Dissertation Topics on Institutional Economics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic 5: Impacts of transaction costs on economic development?

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

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

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

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

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

Topic 8: Role of educational aspects in entrepreneurship

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

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

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

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

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

Dissertation Topics on Environmental Economics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic 10: Climate change in relation to economics. Discuss

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

Dissertation Topics on Regional Development

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic 7: Role of Institutional setups in regional development

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

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

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

Find 100s of dissertation topics for other research areas.

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

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

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

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

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Important Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Structure your Economics Dissertation

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

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

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How to find economics dissertation topics.

For economics dissertation topics:

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Economics Dissertation Topics

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

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

Economic Geography Dissertation Topics

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

• Employment Economics Dissertation Topics

Financial Economics Dissertation Topics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Employment/Labour Economics Dissertation Topics

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

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

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

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

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

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Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Examples of honors theses written by economics undergraduate students.

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

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

Spring/Summer 2022

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

Spring 2021

• "Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Solving the Asian Puzzle"  - Zoya Ali
• "Women in STEM: Moving Up or Falling Off the Academic Career Ladder?"  - Sophia J. Bai
• "Time Dependence in Okun's Law at the State Level" - Sarah Baig
• "Labor Regulation and the Impact on Firm Behavior in India" - Vatsal Bajaj
• "Gender Representation in Academia: Evidence from the Italian Education System Reform" - Oyundari Batbayar
• "Money & Marriage on the Elementary Mind: A High-Level Analysis of Inequitable Child Development in LA County" - Matthew J. Chang
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• "Should Physicians Be More Collaborative? Determining the Relationship Between Patient Participation and Treatment Plan Confidence Across a Spectrum of Illness Severity in the State of California" - Saif Chowdhury
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Archives (2009-2019)

Improving economics teaching and learning for over 20 years

Undergraduate Dissertations in Economics

A practical guide

1. Introduction

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

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

https://doi.org/10.53593/n169a

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.1 Laying the foundations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Top tips: dissertation topics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A list of topic areas is provided

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

A list of topics is provided

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Top Tips on the word limit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Provide web links to the most relevant data sources.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A typical structure

From Neugeboren (2005)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sample declaration for students to sign on submission:

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

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

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

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

Encouraging good academic practice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KimMarie McGoldrick, Undergraduate Research in Economics

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

• The undergraduate dissertation in UG economics in the UK: A brief survey
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How To Pick A Topic For Your Economics Research Project Or Master's Thesis

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

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

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

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

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

2. Get inspired by previous students' projects

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

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

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

3. Ask your lecturers or supervisor for advice

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

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

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

4. Pick something original, but not too obscure

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

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

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

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5. Choose a small and specific topic

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

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

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

6. Consider an interdisciplinary topic

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

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

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

7. Check for available data

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

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

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

8. Meticulously plan your experiment

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

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

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

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Home > SBS > ECONOMICS > Economics Department Dissertations Collection

Economics Department Dissertations Collection

Current students, please follow this link to submit your dissertation.

Dissertations from 2023 2023

Essays on International Trade and Economic Growth , Mateo Hoyos, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON MACROECONOMICS AND DEVELOPMENT , Guilherme Klein Martins, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON ALLOCATION OF COSTS AND BENEFITS, CREDIT, AND TIME , Anamika Sen, Economics

Dissertations from 2022 2022

THREE ESSAYS on GROWTH and DISTRIBUTION in DUAL ECONOMIES , Adam Aboobaker, Economics

WORK, WORKERS, AND REPRODUCING SOCIAL CONTROL: RACIAL POST-FORDISM AND ALTERNATIVE SYSTEMS , Hannah Rebecca Archambault, Economics

Employer Power: Consequences for Wages, Inequality and Spillovers , Ihsaan Bassier, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES: HEALTH, GENDER, AND POLICING , Travis B. Campbell, Economics

CREATION OF ECONOMIC GROWTH AND COMPETITION THROUGH GREEN-INDUSTRIAL POLICIES , Camilo A. Gallego, Economics

Essays on Unpaid Care and Gender Inequality in India , Leila Gautham, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE, THE STATE, AND EMPLOYMENT , Baris Guven, Economics

CONSTRAINTS AND ACCOMMODATED PREFERENCE: ESSAYS ON GENDER AND SOCIOECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN PAKISTAN , Sana Khalil, Economics

Essays on Anti-Discrimination Legislation Enforcement and Sex-Based Discrimination in U.S. Labor Markets , Carly McCann, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE CFA FRANC , Francis Perez, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION AND CREATIVE LABOR , Luke Pretz, Economics

FOUR ESSAYS ON PEACE CONSOLIDATION AND ETHNIC RECONCILIATION IN POSTWAR SRI LANKA , Narayani Sritharan, Economics

The Political Economy of Consumer Credit Expansion and Real Exchange Rate Policy in Dual Economies , Esra Nur Ugurlu, Economics

Dissertations from 2021 2021

Three Essays on Learning and Conflict Applied to Developing Countries , Amal Ahmad, Economics

The Political Economy of the Cost of Foreign Exchange Intervention , Devika Dutt, Economics

CARE WORK IN CHILE’S SEGREGATED CITIES , Manuel Garcia, Economics

ESSAYS ON EXCHANGE RATE SHOCKS AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF LOCAL FISCAL POLICY IN BRAZIL , Raphael Rocha Gouvea, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GLOBAL INACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE , Tyler A. Hansen, Economics

Three Essays on Socio-Institutional Ecosystems & Labor Structures , Jonathan Donald Jenner, Economics

CONSTRUCTING A MARXIAN INPUT-OUTPUT MODEL CONSIDERING THE TURNOVER OF CAPITAL AND REVISITING THE FALLING-RATE-OF-PROFIT HYPOTHESIS , Junshang Liang, Economics

Three Essays on Structural Change and Labor Market Adjustment in Developing Countries , Karmen Naidoo, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON EMPLOYMENT IMPACTS OF LABOR MARKET POLICIES , Simon Dominik Sturn, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON LABOR AND MARRIAGE MARKETS: FARM CRISIS AND RURAL-TO-URBAN MIGRATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1920-1940 , Jennifer Withrow, Economics

Dissertations from 2020 2020

THREE ESSAYS ON GENDER-SPECIFIC EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES OF MACROECONOMIC POLICIES , SELIN SECIL AKIN, Economics

A New Economic History of Deindustrialization: Class Conflict and Race in the Motor City , Jackson Allison, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY: EXPLOITATION, TECHNICAL CHANGE, AND MULTISECTORAL ANALYSIS , Weikai Chen, Economics

Essays on Food Security, Gender and Agriculture , Berna Dogan, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON THE ECONOMICS OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE , Kuochih Huang, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY OF UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT: SPACE, CLASS AND STATE IN PAKISTAN , Danish Khan, Economics

ESSAYS ON WOMEN AND WORK IN INDIA AND ON OTHER-REGARDING PREFERENCES , Sai Madhurika Mamunuru, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE , Kartik Misra, Economics

Neoliberal Capitalism and the Evolution of the U.S. Healthcare System , Samantha Sterba, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON THE PAST AND FUTURE OF SOCIALISM , Mihnea Tudoreanu, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON THE ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE “SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE” , Anastasia C. Wilson, Economics

Endogenous Money, Corporate Liquidity Preferences and the Transformation of the U.S. Financial System , Yeo Hyub Yoon, Economics

Dissertations from 2019 2019

The Historical and Legal Creation of a Fissured Workplace: The Case of Franchising , Brian Callaci, Economics

Essays on the Minimum Wage, Immigration, and Privatization , Doruk Cengiz, Economics

Bangladesh's Energy Policy: Economic, Environmental, and Climate Change Impacts , Rohini Kamal, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE ENVIRONMENT , An Li, Economics

REVISITING THE EAST ASIAN MIRACLE: LABOR REGIMES, PROFITABILITY AND ACCUMULATION , Zhongjin Li, Economics

Dimensions of US Global Financial Power: Essays on Financial Sanctions, Global Imbalances, and Sovereign Default , Mariam Majd, Economics

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ACCUMULATION IN SOUTH AFRICA: Resource Extraction, Financialization, and Capital Flight as Barriers to Investment and Employment Growth , Seeraj Mohamed, Economics

STATE-LOCAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING, MACROECONOMIC FISCAL POLICY, AND THE BUSINESS CYCLE , Amanda Page-Hoongrajok, Economics

Essays on Monetary Policy in Developing Countries: Income Distribution, Housing and Unemployment , Zhandos Ybrayev, Economics

Resource Rents, Public Investment and Economic Development: The Case of Bolivia , Raul Zelada Aprili, Economics

Dissertations from 2018 2018

Three Essays on Governments and Financial Crises in Developing Economies, 1870-1913 , Peter H. Bent, Economics

Constraining Labor's “Double Freedom”: Revisiting the Impact of Wrongful Discharge Laws on Labor Markets, 1979-2014 , Eric Hoyt, Economics

SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF ACCUMULATION IN TURKEY (1963 – 2015) , Osman C. Icoz, Economics

Stumbling Toward the Up Escalator: How Trends in International Trade, Investment, and Finance Have Complicated Latin America’s Quest for Sustainable, Diversified Economic Development , Mary Eliza Rebecca Ray, Economics

Forms of Naturalism in Seminal Neoclassical Texts: An Analysis and Comparison of Léon Walras, John Bates Clark, and William Stanley Jevons , Mark Silverman, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON CHILD WELFARE IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE , Didier Wayoro, Economics

Dissertations from 2017 2017

Currency Mismatch and Balance Sheet Effects of Exchange Rate in Turkish Non-Financial Corporations , Serkan Demirkilic, Economics

The Impacts of Foreign Labor Migration of Men on Women's Empowerment in Nepal , Pratistha Joshi Rajkarnikar, Economics

Real and Nominal Effects of Exchange Rate Regimes , Emiliano Libman, Economics

Three Essays on International Economics and Finance , Juan Antonio Montecino, Economics

THREE ESSAYS ON “DOING CARE”, GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE WORK DAY, AND WOMEN’S CARE WORK IN THE HOUSEHOLD , Avanti Mukherjee, Economics

Dissertations from 2016 2016

Colonial and Post-Colonial Origins of Agrarian Development: The Case of Two Punjabs , Shahram Azhar, Economics

Three Essays on the Social Determinants of Early Childhood Health and Development , Andrew Barenberg, Economics

ELITE CAPTURE, FREE RIDING, AND PROJECT DESIGN: A CASE STUDY OF A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN CEARÁ, BRAZIL , Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth, Economics

Three Essays on Sustainable Development in China: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects , Ying Chen, Economics

Three Essays on Women's Land Rights in Rural Peru , Rosa L. Duran, Economics

Three Essays on Economic Stages and Transition , Ricardo R. Fuentes-Ramírez, Economics

Three Essays on U.S. Household Debt and the Sources of Systemic Financial Fragility , Thomas Herndon, Economics

Essays on Household Health Expenditures, National Health Insurance and Universal Access to Health Care in Ghana , EVELYN KWAKYE, Economics

Microfinance, Household Indebtedness and Gender Inequality , Theresa Mannah-Blankson, Economics

Three Essays on Labor Market Friction and the Business Cycle , Jong-seok Oh, Economics

Three Essays on Sustainability , Mark V. Paul, Economics

The Political Economy of Smallholder Incorporation and Land Acquisition , Alfredo R. Rosete, Economics

Employment and Family Leave Mandates: Three Essays on Labor Supply and Demand, Nontraditional Families, and Family Policy , Samantha Schenck, Economics

Endogenous Capacity, Multiple Equilibria and Thirlwall's Law: Theory and an Empirical Application to Mexico: 1950 - 2012. , Juan Alberto Vázquez Muñoz, Economics

Three Essays on the Macroeconomic Impacts of Rent Seeking , Kurt von Seekamm, Economics

Dissertations from 2015 2015

Essays on Growth Complementarity Between Agriculture and Industry in Developing Countries , Joao Paulo de Souza, Economics

Structural Transformation, Culture, and Women’s Labor Force Participation in Turkey , yasemin dildar, Economics

Essays on Information, Income, and the Sharing Economy , Anders F. Fremstad, Economics

Essays on Inequality, Credit Constraints, and Growth in Contemporary Mexico , Leopoldo Gómez-Ramírez, Economics

Three Essays on Macroeconomic Implications of Contemporary Financial Intermediation , Hyun Woong Park, Economics

The Labor Share Question in China , Hao Qi, Economics

Three essays on economic inequality and environmental degradation , Klara Zwickl, Economics

Dissertations from 2014 2014

Common Pool Resources and Rural Livelihoods in Stung Treng Province of Cambodia , Pitchaya Boonsrirat, Economics

The financialization of the nonfinancial corporation in the post-1970 U.S. economy , Leila Emami Davis, Economics

The Financial Underpinnings of the EU Crisis: Financial Deregulation, Privatization, and Asymmetric State Power , Nina Q. Eichacker, Economics

THE FINANCIAL SECTOR AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: ESSAYS ON ACCESS TO FINANCE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES IN SOUTH SUDAN AND KENYA , James A. Garang, Economics

OUTPUT FLUCTUATIONS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN LATIN AMERICA IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE GREAT RECESSION , Gonzalo Hernandez Jimenez, Economics

TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT AND EARNINGS INEQUALITY IN SOUTH KOREA , Hyeon-Kyeong Kim, Economics

Three Essays in Macroeconomic History , Joshua W. Mason, Economics

Essays on the Evolution of Inequality , Cem Oyvat, Economics

FINANCIALIZATION OF THE COMMODITIES FUTURES MARKETS AND ITS EFFECTS ON PRICES , Manisha Pradhananga, Economics

Productive Stagnation and Unproductive Accumulation in the United States, 1947-2011. , Tomas N. Rotta, Economics

Advertising and the Creation of Exchange Value , Zoe Sherman, Economics

Understanding Income Inequality in the United States , Mark J. Stelzner, Economics

CARE TIME IN THE U.S.: MEASURES, DETERMINANTS, AND IMPLICATIONS , Joo Yeoun Suh, Economics

Essays on the minimum wage , Ben Zipperer, Economics

Dissertations from 2013 2013

Credit Chains, Credit Bubles, and Financial Fragility: Explaining The U.S. Financial Crisis of 2007-09 , Thomas L Bernardin, Economics

A Knife Hidden in Roses: Development and Gender Violence in the Dominican Republic , Cruz Caridad Bueno, Economics

Sustaining Rural Livelihoods in Upper Svaneti, Republic of Georgia , Robin J Kemkes, Economics

Contract as Contested Terrain: An Economic History of Law and the Rise of American Capitalism , Daniel P MacDonald, Economics

Essays on the Rising Demand for Convenience in Meal Provisioning in the United States , Tamara Ohler, Economics

Social Emulation, the Evolution of Gender Norms, and Intergenerational Transfers: Three Essays on the Economics of Social Interactions , Seung-Yun Oh, Economics

Decollectivization and Rural Poverty in Post-Mao China: A Critique of the Conventional Wisdom , Zhaochang Peng, Economics

Capitalist Crisis and Capitalist Reaction: The Profit Squeeze, the Business Roundtable, and the Capitalist Class Mobilization of the 1970s , Alejandro Reuss, Economics

The Economics of Same-Sex Couple Households: Essays on Work, Wages, and Poverty , Alyssa Schneebaum, Economics

The Political Economy of Cultural Production: Essays on Music and Class , Ian J. Seda Irizarry, Economics

Essays Of Human Capital Formation , Owen Thompson, Economics

Dissertations from 2012 2012

Knowledge, Gender, and Production Relations in India's Informal Economy , Amit Basole, Economics

Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Determinants of Informal Employment: The Case of Clothing Traders in Johannesburg, South Africa , Jennifer E Cohen, Economics

The Relationship Between Mass Incarceration and Crime in the Neoliberal Period in the United States , Geert Leo Dhondt, Economics

Fair Trade, Agrarian Cooperatives, and Rural Livelihoods in Peru , Noah Enelow, Economics

Organic Farming and Rural Transformations in the European Union: A Political Economy approach , Charalampos Konstantinidis, Economics

The Sources of Financial Profit: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation of the Transformation of Banking in the US , Iren G. Levina, Economics

A Minskian Approach to Financial Crises with a Behavioural Twist: A Reappraisal of the 2000-2001 Financial Crisis in Turkey , Mathieu Perron-Dufour, Economics

Essays on Urban Sprawl, Race, and Ethnicity , Jared M. Ragusett, Economics

Agriculture and Class: Contradictions of Midwestern Family Farms Across the Twentieth Century , Elizabeth Ann Ramey, Economics

Women In Conflict, Peacebuilding And Reconstruction: Insights From The Aftermath Of Nepal's Maoist Insurgency , Smita Ramnarain, Economics

Money, Reality, and Value: Non-Commodity Money in Marxian Political Economy , Joseph Thomas Rebello, Economics

Three essays on oil scarcity, global warming and energy prices , Matthew Riddle, Economics

The Political Economy of Agrarian Change in the People's Republic of China , Zhun Xu, Economics

Dissertations from 2011 2011

State Hegemony and Sustainable Development: A Political Economy Analysis of Two Local Experiences in Turkey , Bengi Akbulut, Economics

Financial evolution and the declining effectiveness of US monetary policy since the 1980s , Hasan Comert

Why China Grew: Understanding the Financial Structure of Late Development , Adam S. Hersh, Economics

Solving the "Coffee Paradox": Understanding Ethiopia's Coffee Cooperatives Through Elinor Ostrom's Theory of the Commons , Susan Ruth Holmberg, Economics

Migration, Remittances And Intra-Household Allocation In Northern Ghana: Does Gender Matter? , Lynda Joyce Pickbourn, Economics

Youth and Economic Development: A Case Study of Out-of-School Time Programs for Low-Income Youth in New York State , Kristen Maeve Powlick, Economics

The Real Exchange Rate And Economic Development , Martin Rapetti, Economics

Essays on International Reserve Accumulation and Cooperation in Latin America , Luis Daniel Rosero, Economics

Three Essays on Racial Disparities in Infant Health and Air Pollution Exposure , Helen Scharber, Economics

Dissertations from 2010 2010

Capitalism in Post-Colonial India: Primative Accumulation Under Dirigiste and Laissez Faire Regimes , Rajesh Bhattacharya, Economics

Uneven Development and the Terms of Trade: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis , Bilge Erten, Economics

Gendered Vulnerabilities After Genocide: Three Essays on Post-Conflict Rwanda , Catherine Ruth Finnoff, Economics

The Employment Impacts of Economy-wide Investments in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency , Heidi Garrett-Peltier, Economics

Household Employer Payroll Tax Evasion: An Exploration Based on IRS Data and on Interviews with Employers and Domestic Workers , Catherine B. Haskins, Economics

Racial Inequality and Affirmative Action in Malaysia and South Africa , Hwok-Aun Lee, Economics

Essays on Behavioral Labor Economics , Philip Pablo Mellizo, Economics

Three Essays on the Political Economy of Live Stock Sector in Turkey , Hasan Tekguc, Economics

The Impact Of Public Employment On Health , Wei Zhang, Economics

Dissertations from 2009 2009

Effort, work hours, and income inequality: Three essays on the behavioral effects of wage inequality , Michael Carr

Essays on investment, real exchange rate, and central bank in a financially liberalized Turkey , Deger Eryar

Essays On Investment, Real Exchange Rate, And Central Bank In A Financially Liberalized Turkey , Deger Eryar, Economics

Labor Turnover in the Child-Care Industry: Voice and Exit , Lynn A. Hatch, Economics

Three Essays on Conflict and Cooperation , Sungha Hwang, Economics

Economic Reforms in East African Countries: The Impact on Government Revenue and Public Investment , Adam Beni Swebe Mwakalobo, Economics

Post-Marxism After Althusser: A Critique Of The Alternatives , Ceren Ozselcuk, Economics

Essays on Financial Behavior and its Macroeconomic Causes and Implications , Soon Ryoo, Economics

Skill Mismatch and Wage Inequality in the U.S. , Fabian Slonimczyk, Economics

Linkages Between Inequality And Environmental Degradation: An Interregional Perspective , Marina S Vornovytskyy, Economics

Dissertations from 2008 2008

Migrant women and economic justice: A *class analysis of Anatolian -German women in homemaking and cleaning services , Esra Erdem

Emigrant or sojourner? The determinants of Mexican labor migration strategies to the United States , Florian K Kaufmann

Macrofinancial risk management in the U.S. economy: Regulation, derivatives, and liquidity preference , Marcelo Milan

Essays on behavioral economics , Wesley Jose Pech

The impact of land ownership inequality on rural factor markets , Fatma Gul Unal

Three essays on family care, time allocation, and economic well -being , Jayoung Yoon

Dissertations from 2007 2007

Capital flight and foreign direct investment in the Middle East and North Africa: Comparative development and institutional analysis , Abdullah Almounsor

Investment under financial liberalization: Channels of liquidity and uncertainty , Armagan Gezici

Three essays on social dilemmas with heterogeneous agents , Mark Howard

Between the market and the milpa: Market engagements, peasant livelihood strategies, and the on -farm conservation of crop genetic diversity in the Guatemalan highlands , S. Ryan Isakson

Late neoclassical economics: Restoration of theoretical humanism in contemporary mainstream economics , Yahya Mete Madra

Inequality and the Human Development Index , Elizabeth Anne Stanton

Dissertations from 2006 2006

Institutional settings and organizational forms: Three essays , Alper Duman

Labor market characteristics and the determinants of political support for social insurance , Anil Duman

State power, world trade, and the class structure of a nation: An overdeterminist class theory of national tariff policy , Erik E Guzik

Unions and the strategy of class transformation: The case of the Broadway musicians , Catherine P Mulder

Children's work and opportunities for education: Consequences of gender and household wealth , Sevinc Rende

The economics of immigration: Household and employment dynamics , Maliha Safri

Dissertations from 2005 2005

Capital flight from Southeast Asia: Case studies on Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand , Edsel L. Beja

Rethinking municipal privatization: A Marxian class analysis of the privatization of New York City's Central Park , Oliver David Cooke

Financial liberalization and its distributional consequences: An empirical exploration , Arjun Jayadev

Three essays on gender, land rights, and collective action in Brazil's rural political economy , Merrilee Mardon

Land markets, female land rights and agricultural productivity in Paraguayan agriculture , Thomas Masterson

Workers' struggles and transformations of capitalism at industrial enterprises in Russia, 1985–2000 , Maxim V Maximov

Economy and society: Class relations and the process of economic growth , Erik K Olsen

Gender, liberalization and agrarian change in Telangana , Smriti Rao

The contradictory imperatives of New Deal banking reforms. , Ellen D. Russell, Economics

Equity in community -based sustainable development: A case study in western India , Priya Parvathy Sangameswaran

Mandated wage floors and the wage structure: Analyzing the ripple effects of minimum and prevailing wage laws , Jeannette Wicks-Lim

Public enterprises in mixed economies: Their impact on economic growth and social equity , Andong Zhu

Dissertations from 2004 2004

An economic analysis of prison labor in the United States , Asatar P Bair

Three essays on income, inequality and environmental degradation , Rachel A Bouvier

The implementation and enforcement of environmental regulations in a less developed market economy: Evidence from Uruguay , Marcelo F Caffera

Race, altruism and trust: Experimental evidence from South Africa , Justine Claire Keswell

Exchanging entailments: The contested meaning of commodity exchange , Philip M Kozel

Three essays on capital account liberalization and economic growth: New measures, new estimates and the experience of South Korea , Kang-Kook Lee

Enterprise hybrids and alternative growth dynamics , Kenneth M Levin

Social interaction and economic institution , Yongjin Park

Research and policy considerations in the valuation and the allocation of environmental and health commodities , Mihail Samnaliev

Immiserizing growth: Globalization and agrarian change in Telangana, South India between 1985 and 2000 , Vamsicharan Vakulabharanam

Social networks and labor market outcomes: Theoretical expansions and econometric analysis , Russell E Williams

Dissertations from 2003 2003

Three essays on the evolution of cooperation , Jung-Kyoo Choi

Economic size and long -term growth: An empirical analysis of the consequences of small economic size on investment, productivity and income growth , Pavel E Isa

Essays on categorical inequality, non-linear income dynamics and social mobility in South Africa , Malcolm M Keswell

The effectiveness of tax incentives in attracting investment: The case of Puerto Rico , Carlos F Liard-Muriente

A theoretical and statistical exploration into the effects of morals, personality and uncertainty on hypothetical bias in contingent valuation , Joseph D Ogrodowczyk

The role of the stock market in influencing firm investment in China , Feng Xiao

Dissertations from 2002 2002

Essays on the threat effects of foreign direct investment on labor markets , Minsik Choi

An international analysis of child welfare , Nasrin Dalirazar

Fiscal faux pas? An empirical analysis of the revenue and expenditure implications of trade liberalization , Barsha Khattry

Property from the sky: The creation of property rights in the radio spectrum in the United States , Elizabeth M Kruse

Three essays on China's state owned enterprises: Towards an alternative to privatization , Minqi Li

From welfare rights to welfare fights: Neo -liberalism and the retrenchment of social provision , John Arthur O'Connor

Political community and individual gain: Aristotle, Adam Smith and the problem of exchange , Kimberly Kaethe Sims

Rethinking prostitution: Analyzing an informal sector industry , Marjolein Katrien van der Veen

Dissertations from 2001 2001

Land and labor markets among paddy producers in the Nepalese Tarai , Ravi Bhandari

What drives equity values: fundamentals or net flows? An empircal analysis of the 1982--1999 United States stock market boom , Lawrence Lee Evans

Investment, labor demand, and political conflict in South Africa , James S Heintz

Education, Inequality and Economic Mobility in South Africa , Thomas Nathaniel Hertz

Employer work -family programs: Essays on policy implementation, employee preferences, and parental childcare choices , Sally Jane Kiser

Valuing environmental health risks: A comparison of stated preference techniques applied to groundwater contamination , Tammy Barlow McDonald

Endogenous quality and intra-industry trade , Edward Allan McPhail

Perceptions of Massachusetts family and consumer sciences education professionals regarding the importance and use of the National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education in Massachusetts , Jo Ann Pullen

From feudal serfs to independent contractors: Class and African American women's paid domestic labor, 1863–1980 , Cecilia M Rio

A home of one's own: Overcoming gender and familial status barriers to homeownership , Judith K Robinson

Springfield Armory as industrial policy: Interchangeable parts and the precision corridor , Bruce K Tull

Dissertations from 2000 2000

Intergroup inequality, social identity and economic outcomes , Katherine E Baird

Engendering Globalization: Household Structures, Female Labor Supply and Economic Growth , Elissa Braunstein

Capital, conditionality, and free markets: The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the effects of the neoliberal transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean , Andres Carbacho-Burgos

Rural institutions, poverty and cooperation: Learning from experiments and conjoint analysis in the field , Juan-Camilo Cardenas

Understanding the equal split as a bargaining convention and the role of residual claimancy in team production: Three essays in behavioral and experimental economics , Jeffrey Paul Carpenter

Enforcing market -based environmental policies , Carlos A Chavez Rebolledo

A comparative analysis of three economic theories focusing upon the international trade of hazardous waste (the case of electric arc furnace dust) , Amy Silverstein Cramer

The political economy of transformation in Hungary , Anita Dancs

Cross -media transfers of pollution and risk , Janine Marie Dombrowski

Essays on endogenous preferences and public generosity , Christina Margareta Fong

Con nuestro trabajo y sudor: Indigenous women and the construction of colonial society in 16th and 17th century Peru , Karen B Graubart

Banks, insider lending and industries of the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts, 1813–1860 , Paul Andre Lockard

Existence value: A reappraisal and cross -cultural comparison , Billy Manoka

Quality management systems and the estimation of market power exertion , Corinna Michaela Noelke

The power of personality: Labor market rewards and the transmission of earnings , Melissa Anne Osborne

Accumulation and European unemployment , Engelbert Richard Stockhammer

Modeling Superfund: A hazardous waste bargaining model with rational threats , Mary Anderson Taft

Welfare, inequality, and resource depletion: A reassessment of Brazilian economic growth, 1965–1993 , Mariano Torras

Dissertations from 1999 1999

Steadying the husband, uplifting the race: The Pittsburgh Urban League's promotion of black female domesticity during the Great Black Migration , Nina Elizabeth Banks

The origins of parallel segmented labor and product markets: A reciprocity-based agency model with an application to motor freight , Stephen V Burks

R&D, advertising, and profits: Economic theory, empirical evidence, and consequences for transfer pricing policy , David W DeRamus

Rethinking demand: A critique and reformulation of Marxian theories of price , David Leo Kristjanson

Wealth, the power to set terms, and the financing and control of firms , Paul N Malherbe

Intra -family transfers and the household division of labor: A case study of migration and remittance behavior in South Africa , Dorrit Ruth Posel

Transportation network policy modeling for congestion and pollution control: A variational inequality approach , Padma Ramanujam

The political economy of organized baseball: Analysis of a unique industry , Ross David Weiner

Dissertations from 1998 1998

The internationalization of production and its effects on the domestic behavior of United States manufacturing multinational firms , James Michael Burke

Neoliberal and neostructuralist theories of competitiveness and flexible labor: The case of Chile's manufactured exports, 1973-1996 , Fernando Ignacio Leiva

An econometric study of the export sector of Somalia , Mohamed A Osman

Financial liberalization, multinational banks and investment: Three essays on the cases of Hungary and Poland , Christian Erik Weller

Dissertations from 1997 1997

Structuralism and individualism in economic analysis: The "contractionary devaluation debate" in development economics , S Charusheela

Financial liberalization in Mexico, 1989-1993 , Colin Danby

CEO pay, agency, and the theory of the firm , Frederick Dexter Guy

Food quality regulation under trade agreements: Effects on the supply of food safety and competitiveness , Neal Hilton Hooker

Agency problems in the capital markets and the employment relationship: The possibility of efficiency-enhancing institutional innovation: An empirical case-study , Pierre Laliberte

New directions in the political economy of consumption , Allan Henry MacNeill

Capabilities and processes of industrial growth: The case of Argentina and the Argentine auto industry , Marcela Monica Miozzo

Manufacturers' responses to new nutrition labeling regulations , Eliza Maria Mojduszka

Rethinking rural development: Making peasant organizations work. The case of Paraguay , Jose R Molinas Vega

Property regimes, technology, and environmental degradation in Cuban agriculture , Hector R Saez

International multi-sector, multi-instrument financial modeling and computation: Statics and dynamics , Stavros Siokos

Three essays on government decision-making to implement and enforce environmental policies , Kristin Ellen Skrabis

Dissertations from 1996 1996

An economic critique of urban planning and the 'postmodern' city: Los Angeles , Enid Arvidson

Dissertations from 1995 1995

Trade liberalization and income distribution: Three essays with reference to the case of Mexico and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) , Mehrene E Larudee

Dissertations from 1994 1994

Subjectivism and the limits of F. A. Hayek's political economy , Theodore A Burczak

International currencies and endogenous enforcement , Roohi Prem

Three essays on key currencies and currency blocs , Ellen Tierney

Dissertations from 1993 1993

Capitalist regulation and unequal integration: The case of Puerto Rico , Jaime Eduardo Benson

Production and reproduction: Family policy and gender inequality in East and West Germany , Lynn Susan Duggan

Dissertations from 1992 1992

Capital controls and long-term economic growth , Jessica G Nembhard

Dissertations from 1990 1990

Concentration and product diversity in culture-based industries: A case study of the music recording industry , Peter James Alexander

Dissertations from 1987 1987

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Top 50 Economic Topics For Your Research Paper Or Thesis

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

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

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

Tricks for Choosing the Best Economics Research Topics

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

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

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

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

Undergraduates Economics Topics for Research

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

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

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

Health Economics Research Topics

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

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

Interesting Behavioral Economics Research Topics

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

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

Microeconomics Topics

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

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

Cool Environmental Economics Research Topics

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

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

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

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Economics Dissertation Topics: 25+ Examples You Can Explore

by  Antony W

July 11, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

25+ List of Economic Dissertation Topics

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

Dissertation Topics on Regional Development

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

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

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

Also Check: Custom Economics Dissertation Writing Help

Dissertation Topic Ideas on Economic Sociology

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

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

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

Related: Technology Dissertation Topics

Economic Geography Topics for Dissertation Project

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

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

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

Institutional Economics Dissertation Topics

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

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

Also Check: Social Work Dissertation Topics

Dissertation Topics That Deals With Employment Economics

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

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

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

Macroeconomics Dissertation Topics

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

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

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

Microeconomic Dissertation Topics

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

Here are some interesting topics to cover in this area:

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

About the author 

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

The Study Blog : Research topics

50+ Economics research Topics and Topic Ideas for dissertation

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

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

Micro-Economics Research Topics

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

1. The effect of income changes on consumer choices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Macroeconomics Research Topics

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

2. Global recession and factors that contribute to it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Research Topics on International Trade

1. The relationship between economic growth and international trade

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. The importance of international trade in developing countries

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

Environmental economics research paper topics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Research Paper Topics on Behavioral Economics

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

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

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

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

4. Big data and implications for behavioral economics

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

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

7. Weight management through behavioral economics: use of incentives

8. What motivates consumers? A behavioral economics perspective

9. Using behavioral economics to help in reducing substance abuse

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

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

Development Economics research paper topics

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

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

3. Investigating the relationship between migration and development economics

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

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

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

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

8. The determinants of high performing institutions in emerging economies

9. Comparative economic patterns of villages across Virginia

10 Aid and economic growth of developing economies- a review

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50+ Economics Dissertation Topics in 2024

Manali Ganguly ,

Mar 4, 2024

Share it on:

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

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

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

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

Top 50+ Economics Dissertation Topics

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

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

1. Macroeconomics Dissertation Topics

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

The economics dissertation topics for macroeconomics are:

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

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

2. Microeconomics Dissertation Topics

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

The dissertation topics on macroeconomics are:

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

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3. Economic Geography Dissertation Topics

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

The economics dissertation topics related to economic geography are:

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

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4. Labour Economics Dissertation Topics

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

The distinctive labour economics dissertation topics are:

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

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5. Environmental Economics Dissertation Topics

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

The most popular environmental economics dissertation topics are:

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

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102 Best Econometrics Research Topics

College and university professors require students to write about econometrics research topics to gauge their comprehension of the relationship between mathematical economics, statistics, and economics.

The purpose of this integration is to provide numerical values to economic relationships and parameters. Usually, econometrics involves economic theories and their presentation in mathematical forms and the empirical study of business. Perhaps, this integration explains why some students struggle to choose topics for research in econometrics.

What Is Econometrics?

As hinted, econometrics is an economics branch that focuses on the relationships between economics, statistics, and mathematical economics. Ideally, econometrics entails the quantitative application of mathematical and statistical models using data to test hypotheses and develop economic theories while forecasting future trends based on historical data. Econometricians subject real-world data to various statistical trials while comparing and contrasting the results against the idea under examination.

Writing an econometric research paper is a process that starts with the selection of an interesting topic. Once you’ve chosen a title and the supervisor approves it, embark on extensive research using the prompt from your teacher. Proceed by gathering and analyzing all relevant information from different sources. Engaging in in-depth study and comprehensive analysis will enable you to write an informative paper that will compel the educator to award you the best grade in your class. Below are the steps to follow to write a high-quality econometric thesis or essay.

Write the introduction: Introduce your econometrics topic and tell the audience why it’s crucial. Also, include a thesis statement summarizing the entire paper. Describe the theoretical model: Tell the readers about the theoretical models to structure the empirical work. Present the data: Describe the data, whether time series or cross-sectional. Use descriptive statistics data and graphics if possible. Present the empirical model: Explain the model you intend to estimate and the functional form you intend to use. Present your empirical results: This section presents empirical results using a table to summarize them. Conclude the paper: Describe lessons from the research and state whether it supports the theory. Also, suggest approaches for future research on the topic.

Your paper should also include a reference section comprising the information sources you used to gather data.

Interesting Econometrics Paper Topics

Maybe you know the process of writing a paper on an econometrics topic but don’t have an idea to explore. If so, consider these exciting econometrics paper ideas.

• How privatizing public enterprises could affect economic development and policy
• Cashless economy: How demonetization affects medium and small businesses
• How Gini index dynamics reflect the income inequality problem
• Consumption evolution over the last decade: Consumer behavior and trends
• Investigating salary inequalities and the forces behind them
• How income changes affect consumer choices
• How does allowing the labor force to participate in public budgeting affect the economy
• How the marital status affect the labor force composition
• How consumption attitudes have changed over the last decade
• How economic convergence relates to salary levels
• How income affects life insurance
• The consequences of leaving the rat race
• Testing Okun’s Law in the U.S
• Analysis of spending on disposable income and imports
• Comparing the unemployment rate in the United States to the rest of the world
• Regional labor mobility and unemployment
• Stock market evolution: Analyzing the causes and effects
• How internet productivity relate to connectivity in the workplace
• How currency devaluation affects medium and small companies
• How government spending and inflation relate in an economy
• The relationship between stock prices and inflation in a country
• How income tax revenue affects a developing economy
• How government expenditure affects economic growth
• Factors contributing to the global recession
• How a country’s unemployment rate relates to economic growth

Any of these topics can be an excellent basis for an econometrics paper. However, you require extensive research about any of these topics to develop a winning thesis.

Undergraduate Econometrics Project Ideas

Maybe your school or faculty requires you to write an econometrics paper to graduate from university. In that case, consider these econometrics research topics for undergraduates.

• Analyzing the impact of income inequality on the poverty level
• Analyzing gender differences in education between developing and developed countries
• How immigration affects unemployment in the European Union
• How economic growth relates to trade
• Are immigrants more in countries with a high income?
• How high taxations affect GSP
• Analyzing the relationship between local income level and house prices
• How income, education, and life expectancy affect the human development index
• How inflation affects national savings
• How life expectancy relates to national income
• How financial development affects the economic growth of a country
• Crime index versus the average education years
• Investigating the correlation between youth unemployment and minimum wage
• How economic prosperity relate to government systems
• Economic factors that affect housing prices in the United States
• Economic factors contributing to homelessness in the U.S
• Socioeconomic and economic determinants of infant mortality
• Econometric analysis: Impact of trade barriers
• Why matching methods are essential in econometrics
• How a randomized experiment can aid econometrics
• Why instrumental variables matter in econometrics
• Can experts predict the future using econometrics?
• Econometrics as a numerical estimates source for economic relationship variables
• Ways of testing economic theories that econometricians present
• Regression discontinuity: Describe its application

These are great ideas to consider for an econometrics project. Nevertheless, you require sufficient time to research any of these topics and write a winning essay or dissertation.

Easy Econometric Research Topics

Perhaps, you need an easy topic for an econometrics paper. Maybe you have a short time to complete your assignment. In that case, these econometrics topics are ideal for you.

• Theory suggestion- The initial econometrics methodology step
• Why estimating variables is important
• The importance of Proof-reading once you have evaluated the variables
• Why testing a hypothesis matters
• The impact of poverty on education
• How poverty relates to childhood obesity
• Human development and income inequality
• The link between religion and ideologies on a country’s economy
• Income and importation- How do they connect?
• Personal income and life expectancy- What is the connection?
• The effects of minimum wage on unemployment
• Investigating monetary policies and bank regulations
• A study of the economies of scale
• The impact and relevance of comparative institutional economics
• Analyzing the effect of making a company international
• Studying the macroeconomics of rare events
• Investigating customer behavior towards green products
• Trade patterns: Investigating different trade patterns and their applications
• Different stochastic processes concepts
• Accurate stochastic processes prediction

Any of these topics can be a sound basis of a simple paper. Nevertheless, you still require time to research the idea and analyze data to develop a quality paper.

Financial Econometrics Research Paper Topics

Perhaps, you want to write an academic paper about a financial econometrics topic. If so, consider these ideas.

• How does bank regulation affect the economy?
• A critical look into the loan markets
• How a cashless policy affects the economy
• Structure and implementation of the monetary policy
• Lessons to learn from financial crises
• Investigating regression models
• Statistical tools in the financial econometrics

These are good topics to explore in financial econometrics. However, follow the prompt from your teacher to write an impressive paper.

Econometrics Empirical Project Ideas FExor Ph.D. Level

Maybe you’re pursuing your Ph.D. and want to write a dissertation about an econometrics topic. In that case, this category comprises excellent ideas for you.

• Analytical statistics versus theoretical statistics
• The effects of the low and high demand of labor on an economy
• The arbitrage pricing theory
• How goods production and productivity affect econometrics at a national level
• Applied econometrics- Its essence in turning qualitative economic ideas into quantitative ones
• Definition, relevance, and application of the general line model
• Theoretical econometrics’ study and application
• The macro behavioral theory
• Panel data methods applications- A microeconomics subsection
• The impacts of the spillover effect on econometrics
• The impact of labor supply on a local economy
• Why labor markets are essential to econometrics
• What is micro-econometrics modeling?
• Micro-econometrics methods and applications
• Statistical tools and their use in financial econometrics

This list also has fantastic economics paper topic ideas. But like the topics in the other sections, each of these notions requires extensive research to write a quality paper.

Exciting Econometrics Questions

Maybe you need a question to serve as the basis of your econometrics research. In that case, here are exciting queries to inspire you.

• What is the current state of your country’s economy?
• What’s the difference between the current state of the local and international trades?
• What are the latest forecasts for the global economy?
• How do the foreign exchange market and the local businesses relate?
• What’s the impact of exportation and importation on the local economy?
• How do businesses monopolies affect a country’s economy?
• What are the effects of international banks on the local banking sector?
• How does population growth affect economic development?
• How can a natural disaster affect an emerging economy?
• What techniques do companies use to “nudge” consumers into spending more?

This comprehensive list has some of the best econometrics ideas for essays and research papers. Nevertheless, having a topic is not a guarantee that you’ll write a good essay. You might still need help with your assignment after choosing a topic.

Get Help With Thesis About Econometrics Topic

Our crew comprises the most skilled, talented, and experienced econometrics writers. These professionals have helped many students complete their econometrics papers on varied topics. If stuck with an econometric essay or an MBA thesis , for example, and require a cheap dissertation writing service , our native, educated experts can help you. We’re the most knowledgeable econometrics writers online. Contact us now to get a custom, high-quality research paper on any econometrics topic!

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Understanding the Economics of Education

College isn’t for everybody—but who is it for? School choice systems are too complicated—so how can they be improved? Yale SOM’s Seth Zimmerman takes on real issues facing students, parents, and schools and uses the tools of economics to offer data-driven answers.

• Seth Zimmerman Associate Professor of Economics

Q: What project are you undertaking with your academic career?

I study the economics of education. My goal is to understand how education shapes big-picture outcomes like inequality, upward mobility, and economic growth. I’m looking across educational levels from early childhood through college to think about the value of education both as instrumental to our economic lives and as an intrinsic good. I want to help provide evidence for which education policies are effective in promoting the ambitious goals that we set for our education system.

Q: A number of people reading this will be asking, is college worth it?

On average, yes. It’s not worth it for everybody, but it’s a very good bet. I think people underrate it. If you look at the data, in 2019, the wage gap between college grads and those who didn’t graduate college was near a 100-year high. So while it’s true costs are going up, on average the return is really big.

Q: Given that college is expensive, the “on average” is a significant qualifier for those who are making choices as individuals.

That’s a real concern. For governments looking at the total student population, the average return of a college degree really is the relevant thing, and the data show it clearly has real value. But for an individual, what matters isn’t the average experience; it’s their own experience.

There’s a zeitgeist that says, ‘Let’s face it: college just isn’t worth it for most people. You’re better off training in a trade.’ While I agree that college isn’t for everyone, I wanted to address it as an empirical question.

Inevitably, some people will see returns outside the average—both below and above. And for individuals who accept the risk of taking on debt and something happens so that they don’t get a degree, “debt and no degree” is what’s relevant.

It used to be the states funded public higher education to a great extent. Since the 1990s, the cost of college has shifted so that it’s borne by students rather than state taxpayers. I’m concerned that we’re expecting individuals and families to take on risks they’re not well-equipped to bear. Even so, when asked whether more people should go to college—given the way we have our educational system organized now—my answer is yes.

Q: The other qualifier is that “college is not for everybody.” Would you explain how your work tries to put some data behind who does benefit?

There’s a zeitgeist that says, “Let’s face it: college just isn’t worth it for most people. You’re better off training in a trade.” While I agree that college isn’t for everyone, I wanted to address it as an empirical question. I looked at students who didn’t do incredibly well in their high school grades or on their standardized tests. Does it make sense for people who aren’t that well-prepared academically to go to college?

You can’t answer that question just by looking at students who go to college and comparing their earnings to those who don’t. You need to find a way to look specifically at the outcomes for minimally qualified students who decide to go to college. I looked around to find a circumstance that provided a natural experiment. I found it in Florida.

The least selective campus within the state system—which at the time was Florida International University—has a sharp grade cutoff. I was able to compare students admitted with grades just above the cutoff with students just below the cutoff.

What I found surprised me, at the time. Students who barely met the admissions criteria graduate at rates similar to the overall population of students at that university. Students who were just admitted saw their earnings rise by 22%, or about 11% for every additional year of college they attended. This is similar to what we see on average in the broader population, and more than enough to outweigh the costs of attending college.

It changed my mind about who benefits from college. I think it’s maybe changed some other people’s minds, too. Added to that, there have been a number of other papers since that found similar results.

It got me thinking, OK, marginally prepared students, that’s one important parameter, but it’s one of many in the higher education system.

Q: You’ve also looked at who benefits the most from attending elite colleges.

I was at Yale, so it was on my mind. Graduates of elite institutions end up in top roles, but what’s attributable to the students selected and what’s the causal effect of the college itself?

I was curious to know whether we could apply a similar quasi-experimental approach. It’s tricky in the U.S., because the top schools have admissions processes that aren’t typically amenable to isolating any single variable. But in Chile, there’s a set of elite schools that produced a big share of CEOs, government leaders, and very high-income earners, and the admissions process is based on a set of scores that are publicly observable. I was able to get insight into the role of elite higher education in producing top outcomes.

Q: What did you find?

For men who went to one of a relatively small set of fancy private schools, getting into one of the top programs of study at an elite university gave a big boost to their chances of rising to the very top of the business leadership and income levels. For example, into the highest 0.1% of incomes.

However, for women and for men who didn’t go to one of those private schools, graduating from the top programs at the top universities didn’t lead to the very top jobs or incomes.

To say it slightly differently, these schools are causally important in attaining top positions, but, at least in Chile and for the business-focused positions I studied, those benefits only go to some. Rather than reducing inequality, elite schools tend to expand gaps by baseline socioeconomic status. This is really quite a different finding than you see at the bottom part of the college distribution, where it seems like public universities create a leveling effect. It’s also different from what I found when I looked at other fields of study, such as medicine, which can lead to high incomes but typically not to the very top of the distribution or to top corporate roles.

Q: Why the difference?

There’s suggestive evidence that people are meeting at college and forming bonds that are valuable later. If it’s networking and social interactions at elite universities that generate these top roles, that would be an important thing to know because it would shape what we think the value proposition is for universities.

It’s a common trope—what’s valuable about attending an elite school is the Rolodex as much as what you learn. But again, is there evidence to back up this broadly held belief? In Chile, there wasn’t much in the data to tell us precisely what was happening. Or why we saw this differential effect by group.

Trying to understand, I worked on a project with Valerie Michelman, who now is a post-doc at Brown University, and Joseph Price of Brigham Young University.

Historically, Harvard kept great records of who was in what club. So we examined the impact of being chosen to join the school’s most prestigious social clubs in the 1920s and 1930s. Did differences in who you socialized with and what clubs you belonged to shape long-term outcomes? We focused on careers in finance as an outcome of interest, along with earnings. What we found both confirmed and gave context to the previous work in Chile.

Joining exclusive social clubs in college led to big differences in earnings. And students from a small number of fancy private schools were more likely to join these clubs.

It added to the evidence that in certain contexts the social element of college is important. And it may be differentially available to people from different parts of the socioeconomic status distribution.

Q: You have another line of research connected to the New Haven Public Schools.

I got my PhD at Yale. I started working with the New Haven Public Schools early in graduate school. At the time there was a massive school construction program. Everyone saw the buildings going up. I was curious whether investments in capital improvements led to better educational outcomes.

There wasn’t a compelling answer in the literature, so I worked on finding an answer with Chris Nielsen, who was a fellow doctoral student then and is now a professor in the economics department at Yale and my frequent co-author.

We discovered that school construction paid off with improved standardized test scores, increased school enrollment, and neighborhood home price gains.

In doing that research, we got to know people inside the New Haven Public Schools—practitioners and families. We came to understand the challenges they face and that has led to a long-running and deep collaboration.

Q: That’s how the work on the mechanics of school choice came about?

Right. This is work with Chris Neilson and also with Adam Kapor, who was another PhD classmate at Yale and is now a professor at Princeton, as well as with Felipe Arteaga, a PhD student at Berkeley.

School choice is a confusing process. When we started, nobody had done the work to see whether families participating in the choice process had the information they needed to put together their best applications to the school choice system. The approach the schools used asked families to solve a complicated strategic problem in order to submit their best application. They needed to understand not just which schools they liked, but also their chances of getting into each school given their application, which in turn depended on knowing the system rules and who else was applying to what school. We conducted surveys of participating families and found they generally did not know all of this. The system was frustrating and expected too much.

Our research suggested it made sense to change to an approach that didn’t demand an informed strategic method of families. We worked with New Haven to improve the algorithm. But once we got the back end—the algorithm—right, then it became clear we needed to make the front end work better.

The problem is that learning enough about a school to want to send your kid there can be hard, and you may not want to spend the time to do it if you think you’re going to get into a school you already know about and like. But what if you’re wrong about your chances? Then you might not apply to enough schools, and you might not get into any school on your application. We were able to implement a system that warned parents that they were submitting applications where the student was unlikely to get a spot. It created an opportunity to revise the list, and many parents did.

We also built a relationship with education officials in Chile and worked with them to apply the approach in Chile’s national choice system. A crucial step here was that Chris founded an NGO to provide school choice services, which let us do all of this at scale.

Q: This research tackles questions schools are struggling with in the moment.

It’s an approach that works for finding important questions. Talk to people involved in school districts. Listen to the issues they are grappling with. See what the scientific literature has to say. If there aren’t good answers—and in my experience, there’s rarely already a compelling answer—it’s a good place to make a contribution, both to the scholarship and to evidence-based guidance for schools.

And if you go back to them with an answer, they’ll often be receptive because they were involved in the process of generating the question itself.

Q: Education has been around for a long time. Why aren’t there good answers available?

For many reasons. These are hard things to learn about. One challenge is data and measurement. It’s only relatively recently that we began to assemble the kinds of large-scale data sets that permit us to answer these kinds of questions.

Even aside from the data, this is a world where there are so many policies that interact with each other. It’s really hard to unpack the underlying structure of causal relationships. Is this one policy causing this one outcome? Beyond that, context matters. Things that work in one place may not work in another. Knowledge is contingent—place to place and over time. The challenges that education policymakers face in 2024 are in some ways similar to the ones in 2004 or 1984, but in some ways they’re different. Things that worked 20 or 40 years ago may or may not work now.

And after all that, when research offers evidence for a certain policy, as schools move to implement, choices made by administrators, teachers, families, and students likely modify the recommended policy. The result may augment or diminish the desired outcome. That requires additional study to figure out.

There’s this very challenging process of knowledge creation, coupled with a constantly moving target that makes it difficult for people trying to confidently make education policy. So even as we’re making progress, the questions we’re facing are always evolving.

Q: Is that exciting, daunting, frustrating…?

I feel very lucky to get to do this work. Curiosity is a driving force for me. It’s rewarding to come to a point where I understand one little part of the terrain in a way that I didn’t before. Maybe in a way that nobody has before, at least for this exact application.

At the same time, it’s very hard to translate research into policy. You can do good research and for various reasons it may not actually shape the world very much. That’s reality. But it’s so meaningful when policymakers do act on knowledge I helped create. If I can hit that benchmark a few times in my career, that’s pretty good.

Q: Education policy isn’t just about the curriculum for a given subject area or the books that go into the school library. How do you think about the context of your work?

I think the purpose of education is to promote human flourishing through a variety of means—economic opportunities, enjoyment of life, enjoyment of the educational process itself, through participation in civil society, and so on.

So much of what we see happening in society is, in some way, downstream of what happens in schools. That’s what makes this such an important area to study. Research on education can be a lens on many other elements of what’s happening in the broader world. There’s a lot to be done. There always will be.

Q: Why did you choose Yale SOM as the place to do the work?

Business school students tend to be practical. They want to go out there and do stuff, change things. That’s what I want to do too.

On top of that, The Broad Center, which is dedicated to strengthening public education and fostering career development for educational administrators, makes SOM a great place to do education research.

Q: What’s next for your work on higher education?

My previous work at elite institutions suggested that it’s hard to dislodge entrenched power structures. My more recent work, which is still in process, suggests that over multiple generations, efforts to ensure widespread opportunity pay off.

Again, the earlier work in Chile found that those who reached elite universities without attending elite private schools didn’t become CEOs or top earners at the same rate as those who did attend private schools. However, the children of those who hadn’t attended private schools are more likely to attend the fancy private high school and have friends who are high status. It seems that those kids are better equipped to be part of the higher social status and better able to integrate in elite universities.

In some cases, the answer to reducing inequality is that you have to be patient. And that’s hard because we only live once.

Q: What about the work on public-school systems?

I’ve been working to understand how our education system impacts not just students but their families. One question I’ve been looking at is how access to early childhood education affects labor outcomes for parents.

And I was recently appointed to the Connecticut State Board of Education. As a researcher, I believe in implementing evidence-driven policy. My hope is to shape policy for the better, and also that this volunteer role will help me understand what evidence is relevant and helpful in making policy.

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