Guidelines Bachelor thesis and Semester project

Goal of Semester project and Bachelor thesis

The objective of a bachelor thesis or semester project is to provide a detailed analysis and discussion of an economic issue using microeconomic theory and empirical methods.

Requirements for Bachelor Thesis

The student should be familiar with the contents of the following courses (or courses with equivalent contents):

1. Principles of Microeconomics or Managerial Economics
   
2. Energy Economics and Policy
   
3. One lecture in 'Statistics' (not Stochastics)
   
4. Two other lectures out of the field Environmental / Resource Economics  

Requirements for Semester Project

The student should be familiar with the contents of the following courses (or courses with equivalent contents):

1. Principles of Microeconomics
   
2. Energy Economics and Policy
   
3. One lecture 'Statistics' (not Stochastics) or Operations Research

Topics

Semester projects and Bachelor thesis can be written on the following topics:

• Energy economics and policy
  
• Public economics

Form and outline of the thesis

Semester project

Form:

1. Problem description and goal of the thesis
2. Detailed microeconomic description of the problem
3. Discussion of the relevant literature
4. Policy implications

Outline: 15-20 pages (Font: Times New Roman, size 12, line spacing: 1.5, border: double-sided 3 cm)

Bachelor thesis

Form:

1. Problem description and goal of the thesis
2. Detailed microeconomic description of the problem
3. Discussion of the relevant literature
4. Empirical analysis of the problem set
5. Policy implications

Outline: 30-40 pages (Font: Times New Roman, size 12, line spacing: 1.5, border: double-sided 3 cm)

Procedure

A) Choice of the topic

The student has the possibility of making a proposal for your thesis (the topic should be in the field of the institute) or to choose a general topic from the topics given by the institute.

B) Preliminary advisement

The student should contact the institute for a preliminary advisement in order to finalize the topic and choose a thesis supervisor from the institute. The assigned person for preliminary advisement is Dr. Suchita Srinivasan.

C) Proposal

After the preliminary advisement, the student will submit a short proposal. The final decision for the commencement of the thesis is based on this proposal.
The proposal should be maximum two pages and must contain the following points:

• A description fo the problem/ research question
• Methodology
• A description of the data to be used (in case of empirical study)
• Bibliography
• Provisional table of contents

D) Start to write

As soon as the proposal has been accepted you can start writing the thesis.

E) Support and workplace

Semester project
After the discussion of the proposal there is the possibility of having one meeting with your supervisor. After handing in the final report there will be a final discussion.

Bachelor thesis
After the discussion of the proposal there is the possibility of having one meeting with your supervisor. Furthermore you can hand in a draft of the final report in order to get a feedback from your supervisor. After handing in the final report there will be a final discussion.

F) Submitting the thesis

Two copies of your thesis must be handed in, duplex print and bound. In addition, the abstract of the thesis including your e-mail address (in pdf format) is needed for the CEPE website.

G) Evaluation

The following points will be assessed:

• Structure: Structure and outline should be consistent and logical.
• Content: The content must be correct and clear.
• Language: Accurate wording and correct grammar is assumed.
• Empirical analysis: The data collection and analysis must be performed in an accurate and transparent way.
• Literature: The relevant literature should be critically discussed and the references should be correctly cited.