Master Thesis FSS 2025
General Information
The Chair of Finance (Prof. Dr. Erik Theissen) supervises master theses in every semester. The allocation of master theses takes place in coordination with the chairs of Prof. Maug, Prof. Niessen-Ruenzi, Prof. Ruenzi, and Prof. Spalt.
You must have successfully completed a seminar with one of the chairs of the Finance Area (FIN 7XX) in order to participate. As most topics require to work empirically, some knowledge of statistics and econometrics is useful and participants should be motivated to undertake empirical work. You should write your thesis in English.
Time Schedule
| Date | Event | Additional Information |
| 04.03.2025 | Topics Announcement | Topics will be uploaded to the individual websites of the participating chairs. You can find the topics of our chair below. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions. If your questions relate to a specific topic please contact the supervisor of the topic directly. |
06.03.2025 – 14.03.2025 | Online Application | Students should submit an online application form indicating their preferences. The link for the Ilias group will be provided on the website of the Finance Area. |
19.03.2025 | Topics Allocation Announcement | The allocation of topics will be published on the website of the Finance Area. |
19.03.2025 – 26.03.2025 | Registration Period | Ask your advisor to register your thesis at the student services office within this period. |
19.03.2025 | Starting Date | Formal starting date of the writing phase. |
06.06.2025 | Colloquium | You will present preliminary results of your thesis and get feedback to your progress. |
06.08.2025 | Submission Deadline | Last day to hand in your thesis. |
You find an information sheet on writing a master thesis here (PDF, 267 kB).
Topics
| Topic | Name |
| T1. | Decomposing the Size Effect |
| T2. | The Impact of Salient Fund Returns on Mutual Fund Flow Dynamics |
T3. | How Long Do Investors Stay? Analyzing Mutual Fund Investors Holding Periods and Their Implications |
| T4. | Can Large Language Models Forecast Stock Price Movements? |
| T5. | Where Are the ‘Opportunistic’ Insiders Now? |
| T6. | Hidden Liquidity |
| T7. | Earnings News and Over-the-Counter Markets |
T8. | Financial Analysts, Market Efficiency, and Long-Run Stock Performance |
T9. | Dissecting the Long-term Performance |
The presentation of the master thesis topics can be found here (PDF, 757 kB).
Please feel free to contact us if you have questions. If your questions relate to a specific topic please contact the supervisor of the topic directly.
Previous Topics
| Topic Name |
| T1. Dark Pool Trading and Information Acquisition |
| T2. Salience Theory and Mutual Fund Flows |
| T3. Mutual Fund Performance and Fee Structure |
| T4. Is liquidity priced? And if yes: Which one? |
| T5. Do ETFs Over-score Mutual Funds in Fire Sales? |
| T6. Climate Change, Carbon Uncertainty, and Emissions Trading |
| T7. Event Study: Protected Areas and Municipal Bond |
| T8. Informed Corporate Bond Trading |
T9. Geopolitical Risk and Stock Returns |
| T10. Limited retail attention and asset prices |
Further Information
Stata Tutorial
For participants in a seminar and master or diploma students writing an empirical thesis at a chair of the Area of Finance (not only the Chair of Finance), a course on empirical work with Stata and the databases of the University of Mannheim (e.g. CRSP or Compustat) will be offered at the beginning of each semester. The name of the course is FIN 604 – Stata in Finance.
This course is no mandatory prerequisite for writing a seminar, master or diploma thesis and are solely offered to help students prepare efficiently for empirical scientific work.