How to find a dissertation topic?

[Canuckonomist]

Originally Posted by GymShorts

Here's what you do to find a dissertation topic:

1. Take a saying from a fortune cookie, say, "You will find happiness in generosity"
2. Add "at the margin" to the end of it.
3. Replace "You" with "Rational economic agents"
4. Then test the hypothesis "Rational economic agents will find happiness in generosity at the margin."
5. When you are finished, remember to cite GymShort's dissertation method.

Brilliant.

[econgirl11]

Really good one, GymShorts... Shall recommend this to others as well.

[Fatrapa]

Originally Posted by injak82

Those who have been through the dissertation defence or those who are familiar with the process, would you mind answering a few of these questions?

1)First, how do you come up with a topic? How do you go from a broad topic to a specific one? Is it after taking a course, or reading a couple of papers?

2)What is the role of a dissertation advisor? Does he/she tell you exactly which topic to investigate? Does your advisor even propose a title for your dissertation? Or is it completely up to the student? Ie is the student responsible for finding a topic on his own and the advisor only role is to make sure that the topic makes any sense?

3)Finally how do you go from reading the theoretical models explained in textbooks such as game theory, information economics and other micro theory topics to writing your own theoretical model? It seems me that doing a dissertation on a purely theoretical topic is extremely difficult

The fortune cookie is definitely the best method. But here are my two cents about your questions:

1) Be open-minded is the key (pretty common answer). I found my master thesis subject while reading a book of Tocqueville...
2) It depends of you and your tutor. I saw my tutor only once during my Master but that was because I love to be independant and he warned me that he would not have a lot of time for me.
3) The best is to take an existing theoretical model and try to modify it a bit. Then naturally, I think, you will be able to find your way to create your own model. But I do not expect to create a pure theoretical before my third or fourth phd year...

Good luck.

[hubrishedge]

I'm pretty sure the purpose of graduate school is to teach you the answer to questions 1 and 3 (and a good portion of those graduating still don't get it right). If I found a useful answer to these questions on an online forum, I'd skip grad school and go right to publishing brilliant papers :-).

[liya1]

You can find a number of economics dissertation topics here:

http://www.ivoryresearch.com/economics-dissertation-topics.php

hope it helps and good luck with your dissertation!

Liya

[italos]

Originally Posted by liya1

You can find a number of economics dissertation topics here:
[link removed]

hope it helps and good luck with your dissertation!

Liya

Are you promoting those scam sites where they sell you fully plagiarized essays where the only thing they care is how to rip off clients???


TM's attention.Check with Custom Essay Writing Fraud - Custom Term Paper Writing Scams before proceeding

[notacolour]

My favorite part is that they guarantee that the dissertation you purchase is "100% plagiarism free."

[Erin]

Caveat emptor.

Yeah, I don't like leaving a link to an essay site (I've seen my own essays for sale on sites!!), but neither do I like editing a post that doesn't violate our guidelines. You're free to offer your opinions on the site (in fact, I'd encourage it in this case), but I'm not free to edit out a link, unless of course it turns out that it is a true scam, a site that infects computers, etc.

[italos]

Originally Posted by Erin

Caveat emptor.

Yeah, I don't like leaving a link to an essay site (I've seen my own essays for sale on sites!!), but neither do I like editing a post that doesn't violate our guidelines. You're free to offer your opinions on the site (in fact, I'd encourage it in this case), but I'm not free to edit out a link, unless of course it turns out that it is a true scam, a site that infects computers, etc.

Actually Erin I have to admit.It was a smart way ,without violating the guidelines, to advertise the company. If you check the link I provided you will see that this is actually a scam company

[Erin]

I actually searched that site a bit looking for information on that company, but didn't see that company mentioned. Do you have a link?