Topics for Dissertation

Dr. Keshab Bhattarai1

HUBS

December 14, 2010

1 Business School, University of Hull, HU6 7RX, Hull,

Dr. Bhattarai (HUBS)

UK. email: K.R.Bhattarai@hull.ac.uk December 14, 2010 1 / 17

Dissertation topics

National Economies
National Economies (UK, EU, US, G7, BRICS, LDCs, OECD, ASEAN, Asia, Africa, Americas) Global economic and nancial crisis Energy and economy: security, environment and prices. Stability of nancial sector and economy Fiscal and monetary policy rules for economic stability and growth Trade, technology and growth at national and rm level Reform in public policy: tax, spending, trade, regulations, redistribution Can tax cuts nance budget decit? (endogenous growth model) Productivity growth in manufacturing and services sectors

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National Economies
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Human capital, research and development and economic growth Reasons for decline in public sector investment over years Role of public and private sector in funding of education and health sectors Impact of volatility of exchange and interest rate on exports Unemployment and ination: in the long and the short run Two speed economy: growth of income of skilled and unskilled workers Provision for pension and social security Impact in the economy of rising oil and energy prices Liberalisation of the nancial sector and private sector investment Regulations of market for certain products (e.g. carpets, mobile phones, banana, cars, cosmetics, drugs, cloths, furniture, nursing home, houses,) Arguments for and against privatisation of semi-public goods (i.e. railways, airlines, telecommunications)
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National Economies
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Determinants of wage and earning by professions, skills and regions Wage and income of sport clubs and top quality sport men and women Factors contributing to variation in growth of regional and local economies Equity and redistribution aspects of council tax, income tax or direct and indirect taxes Can growth occur with redistribution New deal and public and private sector partnership Role of demand side and supply side policies in the economy Patterns of consumption and saving by categories of households Employment and output multipliers with Input-output model of the UK economy Assessment of the reliability of macroeconomic forecasts London Stock Exchange and global economy Evaluation of economic costs and benets of environmental levy
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Economic Growth and Development Issues

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Why the four-fth of the World is still underdeveloped? Why there is a North-South divide in per-capita income? Story of productivity growth: impact of industrial to internet revolutions Examination of poverty alleviation and economic growth How much can human capital contribute towards economic growth? Problems in transfer and adoption of technology Why cannot all countries grow at the same rate?

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Economic Growth and Development Issues

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What is the best technology to achieve higher rate of growth? Balanced versus unbalanced growth Does economic growth promote economic inequality? Do higher environmental standards reduce the rate of growth? Conict, coalition and economic growth Economic costs of conicts and HIV in Africa How much spending on research and development promote economic growth? Infrastructure and economic growth.

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Trade issues
Examination of Tari and non-tari barriers of trade Does global free trade reduce or increase income and wage inequality? Does the direct foreign investment promote economic growth? Who benets and who loses from regional economic cooperation? Assessment of impact of increase in oil prices in the global income Enlargement of EU and Economic prospects of its new members How can liberal trade reduce pressure of illegal immigration to rich countries? Evaluation of achievements of the WTO and the Doha rounds of trade talk Leontief paradox or factor price equalisation?

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Public Policy issues

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Privatisation, e ciency and redistribution market power and market structure Should budget be balanced all the time? Should government subsidise education or pay more unemployment benet? How can budget decit create external and internal imbalances? Can lower taxes reduce budget decit? Does the Ricardian equivalence apply in modern economies? Examination of optimal tax rate and evidence Optimal amount of public services? Optimal allocation of public funds between local and central authorities
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Households and labour market

Why current economic policies have created pension crisis in the West? Income dynamics and life-cycle proles of income Determinants of wage and labour supply Gender inequality in wage and earning Link between educational qualication and earning New technology, redundancy and structural transformation of labour market Social safety net and unemployment: re-examination of Beveridge provisions.

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Environment and natural resources

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Economic impacts of Kyoto agreement Consumption and production side externalities and social welfare Double dividend hypothesis of environmental taxes Do tight environmental regulations reduce economic growth? Valuation and optimal use of non-renewable resources

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Financial market and economy

Over or under investment, Value of a rm and the optimal stock of capital Why banks tend to accumulate non-performing debt with weak monitoring? Best way of nancing economic development. Analysis of risks and return in the nancial market? Volatility of nancial markets and economy Can Tobin tax (transaction cost) deter nancial crisis?

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Education economics

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Impacts of universal primary education in skill formation Who should pay tuitions: students or the government? Matching education and job market

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Country specic studies

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Analysis of markets using microeconomic models Model for macroeconomic policy evaluation and forecasting Evaluation of impacts of tax reforms Forecasting various policy scenarios Movement in commodity prices and terms of trade

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What people like to know using macroeconomic research methods?

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determinants of growth total factor productivity growth, inequality and environment models of uctuation or business cycle (interest rate rule) determinants of consumption, saving, investment, exports, imports, output, employment ination and unemployment interest rate, exchange rate, ination, trade balance, deposit expansion, credit

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Macroeconomic issues
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Dr. Bhattarai (HUBS)

Why the four-fth of the World is still underdeveloped? Why there is a North-South divide in per-capita income? Story of productivity growth: impact of industrial to internet revolutions Examination of poverty alleviation and economic growth How much can human capital contribute towards economic growth? Problems in transfer and adoption of technology Why cannot all countries grow at the same rate? What is the best technology to achieve higher rate of growth? Balanced versus unbalanced growth Does economic growth promote economic inequality? Do higher environmental standards reduce the rate of growth? Conict, coalition and economic growth Economic costs of conicts and HIV in Africa How much spending on research and development promote economic growth? Infrastructure and economic growth
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Commodity Markets:
agricultural goods: sugar, potato, cotton, rubber, green vegetables, tomato fruit: apples, banana, pears, grapes, oranges, mango, jackfruit , coconut, nuts grains: rice, corn, millet, wheat, maize, palm oil, peanuts meat market: sh, beef, pork, lamb drinks: wine, beer, whiskey, martini metals and minerals: gold, silver, aluminium, steel, iron, copper, tin, zinc, oil

Services and manufacturing sector

Markets for cars, planes, trains, e-markets
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Uncertainty and asymmetric information

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risks and uncertainty and markets for insurance moral hazards and adverse selection principle agent problem and monitoring e cient contract and incentives provisions for contingency Energy sectors Energy prices and trade in the global economy Generation and distribution of electricity and pollution Kyoto agreement on climate change Trade-o between trade and environment OPEC eect on oil and energy prices Renewable energy and exhaustion of non-renewable energy Fuel poverty Role of energy sector in the growth of economy Technological factors in promotion of the energy sector
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