The Chair of Finance & Banking supervises theses in the field of finance with a reference to issues of financial risk management, banking or behavioral finance. Bachelor theses are usually literature reviews with a focus on recent scientific topics; in the case of Master theses, we mostly offer empirically-oriented theses with a focus on the latest scientific topics. However, this does not preclude occasional literature reviews for master's theses as well.

In addition to the necessary interest in financial issues and the corresponding knowledge acquired during their studies, students should be able to handle statistical analysis software (e.g., R or STATA), especially for empirical work (especially relevant for master's theses).

The supervision of theses in cooperation with firms is generally possible - preferably in cooperation with consulting companies, providers of financial services, and insurance companies.

Theses can be written in German or English.

Prerequisite for writing a bachelor thesis

    Sufficient number of credit points: 142

Prerequisite for the preparation of a Master's thesis

    Successfully completed seminar with a focus on financial economics

Below are some possible topics:

Bachelor Theses:

    Machine Learning in Finance - a review, a critical analysis and first use cases.
    Gambling in financial markets - a survey on risk preferences of investors
    The influence of culture on financial risk-taking and financial decision-making
    Capital market reactions to earnings announcements (earnings surprises)
    Social interactions in behavioral finance research
    Peer effects in finance
    Surprising risk factors in asset pricing
    Barriers to sustainable investments

Master theses:

    Influence of earnings announcements on the stock market
    An examination of crypto data consistency and possible implications: comparing different sources for crypto data
    The value of crowdsourced earnings forecasts
    How do investors (RobinHood) react to Twitter posts by Elon Musk?
    Textual analysis of WallStreetBets posts: Do investors feel the mood of the market?
    Unbundling E, S and G: Should ESG be reduced to just emissions?
    Are people biased against sustainable investments?
    ESG uncertainty - Systematic literature review

Other topics and suggestions are available upon request.

We assign topics for theses on a quarterly basis. Please contact us with your own topic suggestions or 3 preferences from the topics we have suggested before April 1, July 1, October 1, or January 1, respectively. Within approximately 2 weeks after this date we will then be able to provide you with a topic proposal.

At the beginning of each semester (April and October) there is also an introductory meeting for all thesis writers. The respective date will be published on our websites.

Nina Klocke (nina.klocke@uni-due.de) is available as your contact person. Please approach us with suggestions for topics in which you are interested.