This module provides students with the opportunity to undertake a capstone research project. Through this year-long research project, students will identify, formulate and analyse a research question of their choice, demonstrating the knowledge and technical expertise they have developed throughout the programme.

(LO1) Students will be able to undertake a literature review

(LO2) Students will be able to identifyappropriate research questions

(LO3) Students will be able to select appropriate methodology to collect relevant data

(LO4) Students will be able to implement the appropriate research methods in order to critically analyse key issues in finance

(LO5) Students will be able to present oral and written reasoned conclusions and recommendations

(S1) Resilient and adaptable

(S2) An excellent communicator

(S3) A creative problem solver

(S4) Analytical

(S5) Digitally confident

(S6) Globally aware

(S7) Confident

(S8) Ethically aware

(S9) Connector

Teaching Method 1 - Lectures
Description: Weekly lectures taking place in the first semester only. These sessions introduce the students to key concepts/notions that will be helpful while working on the dissertation.
Scheduled Directed Student Hours: 24
Attendance Recorded: Yes

Teaching Method 2 - PC Lab
Description: 6 PC sessions of 2 hours each take place in the first semester only. Their purpose is to provide students with practical skills that will enable them to develop their dissertations. These sessions will introduce students to the financial databases available at the School as well as publicly available economic databases. They will also include practical demonstrations of how to conduct empirical data analysis using a range of software.
Scheduled Directed Student Hours: 12
Attendance Recorded: Yes

Teaching Method 3 - Supervision
Description: Supervision meetings take place in the second semester and are agreed between the student a nd their assigned supervisor to provide tailored support to facilitate the successful completion of the research project. This will take the form of meetings during which students will be able to discuss the details of their projects, receive feedback from their supervisors, and obtain any additional academic support that may be required.
Scheduled Directed Student Hours: 4
Attendance Recorded: No

Self-Directed Learning Hours: 260

Skills Mapping

Skill/Other Attribute 1: Resilient and adaptable
How this is developed: This skill is continuously developed by students while working on their long-term research projects. Each project will seek to address a research question developed by an individual student, which will require them to engage with several economic issues, analyse those in a creative manner, and, if necessary, adapt the project’s design to ensure its successful completion.
How is it assessed (If Applicable): Project and Poster prese ntation

Skill/Other Attribute 2: An excellent communicator
How this is developed: A good dissertation must communicate the complex ideas introduced within it in a clear and concise manner. The tutorials taking place in the first semester and the discussions with their supervisor in the second semester will introduce students to best practice in presenting their research questions, describing a study’s methodology, and discussing the outcomes of their empirical analysis and key findings.
How is it assessed (If Applicable): Project and Poster presentation

Skill/Other Attribute 3: A creative problem solver
How this is developed: Working on a dissertation will present the students with many challenges, many of which will require new and creative solutions to address them. The students will be provided with guidance from the module staff and their supervisors, so as to identify and implement steps allowing students to overcome the problems encountered while completing their projects.
How is it assessed (If Applicable): Project and Poster presentation

Skill/Other Attribute 4: Analytical
How this is developed: Students are expected to review extant literature, obtain and produce a clean data sample, interpret the results from their econometric models, and identify the implications of their research for policymakers and practitioners. Successful completion of those tasks will require undertaking a comprehensive analysis of economic theory, historical data, and estimated model outputs.
How is it assessed (If Applicable): Project and Poster presentation

Skill/Other Attribute 5: Digitally confident
How this is developed: The module will introduce the students to many publicly available and professional databases. It will also expose students to a range of computer programs that are part of a researcher's toolkit. This will enable students to confidently approach any task requiring data cleaning, analysis, and visualisation, as well as estimation and evaluation of an econometric model.
How is it assessed (If Applicable): Project and Poster presentation

Skill/Other Attribute 6: Globally aware
How this is developed: The students will develop an awareness of recent developments in local or global markets or of changes in economic policies while formulating their research questions. Awareness of such matters will also play an important role while identifying the practical or policy implications of their findings.
How is it assessed (If Applicable): Project and Poster presentation

Skill/Other Attribute 7: Confident
How this is developed: Preparing and delivering a poster presentation will give students the opportunity to become more confident public speakers.. The students are also expected to devote considerable time to analysing the results of their empirical analysis, so as to ensure that the findings reported in their dissertations are correct and robust.
How is it assessed (If Applicable): Project and Poster presentation

Skill/Other Attribute 8: Ethically aware
How this is developed: The module will introduce the students to a number of ethical issues a researcher needs to consider when designing their project, as well as the guidelines they will need to adhere to in order to maintain the academic integrity of their work.
How is it assessed (If Applicable): Project and Poster presentation

Skill/Other Attribute 9: Connector
How this is developed: Making connections between theory and real world, the proposed research question and findings documented in extant literature, lies at the heart of the process of producing a dissertation. The module staff and project supervisors will encourage the students to read widely around their topics of interest and to think outside the box while analysing the issues underpinning their dissertations.
How is it assessed (If Applicable): Project and Poster presentation

1.Introduction to the dissertation project
2.Developing an effective research proposal
3.Conducting the literature review
4.Overview of databases
5.Analysing and presenting the empirical results
6.Dissertation writing: structure, referencing, editing
7.Stata in empirical research
8.SAS in empirical research
9.MATLAB in empirical research
10.Python in empirical research
11.Data visualisation in empirical research