I supervise Bachelor and Master theses in macroeconomics and related fields. Supervision and thesis writing are conducted in English only.
1. Getting started
- Email me to request supervision and propose a first meeting.
- In your email, briefly include: tentative topic or research question, programme and level (BSc/MSc), and your intended timeline.
2. After the first meeting: 1-page project outline
Before the second meeting, submit a maximum 1-page outline (PDF is fine). This will be discussed in the second meeting to check feasibility and agree on next steps.
- Research question (clearly stated and sufficiently specific; we can refine it further in the meeting)
- Motivation (why it is interesting, and what it adds)
- Data (if applicable: dataset(s), access, key variables)
- Approach and methodology (theoretical, empirical, quantitative; identification strategy if relevant)
- Three relevant academic references (journal articles preferred)
3. Meetings and communication
- Meetings are typically scheduled every 2–3 weeks (unless otherwise agreed).
- Please send any materials for discussion by the day before the meeting.
- You are responsible for booking meetings and keeping track of programme deadlines and formal requirements.
4. Expectations for empirical work
- Have a realistic data access plan early.
- Maintain reproducible code and a clear project structure (data, scripts, outputs).
- Be prepared to justify variable choices and identification assumptions.
5. Roles
- The thesis is your independent work. I provide guidance and feedback on feasibility, structure, and academic quality.
- Feedback is most effective when you share concrete drafts, figures, or code snippets together with specific questions.
6. Thesis defense
The oral defense consists of a short presentation followed by a discussion.
| Activity |
Bachelor |
Master |
| Student presentation |
10–12 min |
20–25 min |
| Discussion |
13–15 min |
30–35 min |
| Grading |
5 min |
5 min |
| Total |
30 min |
60 min |
Presentation
- Most students use slides, and a projector or screen is usually available, but slides are not required.
- You must defend in the same language in which you wrote your thesis.
- The oral exam evaluates your economics, not your accent or perfect fluency.
- Focus on the big picture and the overall structure of the thesis rather than every technical detail.
- A strong presentation usually explains the research question, why it matters, the method, the data if relevant, the main findings, and the overall message.
- There are usually no interruptions during the presentation, apart from occasional brief clarifying questions.
Discussion
- The discussion usually starts with questions from the supervisor and then develops into a broader conversation about the thesis.
- If a question is unclear, ask for clarification. That is completely fine and does not count against you.
- For example, you can ask: “Do I understand correctly that you are asking about X?”, “Could you please reformulate the question?”, or “Would you like an intuition, an example, or a more technical explanation?”
- It is often better to clarify first than to answer a different question than the one that was intended.
Link back: Teaching · Contact