Potential thesis topics

This page suggests some potential topics for pre-MSc and MSc theses. Of course, you are not constrained to any of those topics but I personally consider them interesting and relevant and reasonably doable in the context of a pre-MSc/MSc thesis.

If you plan to write your MSc thesis with me, please contact me and/or the MSc thesis course coordinator before submitting your preferences/supervisor placement.

Economic growth & development macro

• Estimation of macroeconomic production functions

• Does what you import matter? Quality of imported intermediate inputs and growth

• Cyclical and structural patterns in income convergence

• The role of demography and female labor during growth accelerations

• Cyclical and structural patterns in income convergence

• The role of institutions during growth accelerations

• To what extent can capital externalities account for cross-country income differences?

• Cross-country capital dynamics in the long run and economic growth

• Convergence of sectoral productivities

• Drivers (and patterns) of sectoral productivity differences

• Remittances and growth: what are the channels? (saving, investment, stabilization? GDP vs. GNI effects)

• Labor share: determinants, relevance, effects, measurement

• Trade liberalization and fiscal spending: patterns and effects

Resource economics & sustainability

• The relationship between inequality and emissions/resource use

• Natural capital accounting

• Measuring inclusive/sustainable wealth of nations

• Development aid and climate change

• Structural change and climate emissions

Political economy

• Voting patterns in the European Parliament (with a focus on corporate tax matters)

• Corporate lobbying in the European Parliament

• Determinants and consequences of (civil) wars

• The violent legacy of conflicts (replication, application to other settings, gender violence)

FDI

• FDI and tax havens & the role of conduit FDI/SPEs