Master's Thesis

The master's thesis is a major research project that is conducted under the supervision of a member of the department. The completed thesis must be presented and successfully defended in an oral examination administered by a formal thesis committee. Thesis credit is awarded when a final draft is approved by the thesis committee. It is important to note that a master's thesis must contain original work and cannot be submitted as a paper in other courses.

Learn more about the master's thesis

2026 Master's Theses

Aisha Alsayegh “Blown Off Course: The Effect of Hurricanes on Student Achievement in U.S. Public Schools” Linda Datcher Loury Award Recipient. Advisor: Matt Gudgeon

Yihan Chen "From Privilege to Policy: The Impact of Legislators’ Socioeconomic Backgrounds on Economic and Cultural Ideology” Advisor: Marcelo Bianconi 

Dong Lin "On the Hidden Terms of Trade in Directed Search" Advisor: Marcelo Bianconi

Hongjiang Liu "Rain and Rage: Spatial Precipitation Inequality and Herder-Farmer Conflicts in Africa" Advisor: Ujjayant Chakravorty

Anurag Pandey "Timber Price Shocks, Property Rights, and Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa" Advisor: Ujjayant Chakravorty

Nishant Shrestha "The Effect of Cattle Herd Size on Crop Burning in Small-holder Farms in Kenya and Burkina Faso" Advisor: Kyle Emerick

Adit Seth "Channels of Misidentification in Production-based Markups" Advisor: Silke Forbes

Shreya Suthakar "Married into a Borrowed World: Caste Networks and Women’s Labor Market Outcomes in India" Advisor: Cheryl Doss

Yucheng Xing “Aging, Selection and Sectoral Productivity Gap” Linda Datcher Loury Award Recipient.  Advisor: Douglas Gollin

Peiqi Zhang "Climate Change and the Local Value of Roads: how Climate Reshapes Road Gains in Peruvian Agriculture" Advisor: Adam Storeygard

Xixian Zhou “Beneath the ‘Blue Gold’: The Persistent Impact of Indigo Cultivation in British India” Linda Datcher Loury Award Recipient. Advisor: Cheryl Doss