Library & Cultural Services: Economics: Theses & Dissertations

General Information

Theses (or dissertations as they are sometimes called) are the product of extended independent research by students. They may be produced at undergraduate level (e.g. 3rd year Capstone projects), and are nearly always a feature of postgraduate research from Master's through to Ph.D. level.

Books offering guidance on how to write a thesis can be found at LB 2369 on floor 5 of the Albert Sloman Library. You might also find these online guides helpful:

A guide to writing in Economics (2009) by Paul Dudenhefer (Duke University)

Writing Economics (2005) by Robert Neugeboren with Mireille Jacobson (Harvard University)

Students often need to consult theses for various reasons, including:

checking the style and presentation of good past dissertations from their department
making sure that they are not repeating research already undertaken
using theses on a similar topic to gain useful information and/or references

Essex Theses

Essex Economics theses can be found in the following locations:

Economics Department - copies of undergraduate and Master's dissertations. Top undergraduate dissertations (EC831) are published in the Essex Economics Students' Journal. For postgraduate taught students, some examples are available on the EC981 Moodle page.
Albert Sloman Library - the University Library at Colchester holds print copies of all Essex Economics M.Phil. and Ph.D. dissertations up to 30 September 2016. They are listed in the catalogue, and must be consulted in the Library. To search by department type the keywords: essex thesis economics
University of Essex Research Repository - contains digitised versions of theses submitted after 30 September 2016

UK & North American Theses

To search for dissertations from other universities in the UK and beyond, there are a couple of very useful databases:

EThOS offers access to digitised UK doctoral theses

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses lists North American & UK theses (with some coverage of other countries):

EThOS
EThOS aims to provide a 'single point of access' where researchers the world over can access all theses produced by UK Higher Education. The database can be searched by anyone, but individual users need to register to get access to the full text of theses. Many theses are free to download instantly, whilst others will only be available once digitisation has been requested. The hub automatically harvests e-theses from Institutional Repositories and digitises paper theses from participating institutions to offer the single point of access. Many UK institutions support Open Access to their theses, so download of their digital and digitised theses is free to the researcher. A small number of participating institutions may not be able to offer Open Access and in this case the researcher may have to pay for the digitisation. Where a thesis must be digitised before supply, you can expect a short delay. However, you will be informed when the thesis is ready for collection and you can then log on to the system and download it.
ProQuest dissertations and theses
Provides access to two databases:
Proquest Dissertations & Theses : A& I which is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1861 to the present day. From 1980 most records contain abstracts. UK doctoral theses included from 1988. From 1997, records contain 24-page previews.
Proquest Dissertations & Theses: UK & Ireland - which contains the most comprehensive available listing of theses, with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland, since 1716; access to bibliographic coverage of theses produced by British and Irish universities; bibliographic listings for content for 1950-1986; abstracts for content since 1986. (Formerly Index to Theses) This database contains abstracts, it is not completely full text
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Open Access Digitised Dissertations

There are also many portals to open access dissertations. DLTD maintains a pretty comprehensive & up to date list of national portals around the world: