MSc Dissertation Economics and Finance

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: to be confirmed
• Assessment: an 8000-word dissertation (100%)

For your dissertation you may choose to:

• extend your econometrics project
• develop a topic from an option module in conjunction with the option convenor, or
• develop an independent topic in consultation with a member of staff.

The dissertation may be on any subject related to material covered in the programme, but we advise you to stick to projects containing a substantial element of statistical or numerical analysis.

Your dissertation should have:

• a well-defined research question
• a review of relevant literature showing familiarity with recent published research
• a review of theoretical issues relevant to the topic
• a review of empirical evidence relevant to the topic
• clear conclusions
• adequate referencing and a clear academic literary style.

We ask you to submit a one-page proposal by the first week of spring term stating the basic idea of the project, what data and computing facilities will be required and whether or not these are available.

The dissertation is intended to demonstrate your ability to work independently. There will be lectures on how to write a dissertation after the exam period, and staff will be available up to the end of June to give informal advice. You then complete your research and write up the dissertation in July and August for submission by the end of September.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• show that you have good knowledge of the relevant literature on your chosen topic
• identify an interesting question associated with the topic and analyse the question in a new way or with new data
• demonstrate you have a good grasp of techniques (statistical, numerical or theoretical) relevant for analysing the question
• present the results of your analysis in a clear and convincing manner, within the word limit.