Teaching
In Fall 2024, I was lecturer for Corporate Finance Theory, and lecturer for Advanced Industrial Organization: Pricing, Information and Digital Markets (joint course with Anders Munk-Nielsen)
Supervision - Bachelor Project and Masters' Thesis
I regularly supervise students writing their bachelor project or masters' thesis in the Economics Department of the University of Copenhagen. My main areas of expertise are Industrial Organization (for my research) and Corporate Finance (for some of my teaching). I have supervised many students who have written within these fields, as well as others working on behavioral economics or other settings with strategic behavior (applied game theory). In terms of methodology, my expertise is mainly in economic theory, but I have supervised a number of students who have carried out empirical work.
Would you possibly like me to supervise you on your project/thesis? If so, the first step is to read the information below. The second, if you are still interested, is then to write me an email, with a 1-page description of your proposed topic and research question. You can find more details on this 1-page description below. The idea behind the 1-page description, as well as other elements described below, is to provide some structure on the supervising process, to help make it as fruitful and efficient as possible.
Finding a research question
The process of finding a research question usually involves moving from the more general to the more specific. One way to think of this process is in terms of a field, an area, a topic, and then a specific angle.
For example, you might want to write in the field of transport economics. Within that field, one area is the economics of parking. Withing that area, a topic could be how resident parking fees affect local house prices. When analyzing that topic, a specific angle could be to focus on Ørestad (or other new areas such as Nordhavn, and Carlsberg Byen) where local residents pay dramatically higher parking prices than in the rest of Copenhagen.
For example, you might want to write in the field of Industrial Organization. Within that field, one area is that of product scarcity, i.e. why shortages sometimes occurs for newly introduced products. Within that area, a topic could be how firms might strategically use scarcity to increase demand for the products. When analyzing that topic, a specific angle could to focus on how strategic scarcity affects consumer learning about product quality.
Thinking in terms of field, area, topic, and specific angle can leave you in a good position to write a precise research question. Sometimes you are almost already there! For example, one question could be: "To what extent do local parking fees affect house prices in Ørestad?" Another could be: "Under what conditions can a seller's choice to strategically restrict capacity increase its profits, by influencing consumer learning?" (Note: these are just examples, which might not necessarily work well for a specific bachelor product or masters' thesis).
There are many different ways to come up with specific ideas about the field, area, topic, and specific angle. These include through:
The news and social media.
Policy documents, and reports from think tanks, interest groups, government bodies and advisory committees
Academic papers. In particular, you may be able to find good background information on a particular area in a survey article (e.g. in the Journal of Economic Literature or Journal of Economic Perspectives) or in the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
Your courses here in the Department
Your own work experience alongside your studies.
The process of finding inspiration, turning it into a precise research question, and using that as a basis to create a nice project or thesis, is not easy. One way to think about it is in terms of dredging out a deep hole.
"Writers who are blessed with inborn talent can freely write novels no matter what they do - or don't do. Like water from a natural spring, the sentences just well up, and with little or no effort these writers can complete a work. Occasionally you'll find someone like that, but, unfortunately, that category wouldn't include me.
I haven't spotted any springs nearby. I have to pound the rock with a chisel and dig out a deep hole before I can locate the source of creativity. To write a novel I have to drive myself hard physically and use a lot of time and effort. Every time I begin a new novel, I have to dredge out another new, deep hole.“
- Haruki Murakami (2009), in "What I talk about, when I talk about running"
Contacting me to become your supervisor
As mentioned above, please send me an email with a 1-page description of your proposed topic and research question. This description should address the following four points:
What is your topic and specific angle? What is your research question?
Why is it interesting or important to study?
How will you study the question (e.g. game theoretic model, econometric analysis)? What might be the most important elements?
What do you expect to find?
I do not expect this 1-page description to contain all the answers regarding your project or thesis. Rather, look at it as a first step, that you can build upon in the weeks and months that follow. Both from my feedback, and from your own thoughts and work.
Scheduling a supervision meeting
If you would like to schedule a supervision meeting, then you need to follow two steps. Step 1 is to follows this link and enter your name in the spreadsheet in one of the available time slots. Step 2 is to send an email to nick.vikander@econ.ku.dk to let me know that you have carried out Step 2.
As a rule, supervision meetings should take place on the days specified in the spreadsheet. If you face exceptional circumstances, then you can email me to see if a change is possible. Time slots will be allocated on a 'first come first served' basis.
Preparing a supervision document
At least 48 hours before each supervision meeting, you should send me an email with a brief agenda for the meeting, and an updated supervision document. This supervision document should build on the 1-page description that you initially wrote about your proposed topic and research question.
The supervision document will provide a brief overview of your research question, the structure of your work, the proposed timeline, and your own comments about your progress so far. The supervision document must be no more than 2 pages for the bachelor project, and no more than 4 pages for the masters' thesis. It will also serve as the starting point for our discussions in the meeting.
You can find more information about the supervision document, with some stylized points / idea about what you can possible include when writing it up, here . You can also find a few examples here and here. Remember to add your own comments, for example as sticky notes, to each section of the supervision document. Your own comments are your reflections on where you are in the process, what you feel comfortable about, where you are in doubt. You should always include at least one positive comment. I will base my supervision on these comments.
If you do not send me the brief agenda and the supervision document in time, then the supervision session will be cancelled, and you will have to reschedule for a later date.
Putting together a skeleton outline
As one of the first steps in your work, I recommend that you put together a skeleton outline for your project. The skeleton outline will help you keep on overview of the planned structure of your paper throughout the writing process. It does not need to be polished at all; I suggest that you stick to bullet points, rather than complete paragraphs. The outline is primarily a tool for you, but it is also something that we can discuss together in the supervision process, and I can give feedback.
In the beginning, the skeleton outline should just give the "bare bones" of the structure you have in mind for the paper: the research question, the names of the various sections and subsections, with a few bullet points about what you want to include in each one. As you continue reading, thinking, and writing, the idea is that you add more bullets points to the outline, fill them in more and more, revise the ones you included earlier, etc. In this way, the skeleton outline will slowly become longer and more detailed, and can serve as a template for when you actually write out the different sections.
Here is an example of a skeleton outline that I put together for one of my own research papers. The paper itself can be found here.
Structuring an economics paper (or thesis)
Below are some resources that provide advice for how to structure a research paper. Not all of this advice will be relevant for your thesis, and in the end it is up to you to decide on the appropriate structure. However, these resources provide some useful food for thought: the typical sections included in an economics paper, the purpose of each section, and how to approach writing them. You are welcome to discuss with me how best to structure your thesis, as part of the supervision process.
Writing in Economics - Thompson Writing Program, Duke University.
Writing Economic Theory Papers - Simon Board and Moritz Meyer-ter-Vehn (2018).
Writing Tips For Economics Research Papers - Plamen Nikolov (2022). See in particular the sections on how to write an Introduction and Literature Review
Useful links:
Advice for from colleagues past and present
Christoph Schottmuller (focus on microeconomics, theory)
Marco Piovesan (focus on behavioral economics, experiments)
Christian Groth (more broadly)