Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Resource Economics

Theses

Thesis supervision at the Resource Economics Group

Master Thesis

Procedure
  1. Consult the topics list, the Resource Economics Group website, other students or scientists that work in or collaborate with the Resource Economics Group, and discuss ideas in the AER module. The AER module is specifically intended to prepare a thesis.
  2. We expect knowledge in environmental and resource economics or institutional economics, the ability to search and digest scientific literature, and knowledge of typical methods (e.g. game theory, simulation, qualitative or quantitative empirical social science methods).
  3. Informal request for master thesis supervision per pdf request form, send it to Ines Jeworski (i.jeworski@hu-berlin.de). This form is the basis for checking whether a thesis can be supervised at the Resource Economics Group. The request might be declined if a supervision is not possible within the available competences and capacities at the Resource Economics Group.
  4. The topic, approach, responsible supervisors, and tentative time plan will be discussed at an appointment with Klaus Eisenack and a second supervisor. The formal decision about the supervision and the official topic will be made after this appointment.
  5. After confirmation: If available, contact to other MA thesis students and PhDs with similar/earlier topics is established. Work can begin.
  6. Official registration of the master thesis not earlier than 6 months before the planned submission.
  7. Every master student is obliged to participate in the master colloquium (MaKo). It is also obligatory to defend the thesis after submission at MaKo.

 

Additional information
Formal requirements
  • Thesis can be written in German or English
  • About 50 pages, not more than 100 pages; exceptions need to be agreed upon with supervisor
  • Use a coherent style for citations and references, preferably Harvard style (author-year; see, e.g. https://guides.library.harvard.edu/cite/guides)
  • For submission we prefer duplex printed pages and an accompanying pdf to the supervisor.

 

Example of a typical outline
  1. Introduction: main motivation, main research question
  2. State of the art: Background and context from of the literature / field of study / case etc. (only background that is necessary for the further thesis).
  3. Theoretical basis
  4. Materials and Methods
  5. Results (own; reported results under point 2)
  6. Discussion: main limitations and weaknesses, clarifying contributions to the state of the art; implications of the results for policy (if applicable); outlook and future research
  7. Conclusions: summarize main points (starting motivation, research question, main results, contributions to state of the art, key implications)

 

Forms, Topics, Thesis in Progress, Thesis Completed