Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Resource Economics

Theses

Thesis supervision at the Resource Economics Group

Master Thesis

Procedure
  1. If you are interested in a master thesis at the Resource Economics Group please first consult the research we are undertaking, previous master theses and example topics from our website.
  2. Before starting, we expect all master thesis students to participate in one of our Study Projects. This helps to learn the required background and methods for the thesis.
  3. 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).
  4. You will receive further instructions on whether and how you can join the Resource Economics Group for your master thesis during the study project.
  5. Official registration of the master thesis is not earlier than 6 months before the planned submission.
  6. 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)

 

Topics, Thesis in Progress, Thesis Completed