Contents

The thesis or dissertation should be an academic paper in a publishable format containing an original, but relatively simple, research contribution about any topic in applied economics or business.

The data and/or the question are provided by the student himself or herself, using the tools and techniques that have been learned during the Master classes.

A contribution means that there should be a new result or finding or insight, being this theoretical or empirical, in terms of public policy or managerial recommendation. Testing or illustrating an old hypothesis/es with new data or information is perfectly acceptable.

The introduction should include a motivation and a clear research question, together with a summary of the results. The last paragraph of the introduction should be a brief explanation of the contents of the remainder of sections. The relationship with the existing literature could be in the introduction or in a specific section after it.

A conclusion should summarize what the thesis has contributed and what are the main results or findings.

The content of the thesis should be rigorous, with the style of a scholarly paper and a scientific and not journalistic or literary style. Rhetoric should be kept to a minimum. All statements should be well justified by the relevant literature, data, information or logic.

Cut or copy and paste are not allowed. IA should be avoided. Any degree of plagiarism will be severely punished.

The thesis must be written in English. Language mistakes should be avoided by asking if necessary a proficient English speaker to read it and edit it before submission.

Acceptable theses include:
-An econometric or statistical exercise motivated by a theoretical framework. The data set can be constructed by the researcher or obtained from an existing data base or data center, institution, organization, etc. The description of the data set is in this case an important part ofthe thesis.
-A theoretical modelwith public policy or firm management implications (applied theory).
-A detailed case study, using quantitative or qualitative research methods, using rigorous information and justified by a specific theoretical framework.
-A systematic review or meta-analysis of the existing literature on a well defined and specific given topic.
-A report of an experiment.
-A computer simulation or calibration analysis based on a theoretical model.
-Other formats can be considered at the proposal of the student (i.e. a business plan, a market reserach, etc.)

A good training to see potential research methodologies and topics, as well as presentation skills, is to attend departmental seminars.