Dissertation

EMEC025S6 (30 credits)
Year 4

Aims of the Dissertation

The aim of the Dissertation is to give students an opportunity to apply the knowledge and key skills that they have acquired over the previous three years to complete a piece of original research in economics and/or finance.

Students should note that the fourth-year project has a very significant weight in the final degree classification.

Objectives of the Dissertation

On successful completion of the project, students will have demonstrated that they have:

• selected a suitable topic for investigation;
• collected, described and analysed a relevant data set;
• conducted a literature review;
• presented their results in an interesting and coherent manner;
• met the project deadline;
• submitted a piece of work that is entirely their own contribution.

Objectives of the Lectures

On successful completion of the course of lectures, students should:

• understand where to get ideas for their project;
• be able to fill in a project proposal form;
• know where to find relevant data;
• know the importance of checking the accuracy of the data used;
• understand the importance of ensuring that data can be collected or made available in good time;
• know how to conduct a literature review;
• know how to describe and analyse data;
• know how to write up a project
• understand the importance of good presentation;
• understand the importance of keeping good progress records;
• understand the importance of good time management, particularly the importance of meeting the deadline for handing in the project;
• understand the unacceptability of plagiarism;
• understand the standard required of an undergraduate project;
• understand the importance of confirming the feasibility of the project proposal from the beginning;
• understand the importance of building up a good relationship with their project supervisor and what they can and cannot expect from him/her;
• understand how the project will be assessed.

Examples of previous topic titles are:

• An analysis of the top four mergers and acquisitions in 1985
• Demographic changes and how they affect house prices and owner occupation
• Testing the Black-Scholes Model in the LDC options market
• The Argentine economic turnaround 1989 – 1993
• Theoretical valuations applied to the eurosterling convertible bond market
• Unemployment and owner occupation: is there a link?
• How foreign exchange markets react to economic data on release day
• The yield curve and consumption growth
• Latin American emerging stock markets: integration vs segmentation in a global framework
• The effect of international capital flows on saving, investment and the price of capital in the UK
• Forecasting the Baltic Freight Index
• Arbitrage opportunities in efficient markets
• Inside knowledge and directors’ transactions
• A comparison of technical trading rule profitability in the foreign exchange market with other financial markets
• The impact of capital adequacy requirements on banking systems world-wide
• The effects of exchange rate variability on output and employment
• Management buyouts and the return on capital
• Equity performance and changes in exchange rate systems
• The Basic State Retirement Pension Scheme and its ability to withstand structural demographic change
• An econometric study of stock price behaviour
• Aspects of the UK money market that may have to change as European Monetary Union evolves
• Housing inheritance
• The “Big Bang” and UK stock market efficiency.
• The relationship between price and volume for a financial asset.
• Credit restrictions and consumer spending: is evidence consistent with an unrestricted market?
• Theoretical/empirical model of corporate real and financial decisions.
• Testing CAPM and ARBM.
• Analysis of pension funding arrangements in Europe.
• Role and significance of professional bodies in City (e.g. Institutional Shareholders Committee, National Association of Pension Funds, Association of British Insurers, British Merchant Bankers Association, Fund Managers Association, Building Societies Association, Association of Unit Trusts, Association of Investment Trusts, etc.).
• Analysis of effectiveness of mergers between merchant banks, broking houses and jobbing firms to create new types of investment banks post-Big Bang.
• Analysis of debt-equity swaps in LDCs.
• Exchange rate and the stock market.
• Monetary policy and the stock market.
• Inflation and the stock market.
• Investment and the stock market.