Thesis Supervision

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: One-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.

1. Research question (clearly stated and sufficiently specific; we can refine it further in the meeting)
2. Motivation (why it is interesting, and what it adds)
3. Data (if applicable: dataset(s), access, key variables)
4. Approach and methodology (theoretical, empirical, quantitative; identification strategy if relevant)
5. 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.

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