At its core, macroeconomics focuses on the study of economic factors that have a large-scale implication on businesses, industries, and countries. The study of economics can often be daunting and confusing. It can also seem impossible to decide on a research idea that is unique, approachable and inspired. It often seems like everything worth exploring and researching has been evaluated from every possible perspective. And yet, the field continues to expand and require further evaluation because of its dynamism, volatility, and evolution. Because our world is constantly influenced by external factors, these factors seep into the global as well as national economies.
If you’re tired of looking at generic topics on monetary policy, fiscal policy, financial market movements, etc. then it’s worth considering how key macroeconomic variables are influenced by recent global events. Incorporating the impact of one specific event into an existing economic model or hypothesis might seem insignificant, but it can lead to the development of entirely new studies and yield completely different results. As always, remember to keep your dissertation topic approachable, manageable, and applicable. This means that you check for available data, and gauge whether you have the time and resources to complete the study accurately. Some topics to start you off are presented below!
Contents
- Covid-19 and Global Market
- Exploring Factors of Economic Growth
- Trade Wars and Global Markets
- Microfinance
Covid-19 and Global Markets
The current global pandemic has disrupted the world in every imaginable way. Therefore, it is necessary to study how it has affected the global economic climate, growth, and development. While this is likely to be a popular option in the recent future, you can make it unique by focusing on specific factors that are less popular amongst students.
- Do the global economic implications of the Covid-19 mirror the impact of SARS (2002), Swine flu (2009), MERS Cov (2012), and Zika (2015) viruses?
- How has Covid-19 affected the local economies of the 20 most expensive cities of the world?
- How has Covid-19 influenced monetary policy measures across the globe? Determining the suitability of the monetary policies of leading economies.
- Estimating how the economic growth of the EU, USA, and Australia is affected by the Covid-19 pandemic using simulation study.
- How has consumer consumption and investment changed in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic?
- How has the global economy been affected by the restrictions on international travel?
- How has Covid-19 influenced the global debt market and rate of sovereign debt default?
- How does national debt affect the pandemic restrictions imposed by a country? A comparative study of countries with high and low levels of debt.
- How has financial market reaction to Covid-19 been different from its reaction to previous medical outbreaks?
- What is the impact of Covid-19 travel restrictions and national lockdowns on the global oil market and OPEC countries?
- How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected Africa’s poorest economies? Predicting the long-term socio-economic implications of the pandemic.
Exploring Factors of Economic Growth
If your interest lies in studying economic growth specifically, then you can bring freshness to your thesis by considering how newer topics like sustainability or machine learning will affect economic growth. These studies can be for individual countries or even for a larger sample of countries, giving you the flexibility to create a unique study which is relevant to the current global sentiments.
- How will the implementation of AI and machine learning in financial markets affect the economic growth of the country?
- How does a country’s move towards carbon neutrality affect its economic growth and development?
- How can circular economies influence the economic development of a country?
- How do green bonds influence the movement of financial markets?
- Can a green or sustainable economy be globally competitive in international trade?
- What are the drivers of sustainable economic growth? A panel data analysis of 35 sample countries.
Trade Wars and Global Markets
In the past five years, protectionist economic policies have been affecting the global markets significantly. The US-China trade war and UK’s exit from the EU have sparked several debates on whether protectionist policies are good for the economy. If this is an area of interest, then the following topics are sure to give you inspiration in the right direction.
- What are the economic implications of USA’s trade war with China for other developing economies that rely on exports as their primary source of revenue?
- How will USA’s protectionist trade policies affect the demand and supply of global trading markets?
- How will USA’s increasingly hostile relations with Canada, EU, China, and Mexico affect the export activity of the country?
- How have trade impositions with Canada, EU, China, and Mexico affected the countries’ international trade balance?
- Have the USA’s protectionist trade policies since 2018 shown results of increased employment, reduced trade deficit, and improved industrial output?
- How has the completion of the Brexit process affected the economic growth and trade within EU?
- How does the economic impact of Brexit vary across Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and England?
- How has Brexit affected UK and EU’s trade relations with China?
- What is the economic cost of Brexit on London’s financial centre? What is the cost of developing a global financial centre, to the EU?
Microfinance
Microcredit, or microfinancing, is another key area in economics which has recently not been very popular. The field saw an increase in academic interest in the late 1990s and 2000s, but it has not been studied under the recent global environment. A study in this field is sure to intrigue your tutor because of its updated perspective.
- Do geographical factors affect the credit risk? Are microfinancing loans in specific countries more likely to fail than others?
- Has microfinance been successful in achieving financial inclusion? Analysing the impact of microfinance in South-Asia since 2001.
- How does Islamic Microfinancing differ from conventional microfinancing?
- How has the microfinancing industry been affected by the global pandemic?