Nach erfolgreicher Teilnahme am Vergabeverfahren der Universität bietet der Lehrstuhl für Finance Themen aus den unten aufgeführten Bereichen an. Alternativ können Sie auch einen eigenen Themenvorschlag einbringen. Abschlussarbeiten beinhalten typischerweise einen empirischen oder theoretischen Teil. 

Die Anmeldung der Abschlussarbeit erfolgt idealerweise zu Beginn eines Semesters, kann jedoch prinzipiell zu jedem Zeitpunkt bis Ende des Semesters stattfinden. Wir bitten, von weiteren Nachfragen abzusehen bis der Vergabeprozess abgeschlossen ist.

Mögliche Themenbereiche sind zum Beispiel:

• The Effect of Regulatory Changes on Asset Prices
• Monetary Policy and Financial Markets
• Banks and Global Dollar Funding
• Quantitative Analysis of Exchange Rates
• Textual Analysis in Finance
• Quantitative Approaches to Digital Currencies
• Cryptocurrency Market Microstructure
• Machine Learning in Financial Markets
• The Information Content of Option-Implied Moments
• Forecasting with Option-Implied Information

I. Application Procedure

Registration for a master thesis at the Department of Finance is centralized and digitized for all chairs.

In principal, you can apply for any chair of the department (except for those whose chair holders are currently on sabbaticals). Every chair is expected to supervise up to 6 students. The matching procedure is intended to meet students' preferences as closely as possible.

Those students who cannot be allocated to a supervisor are going to receive a preferential treatment in the following term.

II. Application Deadlines

Registration for a master thesis in the Department of Finance is now possible twice a year, so that students can only start with their master theses on these dates:

• 1. April
• 1. October

Application is possible during the following periods:

Please use the online tool provided on the department's homepage for the registration procedure. The tool is to make sure that you successfully register for a master thesis. Before starting with the registration, please make sure that you have your personal data, student-ID as well as information on the credit points and grades of your classes in your master's program (the tool requires course and lecturers' names as well) at hand. Please note that wrong entries might lead to cancellation of your application. It is particularly important that you enter your E-Mail address correctly.

After a successful registration you will see the message "Thank you for your application" on the screen and also receive a confirmation E-mail with a personal password. If either case has been unsuccessful, you should repeat the procedure.

It is also possible to log-in by using your student-ID and password in order to edit any information after the first registration. However, please note that no changes can be made after the registration deadline. Your registration date for the master thesis plays no role in the assignment of supervisors (no first-come-first-serve principle).

In the registration form, you are asked to specify a preference list of supervising chairs. Please note that the tool only accepts registrations in which you rank all potential supervising chairs according to your preferences.

After the final assignment of supervisors students still have the alternative to withdraw from their master thesis at the Department of Finance without any consequences. In this case, registration at the Department of Finance will also be possible in the following term, yet no preferential treatment is to be expected.

Students and supervising chairs will be notified by E-Mail. The master registration tool of the Department of Finance does not replace the official registration with the examination office. Therefore, you still need the form "Assignment and Advisory of Master Thesis" from the examination office which is then to be signed by your supervising professor.

Potential topics for the master theses can be derived from the chair’s website or you can also contact the chairs directly in order to have an idea whether a topic of your interest is in the scope of the chair’s research field.

III. Topic Assignment

The most important factor in allocating students to supervisors are the students’ preferences. When more than 6 students apply to a particular chair as their first preference, the automated selection process is based on grades, classes attained and a random factor, where capacities are not sufficient.

Students, who have not been matched with their first preference, will be allocated to their next highest preference depending on the remaining capacities after allocating first preferences.

Due to the design of the tool it is absolutely necessary that you rank all the supervisors according to your preference. However, an allocation to a supervisor does not create any obligation to actually write your master thesis at the chair to which you have been allocated. Yet, please note that it is also unlikely that another chair of the department has spare capacities to supervise you as available capacities will be used in the allocation process.

IV. Technical problems

If you have not been able to register for the thesis for a good reason (e.g. you are an exchange student and new to Goethe University), or if you experience technical problems while registering for the master thesis, please contact Chair of Finance and Economics.

Link to registration

V. Thesis topics

You can suggest a topic or choose a topic from the list of potential thesis topics above.