thesis statement about the economy

134 Economics Thesis Topics: Ideas for Outstanding Writing

Writing a thesis is not an easy task. For most of the students, it can be even intimidating, especially when you do not know where to start your research.

Here, we have provided an economics thesis topics list. After all, everyone knows that choosing the right idea is crucial when writing an academic paper. In economics, it can combine history, math, social studies, politics, and numerous other subjects. You should also have solid foundations and a sound factual basis for a thesis. Without these elements, you won’t be able to master your research paper.

The issue is:

It is not always clear what could be seen as an excellent economics thesis topic. Our experts can assist you with this challenge. This list contains some outstanding examples to get you started.

• ⭐ Thesis in Economics
• 🔥 Supreme Thesis Topics
• 👍 Bachelor’s Thesis
• 😲 Master’s Thesis

📊 Microeconomics

📈 macroeconomics.

• 🤔 Developmental
• 👨‍💼 Behavioral
• 💼 Financial
• 🌱 Agricultural
• 🤝‍ Sociology
• 📚 Ph.D. Topics
• 📝 How to Pick a Topic

⭐ What Does a Thesis in Economics Look Like?

A good thesis in economics is a blend between an empirical paper and a theoretical one. One of the essential steps in choosing a topic in economics is to decide which one you will write.

You may write, research, analyze statistical data and other information. Or build and study a specific economic model.

Or why not both!

Here are some questions you can ask when deciding what topic to choose:

• What has already been written on this topic?
• What economic variables will my paper study?
• Where should I look for the data?
• What econometrics techniques should I use?
• What type of model will I study?

The best way to understand what type of research you have to do is to write a thesis proposal. You will most probably be required to submit it anyway. Your thesis supervisor will examine your ideas, methods, list of secondary and primary sources. At some universities, the proposal will be graded.

After you get the initial feedback, you will have a clear idea of what to adjust before writing your thesis. Only then, you’ll be able to start.

🔥 Supreme Economics Thesis Topics List

• Fast fashion in India.
• The UK housing prices.
• Brexit and European trade.
• Behavioral economics.
• Healthcare macroeconomics.
• COVID-19’s economic impact.
• Global gender wage gap.
• Commodity dependence in Africa.
• International trade – developing countries.
• Climate change and business development.

👍 Economics Bachelor’s Thesis Topics

At the U.S. Universities, an undergraduate thesis is very uncommon. However, it depends on the Department Policy.

The biggest challenge with the Bachelor’s Thesis in economics concerns its originality. Even though you are not required to conduct entirely unique research, you have to lack redundant ideas.

You can easily avoid making this mistake by simply choosing one of these topics. Also, consider visiting IvyPanda essays database. It’s a perfect palce to conduct a brainstorming session and come up with fresh ideas for a paper, as well as get tons of inspiration.

• The impact of the oil industry on the economic development of Nigeria. The oil industry is vital for the economic development of Nigeria. In this thesis, students can discuss the notion of the resource curse. Analyze the reasons why general people are not benefiting from the oil industry. Why did it produce very little change in the social and economic growth of the country?
• Sports Marketing and Advertising: the impact it has on the consumers.
• Economic opportunities and challenges of investing in Kenya .
• Economic Development in the Tourism Industry in Africa. Since the early 1990s, tourism significantly contributed to the economic growth of African countries. In this thesis, students can talk about the characteristics of the tourist sector in Africa. Or elaborate on specific countries and how their national development plans look like.
• Globalization and its significance to business worldwide .
• Economic risks connected to investing in Turkey .
• The decline in employment rates as the biggest American economy challenge .
• The economics of alcohol abuse problems. In this thesis, students can develop several essential issues. First, they can examine how poverty is connected to alcohol abuse. Second, they can see the link between alcohol consumption and productivity. To sum up, students can elaborate on the economic costs of alcohol abuse.
• Causes and solutions for unemployment in Great Britain.
• Parallel perspective on Global Economic Order: China and America. This thesis can bring a comparative analysis of the economies to a new level. China and The US are the world’s two largest economies. These two countries have a significant impact on the global economic order. So, looking at the set of institutions, policies, rules can be constructive.
• The new international economic order after COVID-19
• Financial stability of the banking sector in China.
• New Electronic Payment Services in Russia.
• The influence of culture on different entrepreneurial behaviors.
• The impact of natural cultural practices on entrepreneurial activity.
• The relationships between national culture and individual behavior.
• The main reasons for salary inequalities in different parts of the U.S.

😲 Economics Master’s Thesis Topics

Student life can be fascinating, but it comes with its challenges. One of which is selecting your Master’s thesis topic.

Here is a list of topics for a Master’s thesis in economics. Are you pursuing MPhil in Economics and writing a thesis? Use the following ideas as an inspiration for that. They can also be helpful if you are working on a Master’s thesis in financial economics.

• The impact of visual aid in teaching home economics.
• The effect of income changes in consumer behaviors in America.
• Forces behind socio-economic inequalities in the United States. This thesis can explore three critical factors for socio-economic differences in the United States. In the past 30 years, social disparities increased in the United States. Some of the main reasons are technology, trade, and institutions.
• The relationships between economic growth and international development.
• Technological innovations and their influence on green and environmental products.
• The economics of non-solar renewable energy .

• The economic consequences of terrorism . Terrorism not only takes away lives and destroys property but also widely affects the economy. It creates uncertainty in the market, increases insurance claims, slows down investment projects, and tourism. This thesis can address all of the ways in which terrorism can affect economies.
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implementation in the Oil and Gas Industry in Africa.
• Use of incentives in behavioral economics.
• Economic opportunities and challenges of sustainable communities .
• Economics of nuclear power plants.
• Aid and financial help for emerging markets. This topic is very versatile. Students can look at both the positive and the adverse effects that funding has on the development. There are plenty of excellent examples. Besides, some theories call international help a form of neocolonialism.
• Multinational firms impact on economic growth in America .
• The effect of natural disasters on economic development in Asia.
• The influence of globalization on emerging markets and economic development.

📑 More Economics Thesis Topics: Theme

For some students, it makes more sense to center their search around a certain subject. Sometimes you have an econ area that interests you. You may have an idea about what you want to write, but you did not decide what it will be.

If that’s the case with you, then these economics thesis topics ideas are for you.

• An analysis of the energy market in Russia.
• The impact of game theory on economic development.
• The connection between minimum wage and market equilibrium.
• Gender differences in the labor market in the United States. This topic can shed light on gender differences in the labor market in the United States. In the past years, the overall inequality in labor in the markets decreased. However, there is still a lot of work that can be done.
• Economic reasons that influence the prices of oil .
• Relationship between the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient.
• Challenges of small businesses in the market economy.
• The changes in oil prices: causes and solutions . Universal economic principles do not always apply to the sale and purchase of the oil. The same happens with its cost. In the thesis, talk about what affects the prices. What are the solutions that can be implemented?
• The economic analysis of the impact of immigration on the American economy.

• Economic inequality as a result of globalization . Economic inequality becomes even more apparent on the global level. There is a common belief that globalization is the cause of that. Discuss what can be the solutions to these problems. This topic is vital to minimize the gap between the rich and the poor.
• The economic explanation of political dishonesty .
• Effect of Increasing Interest rates costs in Africa .
• The connection between game theory and microeconomics.
• Marketing uses in microeconomics.
• Financial liability in human-made environmental disasters.
• Banks and their role in the economy. Banks are crucial elements of any economy, and this topic covers why. You can explain how banks allow the goods and services to be exchanged. Talk about why banks are so essential for economic growth and stability.
• Inflation in the US and ways to reduce its impact.
• The connection between politics and economics.
• Income Dynamics and demographic economics.
• US Market Liquidity and macroeconomics.
• Macroeconomics and self-correction of the economy .
• The American economy, monetary policy, and monopolies .
• The importance of control in macroeconomics. One of the central topics in macroeconomics is grouped around the issue of control. It is quite reasonable that control over money and resources should become a topic of discussion.
• Analysis of Africa’s macroeconomics and its performance.
• Economics of education in developing markets.
• Problems and possible solutions for Japan macroeconomics .
• Comparative analysis of British macroeconomics concerning the US .
• Public policies and socio-economic disparities.
• The world problems through macroeconomic analysis. Indeed, macroeconomics is very complicated. There are many influences, details, and intricacies in it. However, it allows economists to use this complex set of tools to examine the world’s leading problems today.

• The connection between employment interest and money.

🤔 Development Economics

• Economics of development . This topic is very rich in content. First, explain what it is. Then pay particular attention to domestic and international policies that affect development, income distribution, and economic growth.
• The relation between development and incentive for migration.
• The impact of natural disasters on the economy and political stability of emerging markets.
• The economic consequences of population growth in developing countries.
• The role of industrialization in developing countries . The industrialization has been connected with the development. It promotes capital formation and catalyzes economic growth in emerging markets. In this thesis, you can talk about this correlation.
• Latin American economic development.
• Gender inequality and socio-economic development .
• Problems of tax and taxation in connection with economic growth.
• The economic impact of terrorism on developing markets.
• Religious decline as a key to economic development. Not everyone knows, but a lot of research has been done in the past years on the topic. It argues that decreased religious activity is connected with increased economic growth. This topic is quite controversial. Students who decide to write about it should be extra careful and polite.

👨‍💼 Behavioral Economics

• Risk Preferences in Rural South Africa.
• Behavioral Economics and Finance .
• Applied behavioral economics in marketing strategies. If you want to focus your attention on marketing, this topic is for you. Behavioral economics provides a peculiar lens to look at marketing strategies. It allows marketers to identify common behaviors and adapt their marketing strategies.
• The impact of behavioral finance on investment decisions.
• Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs in North Texas.
• Guidelines for Behavioral Economics in Healthcare Sector.
• Cognitive and behavioral theories in economics .
• Cross-cultural consumer behavior and marketing communication. Consumers are not only affected by personal characteristics, but also by the culture they are living in. This topic focuses on the extent it should determine marketing strategy and communication.
• Behavior implications of wealth and inequality.

• Optimism and pessimism for future behavior.

💼 Financial Economics

• Financial Economics for Infrastructure and Fiscal Policy .
• The use of the economic concept of human capital. Students can focus on the dichotomy between human and nonhuman capital. Many economists believe that human capital is the most crucial of all. Some approach this issue differently. Therefore, students should do their research and find where they stand on this issue.
• The analysis of the global financial crisis of 2020s. Share your thoughts, predictions, ideas. Analyze the economic situation that affects almost everyone in the world. This thesis topic will be fresh and original. It can help to start a good and fruitful conversation.
• The big data economic challenges for Volvo car.
• The connection between finance, economics, and accounting.
• Financial economics: Banks competition in the UK .
• Risk-Taking by mutual funds as a response to incentives.
• Managerial economics and financial accounting as a basis for business decisions.
• Stock market overreaction.

🌱 Agricultural Economics

• Agricultural economics and agribusiness.
• The vulnerability of agricultural business in African countries.
• Agricultural economics and environmental considerations of biofuels .
• Farmer’s contribution to agricultural social capital.
• Agricultural and resource economics. Agricultural and resource economics plays a huge role in development. They are subdivided into four main characteristics which in this topic, students can talk about: – mineral and energy resources; – soil resources, water resources; – biological resources. One or even all of them can be a focus of the thesis.
• Water as an economic good in irrigated agriculture.
• Agriculture in the economic development of Iran.
• The US Agricultural Food Policy and Production .
• Pesticides usage on agricultural products in California.

• An analysis of economic efficiency in agriculture. A lot of research has been done on the question of economic efficiency in agriculture. However, it does not mean there is no place for your study. You have to read a lot of secondary sources to see where your arguments can fit.

🤝‍Economic Sociology

• Theory, approach, and method in economics sociology.
• Economic sociology of capitalism. While economists believe in the positive effect capitalism has on the economy, the social effect is quite different. The “economic” part of the issue has been studied a lot. However, the sociology of it has been not. This thesis can be very intriguing to read.
• Political Economy and Economic Sociology.
• Gender and economic sociology .
• Progress, sociology, and economics.
• Data analysis in economics, sociology, environment .
• Economic sociology as a way to understand the human mind.
• Economic sociology of money.
• Economics, sociology, and psychology of security.
• Major principles of economic sociology. In the past decade, economic sociology became an increasingly popular field. Mainly due to it giving a new view on economics, human mind, and behavior. Besides, it explores relationships between politics, law, culture, and gender.

📚 The List of Ph.D. Topics in Economics

If you decide to go to grad school to do your Masters, you will likely end up getting a Ph.D. as well. So, with this plan in mind, think about a field that interests you enough during your Masters. Working with the same topic for both graduate degrees is easier and more effective.

This list of Ph.D. Topics in Economics can help you identify the areas you can work on.

• Occupational injuries in Pakistan and its effect on the economy. Injuries are the leading cause of the global burden of disability. Globally, Pakistan was ranked 9th populated country with a large number of unskilled workers. In this dissertation, consider the link between occupational injuries and their effects on the economy.
• The study of the Philippines’ economic development.

• Financial derivatives and climate change .
• Econometric Analysis of Financial Markets.
• Islamic Banking and Financial Markets .
• Health economics and policy in the UK.
• Health insurance: rationale and economic justification. In this dissertation, students can find different ways to explain and justify health insurance. Starting to philosophical to purely economic grounds. In the past years, there was a lot of discussion regarding the healthcare system for all. What are some of the economic benefits of that?
• Colombian economy, economic growth, and inequality.
• Benefits of mergers and acquisitions in agribusiness.
• Methods to measure financial risks when investing in Africa.
• The significance of financial economics in understanding the relationship between a country’s GDP and NDP.
• Network effects in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are not new anymore. However, it is still an original subject for a dissertation. Students can decide to choose several crypto coins and evaluate the importance of the network effect. This effect is particularly significant for Bitcoin. Explain why.
• The comparison of the Chinese growth model with the American growth model.
• An economic justification versus political expediency.
• Pollution Externalities Role in Management Economics .

📝 How to Select an Economics Thesis Topic

As your academic journey is coming to an end, it’s time to pick the right topic for your thesis. The whole academic life you were preparing to undertake this challenge.

Here is the list of six points that will help you to select an economics thesis topic:

• Make sure it is something you are genuinely interested in. It is incredibly challenging to write something engaging if you are not interested in the topic. So, choose wisely and chose what excites you.
• Draw inspiration from the previous student’s projects. A great place to start is by looking at what the previous students wrote. You can find some fresh ideas and a general direction.
• Ask your thesis advisor for his feedback. Most probably, your thesis advisor supervised many students before. They can be a great help too because they know how to assess papers. Before meeting with your professor, do some basic research, and understand what topic is about.
• Be original, but not too much. You do not want to spend your time writing about a project that many people wrote about. Your readers will not be interested in reading it, but your professors as well. However, make sure you do not pick anything too obscure. It will leave you with no secondary sources.
• Choose a narrow and specific topic. Not only will it allow you to be more original, but also to master a topic. When the issue is too broad, there is just too much information to cover in one thesis.
• Go interdisciplinary. If you find yourself interested in history, philosophy, or any other related topic, it can help you write an exceptional thesis in economics. Most of your peers may work on pure economics. Then, the interdisciplinary approach can help you to stand out among them.

Thank you for reading the article to the end! We hope this list of economics thesis topics ideas could help you to gather your thoughts and get inspired. Share it with those who may find it useful. Let us know what you think about it in the comment section below.

🔗 References

• Economics Thesis Topics List: Seminars Only
• How To Pick A Topic For Your Economics Research Project Or Master’s Thesis: INOMICS, The Site for Economists
• What Do Theses and Dissertations Look Like: KU Writing Center, the University of Kansas
• Writing Economics: Robert Neugeboren with Mireille Jacobson, University of Harvard
• Economics Ph.D. Theses: Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School, IDEAS_RePEc
• World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018: United Nations
• Undergraduate Honors Theses: Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
• Economics Department Dissertations Collection: Economics Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Topics for Master Theses: Department of Economics, NHH, Norwegian School of Economics
• Share via Facebook
• Share via X
• Share via LinkedIn
• Share via email

By clicking "Post Comment" you agree to IvyPanda’s Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions . Your posts, along with your name, can be seen by all users.

The dilemma I faced in getting Thesis proposal for my M Phil programme is taken away. Your article would be a useful guide to many more students.Thank you for your guidance.

Thanks for the feedback, John! Your opinion is very important for us!

I wants it for msc thesis

These are very helpful and concise research topics which I have spent days surfing the internet to get all this while. Thanks for making research life experience easier for me. Keep this good work up.

Thank you, Idris!

Glad to hear that! Thank you for your feedback, Idris!

Excellent research

For research

A very well written, clear and easy-to-read article. It was highly helpful. Thank you!

Thanks for your kind words! We look forward to seeing you again!

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on January 11, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on August 15, 2023 by Eoghan Ryan.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . It usually comes near the end of your introduction .

Your thesis will look a bit different depending on the type of essay you’re writing. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should relate back to this idea.

You can write your thesis statement by following four simple steps:

• Start with a question
• Write your initial answer
• Develop your answer
• Refine your thesis statement

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Table of contents

What is a thesis statement, placement of the thesis statement, step 1: start with a question, step 2: write your initial answer, step 3: develop your answer, step 4: refine your thesis statement, types of thesis statements, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis statements.

A thesis statement summarizes the central points of your essay. It is a signpost telling the reader what the essay will argue and why.

The best thesis statements are:

• Concise: A good thesis statement is short and sweet—don’t use more words than necessary. State your point clearly and directly in one or two sentences.
• Contentious: Your thesis shouldn’t be a simple statement of fact that everyone already knows. A good thesis statement is a claim that requires further evidence or analysis to back it up.
• Coherent: Everything mentioned in your thesis statement must be supported and explained in the rest of your paper.

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

• Academic style
• Vague sentences
• Style consistency

See an example

The thesis statement generally appears at the end of your essay introduction or research paper introduction .

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts and among young people more generally is hotly debated. For many who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education: the internet facilitates easier access to information, exposure to different perspectives, and a flexible learning environment for both students and teachers.

You should come up with an initial thesis, sometimes called a working thesis , early in the writing process . As soon as you’ve decided on your essay topic , you need to work out what you want to say about it—a clear thesis will give your essay direction and structure.

You might already have a question in your assignment, but if not, try to come up with your own. What would you like to find out or decide about your topic?

For example, you might ask:

After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process .

Now you need to consider why this is your answer and how you will convince your reader to agree with you. As you read more about your topic and begin writing, your answer should get more detailed.

In your essay about the internet and education, the thesis states your position and sketches out the key arguments you’ll use to support it.

The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information.

In your essay about braille, the thesis statement summarizes the key historical development that you’ll explain.

The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, allowing them to participate more actively in public life.

A strong thesis statement should tell the reader:

• Why you hold this position
• What they’ll learn from your essay
• The key points of your argument or narrative

The final thesis statement doesn’t just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you’re going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to consider the broader context of your topic.

These examples are more specific and show that you’ll explore your topic in depth.

Your thesis statement should match the goals of your essay, which vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing:

• In an argumentative essay , your thesis statement should take a strong position. Your aim in the essay is to convince your reader of this thesis based on evidence and logical reasoning.
• In an expository essay , you’ll aim to explain the facts of a topic or process. Your thesis statement doesn’t have to include a strong opinion in this case, but it should clearly state the central point you want to make, and mention the key elements you’ll explain.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

• Choosing Essay Topic
• Write a College Essay
• Write a Diversity Essay
• College Essay Format & Structure
• Comparing and Contrasting in an Essay

 (AI) Tools

• Grammar Checker
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Text Summarizer
• AI Detector
• Plagiarism Checker
• Citation Generator

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :

• Ask a question about your topic .
• Write your initial answer.
• Develop your answer by including reasons.
• Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.

The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, August 15). How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved September 1, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/thesis-statement/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, how to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples, how to write topic sentences | 4 steps, examples & purpose, academic paragraph structure | step-by-step guide & examples, get unlimited documents corrected.

✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

Practice in Identifying Effective Thesis Statements

Adrian Samson/Getty Images

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

This exercise will help you understand the difference between an effective and ineffective thesis statement , ie a sentence that identifies the main idea and central purpose of an essay .

Instructions

For each pair of sentences below, select the one that you think would make the more effective thesis in the introductory paragraph of a short essay (approximately 400 to 600 words). Keep in mind that an effective thesis statement should be sharply focused and specific , not just a general statement of fact.

When you're done, you may want to discuss your answers with your classmates, and then compare your responses with the suggested answers on page two. Be ready to defend your choices. Because these thesis statements appear outside the context of complete essays, all responses are judgment calls, not absolute certainties.

• (a) The Hunger Games is a science fiction adventure film based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins. (b) The Hunger Games is a morality tale about the dangers of a political system that is dominated by the wealthy.
• (a) There is no question that cell phones have changed our lives in a very big way. (b) While cell phones provide freedom and mobility, they can also become a leash, compelling users to answer them anywhere and at any time.
• (a) Finding a job is never easy, but it can be especially hard when the economy is still feeling the effects of a recession and employers are reluctant to hire new workers. (b) College students looking for part-time work should begin their search by taking advantage of job-finding resources on campus.
• (a) For the past three decades, coconut oil has been unjustly criticized as an artery-clogging saturated fat. (b) Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic fat that is used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking.
• (a) There have been over 200 movies about Count Dracula, most of them only very loosely based on the novel published by Bram Stoker in 1897. (b) Despite its title, Bram Stoker's Dracula , a film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, takes considerable liberties with Stoker's novel.
• (a) There are several steps that teachers can take to encourage academic integrity and curtail cheating in their classes. (b) There is an epidemic of cheating in America's schools and colleges, and there are no easy solutions to this problem.
• (a) J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist who directed the building of the first atomic bombs during World War II, had technical, moral, and political reasons for opposing the development of the hydrogen bomb. (b) J. Robert Oppenheimer often referred to as "the father of the atomic bomb," was born in New York City in 1904.
• (a) The iPad has revolutionized the mobile-computing landscape and created a huge profit stream for Apple. (b) The iPad, with its relatively large high-definition screen, has helped to revitalize the comic book industry.
• (a) Like other addictive behaviors, Internet addiction may have serious negative consequences, including academic failure, job loss, and a breakdown in personal relationships. (b) Drug and alcohol addiction is a major problem in the world today, and many people suffer from it.
• (a) When I was a child I used to visit my grandmother in Moline every Sunday. (b) Every Sunday we visited my grandmother, who lived in a tiny house that was undeniably haunted.
• (a)  The bicycle was introduced in the nineteenth century and rapidly grew into a worldwide phenomenon. (b) In several ways, bicycles today are better than they were 100 or even 50 years ago.
• (a) Although many varieties of beans belong in a healthy diet, among the most nutritious are black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, and pinto beans. (b) Although beans are generally good for you, some kinds of raw beans can be dangerous if they're not well cooked.

Suggested Answers

• (b)   The Hunger Games  is a morality tale about the dangers of a political system that is dominated by the wealthy.
• (b) While cell phones provide freedom and mobility, they can also become a leash, compelling users to answer them anywhere and at any time.
• (b) College students looking for part-time work should begin their search by taking advantage of job-finding resources on campus.
• (a) For the past three decades, coconut oil has been unjustly criticized as an artery-clogging saturated fat.
• (b) Despite its title,  Bram Stoker's Dracula , a film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, takes considerable liberties with Stoker's novel.
• (a) There are several steps that teachers can take to encourage academic integrity and curtail cheating in their classes.
• (a) J. Robert Oppenheimer , the American physicist who directed the building of the first atomic bombs during World War II, had technical, moral, and political reasons for opposing the development of the hydrogen bomb.
• (b) The iPad, with its relatively large high-definition screen, has helped to revitalize the comic book industry.
• (a) Like other addictive behaviors, Internet addiction may have serious negative consequences, including academic failure, job loss, and a breakdown in personal relationships.
• (b) Every Sunday we visited my grandmother, who lived in a tiny house that was undeniably haunted.
• (b) In several ways, bicycles today are better than they were 100 or even 50 years ago.
• (a) Although many varieties of beans belong in a healthy diet, among the most nutritious are black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, and pinto beans. 
• Thesis: Definition and Examples in Composition
• Definition and Examples of Progymnasmata in Rhetoric
• Composition Type: Problem-Solution Essays
• Definition and Examples of Body Paragraphs in Composition
• An Introduction to Academic Writing
• Correcting Run-On Sentences and Comma Splices
• What Is a Compelling Introduction?
• Book Report: Definition, Guidelines, and Advice
• Exercise in Identifying Adjectives
• How to Turn Positive Statements Into Negative Statements
• Definition and Examples of Valid Arguments
• Practice in Identifying Appositives in Sentences
• How to Identify Sentences by Function
• Unity in Composition
• Identifying and Correcting Subject-Verb Agreement Errors

Jump to navigation

Search form

• History of Women Faculty in Economics
• Chairs & Managers
• Research Centers
• Publications
• Year-end letter: Berkeley Economics
• Faculty Profiles
• In Memoriam
• Graduate Program and Advising
• Graduate Profiles
• 2023-2024 Job Market Candidates
• 2023-2024 Ph.D. Job Market Infopage

Undergraduate Program

• Prospective Majors
• Current Majors
• Student Organizations
• Commencement
• Course List
• Course Enrollment
• This Week's Seminars
• Next Week's Seminars
• Summer 2024 Economics Classes
• Fall 2024 Economics Classes
• Charter Hill Society for Economics
• Submit a note
• Alumni Notes

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Examples of honors theses written by economics undergraduate students.

Posted with permission of the author. © 2019-2022 by the individual author. All rights reserved.

• "The Causal Effect of ACA Subsidies on Insurance Coverage Status Among California Adults"  - William Vereyken
• "Economic Impacts of Immigration Detention Centers Built Between 1990-2016 on U.S. Commuting Zones"  - Ekaterina Yudina

Spring/Summer 2022

• "The Impact of Indiv. Mandate on High-Income, Non-elderly Indiv. Health Insurance Coverage Rates and Racial/Ethnic Disparities"  - YeJin Ahn
• "An Economic Analysis of the 1997 Amhara Land Redistribution in Ethiopia"  - Ezana Anley
• "Affirmative Action's Effect on Educational and Wage Outcomes for Underrepresented Minorities"  - Vishnu G. Arul
• "Are the Effects of Racism Really That Black and White? A Study on the Effect Racism Has on the Productivity of Black   Footballers in the Premier League"  - Advik Banerjee
• "An Empirical Analysis of Industrial Concentration and Prices: Can We Blame Inflation on Corporate Greed?"  - Anton Bobrov
• "Tax Revenue Cyclicality and Income Inequality: Evidence from U.S. Counties From 1989 to 2019"  - Yiyang Chen
• "The Impact of Economic Opportunities on African American Migration Patterns in Oakland"  - Fernando Cheung
• "Impact of Tech Companies on Wages in the Local Economy"  - Niki Collette
• "Warm Welcome: Evidence for Weather-based Projection Bias in College Choice"  - Maria Cullen
• "Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on Bilateral Trade with China"  - Pedro de Marcos
• "Renaissance of the Black Homeowner: Impact Evaluation of Michigan's Renaissance Zones"  - Rupsha Debnath
• "Lockdown Blues: The Effect of Social Norms on the Psychological Cost of Unemployment During the COVID-19 Pandemic"  - Dylan Hallahan
• "How Education Affects Health Outcomes Across Genders"  - Jessica Li
• "Is Increasing Diversity Inclusion Effective in Improving Companies' Performance in the Financial Services Industry?"  - Miranda Li
• "The Future Financial Status of the Social Security Program"  - Chloe Manouchehri
• "Does Recreational Marijuana Legalization Affect Hard-Drug Use? - Evidence from Cocaine Prevalence and Treatment Admissions"  - Arthur Weiss
• "Relationship Between Economic Status and Money Spent on Private Education Leading to Economic Inequality in South Korea"  - Jiho Lee
• "The Impact of Migrant Remittances on Rural Labor Supply: Evidence from Nepal"  - Amanda Wong
• "Confirmation Bias: The Role of Messages and Messengers"  - Hongyu (Randol) Yao

Spring 2021

• "Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Solving the Asian Puzzle"  - Zoya Ali
• "Women in STEM: Moving Up or Falling Off the Academic Career Ladder?"  - Sophia J. Bai
• "Time Dependence in Okun's Law at the State Level" - Sarah Baig
• "Labor Regulation and the Impact on Firm Behavior in India" - Vatsal Bajaj
• "Gender Representation in Academia: Evidence from the Italian Education System Reform" - Oyundari Batbayar
• "Money & Marriage on the Elementary Mind: A High-Level Analysis of Inequitable Child Development in LA County" - Matthew J. Chang
• "Unanticipated Unemployment Rate News on the Stock Market" - David Chi
• "Should Physicians Be More Collaborative? Determining the Relationship Between Patient Participation and Treatment Plan Confidence Across a Spectrum of Illness Severity in the State of California" - Saif Chowdhury
• "Modeling Optimal Investment and Greenhouse Gas Abatement in the Presence of Technology Spillovers" - Sabrina Chui
• "Understanding the Influence of Marginal Income Tax Rates on Retirement Investment Habits"  - Daniel Cohen
• "Infrastructure in India's Internal War: A District-Level Analysis of the Naxalite-Maoist Conflict" - Krunal Desai
• "Do Eucalyptus Trees Increase Wildfires?"  - Lila Englander
• "Understanding the Labor Outcomes of Hurricane Sandy" - Kevin Fang
• "Does TikTok Show Viewers the Content Relevant to them?" - Ekaterina Fedorova
• "The Impact of the Affordable Care Act Dependent Care Provision on Long-term Young Adult Labor Market Choices" - Anne Fogarty
• "Orchestra Sex Disparity: Experimental Evidence from Audience Members" - Richard Gong
• "The Big Three Medical Price Indexes: A Comparative Review and Analysis"  - Robert Hovakimyan
• "Effect of Value-Added-Services on Customer Reviews in a Platform Marketplace" - Shankar Krishnan
• "COVID19 Recession: Gender Layoff Gap Explodes" - Ember Lin-Sperry
• "The Gender Wage Gap in China: Learning from Recent Longitudinal Data" - Donghe Lyu
• "Local Graduation Policies as a Tool for Increasing College Eligibility: Evidence from Los Angeles" - Dan L. Ma
• "Trust in Government and Lockdown Compliance in Sub-Saharan Africa" - Charles McMurry
• "I Do (or Don't): The Impact of Same-Sex Marriage Laws on International Tourism" - Oliver McNeil
• "International Shipping Consequences of a Navigable Arctic" - Jack Melin
• "Investigating Dollar Invoicing Trends Using United Kingdom Export Data" - Aneesh Nathani
• "Micro-Level Impact of Initial Public Offerings on Bay Area Housing Inflation" - Mina Nezam-Mafi
• "Explaining EU's Oil Dependency Through the Response of the Portuguese Sector Indexes to Brent Oil Prices Fluctuations" - Pedro S. Nunes
• "Dynamic Incentives and Effort Provision in Professional Tennis Tournaments" - Ruiwen Pan
• "Examining the Effects of Minimum Wage Laws on Part-Time Employment" - Odysseus Pyrinis
• "The Great Indian Identity Crisis? Exclusions & Intersectionality in the Indian Aadhaar System" - Aditi Ramakrishnan
• "The 'Clutch Gene' Myth: An Analysis of Late-Game Shooting Performance in the NBA"  - Can Sarioz
• "Estimating the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Jobs Within the Healthcare Industry" - Sidharth Satya
• "Factors Influencing Telehealth Utilization: Evidence from California" - Emily Schultz
• "Cash and Conflict: Evidence from the Indian Banknote Demonetization" - Nachiket Shah
• "Determinants of the Number of Anti-Government Demonstrations: Evidence from OECD Countries" - Nina Singiri
• "Hygiene Heroes: A Process Evaluation of Promoting Hygiene Practices in Tamil Nadu Schools" - Malika Sugathapala
• "Exploring the Labour Patterns of Women and Mothers Through the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Impact of School Closures and a New Kind of Recession"  - Renee Isabel Utter
• "How Have Socioeconomic Achievement Determinants Changed in the Past Decade for First-Generation Chinese Immigrants in the U.S." - Haolin Wang
• "The Impact of Quarantining on School Enrollment: Evidence from the Ebola Epidemic in Sierra Leone" - David Willigrod
• "Weeding out Needy Households and Welcoming the Better Off? Impacts of Transactional Barriers on SNAP Participation Rates" - Kevin Woo
• "Are Soccer Teams Being Inefficient? An Analysis of Sunk Cost Fallacy and Recency Bias Using Transfer Fee" - Junru Lyu
• "The Effects of Access to Family Planning Facilities on Female Labor Market Outcomes"  - Marcus Sander
• "Macroeconomic Volatility at the Zero Lower Bound: Evidence from the OECD" - Anthony Swaminathan
• "How are Society's Conditions and Demographics Related to the Popularity of Chief Executive Carrie Lam  and the Hong Kong Government"  - Peter To

Spring/Summer 2020

• "Parental Involvement: The Differential Impacts of Consent and Notice Requirements for Minors' Abortions" - Angela Ames
• "Examining Local Price Levels and Income Distribution Over Time" - Josh Archer
• "Estimating the Effect of Grandparent Death on Fertility" - Jason Chen
• "Democracy in the Face of COVID-19: Have Less Democratic Countries Been More Effective at Preventing the Spread of This Pandemic ?" - Yi Chen
• "Understanding the Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers on Indigenous People in Mexico" - Arushi Desai
• "Microfinance and Payday Lending: Are they Solving a Problem or Creating One?" - Sophia Faulkner
• "The Risk-Taking Channel of Monetary Policy and Foreign Banks" - Noah Forougi
• "Ride of Die? Metropolitan Bikeshare Systems and Pollution" - Sean Furuta
• "Internet's Important Involvement in Information Industry Integration in Idaho, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana (and others): How the emerging internet affected the economic geography of the information industry" - Keming (Alex) Gao
• "The Relationship between Economic Crises and Long-Run Wealth Inequality" - Renuka Garg
• "Voter Bias in the Associated Press College Football Poll : Reconducting a 2009 study with new data in a $1 Billion-dollar industry that has seen significant changes in the past decade"  - Brent Hensley
• "Monopsony Exploitation in Major League Baseball: Using Wins Above Replacement to Estimate Marginal Revenue Product" - Jacob C. Hyman
• "The Relationship Between Currency Substitution and Exchange Rate Volatility" - Jewon Ju
• "Efficiency, Bias, and Decisions: Observations from a Sports Betting Exchange" - Alexander Kan
• "The Effect of Medicaid Expansion on Substance Use Disorder Treatment Utilization: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act" - Christy Kang
• "Analyzing the Relationship between Personal Income Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality" - Gevorg Khandamiryan
• "The Effects of Occupancy Taxes on the Short-Term Rental Market: Evidence from Boston" - Alan Liang
• "Corporate Types and Bank Lending in Contractionary Era: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies" - Zishen Liu
• "Financial Constraints on Student Learning: An Analysis of How Financial Stress Influences Cognitive Function in Children" - Simone Matecna
• "The Effect of Workplace Inspections on Employment and Sales - A Regression Discontinuity Analysis" - Jeseo Park
• "Lending Sociodynamics, Economic Instability, and the U.S. Farm Credit Crisis" - Erfan Samaei
• "The Effect of Intangible Assets on Value Added: Evidence from microdata across small and large firms in Europe" - Tamara Sequeira
• "Price Efficiency Differences Between Public and Private Utilities: An Empirical Analysis of US Electric Utilities" - Yechan Shin
• "Effect of Campus Shootings on Academic Achievement: Examination of 2014 Isla Vista Killings" - Min Joo (Julie) Song
• "First-Degree Price Discrimination: Evidence from Informal Markets in India" - Rishab Srivastava
• "Who Benefits From Gentrification? A Case Study of Oregon Public High Schools" - Namrata Subramanian
• "Estimating the Economic Impacts of Wealth Taxation in France" - Jeffrey Suzuki
• "Transit-Oriented Development or Transit-Oriented Displacement? Evaluating the Sorting Effect of Public Transportation in Los Angeles County" - Yeeling Tse
• "How State Abortion Policy Restrictiveness is Associated with Unintended Pregnancy Outcomes in the United States from 2014-2018" - Ruhee Wadhwania
• "Global Food Security and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation"  - Aidan Wang
• "The Relationship Between Pharmaceutical R&D Spending and NME Development" - Taylor Wang
• "The Role of Individual Risk Attitude in Occupational Inheritance" - Yi Wang
• "Labor Market Segmentation: Evidence from U.S. Janitorial Jobs Advertised in English and Spanish" - Zijun Xu
• "Bias on the Brain: How Patient Gender Influences Use of Emergency Room Diagnostic Imaging" - Abigail Zhong
• "Age Effects, Irrationality and Excessive Risk-Taking in Supposedly Expert Agents" - William Aldred
• "Pricing Disparities for Minority Communities in Chicago: Rideshares and Taxis" - Matthew Cleveland
• "Where My Negros At? Evaluating the Effects of Banning Affirmative Action on Black College Enrollment" - Ellie Koepplinger
• "Race and Recession: How Minorities May Affect Downturns" - Alexander Szarka
• "Understanding the Effects of Canadian International Food Aid on Production and Trade" - Patrick D. Tagari
• "Urban Property Rights and Labor Supply in Peru: Heterogeneity Analysis by Gender and Educational Attainment" - Juan Sebastián Rozo Vásquez
• "Effect of High-Speed Rail on City Tourism Revenue in China: A Perspective on Spatial Connectivity" - Lingyun Xiao

Archives (2009-2019)

Developing a Thesis Statement

Many papers you write require developing a thesis statement. In this section you’ll learn what a thesis statement is and how to write one.

Keep in mind that not all papers require thesis statements . If in doubt, please consult your instructor for assistance.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement . . .

• Makes an argumentative assertion about a topic; it states the conclusions that you have reached about your topic.
• Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper.
• Is focused and specific enough to be “proven” within the boundaries of your paper.
• Is generally located near the end of the introduction ; sometimes, in a long paper, the thesis will be expressed in several sentences or in an entire paragraph.
• Identifies the relationships between the pieces of evidence that you are using to support your argument.

Not all papers require thesis statements! Ask your instructor if you’re in doubt whether you need one.

Identify a topic

Your topic is the subject about which you will write. Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic; or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper.

Consider what your assignment asks you to do

Inform yourself about your topic, focus on one aspect of your topic, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts, generate a topic from an assignment.

Below are some possible topics based on sample assignments.

Sample assignment 1

Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II.

Identified topic

Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis

This topic avoids generalities such as “Spain” and “World War II,” addressing instead on Franco’s role (a specific aspect of “Spain”) and the diplomatic relations between the Allies and Axis (a specific aspect of World War II).

Sample assignment 2

Analyze one of Homer’s epic similes in the Iliad.

The relationship between the portrayal of warfare and the epic simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64.

This topic focuses on a single simile and relates it to a single aspect of the Iliad ( warfare being a major theme in that work).

Developing a Thesis Statement–Additional information

Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic, or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper. You’ll want to read your assignment carefully, looking for key terms that you can use to focus your topic.

Sample assignment: Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II Key terms: analyze, Spain’s neutrality, World War II

After you’ve identified the key words in your topic, the next step is to read about them in several sources, or generate as much information as possible through an analysis of your topic. Obviously, the more material or knowledge you have, the more possibilities will be available for a strong argument. For the sample assignment above, you’ll want to look at books and articles on World War II in general, and Spain’s neutrality in particular.

As you consider your options, you must decide to focus on one aspect of your topic. This means that you cannot include everything you’ve learned about your topic, nor should you go off in several directions. If you end up covering too many different aspects of a topic, your paper will sprawl and be unconvincing in its argument, and it most likely will not fulfull the assignment requirements.

For the sample assignment above, both Spain’s neutrality and World War II are topics far too broad to explore in a paper. You may instead decide to focus on Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis , which narrows down what aspects of Spain’s neutrality and World War II you want to discuss, as well as establishes a specific link between those two aspects.

Before you go too far, however, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts. Try to avoid topics that already have too much written about them (i.e., “eating disorders and body image among adolescent women”) or that simply are not important (i.e. “why I like ice cream”). These topics may lead to a thesis that is either dry fact or a weird claim that cannot be supported. A good thesis falls somewhere between the two extremes. To arrive at this point, ask yourself what is new, interesting, contestable, or controversial about your topic.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times . Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Derive a main point from topic

Once you have a topic, you will have to decide what the main point of your paper will be. This point, the “controlling idea,” becomes the core of your argument (thesis statement) and it is the unifying idea to which you will relate all your sub-theses. You can then turn this “controlling idea” into a purpose statement about what you intend to do in your paper.

Look for patterns in your evidence

Compose a purpose statement.

Consult the examples below for suggestions on how to look for patterns in your evidence and construct a purpose statement.

• Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis
• Franco turned to the Allies when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from the Axis

Possible conclusion:

Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: Franco’s desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power.

Purpose statement

This paper will analyze Franco’s diplomacy during World War II to see how it contributed to Spain’s neutrality.

• The simile compares Simoisius to a tree, which is a peaceful, natural image.
• The tree in the simile is chopped down to make wheels for a chariot, which is an object used in warfare.

At first, the simile seems to take the reader away from the world of warfare, but we end up back in that world by the end.

This paper will analyze the way the simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64 moves in and out of the world of warfare.

Derive purpose statement from topic

To find out what your “controlling idea” is, you have to examine and evaluate your evidence . As you consider your evidence, you may notice patterns emerging, data repeated in more than one source, or facts that favor one view more than another. These patterns or data may then lead you to some conclusions about your topic and suggest that you can successfully argue for one idea better than another.

For instance, you might find out that Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis, but when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from them, he turned to the Allies. As you read more about Franco’s decisions, you may conclude that Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: his desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power. Based on this conclusion, you can then write a trial thesis statement to help you decide what material belongs in your paper.

Sometimes you won’t be able to find a focus or identify your “spin” or specific argument immediately. Like some writers, you might begin with a purpose statement just to get yourself going. A purpose statement is one or more sentences that announce your topic and indicate the structure of the paper but do not state the conclusions you have drawn . Thus, you might begin with something like this:

• This paper will look at modern language to see if it reflects male dominance or female oppression.
• I plan to analyze anger and derision in offensive language to see if they represent a challenge of society’s authority.

At some point, you can turn a purpose statement into a thesis statement. As you think and write about your topic, you can restrict, clarify, and refine your argument, crafting your thesis statement to reflect your thinking.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Compose a draft thesis statement

If you are writing a paper that will have an argumentative thesis and are having trouble getting started, the techniques in the table below may help you develop a temporary or “working” thesis statement.

Begin with a purpose statement that you will later turn into a thesis statement.

Assignment: Discuss the history of the Reform Party and explain its influence on the 1990 presidential and Congressional election.

Purpose Statement: This paper briefly sketches the history of the grassroots, conservative, Perot-led Reform Party and analyzes how it influenced the economic and social ideologies of the two mainstream parties.

Question-to-Assertion

If your assignment asks a specific question(s), turn the question(s) into an assertion and give reasons why it is true or reasons for your opinion.

Assignment : What do Aylmer and Rappaccini have to be proud of? Why aren’t they satisfied with these things? How does pride, as demonstrated in “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” lead to unexpected problems?

Beginning thesis statement: Alymer and Rappaccinni are proud of their great knowledge; however, they are also very greedy and are driven to use their knowledge to alter some aspect of nature as a test of their ability. Evil results when they try to “play God.”

Write a sentence that summarizes the main idea of the essay you plan to write.

Main idea: The reason some toys succeed in the market is that they appeal to the consumers’ sense of the ridiculous and their basic desire to laugh at themselves.

Make a list of the ideas that you want to include; consider the ideas and try to group them.

• nature = peaceful
• war matériel = violent (competes with 1?)
• need for time and space to mourn the dead
• war is inescapable (competes with 3?)

Use a formula to arrive at a working thesis statement (you will revise this later).

• although most readers of _______ have argued that _______, closer examination shows that _______.
• _______ uses _______ and _____ to prove that ________.
• phenomenon x is a result of the combination of __________, __________, and _________.

What to keep in mind as you draft an initial thesis statement

Beginning statements obtained through the methods illustrated above can serve as a framework for planning or drafting your paper, but remember they’re not yet the specific, argumentative thesis you want for the final version of your paper. In fact, in its first stages, a thesis statement usually is ill-formed or rough and serves only as a planning tool.

As you write, you may discover evidence that does not fit your temporary or “working” thesis. Or you may reach deeper insights about your topic as you do more research, and you will find that your thesis statement has to be more complicated to match the evidence that you want to use.

You must be willing to reject or omit some evidence in order to keep your paper cohesive and your reader focused. Or you may have to revise your thesis to match the evidence and insights that you want to discuss. Read your draft carefully, noting the conclusions you have drawn and the major ideas which support or prove those conclusions. These will be the elements of your final thesis statement.

Sometimes you will not be able to identify these elements in your early drafts, but as you consider how your argument is developing and how your evidence supports your main idea, ask yourself, “ What is the main point that I want to prove/discuss? ” and “ How will I convince the reader that this is true? ” When you can answer these questions, then you can begin to refine the thesis statement.

Refine and polish the thesis statement

To get to your final thesis, you’ll need to refine your draft thesis so that it’s specific and arguable.

• Ask if your draft thesis addresses the assignment
• Question each part of your draft thesis
• Clarify vague phrases and assertions
• Investigate alternatives to your draft thesis

Consult the example below for suggestions on how to refine your draft thesis statement.

Sample Assignment

Choose an activity and define it as a symbol of American culture. Your essay should cause the reader to think critically about the society which produces and enjoys that activity.

• Ask The phenomenon of drive-in facilities is an interesting symbol of american culture, and these facilities demonstrate significant characteristics of our society.This statement does not fulfill the assignment because it does not require the reader to think critically about society.

Drive-ins are an interesting symbol of American culture because they represent Americans’ significant creativity and business ingenuity.

Among the types of drive-in facilities familiar during the twentieth century, drive-in movie theaters best represent American creativity, not merely because they were the forerunner of later drive-ins and drive-throughs, but because of their impact on our culture: they changed our relationship to the automobile, changed the way people experienced movies, and changed movie-going into a family activity.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast-food establishments, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize America’s economic ingenuity, they also have affected our personal standards.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast- food restaurants, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize (1) Americans’ business ingenuity, they also have contributed (2) to an increasing homogenization of our culture, (3) a willingness to depersonalize relationships with others, and (4) a tendency to sacrifice quality for convenience.

This statement is now specific and fulfills all parts of the assignment. This version, like any good thesis, is not self-evident; its points, 1-4, will have to be proven with evidence in the body of the paper. The numbers in this statement indicate the order in which the points will be presented. Depending on the length of the paper, there could be one paragraph for each numbered item or there could be blocks of paragraph for even pages for each one.

Complete the final thesis statement

The bottom line.

As you move through the process of crafting a thesis, you’ll need to remember four things:

• Context matters! Think about your course materials and lectures. Try to relate your thesis to the ideas your instructor is discussing.
• As you go through the process described in this section, always keep your assignment in mind . You will be more successful when your thesis (and paper) responds to the assignment than if it argues a semi-related idea.
• Your thesis statement should be precise, focused, and contestable ; it should predict the sub-theses or blocks of information that you will use to prove your argument.
• Make sure that you keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Change your thesis as your paper evolves, because you do not want your thesis to promise more than your paper actually delivers.

In the beginning, the thesis statement was a tool to help you sharpen your focus, limit material and establish the paper’s purpose. When your paper is finished, however, the thesis statement becomes a tool for your reader. It tells the reader what you have learned about your topic and what evidence led you to your conclusion. It keeps the reader on track–well able to understand and appreciate your argument.

Writing Process and Structure

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Generating Ideas for

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

Developing a Thesis Statement

Updated Jun 2022

A thesis statement defines the core elements involved in the question around which a research project is built. With it you can shape and implement a plan of action for conducting your research. You begin by creating one or more suppositions-or hypotheses-as to what the answer to that question might be. Think of them as preliminary thesis statements.

The difference between a preliminary and a final thesis can be thought of as the difference between:

"I don't know, but I'm thinking such and such." -and- "Trust me on this one thing."

A final thesis statement removes the doubt inherent in a preliminary thesis and provides a solid basis for your project. The rightness of you position will be advanced and argued in your research paper.

Creating a Preliminary Thesis Statement

Creating a preliminary thesis is the first step. For this, you must already have a research question. Examine it carefully and do a little brainstorming as to what the possible answer(s) might be: make some educated guesses and write them down.

You want to end up with a statement that isn't necessarily conclusive but gets you thinking and started on building one that is: a final statement around which your research can be focused. Let's use an environmental question fueling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling debate (circa 2006) to build a thesis statement.

Research Question: What is the impact of China's rapidly expanding economy on global oil markets and how does it affect the argument against drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

Formulate a preliminary answer; add some supporting facts or observations-in this case both-as well as a preliminary conclusion, as in the following:

Preliminary Thesis Statement: The growth of China's rapidly expanding economy is radically changing the playing field in a global oil-market dominated for decades by the United States and Japan. Currently the second largest consumer of petroleum products in the world, China may very well become the largest, possibly importing as much as two-thirds of its requirement by 2025. This may be due to the growing Chinese auto market. It may also be due to an inability to meet established nuclear power plant construction targets. Regardless, the stakes are high. The question of where enough energy to satisfy global needs is going to come from cannot be downplayed. Despite the protests of environmental activists across the United States, the increasing needs of China to sustain their growing economy by contracting with nations deemed hostile by the United States may very well change the tone of the debate about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It may tilt away from environmentalist conservation positions toward those who favor exploration and production.

This preliminary thesis provides some direction for your inquiry. In one short paragraph, four things are accomplished:

• A preliminary answer to the first part of a two-part question has been given: "China's economy is radically changing the global, oil-market playing-field."
• A hypothetical observation has been added: "In time, China might become the largest player in the field."
• A supporting fact is also added: "China is currently the second largest petroleum-product consumer in the world."
• Finally, a concluding supposition or hypothesis is suggested: "The tone of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling debate may change."

Reviewing the Preliminary Thesis Statement

Reviewing the preliminary thesis is the second step. In this example you'll notice that the preliminary statement is a little bit loose, a little broad. This is not unusual, and it's okay. It suggests too much information, but at least there is something with which to work.

In the example, the two-part question has both a "what" and a "how" component. The preliminary thesis briefly answers the "what" component, makes a credible observation regarding "why", and then suggests a hypothetical answer to the "how" component.

So, where did the "why" come from: that wasn't part of the original question? The interesting thing about questions is how often they lead to others. The important thing to note here is that an answer to an unasked question is a good indicator that something needs to be revised. And perhaps it's in the question itself. Sometimes a research question needs revising before the preliminary thesis can be revised. How about, something like this:

Revised Research Question: Why is the expanding Chinese economy exerting so much pressure on global oil markets and how will it affect the debate between corporate America and environmentalists over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

Considering Your Purpose and Audience

Consider both your purpose and the interest of your audience next. Notice that the new question is more purpose driven. The inquiry is more specific. It asks: "Why" does one situation exist and "how" will it affect another? Notice that the "what" component has been removed, replaced by a fact and a rephrased question that incorporates the "why" component.

With a clearer purpose the interest of the audience will be much easier to hold. In this case, two groups with opposing views have been identified. Each has a vested interest in what you have to say. With a more purposeful question a more precise thesis can now be shaped.

Revised Preliminary Thesis Statement: Currently the second largest consumer of petroleum products in the world, China may very well become the largest, possibly importing as much as two-thirds of its requirement by 2025. This rapidly expanding demand for oil may be caused, in part, by their exploding automobile industry and, in part, by an inability to meet their nuclear power plant construction targets. Regardless, the stakes are high and oil resources are limited. With increased global competition, the demand will rapidly outpace current production capabilities in the oil producing nations. Such increased competition is going to seriously impact the current debate between environmentalists and corporate America regarding drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And, in the end, the environmentalists may not like the outcome.

You can see that, with just a little tweaking, the preliminary thesis has taken on a sharper focus, one that will attract the attention of an audience that includes people on both sides of this divisive issue. It begins with a simple statement of fact supported by reasons that address the new "why" in the revised question. A very transparent conclusion suggesting the direction the research paper will take follows.

Considering the Scope of Your Thesis

Finally, consider the scope of your statement. There's still something a little bulky about the preliminary thesis. It's time to hone it down, narrow it to where the actual research won't be overwhelming. Here's a possibility:

Further Revised Preliminary Thesis Statement: China, currently the second largest consumer of petroleum products in the world, is poised to become the largest. Projections indicate that it will be importing as much as two-thirds of its nation's requirement by 2025. Regardless of the reasons for this-and there are many-global resources are limited as demand soars. With production capabilities in the oil producing nations maxed at current levels and increased competition from China to secure enough oil to sustain their economic growth, the current debate between environmentalists and corporate America over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is going to ratchet up a decibel or two. And the environmentalists are going to be hard-pressed to win the argument.

Converting Your Preliminary to a Final Thesis

Converting from a preliminary to a final thesis is the last step. You've come a long way. It's shorter, but still bulky. Let's set the first few sentences aside and tweak the last to see what happens.

Final Thesis Statement: With production capabilities in the oil producing nations maxed at their current levels, and increased competition from China to import that oil, the current debate between environmentalists and corporate America over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is going to ratchet up a decibel or two. And the environmentalists are going to be hard-pressed to win the argument.

An Even Better Final Thesis Statement: Environmentalists are likely to lose ground in the current debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as oil producing nations struggle to meet the increased demands of an emerging industrial China competing for limited supplies in the global oil market.

Okay. There you have it, a final thesis statement. The preliminary statement has been honed down and tightened up. And guess what? The sentences that were set aside, as well as all the others you have worked on during your revision, aren't a waste. They, or any combination of them, might make an excellent opening paragraph. You may want to include some version of your original research question, also. It's a great way to get started:

Plausible Opening Paragraph: China, currently the second largest consumer of petroleum products in the world, is poised to become the largest. Projections indicate that it will be importing as much as two-thirds of its nation's requirement by 2025. Regardless of the reasons for this-and there are many-global resources are limited as international demand soars. How will this affect the current debate between environmentalists and corporate America over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

Palmquist, Mike & Peter Connor. (2008). Developing a Thesis Statement. Writing@CSU . Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=21

Economics Department

Writing a thesis.

Introduction Choosing a topic and an advisor Reviewing relevant literature Collecting data Creating results Finishing the thesis Revisions

Introduction

Approaching a senior thesis in any major can be an intimidating prospect. However, like most large tasks, the thesis is much more manageable if you take it one step at a time and rely on your advisors to lead you in productive directions. The Economics Department tries very hard to support thesis students in their research and writing. The mid-year mini-orals and the early deadlines for first chapter and first draft all encourage seniors to make steady progress through the thesis year.

In some ways, economics is a particularly intimidating field in which to contemplate a thesis because much of the research literature that you read as an undergraduate makes use of mathematical tools that you are probably barely familiar with and not comfortable using on your own. Most seniors feel as though they are not capable of undertaking research at this level. But writing a senior thesis is quite a different task than getting a research paper published. Although a few economics theses have used the kind of sophisticated mathematical or econometric tools that are common in the journals, most seniors rely entirely on techniques that are learned in Reed's theory and econometrics courses.

What is a senior thesis? You may want to look at some economics theses in the library to get an idea for the scope of projects that recent seniors have undertaken. There is a lot of variation in Reed senior theses, but successful ones are nearly always based on a central question that the author attempts to answer: the thesis of the thesis. Investigating this question may lead you to review the research of others, to synthesize others' work in new ways, or to conduct theoretical or empirical research on your own. Sometimes the outcome of a thesis can be a detailed proposal for further research that the author thinks would provide a better answer than is available at present. In its most basic form, your thesis should be an argument, using tools, research and reasoning appropriate to the field of economics, in response to the central question you have chosen to investigate.

Producing a thesis can be broken down into a series of stages, as outlined below. Each stage involves a substantial amount of work and, to some degree, must be completed before the following stages can proceed. Steady progress throughout the year is crucial to a successful thesis. Students who achieve the benchmarks for progress set by the department and their advisors are usually able to minimize the amount of stress arising at the second-semester deadlines.

Choosing a topic and a thesis advisor

Selecting a good thesis topic is the first step in a successful thesis project. You will be devoting much of your energy over a nine-month period to studying this topic, so it is important to choose an area in which your interest is likely to be sustained through this lengthy research process.

Once you have selected the general area of your research, the choice of the thesis advisor is often obvious. If there is a member of the faculty with expertise in that area, that person should normally advise your thesis. However, many theses are very general or are specialized in areas outside the interests of the faculty. In cases where there is no obvious choice of advisor based on the subject of the thesis, you should request an advisor with whom you are comfortable working and whose advice you respect. Economics majors are asked to express a preference for a thesis advisor. However, if the advising load is excessively unbalanced in a particular year, some students may be asked to work with an advisor other than their first choice. In such cases, the department's decisions about who should be asked to change advisors will be guided mainly by thesis topics and the ability of alternative faculty to provide good advice.

Within your area of interest, the most crucial issue is doability. A major cause of disappointment and frustration for seniors is choosing a thesis topic on which it is difficult to make progress, either because the question is so large that they cannot manage it or because the question/topic cannot be easily investigating using the tools that they command.

While you are the best authority on your own areas of interest, you will have to rely on the faculty, and especially on your advisor, to help you find a specific thesis topic that you can complete on time with the resources that are available at Reed. Specific, focused topics are almost always better than highly general or vague ones. Questions like "How can we reduce water pollution?" or "What determines the rate of technological progress?" are so broad that an adequate answer could not fit into a senior thesis. However, within those general areas the faculty can help guide you to one of many doable theses.

Reviewing relevant literature

All scholars in economics build on the shoulders of others. The first step of your thesis research is to search broadly and deeply to find out what others have discovered about your question and related questions. There are many resources available at Reed to help you with this search. The first is your thesis advisor and other members of the faculty, who may be able to point you to prominent pieces of research that bear on your thesis.

Each of these papers will contain citations to earlier work on related topics. Other references can be found be searching for appropriate keywords in EconLit, which indexes all economics books and journals, or one of the public-affairs or newspaper indexes. These indexes are available online through the Reed Library website. If you cast your net broadly at the beginning, you are less likely to be surprised at the end to find that someone else has done research that diminishes the impact or credibility of your own work.

As you begin reading for your thesis, you should also begin writing. A thesis is usually a much larger project than a course paper and the strategy that has worked well for you on course papers may not work as well for the thesis. Many students write course papers in two discrete stages: the research (input) stage and the writing (output) stage. In the input stage you cram everything that you learn from your reading and research into your brain, then in the output stage you spew it back out in the form of a paper. Since most course papers are written in a couple of weeks and encompass a relatively small body of input, this strategy is often satisfactory. However, the thesis is written over nine months and many students read hundreds of articles and books in the early stages of research. This is too much information and too long a time for your brain to be able to keep track of all the input and save it up until you get to the end and begin outputting.

A better strategy is to begin writing the thesis the same day you begin reading for it. Keep detailed notes on everything you read, including full bibliographic information in the appropriate format. Reed has software available to help you keep a database of references. (Be very sure that your notes distinguish between the author's words and your own. Plagiarism can arise inadvertently if a student uses in the thesis a passage from his or her notes without realizing that it was a near-exact quotation copied into the notes months earlier.) Photocopy all passages you think you might want to quote and any tables that contain useful data. The notes you make as you read can be the basis of your literature-review chapter, which is the first piece of your thesis.

Collecting data (if needed)

If you are doing a thesis that requires empirical data, one of your biggest obstacles is likely to be assembling your data base. Since you cannot proceed with your econometric work until your data are in place, the prompt completion of your data collection is of critical importance. It is important to recognize that data collection is subject to the "90/10 Rule. Ninety percent of the time you spend obtaining data will be devoted to ten percent of the data series. Much of what you need is likely to be easily available through standard published or electronic sources. But there will be other data series for which you will have to search extensively and some you may not ever find. Do not be fooled by the ease with which you obtain the first series; there are almost always snags.

The first step in data collection is to compile a wish list. You should consider the characteristics of the data that are most desirable for your study: the frequency of observation and whether you are looking for aggregate or disaggregated data. List all of the variables that you think you might need. If you have doubts about the availability of some variables up front, formulate strategies for doing without them in case you cannot obtain them.

Once you have your list, start collecting numbers and entering them into your computer data base. Your advisor and other faculty members can probably guide you to sources of data that are relevant to your topic. For other sources, you may need to rely on the data resources discussed earlier in this chapter. The economics librarian can also be a highly useful source of further information.

Generating results

Once you have reviewed the relevant literature and collected the data you need for any empirical work you plan to do, you are ready to get down to the central task of research: generating results. The way that you achieve these results depends entirely on the research methodology you and your advisor have chosen. It may involve theoretical reasoning using economic models, combining and/or comparing the results of others, interpreting numerical data, estimating coefficients and testing hypotheses using econometric methods, or conducting experiments.

About all that can be said in general about the process of generating results is that some aspects of the results are very likely to surprise you. Solutions of theoretical models, regression results, and experimental outcomes usually do not end up exactly as you envisioned them at the beginning. If these results arrive just a few days before the draft of your thesis is due, you are unlikely to have time to develop a satisfactory explanation for them or to conduct the additional research that would resolve them. At a bare minimum, you should plan to have all of your results generated two weeks before the first draft of your thesis is due. This will give you at least a little time to reflect on and refine them in the completed thesis.

Finishing the thesis

The last stage of preparing your thesis draft is the formulation of your conclusions and the preparation of the thesis draft itself. In the euphoria and exhaustion of having completed their research, many students devote too little time to this important step. At this stage, you turn all the work you did during the year into a coherent argument, starting with your central question, explaining how your work builds of that of others toward an answer, describing and interpreting your results, then summing everything up with your conclusions.

Because much of your thesis will have been written months earlier, it is important to leave a week or so before the first draft is due to reread the entire thesis and make sure that the pieces fit together. The argument should flow naturally from a statement of the question to a discussion of the contribution of others to a description of your own research to your formulation of an answer. Each piece should advance the argument, following from the previous piece and leading to the next one. If a section does not relate to the overall argument of your thesis, it should not be in the thesis.

Finally, you need to deal with issues of formatting. The Reed Senior Handbook will give you the basic guidelines for format and spacing. Make sure that your references and citations are in an acceptable and consistent format. Sequence the numbers of your chapters, sections, figures, and tables appropriately. Then make two copies and turn them in to the faculty secretary in Vollum 112 before the first-draft deadline.

Regardless of how good the first draft of your thesis is, your advisor and first-draft reader will probably have extensive comments and suggestions for revision. Arguments that seem clear to you may not be as readable to someone else. Moreover, there may be flaws in empirical work or theoretical arguments that are not apparent until the entire thesis is read in proper sequence. It is not unusual for advisors to have extensive additional comments on the completed draft, even if they have already seen each chapter before.

At the revision stage, it is important to make sure that you understand exactly what your readers mean by each comment. As soon as your advisor and first-draft reader tell you that they have finished their reading, you should pick up your thesis and read through their comments. You should then meet with each of them (separately or together) to discuss the thesis and clarify what revisions they expect. Remember that these are the individuals who are responsible for assigning the thesis grade. It is to your benefit to understand and fulfill their expectations about revisions.

The Thesis Statement

In Gordon Harvey’s  Elements of the Academic Essay , he makes a succinct attempt to define the thesis statement, stating that it is “your main insight or idea about a text or topic, and the main proposition that your essay demonstrates” (Harvey 1). He also places it foremost in his list of elements, with the implication that it is the most crucial component. The fact that Harvey uses the second person, “your main insight” and “your essay,” is significant. Rather than rehashing what has been discussed in class, a student presents her or his opinion in a hopefully simple sentence, and then devotes the following paragraphs to supporting it, defending against counters, and ideally convincing the reader.

This expected format of the academic essay, with the thesis statement, is contentious, as opined by Anne Berggren, who complains that “only in student writing is the writer expected to place at the end of the first paragraph a one-sentence of the conclusion the writer is aiming for and then, as students often put it, ‘prove’ that point” (Eisner, Caroline, ed. 54) While Berggren laces this statement with her own opinions, it is true from a personal standpoint, and it is also true that students do seek to create a single sentence meant to achieve numerous expectations, from presenting a provocative argument to conveying a general sense of the direction of the paper.

In  Writing Your Thesis , Paul Oliver establishes arguably neutral expectations of a thesis statement, stipulating that it have a “structure and format which help the reader to absorb the subject matter” and an “intellectual coherence which starts with precise aims” (Oliver 13). The ambiguity of these definitions is no coincidence; throughout the book, Oliver offers similar direction such as theses’ being “original contributions to knowledge” (20). It is important to acknowledge that Oliver is clearly part of the system in that the thesis is prevalent, that it is should presented as this “single sentence,” and that it is something that any student is capable of formulating. In  Avoiding Thesis and Dissertation Pitfalls , R. Murray Thomas and Dale L. Brubaker recognize this predicament by recording actual conversations between Professor and Student, with a professor allegorically explaining to a mystified student that “writing a thesis is rather like a strategy you adopt for helping someone find a place on a map. The strategy involves starting with a broad area that you are confident the person already knows, and then by gradual steps leading the person to the place you want to talk about” (Thomas and Brubaker 154). Though this reasoning is definitely clearer, thanks to lay analysis, it still is a broad concept that does little to investigate the means by which a student creates a good thesis statement.

Beyond these philosophical ideals, little natural proficiency at thesis statement composition should be expected among novice writers. In Virginia Perdue’s “Authority and the Freshman Writer: The Ideology of the Thesis Statement,” she addresses this understandable disparity and encourages that the writing instructor aim to think of different approaches to explain the purpose of thesis statement. She complicates the issue by pointing out that there are changing perceptions of academic argument that may be more apposite for first-year writing, and—taking a page from Berggren—that the format itself, in the form of a “simple” single sentence, is paradoxically complicated for students to engage in. In  Writing Research Papers , James D. Lester attempts to tackle this paradox by positing an approach to the thesis statement that divides it into a two-step process: first with the preliminary thesis that allows the writer to neatly prepare arguments, and then with the final thesis that is presented to the reader. “The two differ slightly because the preliminary thesis helps you explore issues for discussion while the final thesis sentence informs your audience of the particular issue being discussed” (Lester 24). While this process may seem helpful on the surface, it in actuality further elucidates the troublesome mystique that perplexes students.

The thesis statement and expectations of it bring forth a larger problem in the academic society in general. Novice student writers feel pressured to conform to this broad notion of what a thesis statement is. Tutors should be aware about allowing their students to be able to write effective academic papers without sacrificing their originality.

Works Cited

Eisner, Caroline and Martha Vicinus, ed. Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age. U Michigan Press, 2008.

Kellogg, Ronald T and Bascom A. Raulerson III. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Volume 14, Number 2, April 2007, pp. 237-242.

Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide. Scott, Foresman and Company, 1986.

Oliver, Paul. Writing Your Thesis Statement. London: SAGE, 1994.

Perdue, Virgina. “Authority and the Freshman Writer: The Ideology of the Thesis Statement.” Writing Instructor, v11 n3 p135-42 Spr-Sum 1992

Thomas, R. Murray and Dale L. Brubaker. Avoiding Thesis and Dissertation Pitfalls: 61 Cases of Problems and Solutions. Bergin & Garvey, 2001.

Mailing Address

Pomona College 333 N. College Way Claremont , CA 91711

Get in touch

Give back to pomona.

Part of   The Claremont Colleges

Honors Theses

Thesis Statements

What is a thesis statement.

Your thesis statement is one of the most important parts of your paper.  It expresses your main argument succinctly and explains why your argument is historically significant.  Think of your thesis as a promise you make to your reader about what your paper will argue.  Then, spend the rest of your paper–each body paragraph–fulfilling that promise.

Your thesis should be between one and three sentences long and is placed at the end of your introduction.  Just because the thesis comes towards the beginning of your paper does not mean you can write it first and then forget about it.  View your thesis as a work in progress while you write your paper.  Once you are satisfied with the overall argument your paper makes, go back to your thesis and see if it captures what you have argued.  If it does not, then revise it.  Crafting a good thesis is one of the most challenging parts of the writing process, so do not expect to perfect it on the first few tries.  Successful writers revise their thesis statements again and again.

A successful thesis statement:

• makes an historical argument
• takes a position that requires defending
• is historically specific
• is focused and precise
• answers the question, “so what?”

How to write a thesis statement:

Suppose you are taking an early American history class and your professor has distributed the following essay prompt:

“Historians have debated the American Revolution’s effect on women.  Some argue that the Revolution had a positive effect because it increased women’s authority in the family.  Others argue that it had a negative effect because it excluded women from politics.  Still others argue that the Revolution changed very little for women, as they remained ensconced in the home.  Write a paper in which you pose your own answer to the question of whether the American Revolution had a positive, negative, or limited effect on women.”

Using this prompt, we will look at both weak and strong thesis statements to see how successful thesis statements work.

While this thesis does take a position, it is problematic because it simply restates the prompt.  It needs to be more specific about how  the Revolution had a limited effect on women and  why it mattered that women remained in the home.

Revised Thesis:  The Revolution wrought little political change in the lives of women because they did not gain the right to vote or run for office.  Instead, women remained firmly in the home, just as they had before the war, making their day-to-day lives look much the same.

This revision is an improvement over the first attempt because it states what standards the writer is using to measure change (the right to vote and run for office) and it shows why women remaining in the home serves as evidence of limited change (because their day-to-day lives looked the same before and after the war).  However, it still relies too heavily on the information given in the prompt, simply saying that women remained in the home.  It needs to make an argument about some element of the war’s limited effect on women.  This thesis requires further revision.

Strong Thesis: While the Revolution presented women unprecedented opportunities to participate in protest movements and manage their family’s farms and businesses, it ultimately did not offer lasting political change, excluding women from the right to vote and serve in office.

Few would argue with the idea that war brings upheaval.  Your thesis needs to be debatable:  it needs to make a claim against which someone could argue.  Your job throughout the paper is to provide evidence in support of your own case.  Here is a revised version:

Strong Thesis: The Revolution caused particular upheaval in the lives of women.  With men away at war, women took on full responsibility for running households, farms, and businesses.  As a result of their increased involvement during the war, many women were reluctant to give up their new-found responsibilities after the fighting ended.

Sexism is a vague word that can mean different things in different times and places.  In order to answer the question and make a compelling argument, this thesis needs to explain exactly what  attitudes toward women were in early America, and  how those attitudes negatively affected women in the Revolutionary period.

Strong Thesis: The Revolution had a negative impact on women because of the belief that women lacked the rational faculties of men. In a nation that was to be guided by reasonable republican citizens, women were imagined to have no place in politics and were thus firmly relegated to the home.

This thesis addresses too large of a topic for an undergraduate paper.  The terms “social,” “political,” and “economic” are too broad and vague for the writer to analyze them thoroughly in a limited number of pages.  The thesis might focus on one of those concepts, or it might narrow the emphasis to some specific features of social, political, and economic change.

Strong Thesis: The Revolution paved the way for important political changes for women.  As “Republican Mothers,” women contributed to the polity by raising future citizens and nurturing virtuous husbands.  Consequently, women played a far more important role in the new nation’s politics than they had under British rule.

This thesis is off to a strong start, but it needs to go one step further by telling the reader why changes in these three areas mattered.  How did the lives of women improve because of developments in education, law, and economics?  What were women able to do with these advantages?  Obviously the rest of the paper will answer these questions, but the thesis statement needs to give some indication of why these particular changes mattered.

Strong Thesis: The Revolution had a positive impact on women because it ushered in improvements in female education, legal standing, and economic opportunity.  Progress in these three areas gave women the tools they needed to carve out lives beyond the home, laying the foundation for the cohesive feminist movement that would emerge in the mid-nineteenth century.

Thesis Checklist

When revising your thesis, check it against the following guidelines:

• Does my thesis make an historical argument?
• Does my thesis take a position that requires defending?
• Is my thesis historically specific?
• Is my thesis focused and precise?
• Does my thesis answer the question, “so what?”

Download as PDF

6265 Bunche Hall Box 951473 University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 90095-1473 Phone: (310) 825-4601

Other Resources

• UCLA Library
• Faculty Intranet
• Department Forms
• Office 365 Email
• Remote Help

Campus Resources

• Maps, Directions, Parking
• Academic Calendar
• University of California
• Terms of Use

Social Sciences Division Departments

• Aerospace Studies
• African American Studies
• American Indian Studies
• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Asian American Studies
• César E. Chávez Department of Chicana & Chicano Studies
• Communication
• Conservation
• Gender Studies
• Military Science
• Naval Science
• Political Science

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Developing Strong Thesis Statements

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The thesis statement or main claim must be debatable

An argumentative or persuasive piece of writing must begin with a debatable thesis or claim. In other words, the thesis must be something that people could reasonably have differing opinions on. If your thesis is something that is generally agreed upon or accepted as fact then there is no reason to try to persuade people.

Example of a non-debatable thesis statement:

This thesis statement is not debatable. First, the word pollution implies that something is bad or negative in some way. Furthermore, all studies agree that pollution is a problem; they simply disagree on the impact it will have or the scope of the problem. No one could reasonably argue that pollution is unambiguously good.

Example of a debatable thesis statement:

This is an example of a debatable thesis because reasonable people could disagree with it. Some people might think that this is how we should spend the nation's money. Others might feel that we should be spending more money on education. Still others could argue that corporations, not the government, should be paying to limit pollution.

Another example of a debatable thesis statement:

In this example there is also room for disagreement between rational individuals. Some citizens might think focusing on recycling programs rather than private automobiles is the most effective strategy.

The thesis needs to be narrow

Although the scope of your paper might seem overwhelming at the start, generally the narrower the thesis the more effective your argument will be. Your thesis or claim must be supported by evidence. The broader your claim is, the more evidence you will need to convince readers that your position is right.

Example of a thesis that is too broad:

There are several reasons this statement is too broad to argue. First, what is included in the category "drugs"? Is the author talking about illegal drug use, recreational drug use (which might include alcohol and cigarettes), or all uses of medication in general? Second, in what ways are drugs detrimental? Is drug use causing deaths (and is the author equating deaths from overdoses and deaths from drug related violence)? Is drug use changing the moral climate or causing the economy to decline? Finally, what does the author mean by "society"? Is the author referring only to America or to the global population? Does the author make any distinction between the effects on children and adults? There are just too many questions that the claim leaves open. The author could not cover all of the topics listed above, yet the generality of the claim leaves all of these possibilities open to debate.

Example of a narrow or focused thesis:

In this example the topic of drugs has been narrowed down to illegal drugs and the detriment has been narrowed down to gang violence. This is a much more manageable topic.

We could narrow each debatable thesis from the previous examples in the following way:

Narrowed debatable thesis 1:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just the amount of money used but also how the money could actually help to control pollution.

Narrowed debatable thesis 2:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just what the focus of a national anti-pollution campaign should be but also why this is the appropriate focus.

Qualifiers such as " typically ," " generally ," " usually ," or " on average " also help to limit the scope of your claim by allowing for the almost inevitable exception to the rule.

Types of claims

Claims typically fall into one of four categories. Thinking about how you want to approach your topic, or, in other words, what type of claim you want to make, is one way to focus your thesis on one particular aspect of your broader topic.

Claims of fact or definition: These claims argue about what the definition of something is or whether something is a settled fact. Example:

Claims of cause and effect: These claims argue that one person, thing, or event caused another thing or event to occur. Example:

Claims about value: These are claims made of what something is worth, whether we value it or not, how we would rate or categorize something. Example:

Claims about solutions or policies: These are claims that argue for or against a certain solution or policy approach to a problem. Example:

Which type of claim is right for your argument? Which type of thesis or claim you use for your argument will depend on your position and knowledge of the topic, your audience, and the context of your paper. You might want to think about where you imagine your audience to be on this topic and pinpoint where you think the biggest difference in viewpoints might be. Even if you start with one type of claim you probably will be using several within the paper. Regardless of the type of claim you choose to utilize it is key to identify the controversy or debate you are addressing and to define your position early on in the paper.

Edinburgh Research Archive

•   ERA Home
• Economics, School of

Economics thesis and dissertation collection

By Issue Date Authors Titles Subjects Publication Type Sponsor Supervisors

Search within this Collection:

Recent Submissions

Religious differentials in the labour market: the impact of the good friday agreement 25 years on , stuck behind the lines: how does redlining affect educational attainment and occupational structure in chicago , essays in applied micro-econometrics , migration and the implications for the sending country , macroeconomics , essays on human capital, sorting, and wages , essays on behavioral and experimental economics , climate change, innovation, and inequality , three essays on social institutions and individual behavior , essays in development economics , essays on applied microeconomics , macroeconomics & inequality , essays on wage determinants in the long and the short run , two models of institutional design in crime and education , labour market extremes: a study of the high and low wage ends of the labour market , essays on corruption and inequality , essays on resource allocation, land investment and climate change in smallholder agriculture , essays on family economics and labour economics , essays on inequality in human capital development .

Thesis Statements

What this handout is about.

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft.

Introduction

Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement:

• tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
• is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
• directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
• makes a claim that others might dispute.
• is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (most often, at the end of the first paragraph) that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you will include one. When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. (Check out our handout on understanding assignments for more information.)

How do I create a thesis?

A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis” that presents a basic or main idea and an argument that you think you can support with evidence. Both the argument and your thesis are likely to need adjustment along the way.

Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement. For more ideas on how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming .

How do I know if my thesis is strong?

If there’s time, run it by your instructor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some feedback. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following :

• Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question. If the prompt isn’t phrased as a question, try to rephrase it. For example, “Discuss the effect of X on Y” can be rephrased as “What is the effect of X on Y?”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is likely to  be “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.
• Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.

Suppose you are taking a course on contemporary communication, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: “Discuss the impact of social media on public awareness.” Looking back at your notes, you might start with this working thesis:

Social media impacts public awareness in both positive and negative ways.

You can use the questions above to help you revise this general statement into a stronger thesis.

• Do I answer the question? You can analyze this if you rephrase “discuss the impact” as “what is the impact?” This way, you can see that you’ve answered the question only very generally with the vague “positive and negative ways.”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not likely. Only people who maintain that social media has a solely positive or solely negative impact could disagree.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? No. What are the positive effects? What are the negative effects?
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? No. Why are they positive? How are they positive? What are their causes? Why are they negative? How are they negative? What are their causes?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? No. Why should anyone care about the positive and/or negative impact of social media?

After thinking about your answers to these questions, you decide to focus on the one impact you feel strongly about and have strong evidence for:

Because not every voice on social media is reliable, people have become much more critical consumers of information, and thus, more informed voters.

This version is a much stronger thesis! It answers the question, takes a specific position that others can challenge, and it gives a sense of why it matters.

Let’s try another. Suppose your literature professor hands out the following assignment in a class on the American novel: Write an analysis of some aspect of Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn. “This will be easy,” you think. “I loved Huckleberry Finn!” You grab a pad of paper and write:

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.

You begin to analyze your thesis:

• Do I answer the question? No. The prompt asks you to analyze some aspect of the novel. Your working thesis is a statement of general appreciation for the entire novel.

Think about aspects of the novel that are important to its structure or meaning—for example, the role of storytelling, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships between adults and children. Now you write:

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.

• Do I answer the question? Yes!
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not really. This contrast is well-known and accepted.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? It’s getting there–you have highlighted an important aspect of the novel for investigation. However, it’s still not clear what your analysis will reveal.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? Not yet. Compare scenes from the book and see what you discover. Free write, make lists, jot down Huck’s actions and reactions and anything else that seems interesting.
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it signify?”

After examining the evidence and considering your own insights, you write:

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave “civilized” society and go back to nature.

This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content. Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 2018. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing , 8th ed. New York: Pearson.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

• USF Research
• USF Libraries

Digital Commons @ USF > College of Arts and Sciences > Economics > Theses and Dissertations

Economics Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Natural Disasters and Human Capital: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia , Lei Lv

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Two Essays in Applied Microeconomics: Retirement, Income Inequalities, and other Economic Indicators of Health and Life Satisfaction , Zahra Akbari

Exploring Unobserved Heterogeneity of Stated Preferences Through Latent Class Modeling: Application in Health and Insurance Demand , Suzana Karim

The Impact of Critical Illness Insurance among Older Adults in China , Jiaosi Li

Essays on Opioid Related Issues , Minglu Sun

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Essays on SNAP Participation, BMI, and Food Purchasing Decisions , Samaneh Ghadyani

Reference-Dependent Choice on Digital Platforms , Joshua K. Kaisen

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Effects of the 340B Drug Pricing Program on Hospitals’ Prescribing Behavior, Patient Mix, and Quality of Care , Yilu Dong

Does Hedging Success Matter? An Empirical Study of Jet Fuel Hedging in the U.S. Airline Industry , Brian Hornung

Essays in Applied Public Policy and Health Economics , Stephen W. Poteet

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Essays in Applied Microeconomics , Lijuan Feng

Essays on Health, Healthcare, Job Insecurity and Health Outcomes , Ichiro Nakamoto

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Essays in Applied Microeconomics , John Hartman

Essays on Family-Friendly Policies, Child Planning and Children’s Early-Age Outcomes , Stefani Milovanska-Farrington

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Education and Health Impacts of an Affirmative Action Policy on Minorities in India , Robin Dhakal

Testing the Medical Arms Race Hypothesis: a Spatial Approach , Robyn M. Kibler

Essays in Health Economics , Olga Petrova

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Impact of Health Insurance for the Poor on Labor Market Out comes: Evidence from Indonesia. , Youssef Fassi Fehri

Essays in Health and Development Economics , John Bosco Oryema

Assessing Property Value Impacts of Access to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT): Case Study of the Cleveland HealthLine , Victoria A. Perk

An Exploration of Adolescent Obesity Determinants , Anastasia King Smith

The Impact of Criminal Justice Interventions and Social Policies on Family Violence: Theory and Evidence , Sianne Diana Vijay

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Two Essays Examining Organizational Performance , Stacey Alexis Gelsheimer

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Generic Competition and Price Regulation in the European Union Pharmaceutical Market: The Case of Cardiovascular Medicines , Berna Colak

Social Interactions In Breast Cancer Prevention Among Women In The United States , Natallia Gray

Discrepancies in Labor Market Outcomes From Migration Evidence From Colombia , Liza Beatriz Pena

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Bayesian Estimation of Panel Data Fractional Response Models with Endogeneity: An Application to Standardized Test Rates , Lawrence Kessler

Essays in Happiness Economics , Boris Nikolaev

Measuring Technical Efficiency of the Japanese Professional Football (Soccer) League (J1 and J2) , Dan Zhao

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Essays in Sports Economics , Daniel Mark Chin

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

Modeling Endogenous Treatment Eects with Heterogeneity: A Bayesian Nonparametric Approach , Xuequn Hu

Internet Use and Economic Development: Evidence and Policy Implications , Joseph J. Macdougald

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

The Interaction Between Urban Form and Transit Travel , Sisinnio Concas

The Effect of Land-Use Controls on Urban Sprawl , Marin V. Geshkov

The Role of Rater Motivation in Personnel Selection Validation Studies , Dan Ispas

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

Globalization, Migration and the U.S. Labor Market for Physicians: The Impact of Immigration on Local Wages , Finnie B. Cook

Medicare Part D Program: Prescription Drug Plan Copayment Structure and Premium Sensitivity , Rui Dai

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

The Effects of Depressed Mood on Academic Outcomes in Adolescents and Young Adults , Robert Christopher Jones

Theses/Dissertations from 2007 2007

Malaria, Labor Supply, and Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa , Taiwo Abimbola

Determinants of female labor force participation in Venezuela: A cross-sectional analysis , Betilde Rincon de Munoz

Advanced Search

• Email Notifications and RSS
• All Collections
• USF Faculty Publications
• Open Access Journals
• Conferences and Events
• Theses and Dissertations
• Textbooks Collection

Useful Links

• Economics Department
• Rights Information
• SelectedWorks
• Submit Research

Home | About | Help | My Account | Accessibility Statement | Language and Diversity Statements

Privacy Copyright