7/28/2019 Advice for Students Writing BA or MA Theses
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Christian Groth, Feb. 2010Department of EconomicsUniversity of
Copenhagen
Advice for students writing a BA or MA thesis
1. Setting up a project
A thesis should be an examination of an economic question. Thus
you should attempt to phrase
your topic in the form of a question. It should be about
something that interestsyou. You shouldsketch a reason why you
think answering the question is of interest. And you should sketch
how
to proceed in an attempt to answer the question.
1.1 A theoretical question
It takes some time to find out what the question should be. The
question may be of a theoretical
nature: What theoretical approaches to an explanation of a given
phenomenon exist and what are
their strengths and weaknesses?
Or you may extract a theoretical statement or a policy
suggestion from the literature or from the
media and then discuss it, again in terms of strengths and
weaknesses. There often exist
interesting, but somewhat differing expert opinions upon which
you can draw.
1.2 An empirical question
The question could be about what empirical evidence there exists
concerning a certain
hypothetical relationship. For example: What estimates exist as
to the size of the government
spending multiplier under different circumstances? What is known
about the interest elasticity of
money demand or investment demand? What is known about labor
supply or participation
elasticities for different groups, including high-income
groups?
Or you might want yourself to make an empirical estimation or
carry out an empirical test of a
hypothesis. Preferably, previous studies of the same problem
should exist, based on other data.
You should in advance think about: What alternative data
outcomes are ex ante possible? What
will I be able to conclude ex post in each situation? If the
data outcome is A, then . If the data
outcome is not A, then .
7/28/2019 Advice for Students Writing BA or MA Theses
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2. How to get started
2.1 Dont ask too big questions and dont be afraid of asking
questions that have been asked
by others before. It will often be possible in practice to give
the question or the answer your
twist.
2.2 You may get inspiration from good textbooks, good articles,
and existing economic
policy debates. Publications from a national economic council or
an international economic
organization may be of help. Stimulating and at the same time
accessible (non-technical) brief
articles are published in journals likeJ ournal of Economic
Perspectivesand the electronicThe
Economists Voice(access
viahttp://www.econ.ku.dk/english/libraries/journals/ojournals/).
Searching via Google or Google Scholar, using different
headwords, may also give inspiration.
Some prominent economists also have very informative
websites.
2.3 Remember: startby writingsomeidea down, vague as it may be.
Then read something
about the topic, write, then read, write, read, return to what
you have written, and so on. The
point is that writing comes first. This will make reading
productive and creative.
2.4 Consult a potential supervisor when: a) you think you have
found the question you want
the thesis to examine; b) you have written a set of brief notes
related to this question; and c) you
have set up a brief list of literature of relevance. The
potential supervisor may respond that the
project makes sense and is manageable. Or that clarification is
needed and that narrowing down
the project in this or that way is recommended.
3. Working on a project
3.1 When a project has been formulated and agreed upon by a
supervisor, the project is
running. The supervisor may suggest useful additional
literature. The fact that you now have a
well-defined question implies that you are already halfway
w.r.t. the organization and
composition of the thesis. The supervisor may help with
particulars. Remember: youare the
originator and initiator, the supervisor is your consultant.
3.2 During the work you may also find help in for example the
New Palgrave Dictionary of
Economics, which is electronically available
here:http://www.econ.ku.dk/english/libraries/links/. Other
information sources include the various
series of handbooks in economics (one comprehensive series is
published by Elsevier North-
Holland) and websites of national and international economic
organizations.
3.3 The work process will often be a kind of stepwise dynamic
interaction between writing,
exploring, calculating, reading, consulting, writing, etc. The
very last sections to be written are
