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B.Sc. and M.Sc. Theses

B.Sc. Thesis

    • Cycle: Winter semester and summer semester
    • Credits: 12 CP
    • Duration: 90 days
    • Module code: 02-Wiwi:BSc-Thesis
    • Language: German / English
    • Form of examination: Written paper
    • Requirements: Completion of the orientation phase, passing the Proseminar and 120 CP

 

M.Sc. Thesis

    • Cycle: Winter semester and summer semester
    • Credits: 30 CP
    • Duration: 180 days
    • Module code: 02-VWL:MSc-Thesis / 02-BWL:MSc-Thesis 
    • Language: German / Englisch
    • Form of examination: Written paper
    • Requirements: Passing of a Seminar and 60 CP

 

General Conditions for B.Sc. und M.Sc.

  • The application for a thesis place takes place in time for each semester. Students apply during the summer semester for a thesis place in the winter semester and, analogously, during the winter semester for a thesis place in the summer semester. Please refer to the list of deadlines on the homepage of the Examination Office for current application periods.
  • The allocation of thesis places are carried out centrally by the Examination Office.

  • After the allocation has been completed, the results for the thesis places will be published on the homepage of the Examination Office.

  • If you receive a thesis place at our professorship, we will sign you up in the corresponding Stud.IP course. Here, you will find further announcements, documents and deadlines.

  • In the Stud.IP course, you will be asked to send your supervisor a current Transcript of Records.

  • Please make sure that you fullfill all requirements according to the study guidelines by the kick-off meeting.
  • Formalities and citation rules for papers can be found in the Guideline for written papers of the Economics professorships.

 

Topics

The topic of the thesis will be defined individually and, in principle, working with data in Stata or R (or at least Excel) is required. Well-founded suggestions by students on preferences for topics are welcomed and may be considered in the selection of topics.

Topics could come from the following areas:

  • Living in Germany (descriptions of different fields of life with the Socio-Economic Panel SOEP; official statistics from Gemany and Europe)
  • Health economics (e. g. risky health behavior such as smoking, unhealthy diet, lack of exercise)
  • Economics of education (accumulation and investment in human capital, returns to education)
  • Labor economics (wage differences, family planning, and female labor market participation)
  • Policy evaluation (consequences of a reform/legislative change)
  • Causal inference (natural experiments such as Difference-in-Differences approach, instrumental variables)
  • ...

Empirical, methodological, or literary topics are possible.

 

Formalia

  • The Guidelines for written papers at the Economics professorship are available on the homepage of the professorship Albert and contain all relevant instructions for the preparation of written papers at our professorship. All students who hand in papers at the professorship should strictly follow the formatting guidelines. In addition, the guidlines provide, beside assistance on formatting and outlineing, advice on the evaluation for written papers.
  • A guide to literature research can be found on the Homepage of the Branch Library
  • We also provide you with this LaTex template for your thesis.
  • Information and access to full texts is also provided by the German National Library of Economics (ZBW)
  • Furthermore, we recommend our students to attend courses on literature research offered by the Branch Library of Law and Economics.

 

Plagiarism

The rules for academic working require that thoughts taken from others are marked. Anyone who passes off another's thought as his or her own is committing plagiarism. Therefore, all copies, whether literal or borrowed, must be identified with reference to the source. This is confirmed at the end of the written paper with one's own signature.

Plagiarism is not a trivial offense – even the suspicion on plagiarism will be punished and can lead to failing the exam.

Further information on well-executed academic work can be found here on the university's website and in the Guidelines of the Economics professorship.