Executive MSc in International Finance (MIF) Assignment

Assignment Task

Introduction

The Master in International Finance is completed with a master thesis project. The aim of this document is to provide you with a complete set of guidelines on the thesis project:

• 2 types of theses: a research empirical master thesis or a company project
• How to write a thesis?
• What are the requirements regarding formatting, etc.?
• How to manage your thesis project?
• What data are available at Amsterdam Business School?

What is a “research” empirical master thesis?

The aim of the master thesis is to provide you with insights in, experiences with and improvements of skills in applied scientific research in the field of finance. Your master thesis must be a “research” master thesis and it must reflect your ability and qualification to conduct independent “research”. Here, the term “research” does not relate solely to the traditional “scientific method”,1 but is used to cover a whole range of activities that represent careful study or investigation based on a systematic understanding and critical awareness of knowledge. As such, there are several permissible formats for a research master thesis:

Typical structure of an empirical master thesis

Let’s start with a model for the structure of a “classic” (i.e., empirical) master’s thesis in finance. Importantly, these are just rough guidelines—deviations for the suggested structure are possible and in many cases even desirable. Below we also explain how the structure of a “non-classic” thesis may differ (or not differ) from the structure of an empirical thesis.

Questions

1. What are the main theories in the existing literature?

2. What do these theories predict (in the context of your research)?

3. Are there important debates in the literature?

4. What empirical evidence is found in line with these theories?

5. How does your research relate to existing research?

6. If applicable (e.g., if you work on a regulatory or corporate governance reform): what is the relevant institutional background?

7. What type of data do you need?

8. What statistical relationship/econometric model are you going to test using this data? (give equation)

9. How does your research design allow testing for a causal effect of variable x on variable y? That is, to want extent does your 6 research point to a causal relationship, rather than just correlation.

10. What are important control variables and what do you expect to find for these variables?

11. How does the significance and the sign of the various coefficients relate to the hypothesis that you want to test?

Data and descriptive statistics

In this section you list data sources and try to give the reader some feeling for the data that you have collected. Apart from telling the reader where you got the data from you should also provide some descriptive statistics.

Research 

In practice, nobody will write down the sections of a research thesis or article in the order in which they are presented. For example, most researchers will write the introduction after having completed all other sections

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