UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX Spring 2024
PLANNING for the MA/MSc/MRes DISSERTATION
(Ahrash Dianat – PGT Director)
The dissertation is a key part of your degree (40 credits).
There are several steps to take that can greatly increase the likelihood:
• that your research will yield substantial results,
• that you can carry out the research with a minimum of unnecessary effort, and
• that it will attract the attention of readers (and, importantly, markers).
This presentation describes some steps that can be taken to achieve the best results and
it gives an overview of the process.
THE PROCEDURE
Sources of Information:
Read the PGT Handbook
Ask the PGT Director (me) and/or the PGT Administrators (Julie Lay and Angharad Pearce)
Timing of Events:
From now until March 22: Think of a topic that interests you.
March 22 (noon): Submit your proposal via FASER.
By the end of April: You will be allocated a supervisor.
PROPOSAL FORM
• A title, which reflects the content
• A brief outline of your topic
1. What you are doing and how it relates to the existing literature
• List a few relevant references.
2. How you plan on doing it (methods)
• If you are doing empirical work, then indicate the sources of data that
you will use and where they can be accessed.
• If you are doing theoretical work, then indicate what type of work it is.
• The names of two or three potential supervisors
– Academic staff members in the economics department.
PROPOSAL
• The submission deadline is March 22 (noon) via FASER.
• Note that the proposal itself will not be marked.
• It is only to make sure that we can find the proper supervisor.
• PLEASE BE AWARE THAT YOU WILL NOT NECESSARILY GET YOUR FIRST
CHOICE.
• Some supervisors are very popular, typically those who are lecturers of PGT
modules. So you will have a better chance if you choose someone else.
HOW TO THINK ABOUT YOUR PROPOSAL
• First, decide on the general topic.
– Pick something that interests you.
• Read some of the relevant literature.
– Most successful dissertations build on existing research in the field of interest.
• Consult with members of academic staff (look at their websites) to see what they are
working on. Ask their advice!
– Be as specific as possible about what you want to do and your intended approach.
– If you make it too vague and/or too general, then you will make it harder for yourself
and your supervisor later on.
– Your proposal needs to answer three questions:
• What, how, and why?
• Remember that you only have a limited time to do this.
– Things take longer than you expect.
• Important: If you are collecting primary data (via original surveys or experiments), then you
must obtain ethical approval prior to conducting the research.
Working on your dissertation: Supervisors
• You should try to meet your supervisor as soon as you are informed of their name to discuss the
project and how you will proceed.
• You should also lay out the rules of your relationship (meetings, how often, away time, and so on).
• In the past, students have failed to do this and they have found it very difficult to meet supervisors
over the break due to scheduling conflicts.
• Interact with your supervisor regularly, but you should not expect to see him/her every week.
– Supervisors are expected to spend up to 4 hours with each student.
– Roughly 3 hours should be used by the end of July and 1 hour for August.
– Keep in touch with your supervisor by email to arrange times for meetings over the summer.
• Remember that the duty of the supervisor is to give you advice and comment on drafts, not to tell
you precisely what to do or to provide you with the data. It is your project!
Working on your dissertation: Research
• It is important to know where you are going, so you need to have a plan.
• The most important element is the hypothesis that you plan to
investigate or test.
– Be clear about what this is (you should be able to write it in a
paragraph).
• Some hypotheses are based on the existing literature, while others are
based on testing theory.
• If you are doing empirical work, then you should be specific about what
the empirical tests are and how they relate to the theory.
– For example, what does the theory say the signs of the parameters
should be?
– You may be interested in the effect of a particular variable in the
presence of other controls.
Working on your dissertation: Research
• If you are doing econometric work, some of the key issues are:
• How to set the data up: cross-sectional/time series/panel.
• Which techniques to use: OLS/IV/ fixed effects/probit/tobit.
• Do some robustness checks. What are the possible criticisms of your
estimates and are there ways to convince the reader that the results are not
spurious?
• If you are doing theoretical work, some of the key issues are:
– Make sure that the model can answer the question you have.
– Be aware of other models that are around.
• If you are planning on doing an extensive survey, the key issue is:
– Make sure you don’t regurgitate other people’s work: we want to see that
you have learned economics while at Essex.
Working on your dissertation: Writing
• Be aware of plagiarism.
– The papers are run through a program to check for similarities. If you do it, then you will
be caught!
• Don’t leave it to the last minute.
– If you want your supervisor to read a draft of your dissertation, then address the issue
early on and remember that supervisors can say no
• A standard format is as follows:
– Abstract: say in a few sentences what you do and what you find.
– Introduction: a short overview of the motivation for the project and the main results.
– Literature review: not necessarily everything you have read, but papers that are
relevant; draw out the key points that relate to your project.
– Main body (example):
• Formally set up the model that you are going to test or explore. Use this to
motivate your tests. Make sure that you use consistent notation and that you
explain it to the reader.
• Outline the data (perhaps report a table of summary statistics). Explain the data
source and how the variables are defined.
Working on your dissertation: Writing
• A standard format is as follows:
– …. Main body (example):
• Present the main results. Using graphs and/or tables is often useful.
• Interpret your results. Relate them to the hypotheses that you set out to test.
• Robustness checks: these can be different techniques, alternative variables, subsets
of the data (e.g., men vs. women).
– Conclusion: briefly summarise the main results and discuss the broader implications.
Note any shortcomings and possibly how the analysis could be improved.
– References: include a full set of references in a list at the end.
• When writing you paper, keep focused and don’t digress too much.
• You should aim for around 7,500 words (excluding references).
Working on your dissertation: Writing
• Final presentation: polish the paper, make sure it is well-written in clear
English, check for typos, label graphs/tables, ensure that it is presented in
an easily readable format.
• Show your supervisor an (almost) final draft of the dissertation before
submitting it, but don’t expect him/her to read all the iterations. Do this
well in advance of the deadline.
• Submit your dissertation by the deadline: via FASER.
• Note that extensions are only given for documented extenuating
circumstances. Extenuating circumstances must be submitted in advance
of the deadline.
FINALLY
• I hope it goes well!
• Good luck!
USEFUL LINKS
• Proposal form: on the Moodle page for EC981.
• PGT Handbook: https://www.essex.ac.uk/-
/media/documents/directories/academic-section/student-handbooks/
department_of_economics_pgt.pdf
• Sample dissertations: email from the PGT Administrators.
