economics bachelor thesis

Honors Theses

Undergraduate Honors Theses (archives)

These are examples of Economics Honors theses. Theses are posted with their permission of the author. This is not a reflection on the quality of their work. All work is © 2009-2019 by the individual authors. All rights reserved.

• "U.S.-Backed Coups in Latin America: An Empirical Inquiry" - Basil Farooq Abdur Raquib
• "Violations of Neoclassical Economic Theory in the NBA Labor Market" - Jordi Adoumie
• "Measuring Income Inequality in Pakistan: Constructing Distributional National Accounts" - Ali Ahmed
• "The Resilience of Islamic Banks in the Wake of Crises: Comparing Islamic and Conventional Banks in the MENA Region" - Nuh Bahemia
• "Analyzing the Effects of School Spending on Student Achievement" - Anoop K. Baliga
• "Does Sexual Harassment Affect Labor Market Choices?" - Aakash Bhalothia
• "Does Inflation Targeting Reduce Exchange Rate Pass-Through?" - Gabriele Buontempo
• "Trump, Tariffs, and Tweets: How Trade Negotiations and Presidential Communication Impact Auto Manufacturers" - Yann Decressin
• "The Effect of Wildfires on Labor Markets: A California Case Study" - Martha Fiehn
• "Priced-Out: The Impact of Home Prices on the Age of Homebuyers" - Matthew Forbes
• "Analyzing Factors in Political Systems that Affect Fiscal Prudence: An Empirical Study" - Tianlang Gao
• "Understanding the Opioid Epidemic: How Pain Management Policy Contributed to Opioid Mortality" - Thea Hanson
• "The Effect of Play Style on NBA Revenues" - Jake Harrison
• "Medicaid Expansion Under the Affordable Care Act and Household Financial Outcomes" - Angel Yin-Hua Hsu
• "Public Debt and Economic Growth: Is There a Change in Threshold Effect?" - Xinruo Hu
• "Does a Causal Relationship Between International Trade and Travel Really Exist? Evidence from the U.S. and Its PTA Partner Countries"  - Danlin Huang
• "Leaving the Nest: The Effect of Moving Out on Victimization Rates Among Young Adults" - Eugene Hui
• "Always in Motion is the Future: The Accuracy of Historical CBO Debt Projections" - Ammar Inayatali
• "Does Political Instability Lead to a Culture of Individualism?" - Baran Iscen
• "The Effect of Weather on Stock Trading" - Dasol Jeong
• "Investigating Peer Effects on Student Choices to Continue Foreign Language Enrollment" - Hoyun Kim
• "Effects of Minimum Wage Increase on Employment in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Korea" - Hyunah (Julia) Kim
• "Incentives, Demographics, and Biases of Ethical Consumption: Observation of Modern Ethical Consumers" - Laura Kim
• "The Effect of New BART Stations on Housing Prices" - Kasha Clark LaRoche
• "Demographics and the Implications for Voter Participation in US Counties" - Julia Lewis
• "School Shootings and Academic Achievement: A Look at the 2014 Isla Vista Killings" - Frankie Lin
• "Institutions and Missing Women: Evidence from Qing China" - Shaoyu Liu
• "How Internal Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape of the United States: An Empirical Study" - Jaya Mantovani
• "The Effect of ACA Medicaid Expansion on Ambulance Demand" - Sam Melville
• "Death Rates in California Prisons Post Realignment" - Devin Montgomery
• "The Impact of Infrastructure and Access to Markets on Lange Values in Rwanda" - Zain Nanji
• "Acquiring Economic Stability: M&A Activity as an Automatic Stabilizer for Unemployment" - Caroline Newman
• "Differences in Industry Responses to Monetary Policy Shocks: A Study of Industry Financials, Equity Prices, and Valuation" - Javier Bravo Nieto (winner of 2019  Mark A. Schimbor award for outstanding thesis)
• "The Role of Autonomy and Information in Patient-Physician Clinical Decision-Making" - Anoeil Odisho
• "Competition, Public Funding and Innovation: The Case of the Pharmaceutical Industry" - Carlos Paramo (winner of 2019  Mark A. Schimbor award  for outstanding thesis)
• "The Effect of School Quality on Prices versus Rents" - Isaac Pariser
• "A Potential Crisis or a Profit Machine: An Analysis of the Subprime Auto Lending Market" - Sahil Patel
• "STEMinism: Evaluating the Attitudes of Middle-School Girls Towards their STEM Abilities in an All-Female Environment" - Alexis Polevoi
• "Comparing Automation and Income Inequality in the United States: Impact of the Automated Teller Machine" - Daniel Rosales
• "Smooth or Lose: Natural Disasters and Child Outcomes in Vietnam" - Leon Sim
• "The Impact of Education on Social Equality Beliefs in East Africa" - Somara Sabharwal
• "Differences by Race and Gender in Persistence Rates After Taking Introductory Classes in Economics and Computer Science" - Sakthi Ponnuswamy
• "Solving Pandora's Matrix: A Search Theory Model" - Anirudh Viswanathan
• "Asymmetric Cross-Price Elasticities of Private Label and National Label Organic Product" - Mitchell James Wong
• "E-cigarettes and Cigarettes: Complements or Substitutes?" - Juliana Zhao
• "The Effect of Teachers' Unions on Educational Outcomes" - Simon Zhu
• "State Feedback Control in Macroeconomic Policy" , Polina Alexeenko
• "Does Stop and Frisk Deter Crime? Evidence from the Aftermath of Floyd vs. City of New York" , Nathaniel Barlow
• "Offshore Deposits and Tax Policy" , Asha Bharadwaj
• "The Income Elasticity of Demand for Health Insurance" , Sarah Goodman
• "The Impact of Race and Effort on Social Preferences in an Experimental Setting" , Allison Green
• "Smoking Cessation Success and Labor Market Productivity" , Daniela Grinblatt
• "Social Dynamics in Lending Opinions" , Hengyu Kuang
• "The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Creating Racial Disparities in Sentence Length" , Kenny Lo
• "Capital Mobility Incentives: Foreign Direct Investment and Shareholder Protection Under Periods of Financial Distress" , Carlos Ramos de la Vega
• "Breaching the Zero Lower Bound: Are Negative Interest Rates an Effective Monetary Policy Tool?" , Daniel Saedi
• "Analyzing Bitcoin Price Volatility" , Julio Soldevilla
• "The Assessment on Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific Area" , Caren Suciono
• "Analyzing the Expenditure Share of Smoking in China" , Shu-hui Wee
• "Capital Expenditures and the Heterogeneous Response of Equity to Monetary Policy" , Michael Wei
• "Assessing the Impacts of State Regulations on the Usage of Alternative Financial Services" , Lucas Zhang
• Regression Discontinuity Designs with Multiple Assignment Variables , Yizhuang Alden Cheng
• Mind the Gap: Early Consequences From Medicaid Expansion Decisions , Sowill Chu
• The Monetary Policy Effects of Sweden's Transition Towards a Cashless Society , Therese Dalebrant
• Unconventional Monetary Policy Spillovers: Evidence from Emerging Markets , Tejas Dave
• The Earned Income Tax Credit and Educational Attainment for its Recipients: Evidence from Personal Level Data of the Current Pop , Timothy Han
• A Detailed Look into Peer to Peer Lending , Kyle Jackson
• Decriminalizing Indoor Sex Work: Effect on Quantity of Transactions , Andrea Kwan
• Effects of Board Gender Diversity on Firm Performance and Director Compensation in India , Christopher Siantar
• Understanding Public Transit Ridership Through Gasoline Demand: Case Study in San Francisco Bay Area , Hansen Sun
• The Relative Value of Draft Position in the NBA , Adhiraj, Watave
• Multi-Unit Uniform Price Auction Applied to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California , Giovanni Castaldo
• How Does Foreign Aid Affect Political Stability? , Jeffrey Chao
• Who Cares About the Neighborhood? Gentrification and Educational Outcomes in Oakland Unified School District Elementary Schools , Sanat Daga
• Land Reform, its Effects on the Rice Sector, and Economic Development: Empirical Case Study in Taiwan,  Li Duan
• Reexamining Ferguson: The Effect of Police Officers on Arrests by Race , Bhargav Gopal
• An Analysis of Global Homicide Patterns , Rachel Hart
• Traffic Jams in Japan: Does Public Transit Have an Impact? , Gordon Heaton
• Impacts of India's Rural Workfare Program on Child Development , Anushah Hossain
• Trade Specialization and the Occupational Wage Distribution: Evidence from OECD Countries , Trace Levinson
• Potential Methods of Structural Estimation of Loewenstein's Anticipatory Utility Model , Saul Rosen
• A Study of the Microfinance Penetration Imbalance in India , Avika Saraf
• Travel Mode Choice Since the 2007 Beijing Public Transit Fare Reform: A Study of the Effect of Crowding and Thermal Comfort , Diwen Shen
• Firm Size Effects on Targeted Prizes to Incentivize Innovation in Neglected Tropical Diseases , Jodi So
• Evaluating Demand for Courses at UC Berkeley , Matthew Symonds
• The Effect of the 2008 Great Recession on Child Poverty in California: A Fixed Effects Model , Laura Tsui
• The Cost of Punishment: Fairness in High-Stakes Ultimatum Games , Kent Van Donge
• Illegal File-sharing & The Film Industry , Daren Zhang
• An Analysis of the Effect of Income on Adult Body Weight in China , Ruizhi Zhang
• Trends in Income Distribution in China and Implications on Migrant Workers , Shuhan Zhou
• The Impact of Postgraduate Education Attainment on Legislators' Progressive Voting Patterns , Andrew Chang
• Returns to School: A College Athlete's Perspective , Alex Dombrowski
• An Analysis on the Effect of Old Age Dependency Ratio on Domestic Saving Rate , Jinwoo Hyung
• Possible Causes and Implications of Seasonality of Birth , Carmen Ng
• A Model of Exchange Rates in Iceland , Andy Pham
• Does the Implementation of Affirmative Action in a Competitive Setting Incentivize Underrepresented Public School Applicants' Performance? , Dounia Saeme
• Explaining Regional Disparities of China's Economic Growth: Geography, Policy, and Infrastructure , Zhengyun Sun

Spring 2013

• The Synergies of Hedge Funds and Reinsurance , Eric Andersen
• The Effect of Children on Voter Turnout , David Arnold
• When Unemployment Strikes - Age, Income, and Sector Factors , Noa Dreymann
• The impact of presidential approval rate and unemployment rate in imposition and outcome of the United States sanctions , Yooseon Hwang
• Isolating the School Quality Premium in Housing Markets , Arman Khachiyan
• The Greek Tragedy: How the Euro Failed to Promote Greek Bilateral Trade , Paul Matsiras
• Islamic Finance and Banking in the Great Recession: A Comparison of Profitability with Conventional Banks , Muhammad Memon
• An Exploration of Renminbi-USD Exchange Rate: China's Foreign Exchange Intervention , Ching Wai Ng
• Homeowners Insurance Market in Texas with Catastrophic Effects: Market Competition, Supply and Demand , Jingting Yi
• Inequality does cause underdevelopment: Comprehensive analyses of the relationship , SooSun Tiah You
• The Bigger the Better? An Analysis on the Effect of Conference Size on NCAA Football Team and Conference Profit , Trevor Abbott
• The Role of Asset Prices in Monetary Policy , Shuonan Chen
• Measuring the Non-Observed Economy: A Survey-Based Study of Demand in the Korean Prostitution Market , WonSoon Kim
• China's Influence on the World's Iron Ore Market: A Supply-Side Perspective , Lingxiao Ou
• Pirates Acting for the Public Good: An Experimental Study , Seung-Keun Martinez 
• Stock Price Forecasting Using Information from Yahoo Finance and Google Trend , Selene Yue Xu

Spring 2012

• Food for Thought: Evaluating the Impact of India’s Mid-Day Meal Program on Educational Attainment , Stephanie Bonds
• The Implication of the Exchange Rate Floor in Current Times , Shuangshuang Chen
• Testing for Robustness in the Relationship between Fatal Automobile Crashes and Daylight Saving Time , Joseph Crawley
• Do Individuals "Strategically Divorce" To Maximize Marital Settlements? , James Fan
• Comparing Active and Passive Fund Management in Emerging Markets , Klemens Kremnitzer
• Market Efficiency: Is the NFL Betting Market Efficient? , Alexander Kuper
• Magnitude Statements in Abstracts: A Content Analysis and Evaluation of Information Clarity , Marston Litvinsky
• The Financial Impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Small vs. Large US Public Companies , Stephen Primack
• Predicting the Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 , Adrienne Sabety
• The Effect of Sports Participation on GPAs: A Conditional Quantile Regression Analysis , Andreas Santucci
• Monetary Policy in the Eurozone: Evaluating the European Central Bank’s interest rate decisions, Tejasvi Srivangipuram
• The Value of Pace in the NBA , Tim Xin
• Adverse Selection in Health Insurance Purchasing in Cambodia , Hongyu Zhang (Schimbor Prize for Best Thesis recipient)
• The Impact of Microfinance Loans On Children's Educational Attainment In Rural Thailand , Evelyn Hytopoulos
• Analyzing the Determinants of Contract Renegotiation: A Case Study of Eighteenth- Century British Turnpike Trusts , Hannah Markee

Spring 2011

• The Impact of Changing East Asian Trade Dynamics on Japanese Growth , Rahim Dharssi
• Measuring Cultural Fluency in Berkeley Unified School District: Steps Toward an Effective Parent Involvement Strategy , Sachi Takahashi-Rial
• Stock Market and Consumption: Evidence from China , Leslie Hau
• Impact of Rural-to-Urban Migration on Agricultural Commodity Inflation in China , Kan Liu
• The Temporal Component of Reference Point Determination , Mikaela Aziz
• Persistent Discrimination in Residential Mobility Between Cities and Suburbs: Flight from Minority Suburbs Succeeds Flight from , Jeanette Ling
• Religion and Economic Development - A study on Religious variables influencing GDP growth over countries , Wonsub Eum
• Stock Market Repurchases: The Undervaluation and Negative Outlook Theories , Tammy Tieu
• Housing Wealth and Consumption in the Chinese Urban Economy: Evidence from Micro-Data , Yizhou Jin (Departmental Citation & Earl Rolph Prize recipient)
• True Value in the NBA:An Analysis of On-Court Performance and Its Effects on Revenues , Harrison Li
• NAFTA and Female Labor Market Outcomes in Mexico , Emily P Tsitrian
• To Host or Not to Host? A Comparison Study of the Long-Run Impacts of the Olympic Games , Anita Mehrotra
• The Role of Contractionary Monetary Policy in the Great Recession , Charlie Deist
• The Costs and Returns to Medical Education n , Nicholas Roth
• Online Sports Gambling: A Look into the Efficiency of Bookmakers' Odds as Forecasts in the Case of English Premier League , Jasmine Siwei Xu
• The Effect of Drug Decriminalization in Portugal on Homicide and Drug Mortality Rates , Daniel Reuben Yablon

Spring 2009

• An Examination of International Drivers of Educational Achievement , Benjamin Bruno Johnson
• Voter Uncertainty and Economic Conditions: A Look into Election Competitiveness , Christopher V. Lau
• The Economics of Signing Petitions: Social Pressure versus Social Engagement , Diane Alexander
• Testing the Efficient Markets Hypothesis: A Behavioral Approach To the Current Economic Crisis , Iulia Stefan
• Nuclear Proliferation and the Deterrence of Conventional War: A Proposal , Justin Pollard
• Changing Endowment Sizes and Prices of Giving in Ultimatum Games , Kevin Haas
• Selective Beliefs over Preferences , Luke A. Stewart
• Difference of Percentiles: A New Look at the Ability Bias , Paul Lewicki
• The Effect of Mass Transit Systems on Price of Condominium in Bangkok , Peson Sirikolkarn
• The Sour Side of Today’s Housing Market: Testing internal relationships and understanding the composition of today’s market , Peter Lewicki
• The Impact of Sovereign Wealth Fund Investments on Listed United States Companies , Richard Schimbor
• The Transformation of the Demographic Differential Between the U.S. Military and the U.S. Population , Ryan Moffett
• Not Just a TRIP! Two Cases of Business Strategy and Economic Incentives to Patent in Beijing , Shelley Jingyi Jiang
• The Effect of Fertility Levels on The Educational Attainment of Children in Uganda , Tara Roach
• Unionization and Incentives: Evidence from the Field , Thomas Winberry
• Education and Wage Differential by Race: Convergence or Divergence? , Tian Luo
• Job Security and Productivity: Evidence From Academics , William Leung
• A Survey of the Ratio of Mortgage Assets to Total Assets and Its Relation to Regulation , Yelena Bakman

Current Thesis Examples (Fall 2019-present)

Economics Thesis Topics

600 Economics Thesis Topics and Ideas

Economics is a diverse and evolving field that addresses some of the most pressing global issues, from market fluctuations and inflation to labor dynamics and sustainable development. For students writing a thesis in economics, selecting the right topic is essential for making an original contribution to this ever-changing landscape. To help students find the perfect research focus, we have compiled a comprehensive list of 600 economics thesis topics, divided into 20 categories. These categories span traditional fields such as macroeconomics and international trade, as well as emerging areas like environmental economics and circular economies. Whether your interest lies in policy analysis, behavioral insights, or global economic trends, this list will provide the foundation for your thesis.

Academic Writing, Editing, Proofreading, And Problem Solving Services

Get 10% off with 24start discount code, 1. agricultural economics thesis topics.

• The impact of climate change on agricultural productivity.
• Investigating agricultural subsidies and their effect on rural economies.
• The role of technology in improving food security in developing countries.
• The effects of agricultural trade policies on global food prices.
• Exploring the relationship between agricultural biodiversity and food security.
• The economic impact of sustainable farming practices.
• Investigating the role of agricultural microfinance in rural development.
• The effects of land tenure systems on agricultural productivity.
• Agricultural commodity markets: Price volatility and risk management.
• The role of government intervention in stabilizing agricultural markets.
• Exploring agricultural supply chains and their role in reducing food waste.
• The impact of organic farming on economic sustainability.
• Investigating agricultural trade barriers in developing countries.
• The role of biotechnology in increasing agricultural productivity.
• Exploring the economic impact of genetically modified crops.
• Investigating the economics of agroforestry systems.
• Agricultural policy reforms and their impact on smallholder farmers.
• The role of irrigation systems in improving agricultural output.
• The economic effects of crop insurance programs.
• Investigating the role of women in agricultural development.
• Exploring the effects of agricultural mechanization on labor markets.
• Investigating the role of cooperative farming in rural economic growth.
• The economics of food distribution and access in urban areas.
• Investigating the economic impact of farm-to-table movements.
• Exploring agricultural export trends in developing countries.
• The role of agricultural extension services in increasing productivity.
• Investigating the economic impact of drought-resistant crops.
• The role of international organizations in promoting agricultural sustainability.
• Exploring the future of vertical farming in urban agriculture.
• Investigating the role of biofuels in agricultural economics.

2. Behavioral Economics Thesis Topics

• The role of cognitive biases in consumer decision-making.
• Exploring the impact of social norms on economic behavior.
• The effects of framing and choice architecture on savings decisions.
• Investigating the role of emotions in investment behavior.
• Exploring the relationship between behavioral economics and public policy.
• The impact of anchoring and loss aversion on financial markets.
• The role of behavioral interventions in promoting healthy eating habits.
• Investigating the effects of nudges on retirement savings.
• Exploring the economic impact of mental accounting on household budgeting.
• The role of fairness concerns in labor market negotiations.
• Investigating behavioral factors that influence charitable giving.
• The impact of default options on insurance enrollment decisions.
• Exploring the role of social preferences in economic cooperation.
• Investigating the behavioral determinants of risk-taking in financial markets.
• The role of overconfidence in entrepreneurial decision-making.
• Investigating the impact of behavioral economics on energy conservation.
• The role of bounded rationality in consumer behavior.
• Exploring the effects of behavioral economics in healthcare policy design.
• Investigating the role of trust in economic transactions.
• Exploring the impact of peer influence on financial decisions.
• The role of present bias in credit card debt accumulation.
• Investigating the effects of behavioral economics on tax compliance.
• Exploring the role of loss aversion in real estate investment decisions.
• The impact of behavioral economics on the design of pension systems.
• Investigating the role of behavioral insights in promoting environmental sustainability.
• The role of behavioral factors in influencing labor supply decisions.
• Exploring the impact of behavioral economics on the housing market.
• Investigating the effects of time inconsistency on savings behavior.
• The role of behavioral economics in the design of public health campaigns.
• Investigating the role of optimism bias in business decision-making.

3. Business Economics Thesis Topics

• The impact of digital transformation on business models.
• Investigating the role of innovation in business growth.
• Exploring the economic effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
• The role of mergers and acquisitions in market competition.
• Investigating the economic impact of family-owned businesses.
• The effects of globalization on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
• Exploring the role of e-commerce in the global economy.
• Investigating the economic impact of intellectual property rights.
• The role of corporate governance in business performance.
• Exploring the economic implications of automation in manufacturing.
• Investigating the role of business analytics in improving decision-making.
• The effects of technological advancements on labor productivity.
• Exploring the role of business networks in fostering innovation.
• Investigating the economic impact of corporate tax policies.
• The role of business incubators in promoting entrepreneurship.
• Exploring the effects of leadership styles on business performance.
• Investigating the economic effects of business cycles on investment decisions.
• The role of market research in shaping business strategies.
• Exploring the impact of supply chain disruptions on global trade.
• Investigating the effects of inflation on business profitability.
• The role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in business expansion.
• Exploring the impact of economic crises on business survival strategies.
• Investigating the role of business ethics in corporate decision-making.
• The effects of government regulations on business competitiveness.
• Exploring the economic impact of franchising on small businesses.
• Investigating the role of digital marketing in business growth.
• The role of human capital in business innovation and productivity.
• Exploring the economic effects of outsourcing on business efficiency.
• Investigating the role of financial markets in business expansion.
• Exploring the economic implications of corporate sustainability initiatives.

4. Circular Economy Thesis Topics

• Investigating the economic impact of circular economy practices on business models.
• Exploring the role of recycling in promoting circular economy systems.
• The role of government policies in fostering a circular economy.
• Investigating the relationship between circular economies and sustainable development.
• Exploring the economic potential of circular supply chains.
• The role of eco-design in reducing waste in a circular economy.
• Investigating the impact of circular economy practices on consumer behavior.
• Exploring the economic benefits of product life extension strategies.
• The role of remanufacturing in a circular economy.
• Investigating the role of circular economy in reducing environmental degradation.
• The effects of extended producer responsibility (EPR) on waste management.
• Exploring the role of closed-loop supply chains in circular economies.
• Investigating the role of collaborative consumption in fostering a circular economy.
• The economic benefits of resource efficiency in circular economy models.
• Exploring the role of reverse logistics in achieving a circular economy.
• Investigating the impact of circular economies on urban development.
• The role of green technologies in advancing circular economy practices.
• Exploring the economic potential of upcycling in the fashion industry.
• Investigating the role of shared economy platforms in promoting circular economy practices.
• The role of waste-to-energy technologies in circular economies.
• Investigating the impact of circular economy policies on global trade.
• Exploring the economic implications of circular economy transitions for developing countries.
• The role of digital technologies in promoting circular economies.
• Investigating the economic benefits of circular economies in the manufacturing sector.
• Exploring the potential of circular economies in reducing carbon emissions.
• The role of circular economy principles in reducing plastic waste.
• Investigating the economic impact of circular economies on job creation.
• The role of circular economies in promoting sustainable agriculture.
• Exploring the economic challenges of transitioning to circular economy models.
• Investigating the role of consumer education in promoting circular economy practices.

5. Development Economics Thesis Topics

• The role of foreign aid in promoting economic development.
• Investigating the relationship between education and economic development.
• Exploring the impact of infrastructure investment on economic growth.
• The role of health care in improving economic outcomes in developing countries.
• Investigating the effects of microfinance on poverty alleviation.
• The role of technology in promoting economic development in rural areas.
• Exploring the relationship between gender equality and economic development.
• Investigating the economic impact of remittances on developing countries.
• The role of financial inclusion in promoting economic growth.
• Exploring the effects of trade liberalization on economic development.
• Investigating the role of government policies in promoting sustainable development.
• The impact of international organizations on economic development in emerging markets.
• Investigating the relationship between population growth and economic development.
• The role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in promoting economic growth.
• Exploring the impact of corruption on economic development.
• Investigating the role of education in reducing income inequality.
• The effects of rural-urban migration on economic development.
• Exploring the relationship between environmental sustainability and economic development.
• Investigating the impact of infrastructure development on economic performance.
• The role of innovation in promoting economic development in low-income countries.
• Investigating the role of international trade in economic development.
• Exploring the effects of globalization on economic development.
• The role of economic policies in addressing income inequality.
• Investigating the impact of climate change on economic development in developing countries.
• The role of agricultural development in promoting economic growth.
• Exploring the economic impact of social protection programs in developing countries.
• Investigating the role of entrepreneurship in promoting economic development.
• The role of public-private partnerships in fostering economic growth.
• Exploring the impact of international development assistance on poverty reduction.
• Investigating the role of political stability in promoting economic development.

6. Development Studies Thesis Topics

• Investigating the role of education in poverty alleviation in developing countries.
• The impact of foreign aid on economic and social development.
• Exploring the role of women’s empowerment in sustainable development.
• Investigating the effects of political instability on development outcomes.
• The role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in promoting development.
• Investigating the impact of globalization on developing economies.
• The effects of urbanization on rural development: A case study.
• Exploring the role of social enterprises in promoting development.
• Investigating the relationship between human rights and economic development.
• The role of microfinance in promoting social and economic development.
• Exploring the impact of population growth on sustainable development.
• Investigating the relationship between environmental degradation and development.
• The role of international organizations in promoting development in fragile states.
• Exploring the impact of health policies on development outcomes.
• The role of infrastructure development in promoting economic growth in low-income countries.
• Investigating the role of climate adaptation in sustainable development strategies.
• The impact of migration on development outcomes in home and host countries.
• Exploring the role of social protection programs in poverty reduction.
• Investigating the effects of agricultural development on rural economies.
• The role of education in promoting gender equality and development.
• Exploring the relationship between economic growth and income inequality in developing countries.
• The role of clean energy initiatives in promoting sustainable development.
• Investigating the impact of remittances on household welfare in developing countries.
• The role of information and communication technology (ICT) in development.
• Exploring the effects of environmental policies on development outcomes.
• Investigating the role of entrepreneurship in promoting development in post-conflict regions.
• The impact of cultural heritage on development strategies in emerging economies.
• Exploring the effects of child labor on social and economic development.
• The role of public health initiatives in promoting development in low-income countries.
• Investigating the relationship between social capital and economic development in rural communities.

7. Econometrics Thesis Topics

• Investigating the use of econometric models in forecasting economic growth.
• The role of panel data analysis in understanding income inequality trends.
• Exploring time-series econometrics in analyzing financial markets.
• Investigating the effectiveness of econometric models in predicting inflation.
• The role of econometrics in analyzing the impact of fiscal policies on economic performance.
• Exploring the use of econometric techniques in labor market analysis.
• Investigating the relationship between education and wage growth using econometric methods.
• The impact of trade liberalization on economic growth: An econometric analysis.
• Exploring the use of instrumental variables in addressing endogeneity issues in econometric models.
• Investigating the role of cointegration in understanding macroeconomic trends.
• The role of econometrics in analyzing the impact of monetary policies on interest rates.
• Exploring the use of econometric models in assessing climate change’s economic impact.
• Investigating the effects of financial shocks on economic volatility: An econometric approach.
• The role of econometrics in understanding the determinants of housing prices.
• Exploring the use of dummy variables in econometric models for policy evaluation.
• Investigating the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation using econometric analysis.
• The impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic development: An econometric perspective.
• Exploring the role of econometrics in analyzing the effects of income distribution on economic growth.
• Investigating the effectiveness of economic stabilization policies through econometric models.
• The role of heteroscedasticity in econometric models and its implications for policy analysis.
• Exploring the use of probit and logit models in labor market analysis.
• Investigating the effects of international trade agreements on economic growth: An econometric approach.
• The role of dynamic panel data models in understanding economic growth patterns.
• Exploring the use of autoregressive models in analyzing stock market trends.
• Investigating the role of econometrics in assessing the economic impact of environmental regulations.
• The effectiveness of econometric forecasting models in predicting unemployment rates.
• Exploring the role of unit root tests in understanding macroeconomic fluctuations.
• Investigating the relationship between exchange rates and trade balances using econometric models.
• The role of econometrics in assessing the impact of demographic changes on economic growth.
• Exploring the use of non-parametric econometric methods in income distribution analysis.

8. Energy Economics Thesis Topics

• Investigating the economic impact of transitioning to renewable energy sources.
• Exploring the role of energy efficiency in promoting economic growth.
• The impact of carbon pricing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions: An economic analysis.
• Investigating the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth.
• The role of energy subsidies in shaping energy markets and economic development.
• Exploring the economic implications of energy market deregulation.
• Investigating the role of energy security in promoting economic stability.
• The effects of energy policy reforms on household welfare in developing countries.
• Exploring the economic impact of electric vehicle adoption on the energy sector.
• Investigating the role of natural gas in promoting energy diversification and economic growth.
• The economic potential of offshore wind farms: A case study analysis.
• Investigating the effects of fossil fuel dependence on long-term economic sustainability.
• The role of international energy agreements in promoting economic cooperation.
• Exploring the economic benefits of decentralized renewable energy systems.
• Investigating the economic impact of oil price shocks on global markets.
• The role of energy storage technologies in reducing energy costs: An economic analysis.
• Exploring the relationship between energy poverty and economic development in rural areas.
• Investigating the economic impact of green energy policies on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
• The role of government incentives in promoting renewable energy investments.
• Exploring the potential of hydrogen as a renewable energy source: An economic analysis.
• Investigating the role of public-private partnerships in financing energy infrastructure projects.
• The impact of climate change on energy demand: An economic perspective.
• Exploring the effects of energy market integration on economic growth in developing countries.
• Investigating the economic implications of carbon capture and storage technologies.
• The role of energy market regulations in promoting energy access in underserved regions.
• Exploring the potential of bioenergy for promoting economic growth in rural areas.
• Investigating the effects of energy efficiency programs on reducing energy consumption.
• The economic impact of nuclear energy on national energy security.
• Exploring the role of energy innovation in driving economic competitiveness.
• Investigating the relationship between renewable energy policies and employment creation.

9. Environmental Economics Thesis Topics

• Investigating the economic impact of climate change mitigation strategies.
• The role of environmental policies in promoting sustainable economic growth.
• Exploring the economic benefits of biodiversity conservation.
• Investigating the effects of deforestation on long-term economic development.
• The economic impact of carbon trading schemes: A case study analysis.
• Exploring the role of eco-friendly technologies in reducing environmental degradation.
• Investigating the relationship between environmental sustainability and economic growth.
• The economic impact of water scarcity on agriculture in developing countries.
• Exploring the role of environmental taxes in reducing pollution and promoting green growth.
• Investigating the effects of climate adaptation policies on national economies.
• The role of environmental regulations in promoting corporate environmental responsibility.
• Exploring the economic benefits of reducing plastic waste in coastal regions.
• Investigating the relationship between green innovation and economic competitiveness.
• The role of natural capital in promoting long-term economic sustainability.
• Exploring the effects of environmental policies on industrial competitiveness.
• Investigating the economic impact of renewable energy policies on rural development.
• The role of environmental economics in shaping international trade policies.
• Exploring the potential of circular economy practices in reducing environmental costs.
• Investigating the economic impact of marine pollution on coastal economies.
• The role of environmental education in promoting sustainable economic development.
• Exploring the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth in emerging markets.
• Investigating the economic impact of renewable energy transition on developing economies.
• The role of environmental protection policies in promoting economic resilience.
• Exploring the effects of global environmental treaties on economic performance.
• Investigating the relationship between tourism development and environmental sustainability.
• The role of eco-labeling in promoting sustainable consumer behavior.
• Exploring the economic potential of green infrastructure in urban development.
• Investigating the effects of environmental degradation on global trade.
• The economic impact of climate-induced migration on developing countries.
• Exploring the role of environmental economics in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

10. Game Theory Thesis Topics

• Investigating the role of game theory in understanding oligopoly market dynamics.
• Exploring the application of game theory in international trade negotiations.
• The role of Nash equilibrium in analyzing competitive strategies in business.
• Investigating the use of game theory in climate change negotiations.
• Exploring the application of cooperative game theory in resource allocation problems.
• The role of game theory in understanding pricing strategies in monopolistic markets.
• Investigating the use of game theory in labor market negotiations.
• Exploring the application of game theory in the design of auction mechanisms.
• The role of evolutionary game theory in understanding economic behaviors.
• Investigating the use of game theory in analyzing voting behavior in democratic elections.
• Exploring the application of game theory in supply chain management.
• The role of mixed strategies in game theory and their application in economics.
• Investigating the effects of game theory on strategic decision-making in business.
• Exploring the application of game theory in resolving environmental conflicts.
• The role of game theory in understanding bargaining power in trade negotiations.
• Investigating the use of game theory in competitive pricing models.
• Exploring the application of game theory in financial market regulation.
• The role of game theory in designing optimal contract structures.
• Investigating the effects of repeated games on cooperation and competition in business.
• Exploring the application of game theory in understanding conflict resolution in international relations.
• The role of game theory in analyzing supply chain disruptions.
• Investigating the application of game theory in understanding technological innovation races.
• Exploring the effects of signaling in game theory on market competition.
• The role of game theory in understanding the dynamics of public goods provision.
• Investigating the application of game theory in understanding firm entry and exit decisions.
• Exploring the role of game theory in understanding financial contagion during economic crises.
• Investigating the application of game theory in the design of social welfare programs.
• The role of game theory in understanding network effects in digital markets.
• Exploring the application of game theory in determining optimal pricing strategies in e-commerce.
• Investigating the role of game theory in addressing global environmental challenges.

11. Health Economics Thesis Topics

• Investigating the impact of health insurance on access to healthcare services.
• Exploring the economic implications of aging populations on healthcare systems.
• The role of preventive healthcare in reducing long-term medical costs.
• Investigating the economic effects of healthcare privatization.
• The impact of pharmaceutical pricing regulations on healthcare affordability.
• Exploring the relationship between public health spending and economic growth.
• Investigating the role of telemedicine in reducing healthcare costs.
• The economic impact of pandemics on global healthcare systems: A case study analysis.
• Exploring the role of health economics in designing universal healthcare systems.
• Investigating the economic effects of obesity on national healthcare expenditures.
• The role of health economics in analyzing the efficiency of public health interventions.
• Exploring the economic impact of mental health on labor productivity.
• Investigating the role of health literacy in reducing healthcare costs.
• The effects of healthcare market competition on service quality and costs.
• Investigating the relationship between healthcare access and income inequality.
• The economic impact of vaccination programs in developing countries.
• Exploring the effects of pharmaceutical patents on drug prices and accessibility.
• Investigating the role of healthcare reforms in improving economic productivity.
• The economic impact of chronic diseases on national healthcare systems.
• Exploring the relationship between healthcare quality and economic development.
• The effects of out-of-pocket healthcare expenses on household financial stability.
• Investigating the economic implications of medical tourism for developing countries.
• The role of health insurance in improving healthcare access in rural areas.
• Exploring the relationship between healthcare infrastructure investment and economic growth.
• Investigating the impact of healthcare workforce shortages on service delivery and economic outcomes.
• The role of cost-effectiveness analysis in healthcare decision-making.
• Exploring the economic impact of early childhood healthcare programs on future earnings.
• Investigating the role of public-private partnerships in financing healthcare infrastructure.
• The effects of healthcare disparities on economic development in low-income communities.
• Exploring the role of health economics in shaping public health policies.

12. Home Economics Thesis Topics

• Investigating the relationship between household income and consumption patterns.
• Exploring the impact of financial literacy on household financial decision-making.
• Investigating the effects of consumer credit access on household spending.
• The role of home ownership in wealth accumulation and economic mobility.
• Exploring the relationship between family budgeting practices and financial well-being.
• Investigating the effects of inflation on household purchasing power.
• The economic impact of dual-income households on family savings and investments.
• Exploring the role of household debt in macroeconomic stability.
• Investigating the effects of housing market fluctuations on household wealth.
• The role of home economics education in improving financial literacy.
• Exploring the relationship between household energy consumption and environmental sustainability.
• Investigating the effects of tax policies on household savings and investments.
• The economic impact of child care costs on family financial stability.
• Exploring the role of home economics in promoting sustainable household practices.
• Investigating the relationship between food security and household income.
• The effects of consumer protection policies on household financial health.
• Exploring the role of household consumption in driving economic growth.
• Investigating the impact of retirement planning on household financial security.
• The role of consumer behavior in shaping household spending patterns.
• Investigating the relationship between household financial management and poverty reduction.
• Exploring the impact of technological advancements on household consumption patterns.
• The role of housing affordability in shaping family financial decisions.
• Investigating the relationship between homeownership rates and economic inequality.
• Exploring the effects of financial education programs on household debt management.
• The economic impact of food prices on household nutrition and health.
• Investigating the role of household financial resilience in times of economic crisis.
• The relationship between household savings behavior and economic growth.
• Exploring the effects of household consumption on environmental sustainability.
• Investigating the role of household financial planning in improving economic outcomes.
• The economic impact of social safety nets on household income stability.

13. Human Development Thesis Topics

• Investigating the role of education in promoting human development.
• The impact of healthcare access on human development outcomes.
• Exploring the relationship between income inequality and human development.
• Investigating the effects of gender inequality on human development indices.
• The role of sustainable development policies in improving human development.
• Exploring the impact of nutrition programs on human development in developing countries.
• Investigating the relationship between child mortality rates and human development.
• The role of international aid in promoting human development.
• Exploring the relationship between environmental sustainability and human development.
• Investigating the effects of social protection programs on human development outcomes.
• The impact of poverty reduction strategies on human development indicators.
• Exploring the role of political stability in promoting human development.
• Investigating the relationship between economic growth and human development.
• The role of human development in shaping economic policies.
• Investigating the effects of migration on human development outcomes.
• The impact of technological advancements on human development in emerging economies.
• Exploring the relationship between social capital and human development.
• Investigating the role of education policies in improving human development.
• The effects of climate change on human development outcomes.
• Exploring the role of healthcare policies in promoting human development in rural areas.
• Investigating the relationship between human rights and human development.
• The role of social inequality in shaping human development outcomes.
• Exploring the relationship between human development and economic empowerment of women.
• Investigating the role of infrastructure development in improving human development.
• The impact of global trade policies on human development in low-income countries.
• Exploring the role of public health initiatives in improving human development.
• Investigating the relationship between access to clean water and human development.
• The role of international organizations in promoting human development in conflict-affected regions.
• Investigating the effects of youth employment programs on human development outcomes.
• The role of global health initiatives in improving human development in developing countries.

14. Inflation Thesis Topics

• Investigating the causes of hyperinflation in emerging economies.
• Exploring the effects of inflation on income inequality.
• Investigating the role of central banks in controlling inflation.
• The impact of inflation targeting on economic stability: A case study analysis.
• Exploring the relationship between inflation and unemployment in developed economies.
• Investigating the effects of inflation on consumer purchasing power.
• The role of monetary policy in managing inflation expectations.
• Exploring the effects of inflation on investment decisions in financial markets.
• Investigating the relationship between inflation and wage growth.
• The impact of inflation on business profitability and pricing strategies.
• Exploring the role of government policies in curbing inflation in developing countries.
• Investigating the effects of inflation on household savings behavior.
• The role of inflationary expectations in shaping monetary policy decisions.
• Exploring the relationship between inflation and economic growth in emerging markets.
• Investigating the effects of inflation on public debt sustainability.
• The impact of inflation on currency valuation and international trade.
• Exploring the role of inflation-linked bonds in hedging inflation risks.
• Investigating the effects of inflation on capital market volatility.
• The role of inflation in shaping central bank communication strategies.
• Exploring the effects of cost-push inflation on manufacturing industries.
• Investigating the role of global supply chain disruptions in driving inflation.
• The impact of inflation on interest rates: A historical perspective.
• Exploring the role of fiscal policy in managing inflationary pressures.
• Investigating the effects of inflation on housing affordability and real estate markets.
• The relationship between inflation and income redistribution policies.
• Exploring the impact of inflation on consumer confidence and spending behavior.
• Investigating the effects of inflation on exchange rates and trade balances.
• The role of inflation forecasts in shaping investment strategies.
• Exploring the effects of inflation on capital formation and economic growth.
• Investigating the role of inflationary shocks in shaping monetary policy responses.

15. International Economics Thesis Topics

• Investigating the impact of trade liberalization on economic growth in developing countries.
• Exploring the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in promoting economic development.
• Investigating the relationship between exchange rates and international trade flows.
• The role of international trade agreements in shaping global economic policies.
• Exploring the effects of globalization on income inequality in emerging markets.
• Investigating the role of international monetary policies in managing global financial crises.
• The impact of international trade policies on developing economies: A case study analysis.
• Exploring the role of international financial institutions in promoting global economic stability.
• Investigating the effects of international trade on environmental sustainability.
• The role of international labor migration in shaping global economic trends.
• Exploring the relationship between international capital flows and economic growth.
• Investigating the effects of trade protectionism on global economic integration.
• The role of global supply chains in driving international trade patterns.
• Exploring the impact of international trade on domestic labor markets.
• Investigating the role of international remittances in promoting economic development.
• The effects of international financial markets on global economic stability.
• Exploring the relationship between international trade and economic inequality.
• Investigating the role of international trade sanctions on economic performance.
• The impact of international commodity prices on global trade flows.
• Exploring the role of international trade in promoting innovation and technological transfer.
• Investigating the effects of international trade on economic growth in low-income countries.
• The role of global value chains in shaping international trade dynamics.
• Exploring the impact of international trade liberalization on poverty reduction.
• Investigating the effects of international capital mobility on economic performance.
• The role of international trade organizations in shaping global trade policies.
• Exploring the effects of international economic integration on financial markets.
• Investigating the role of international trade in addressing global environmental challenges.
• The impact of international trade barriers on economic growth in emerging markets.
• Exploring the relationship between international investment flows and economic development.
• Investigating the effects of international trade conflicts on global economic stability.

16. International Trade Thesis Topics

• Investigating the impact of trade tariffs on global trade flows.
• Exploring the role of free trade agreements in promoting economic growth.
• The effects of protectionist trade policies on developing economies.
• Investigating the relationship between trade openness and income inequality.
• The role of trade sanctions in shaping international trade relations.
• Investigating the role of trade policy in addressing global environmental challenges.
• The effects of international trade wars on global economic stability.
• Investigating the relationship between trade balances and exchange rates.
• The role of global supply chains in shaping international trade patterns.
• Exploring the impact of trade barriers on emerging markets.
• Investigating the effects of trade liberalization on agricultural exports in developing countries.
• The role of international trade organizations in promoting global trade cooperation.
• Exploring the impact of trade policies on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
• Investigating the relationship between trade agreements and labor standards.
• The role of digital trade in reshaping global trade dynamics.
• Exploring the effects of intellectual property rights on international trade.
• Investigating the impact of trade liberalization on foreign direct investment (FDI).
• The effects of currency fluctuations on international trade competitiveness.
• Investigating the role of trade facilitation policies in promoting global trade efficiency.
• The impact of non-tariff barriers on international trade flows.
• Exploring the effects of regional trade agreements on global economic integration.
• Investigating the relationship between trade liberalization and wage inequality.
• The role of trade finance in supporting international trade activities.
• Investigating the impact of trade policies on global commodity markets.
• Exploring the effects of trade liberalization on industrialization in developing economies.
• The role of e-commerce in facilitating international trade.
• Investigating the relationship between international trade and climate change mitigation.
• The effects of trade liberalization on domestic labor markets.
• Exploring the role of trade unions in shaping international labor standards in trade agreements.

17. Labor Economics Thesis Topics

• Investigating the impact of minimum wage policies on employment levels.
• Exploring the relationship between labor market regulations and economic productivity.
• The role of labor unions in shaping wage structures and working conditions.
• Investigating the effects of immigration on domestic labor markets.
• The impact of automation and technology on labor demand and job displacement.
• Exploring the relationship between education and labor market outcomes.
• Investigating the effects of gender wage gaps on labor market participation.
• The role of government policies in reducing youth unemployment.
• Exploring the effects of labor market flexibility on economic growth.
• Investigating the relationship between labor market discrimination and economic inequality.
• The impact of labor force participation on economic growth in emerging markets.
• Exploring the role of vocational training programs in improving labor market outcomes.
• Investigating the effects of labor market institutions on income inequality.
• The role of social safety nets in mitigating the impact of unemployment.
• Exploring the effects of workplace diversity on labor productivity.
• Investigating the relationship between remote work and labor market dynamics.
• The role of labor market policies in addressing long-term unemployment.
• Exploring the effects of minimum wage increases on small business profitability.
• Investigating the impact of labor market rigidities on economic growth.
• The role of education reforms in improving labor market outcomes in developing countries.
• Exploring the relationship between part-time employment and job satisfaction.
• Investigating the effects of trade unions on labor market negotiations.
• The role of flexible working arrangements in promoting labor market participation.
• Exploring the impact of parental leave policies on labor market outcomes.
• Investigating the relationship between technological advancements and wage inequality.
• The role of labor migration in addressing skill shortages in developed economies.
• Exploring the effects of gig economy platforms on labor market flexibility.
• Investigating the relationship between aging populations and labor force participation.
• The role of government interventions in promoting labor market inclusivity for disabled individuals.
• Investigating the effects of global labor mobility on economic growth.

18. Macroeconomics Thesis Topics

• Investigating the relationship between fiscal policy and economic growth.
• The effects of monetary policy on inflation and employment levels.
• Exploring the role of central banks in managing economic recessions.
• Investigating the impact of public debt on long-term economic stability.
• The role of quantitative easing in promoting economic recovery.
• Exploring the relationship between interest rates and investment levels.
• Investigating the effects of government spending on economic growth in developing countries.
• The impact of exchange rate policies on international trade.
• Exploring the role of macroeconomic stability in attracting foreign direct investment.
• Investigating the effects of tax reforms on income distribution and economic growth.
• The role of inflation targeting in promoting economic stability.
• Exploring the relationship between government budget deficits and economic performance.
• Investigating the impact of macroeconomic policies on housing markets.
• The role of central bank independence in shaping monetary policy outcomes.
• Exploring the effects of macroeconomic shocks on unemployment rates.
• Investigating the relationship between trade imbalances and macroeconomic stability.
• The role of financial markets in promoting macroeconomic growth.
• Exploring the impact of global economic integration on macroeconomic policies.
• Investigating the effects of macroeconomic stabilization programs on emerging economies.
• The role of government borrowing in promoting short-term economic growth.
• Exploring the effects of macroeconomic uncertainty on business investment decisions.
• Investigating the impact of globalization on macroeconomic policy coordination.
• The role of macroeconomic policies in addressing climate change challenges.
• Exploring the relationship between income inequality and macroeconomic performance.
• Investigating the effects of austerity measures on economic recovery in the European Union.
• The role of macroeconomic policies in promoting sustainable economic growth.
• Exploring the impact of capital controls on macroeconomic stability.
• Investigating the role of fiscal stimulus in mitigating the effects of economic downturns.
• The relationship between exchange rate fluctuations and macroeconomic stability in developing economies.
• Exploring the role of macroeconomic forecasting in shaping government policy decisions.

19. Public Economics Thesis Topics

• Investigating the impact of tax policies on income distribution and inequality.
• Exploring the role of government spending on public goods in promoting economic growth.
• The effects of public debt on long-term economic sustainability.
• Investigating the relationship between public investment and infrastructure development.
• The role of public-private partnerships in financing public infrastructure projects.
• Exploring the effects of public healthcare spending on economic productivity.
• Investigating the role of social welfare programs in reducing poverty.
• The impact of public education spending on long-term economic growth.
• Exploring the role of public policies in addressing environmental externalities.
• Investigating the effects of government subsidies on market competition.
• The role of public economics in shaping healthcare policies.
• Exploring the relationship between public goods provision and social welfare.
• Investigating the impact of government fiscal policies on economic inequality.
• The role of public policies in promoting economic resilience during recessions.
• Exploring the effects of public sector employment on economic growth.
• Investigating the relationship between public taxation and economic efficiency.
• The role of public economics in addressing housing affordability challenges.
• Exploring the impact of government expenditure on public transportation infrastructure.
• Investigating the relationship between public spending and inflationary pressures.
• The role of public economics in addressing demographic challenges in aging populations.
• Exploring the effects of public investment in renewable energy on economic growth.
• Investigating the relationship between public policies and labor market outcomes.
• The role of government debt in financing social welfare programs.
• Exploring the effects of public policies on income redistribution.
• Investigating the role of public finance in shaping education outcomes.
• The impact of public sector reforms on economic efficiency and productivity.
• Exploring the effects of public healthcare systems on economic inequality.
• Investigating the relationship between government spending and macroeconomic stability.
• The role of public economics in promoting long-term fiscal sustainability.
• Exploring the impact of government intervention on market failures in public goods provision.

20. Rural Development Thesis Topics

• Investigating the role of agricultural policies in promoting rural development.
• Exploring the impact of rural infrastructure development on economic growth.
• The effects of land tenure systems on rural economic development.
• Investigating the role of microfinance in promoting rural entrepreneurship.
• The impact of rural electrification on household welfare and productivity.
• Exploring the relationship between rural development and poverty reduction.
• Investigating the role of education in promoting rural economic growth.
• The effects of rural migration on economic development and labor markets.
• Exploring the impact of agricultural modernization on rural economies.
• Investigating the role of government policies in promoting rural industrialization.
• The impact of rural tourism on economic diversification and development.
• Exploring the effects of climate change on rural agricultural production.
• Investigating the role of technology adoption in promoting rural development.
• The effects of public investment in rural infrastructure on poverty reduction.
• Exploring the relationship between food security and rural economic development.
• Investigating the impact of rural health programs on economic productivity.
• The role of women in promoting rural economic development.
• Exploring the effects of agricultural cooperatives on rural economic growth.
• Investigating the role of rural credit systems in supporting small-scale farmers.
• The impact of government subsidies on rural economic development.
• Exploring the role of rural education programs in promoting sustainable development.
• Investigating the effects of rural-urban migration on household welfare in rural areas.
• The role of sustainable farming practices in promoting rural development.
• Exploring the impact of land reform policies on rural poverty reduction.
• Investigating the relationship between rural entrepreneurship and economic diversification.
• The role of infrastructure development in promoting rural healthcare access.
• Exploring the effects of government policies on rural housing development.
• Investigating the impact of agricultural extension services on rural economic growth.
• The role of public-private partnerships in promoting rural economic development.
• Exploring the effects of rural renewable energy projects on economic growth and sustainability.

This comprehensive list of 600 economics thesis topics showcases the vast scope and diversity of the field. From agricultural economics to circular economies and behavioral economics to international trade, these topics reflect the dynamic challenges and opportunities in the world of economics. Whether you’re looking to explore current economic policies, recent technological advancements, or the future of global trade, these topics will guide you toward a meaningful and impactful thesis. Choose a topic that aligns with your interests and career goals to make a lasting contribution to the field of economics.

The Range of Economics Thesis Topics

Economics is a vast field that examines how individuals, businesses, governments, and nations allocate resources and respond to incentives. From understanding consumer behavior and market dynamics to crafting fiscal policies and addressing income inequality, economics plays a critical role in shaping societal outcomes. Choosing an economics thesis topic offers students the chance to delve deep into pressing issues, emerging trends, and future economic directions. In this article, we will explore a range of thesis topics across various economics fields, focusing on current issues, recent trends, and future opportunities within the discipline.

Current Issues in Economics

Economics is increasingly intertwined with real-world challenges, requiring innovative solutions to pressing global issues. Several key areas stand out as highly relevant for thesis research.

• Income Inequality and Economic Growth One of the most significant issues today is income inequality, which has widened in many countries, posing risks to social stability and economic growth. Research in this area could explore the causes and consequences of income inequality, how fiscal policies such as taxation and redistribution programs can mitigate it, or its impact on consumer spending and saving behaviors. The relationship between income inequality and economic mobility is also an important topic, offering a rich field of study for students interested in development and public economics.
• Inflation and Monetary Policy Global inflation rates have surged in recent years due to a variety of factors, including supply chain disruptions and fiscal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding how inflation impacts economies, especially in developing regions, offers many research opportunities. Students can explore the effectiveness of inflation-targeting policies, the role of central banks in stabilizing inflation, or the impact of inflation on income distribution. Thesis topics could also investigate the long-term implications of quantitative easing and other unconventional monetary policies.
• Trade Wars and Global Supply Chains Trade tensions, notably between major global players like the United States and China, have reshaped international trade dynamics. The ongoing trade wars, along with supply chain disruptions, have affected industries worldwide. Thesis research could explore the economic consequences of tariffs and trade barriers, the impact on global supply chains, or how trade disputes influence foreign direct investment (FDI). Students interested in international trade might also examine the economic effects of protectionist policies or the role of trade agreements in mitigating these issues.

Recent Trends in Economics

The rapid evolution of technology, societal shifts, and environmental concerns have given rise to new trends in economics that are shaping modern research.

• Digital Economies and E-commerce The digital transformation of economies has revolutionized how businesses and consumers interact. E-commerce has expanded significantly, particularly during the pandemic, and research can focus on the economic impact of this shift. Students may explore topics such as the economic benefits and challenges of digital platforms, the role of cryptocurrencies in financial markets, or how digital economies are changing labor markets. With the rise of online marketplaces and remote work, the economic implications of technology adoption provide rich research areas.
• Behavioral Economics and Consumer Decision-Making Behavioral economics has gained prominence by challenging traditional economic assumptions about rational decision-making. This field investigates how cognitive biases and psychological factors influence economic behavior. Research could focus on how individuals make savings, investment, or consumption decisions under uncertainty, or how “nudges” can be used to promote sustainable behaviors or healthier lifestyles. Examining how behavioral economics can inform public policy is another compelling thesis topic, particularly in areas like tax compliance or retirement planning.
• Circular Economy and Sustainability With increasing awareness of environmental challenges, the circular economy model—focused on minimizing waste and reusing resources—has emerged as a key trend. Thesis topics in this area might explore the economic benefits of transitioning to a circular economy, the role of government policies in supporting green business practices, or the relationship between sustainability and economic growth. Research could also examine specific industries, such as how the circular economy is impacting the fashion, manufacturing, or energy sectors.

Future Directions in Economics

As technology and global challenges continue to evolve, future research in economics will need to address emerging issues that have the potential to transform economies and societies.

• Automation, AI, and the Future of Work Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping industries, raising important questions about the future of work. Many economists are concerned about how AI and automation will affect labor markets, particularly in terms of job displacement, wage inequality, and skills requirements. Thesis topics might explore the impact of automation on different sectors, how education systems can adapt to future labor market needs, or how governments can implement policies to support workers in transitioning to new roles. This area of research is particularly timely as automation continues to expand its reach across industries.
• Climate Change and Environmental Economics The economic impact of climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Future research can focus on how economies can transition to low-carbon systems, the costs of climate adaptation, or the role of economic policies in mitigating environmental degradation. Students interested in environmental economics could investigate the economic feasibility of carbon taxes, the costs and benefits of renewable energy transitions, or how environmental regulations affect industry competitiveness. With global efforts to address climate change intensifying, the intersection of economics and environmental sustainability offers fertile ground for research.
• Global Health Economics and Pandemics The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the economic vulnerabilities of health systems worldwide. Future research can focus on the long-term economic impacts of pandemics, the role of healthcare infrastructure in promoting economic resilience, or how governments can design policies to improve public health outcomes while maintaining economic stability. Students could also examine how health economics intersects with labor markets, exploring topics such as the economic impact of telemedicine, the effects of healthcare spending on GDP growth, or the role of global cooperation in managing pandemics.

Economics offers a wide range of topics that are not only academically stimulating but also deeply relevant to the challenges the world faces today. From the traditional focus on fiscal and monetary policies to emerging fields like digital economies and environmental economics, the discipline provides a rich platform for research that can make a real-world impact. Choosing a thesis topic that reflects current trends, addresses pressing global issues, and anticipates future economic challenges will not only contribute to academic development but also position students to be thought leaders in their fields.

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Home > School, College, or Department > CUPA > Economics > Economics Honors Theses

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Theses from 2024 2024.

An exploration of degrowth: Reimagining the economy in the face of climate change , Nicole K. Martinez-Bergman

Theses from 2023 2023

Exploring the Relationship Between Green Space and Academic Performance , Audrey Demeaux

The Past, Present, and Future of the Latino Paradox , Sheila Flores

Designing the Future: The Influence of Lloyd J. Reynolds on American Product Innovation , Bander Qadan

Theses from 2022 2022

The Effect of STEM Education on Women , Jasmine Gloden

School Lunch Policy and Parental Working Trends , Sophia D. Paniagua

Covid's Impact on Nurses & Their Labor Market , Joshua Stanfill

Theses from 2021 2021

The Meghan Markle Effect: An Analysis of a 21st Century Celebrity through a Veblenian Perspective , Lucy Jensen

Police Union Contracts and Impediments to Accountability: A Case Study Analysis of PPA Bargaining Agreements , Elizabeth Ott

The Development of Community Relations with Low-Socioeconomic Status, Black Communities and Provisional Equity of Fire and Emergency Medical Services , Claire R. Rutgers

What is the Impact of Economic Stimulus Measures on COVID-19 Mortality Rates? , Stephanie C. Santaguida

Theses from 2020 2020

Economic Analysis of Green Marketing: The Correlation Between Consumers and Firms Through Environmental Incentives , Naomi Joyce

Nigerien Fertility Choice in the Face of Desertification , Samson R. Swan

Theses from 2019 2019

Impacts of a Parental Consent Law on Teen Birth and Abortion Rates in Kansas , Cameryn Carr

Reference-Dependence Performance: Managing and Meeting Expectations , Jose A. Rojas-Fallas

Theses from 2018 2018

Reform in the European Union: the Need for Tighter Integration , Adriana Acuna

Exploring Cap-and-Trade: a California Case Study , Madison Daisy Hathaway

The Effects of Aging, Prolonged Life Expectancy and Retirement on the American and Japanese Social Security Systems , Torgen Karns

Bitcoins in Venezuela: Examining the Origins, Nature, and Viability of Cryptocurrencies in the Hyperinflated Country of Venezuela , Connor Wulf

Theses from 2017 2017

Spotify, Piracy and Patronage: How Consumers Make Decisions Regarding Musical Consumption in the Streaming Age , Joseph K. Drevets

Theses from 2016 2016

The European Coal and Steel Community: the Path Towards European Integration , Nicholas Hudson

Wholesale Peak Demand Pricing , Jarek R. Hunger

Mills and Veblen: An Institutional Analysis , Matthew Klosterman

Collective Intervention: an Analysis of the Political Issues Regarding Secession, Self-Determination, and Sovereignty in the Republic of Kosovo , Benjamin Werthan

Theses from 2015 2015

Understanding Patterns of Localized Poverty in the United States: Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses in Contemporary Statistical Analysis , Gregory Dyck

The French Economy: An Examination of Competition and Regulation , Katherine Quick

Theses from 2014 2014

How has India's Rapidly Growing ICT Sector Impacted its Rural Poor? , Jasmine Bartolome

Selected Critiques of the Philosophical Underpinnings of the Neoclassical School , Thomas Howell

Theses from 2013 2013

How Old Regimes Help New Economic Growth , Bondon Kawamoto

An Assessment of Hydroelectric Feasibility at Colonel Charles D. Maynard Dam in Tucker, Arkansas , Connor Quigley

An Inquiry into the Division of Labor , Raul Reyes

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

Thirlwall's Law and Krugman's 45-degree Rule: Mathematically Identical, Mutually Exclusive , Karl Garbacik

Innovation, Markets, and Evolution , Mitch Green

Financial Illiteracy: Prevalence, Consequences, and Solutions , Gerald Matasy

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

The Impact of Corruption on the Timing and Mode of Entry by U.S. Firms in China , Jacob Billings

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

The Science of Persuasion in Recent Discourse on T.R. Malthus: An Exercise in the Analysis of Rhetoric in Economics , Laila Winner

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134 Economics Thesis Topics: Ideas for Outstanding Writing

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

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

The issue is:

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

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

📊 Microeconomics

📈 macroeconomics.

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

⭐ What Does a Thesis in Economics Look Like?

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

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

Or why not both!

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

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

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

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

🔥 Supreme Economics Thesis Topics List

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

👍 Economics Bachelor’s Thesis Topics

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

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

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

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

😲 Economics Master’s Thesis Topics

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

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

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

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

📑 More Economics Thesis Topics: Theme

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

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

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

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

• The connection between employment interest and money.

🤔 Development Economics

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

👨‍💼 Behavioral Economics

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

• Optimism and pessimism for future behavior.

💼 Financial Economics

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

🌱 Agricultural Economics

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

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

🤝‍Economic Sociology

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

📚 The List of Ph.D. Topics in Economics

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

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

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

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

📝 How to Select an Economics Thesis Topic

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

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

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

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

🔗 References

• Economics Thesis Topics List: Seminars Only
• How To Pick A Topic For Your Economics Research Project Or Master’s Thesis: INOMICS, The Site for Economists
• What Do Theses and Dissertations Look Like: KU Writing Center, the University of Kansas
• Writing Economics: Robert Neugeboren with Mireille Jacobson, University of Harvard
• Economics Ph.D. Theses: Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School, IDEAS_RePEc
• World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018: United Nations
• Undergraduate Honors Theses: Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
• Economics Department Dissertations Collection: Economics Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Topics for Master Theses: Department of Economics, NHH, Norwegian School of Economics
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The dilemma I faced in getting Thesis proposal for my M Phil programme is taken away. Your article would be a useful guide to many more students.Thank you for your guidance.

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

I wants it for msc thesis

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

Thank you, Idris!

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

Excellent research

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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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