General Information
The Chair of Financial Markets and Financial Institutions will offer several seminar theses for master students at the University of Mannheim in the fall term 2023. The assignment of seminar papers is carried out via the centralized procedure of the Finance area. Please refer to the website of finance area for more information on the assignment process.
In Fall 2024, our chair will not offer seminar theses. For students who plan to write their finance seminar theses in the summer of 2024 and defend them in the fall, please check out the topics offered at other finance chairs and plan accordingly. Please refer to the website of finance area for detailed information.
Prerequisites
You must have successfully completed at least one finance course (FIN 5XX) offered by one of the chairs of the Finance Area in order to participate. As most topics require empirical work, some knowledge of statistics and econometrics is useful and participants should be motivated to work empirically. We highly recommend to complete the CC502 Applied Econometrics course before writing your seminar thesis. You should write your seminar paper in English.
How Topics are allocated
Please refer to the website of finance area for more information on the assignment process.
FIN 604 – Stata in Finance
Most of the topics in Finance require empirical work. If you apply for an empirical seminar topic at a chair of the Finance Area and your knowledge about STATA and financial databases is limited, you should also take the course FIN 604 – Stata in Finance which provides you with basic knowledge about programming with STATA and the use of financial databases. The tutorials typically take place around the starting date of the writing phase. Please consult this website for more information.
Learning Goals and Outcomes
In this course, specific topics related to financial markets and financial institutions will be dealt with in depth. Students will have to work on the main topic of the seminar in some detail and write a term paper on a specific sub-topic that will be allocated to them. In the seminar, students will present their own paper and participate actively in the classroom discussions.
Students will learn how to work on a research paper independently. Thus, the seminar paper also serves as preparation for a master thesis. Furthermore, students learn how to present research results and how to contribute to scientific discussions.
Language
Form of Assessment
Additional Guidelines
Further guidance on the seminar paper (e.g., formal requirements) is provided in this document.
Previous Seminar Offerings
Process Guide and Schedule
| Date | Event | Additional Information |
| 28.11.2023 | Topics Announcement | Topics offered by this chair will be available here. |
29.11.2023 (1.30pm-6.00pm) | Topics Presentation | Topics will be presented by the participating chairs. A detailed schedule will be published on the website of the finance area. |
| 30.11.2023 – 15.12.2023 | Preference Submission | Student should submit a preference list for the offered topics via the online application form published on the website of the finance area. |
| 03.01.2024 | Starting Date | The allocation of topics will be published on the website of the finance area. |
28.02.2025 12 pm | Submission Date | Please hand in two hardcopies and one electronic version (flash drive or disc) of your thesis in the secretary’s office. |
| 30.11.2024 – 15.12.2023 | Seminar Presentations | All seminar theses are presented and discussed. |
