Regulations for Master Thesis

I am looking forward to supervising your Master theses in the following areas:

  • Social Choice
  • Taxation
  • Fiscal Federalism
  • Public Debt Regulations

If you consider writing your thesis, please take note of the following information.

Applying for a Master's Thesis

  • In general, you are responsible for ensuring that you fulfil all the requirements to be eligible to write a thesis and that you comply with all the rules prescribed by your study program. You need to ensure this by consulting the Prüfungsordnung and/or the Studienbüro regarding the official regulations for Master's theses.
  • You have attended and successfully accomplished a module from our (Prof. Barbaro) teaching portfolio and/or a Master's seminar.
  • You need to submit a formal application by email. It should include the following information:
    • The study program you are enrolled in and the number of semesters you have been studying,
    • Your most recent transcript,
    • A recent CV,
  • A proposal for a topic. Please make sure your proposed topic or area of interest is within the scope of the domains we supervise Master's theses in. Be as specific as possible. In particular, it is not sufficient to propose something like "Taxation". Instead, express a particular topic/question. It is beneficial to name a paper on which you wish to build your thesis.

Exposé:

Before application and after our consent on the topic, submit an exposé of around four pages describing the aim and scope of your thesis. The exposé shall include a preliminary table of contents. In general, we expect an empirical contribution. In your exposé, you have to describe the data you intend to use. Your exposé includes a link to your git repo, where you make the code to read the data available (either in Python or R). If you want to refrain from using data, carefully explain what the theoretical contribution of your thesis will be. A mere literature survey is not sufficient.

Why an exposé?

Your Master's thesis is an essential step in your academic career. We want to ensure that we have the exact expectations regarding the topic, methods, and requirements. This avoids disappointments on both sides. Furthermore, we want to make sure you have suitable data and can handle it. An unexpected data problem during the writing period can cause serious issues; we can and will avoid such problems by investing some care before starting.

 

Procedures after your application

  • After receiving your exposé, you will be notified of the outcome of your application. Since we receive many applications, we reserve the right to decline your application.
  • If you are accepted and registered with the Studienbüro, you can begin your thesis work.

Writing your thesis

  • During your processing phase please get in touch with your supervisor to arrange office hours. There is no formal limit on the number and structure of office hours, rather, this depends on individual arrangements with your supervisor with regard to your concrete topic and the corresponding supervision requirements.
  • Please use LaTeX on Overleaf. A template is available.
  • After each office hour (within 1 or 2 days), you need to send your supervisor a brief summary documenting your main points of discussion and in particular, anything you agreed upon during the office hour.
  • Submit all your scripts (e.g., R scripts) to the university's git platform. It is your responsibility to ensure that any result can easily be replicated.

Colloquium

The colloquium will take place shortly before or after your submission.