• Describe, analyze, and reflect on a complex problem going beyond the level of the compulsory and elective courses by either dealing with new theoretical issues or by applying state-of-the-art methods to new problems.
• Apply, present, and elaborate on specialized knowledge within the area of the MSc in Advanced Economics and Finance.
• Reflect critically on the foundation, relevance, and validity of methods, theories, and empirics used.
• Identify key issues and relevant solutions and to present these with linguistic clarity.
• Balance the problems addressed with the methods applied, and in the business project, balance scientific rigor and applicability.
• Be responsible for the planning, timing, and execution of the thesis work and, as part of this, develop a problem statement that facilitates control and structure of the work on the thesis and its content.

The traditional master’s thesis serves as a test of the student’s ability to engage in in-depth study and independently describe, analyze, and process a complex issue within economics and finance at the master’s level. The thesis is supervised by a faculty member.

The business project consists of two parts, (i) a consultancy report and (ii) a shorter master’s thesis and is supervised both by a corporate advisor and an academic supervisor.  The business project serves as test of the student’s ability to solve a concrete problem for a given firm (or organization or institution) using state-of-the art methods from economics and finance at the master’s level.  The consultancy aspect will be part of the evaluation, including issues like relevance of the problem for the firm, choice of methods, the ability to apply relevant economics and finance, and the actual solution proposed.  This aspect is mainly evaluated based on the consultancy report.  In addition to the consultancy report, the student also writes a shorter master’s thesis which is evaluated as an academic scientific article. The article should deal with a central economic and/or finance problem related to the problem of the business project in a short and concise way. It may deal with the problem in a novel way, or it may provide a survey of existing literature. The shorter master’s thesis is supervised by the same academic supervisor as the business project.

When writing a business project, the student is responsible for entering into an agreement forming the basis of the cooperation with the firm. This agreement between the student and the firm must be approved by the academic supervisor.

The traditional master’s thesis has more focus on analyzing an academic question within economics and finance (i.e., to get a deeper understanding of a phenomenon/problem/object studied – or to get an answer to the `why’ question, i.e., it is more governed by `curiosity’) whereas the business project has more focus on solving a concrete problem (for a firm) using methods and theories from economics and finance (hence, there is an important trade of between how well the methods and theories applied `fits’ the concrete problem and how applicable and robust the proposed solution is – so it is more of a `how’ question and more governed by `find a feasible (but still as-good-as possible) solution’ thinking).

To take a concrete example, take a student who is interested in studying liquidity management of firms.  A traditional master’s thesis could then focus on why firms hold cash and what the trades of are from holding more or less cash.  The business project could take its point of departure in a concrete firm’s liquidity management problem and suggest a solution that tells how much cash the firm should hold in which types of asset classes depending on a realistic set of parameters and taking the relevant aspects into account using methods and theories from economics and finance.