Josef Zechner, Teaching

Bachelor, Master, PhD, Diplom

VVZ

Diploma Thesis

Thesis requirements

Topic/Research Question

Every semester the Finance and Investments group will suggest up to three thesis topics. Students can choose one of these topics or suggest their own topic. All theses should be written in English.

Application

The application package should include the following documents:

• Short description of your proposed research project, also include a motivation for your application, one page in total
• Literature review, list relevant papers you plan to review
• Preliminary table of contents with a short outline of topics to be covered in each section
• CV, one page
• Student transcript of exams and grades (Studienerfolgsnachweis)

Please, send the application package to Martina Schlichting.

The allocation of the topics and the supervisors is done by the Institute on the basis of the application packages.

Students can apply for more than one topic. For every topic students should provide a separate application package, including all of the above mentioned documents.

Deadline for the applications: April 15 and December15!

Students will be informed on the allocation of the topics no later than April 30 and December 30 (Vereinbarung zur Diplomarbeitsbetreuung).

Time Line

The thesis should be written in eight months.

After one month:	The research question should be finalized with the supervisor
After four months:	Intermediary results should be presented and discussed with the supervisor
After seven months:	The result and the first draft of the thesis should be presented
After eight months:	The thesis should be submitted

Finishing your thesis

After your supervisor has accepted your thesis you should prepare three copies. Bring two copies to the WU Library and one copy to the Finance and Investments group, together with the following form: Evaluation Form (Beurteilungsprotokoll der Diplomarbeit).

Please note that WU Wien does not tolerate plagiarism! Information about how to avoid plagiarism and the actions taken by the university authorities in cases of suspected plagiarism can be found under this two links: Wissenschaftliches Schreiben and Plagiate.

Topics

Application deadline: March 15, 2011

Inflation Protected Securities	TBA
An Analysis of the CDS Basis	Topics

Previous Topics

Green Fund Performance

Secondaries im Private Equity und Venture Capital Bereich

Commodity Futures

Rogue Trading at Société Générale: Fraud Analysis and Consequences for the Internal Risk Management

Bond Portfolio Management and Sovereign Risk

Debt Restructuring: Chrysler Motor Corp.

Debt Restructuring: General Motors

Corporate Bond Portfolio Management

Convenience Yield Modeling

Equity Carve-Outs

Short Selling - Funktionsweise und Bedeutung von Leerverkäufen im Internationalen Vergleich

Analyse des österreichischen Holzmarktes und Design eines Rohstofffutures auf Rundholz

Behavioral Finance Funds

German and Austrian Secondary Market of Closed-End Funds