Objectives

The course equips master students with the necessary toolkit to execute their own empirical accounting research project during their master thesis. The course offers an introduction to current methods in empirical accounting research, provides insights on how to perform a literature review, elaborates on structuring a master thesis, and how to employ Stata to analyze large datasets.

Learning outcomes: Students are able to understand and evaluate research questions, contribution, and research methods of current research papers on accounting-related issues. Students are also able to develop their own research questions and successfully execute their master thesis projects.

Contents

The bi-weekly lectures provide students with the theoretical concepts to write their master thesis. Students will be given the opportunity to present their research question, literature, and results. In-class discussions and student presentations are an essential part of this lecture.

The course is organized in four main parts:

(1) Thesis Structure & Literature Review

(2) Applied Econometrics in Stata

(3) Research Design Issues

(4) Result Interpretation

References

Veenman, D. (2019), Introductory Guide to Using Stata in Empirical Financial Accounting Research. Available free of charge after registration at:
https://arc.eaa-online.org/portfolio/introductory-guide-using-stata-empirical-financial-accounting-research.

Stock, J. H., & Watson, M. W. (2019). Introduction to econometrics. Pearson, Harvard.
Older editions of the book are also fine.

Gassen, J. [2014]. Causal inference in empirical archival financial accounting research. Accounting, Organizations, and Society, 39(7), pp. 535–544.

Pre-requisites

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Evaluation

First attempt

Exam:

Without exam (cf. terms)  

Evaluation:

A successful completion of the course will earn you 3 ECTS. Grading is based on your performance in the student presentations (70%) and class participation (30%).

Retake

Exam:

Without exam (cf. terms)  

Evaluation:

The retake exam is a presentation including Q&A of 1h.