Thesis in Economics

Course Director: Anna Dreber Almenberg

The Master thesis (examensarbete) is a 30 ECTS credits independent piece of work where the student shall show that she/he can identify and analyze a problem and present and defend the thesis in a proper way. The thesis should pose a theoretical, methodological and/or empirical challenge, illustrating the student´s ability to think systematically and critically as well as showing an ability to interpret and discuss data and literature.

Process
The preferred format is that students work in pairs. The thesis work can take place either in the spring or in the fall semester, or during the entire academic year.

Based on the thesis proposal, the MSc thesis director will allocate a tutor for each thesis. The students should then contact the tutor to schedule a first meeting. The tutor provides tutoring, support with methods, etc., but the ground rule is that the students shall work independently.

Further feedback will be provided in the optional midterm seminars where drafts of all theses will be discussed in the presence of the tutor.

The completed thesis will be presented at the end of the semester at a thesis seminar attended by other students, and an examiner (for dates, please see Schedule). At these seminars students will also act as discussants. Each student, typically paired with another student (but not the co-author) will be the discussants on one MSc thesis. During the final seminar authors present their findings to the seminar (about 15–20 minutes), each followed by comments and questions to the authors by the discussants (instructions for discussants will be made available under Downloads ahead of the midterm seminars). Thereafter follows an open floor discussion. The seminars are chaired by the examiner of the MSc thesis. Each student registered in the course also has to attend at least four other seminars during the course (and fill in the evaluation form for each of these seminars).

To complete the thesis work, and in addition to attending the midterm seminars, each student thus must: write a thesis, discuss another thesis in economics, and attend four other thesis seminars in economics and write an evaluation of each of these four presented theses

Important dates, see Timeline Document

The deadline for submitting a thesis proposal (100 words) wil be announced. Please submit the proposal by email to anna.dreber@hhs.se. If you have a preferred thesis advisor please communicate this in your proposal.

Additional deadlines and important dates will be updated during the course period.

Theses should be handed in, and are subsequently distributed, electronically only. Theses received before the deadline will be screened using Urkund and made available as downloads on the course website within three days of the submission deadline. A failure to meet the deadline implies that the defence of the thesis will be postponed to the next seminar period.

Format
The general rules are as follows:

• Language: English.
• Recommended length: 30-80 pages plus appendix if necessary.
• The thesis should meet formal requirements in academic writing.
• The front page should follow the template and contain the following: the thesis title, an abstract of up to 200 words, up to six key words, the names of the authors, the names of the discussants, and the name of the advisor.

Course administrator: jessica.kihlman@hhs.se

After finishing the thesis the student shall be able to independently plan, conduct, report, and present a scholarly study.

To commence writing the Master thesis the student must have passed at least 37.5 ECTS credits of mandatory courses and core electives within their program.

The MSc Thesis Director will appoint an examiner that determines the grade of the thesis. The tutor cannot be the examiner of a thesis. The ECTS scale will be used for grading. The grade of MSc thesis constitutes the grade of the course, but to complete the course the student also has to act as a discussant on another MSc thesis and attend 4 additional MSc theses seminars (and fill in the evaluation form for each of these seminars).

Find the course schedule in TimeEdit

Have you been granted educational support because of a documented disability? If so, please contact the course director as soon as possible so that adequate accommodations can be made.

Contact specialneeds@hhs.se if you have questions about being granted educational support or need a copy of your educational support certificate.

For more information, visit the Specific Educational Needs page on the Student Hub (login required).