The Indian Pharmaceutical industry was weaned off protectionist measures supported by the Patent Act 1970 which abolished pharmaceutical product patents, this rendered every drug virtually generic allowing it to be legally imitated and sold

After becoming a signatory member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1994, India was given until 2005 to become TRIPS compliant. This enforced India to conform to the minimum standard set out by the TRIPS agreements

Put simply, Indian firms are no longer permitted to copy patented drugs for sale in the domestic or export market. India was required to adopt to a homogenous patent regime with other member states and it is this transitional period that will be scrutinised for your dissertation

Over-fishing has attracted the attention of charitable movements and media bodies worldwide. Many poor communities depend on the harvesting of fish stocks for their livelihood.

According to The Economist: ‘In 2013, the most recent year for which full data are available, 32% of the world’s fish stocks were being exploited beyond their sustainable limit, up from 10% in the 1970s’

International corporations with vested interests in capital intensive fishing vessels will move further afield to maximise return on their investment. Seasonality will also cause mobility of foreign fishing vessels

Economic game theory can be used to explore the options on how multinational organisations will circumvent over fishing. Either by free riding or negotiating to achieve a sustainable fish harvesting strategy

This economics dissertation topic idea features the economical analysis of Cadbury’s Freddochocolate bars. In the UK, the price increases of Freddo bars has gained significant interest from social media with some calling for “Freddo Riots” in protest for inflation of prices. Others have made cases for the minimum wage to be increased due to a fall in the amount of Freddo bars that an hour’s labour can purchase. One viral post called the latest price increment to 30p per bar “the biggest scandal of the 21st century”. Clearly, according to Tweets and Facebooks statuses, the price of a Freddo bar is a significant source of national anxiety for us British

The price increases are interesting for economists as we can analyse and explain how the price is fluctuating in real terms but also the role of “shrinkflation”. Perhaps one of the most famous cases of shrinkflation is the Toblerone who publicised that they were reducing the amount of product per bar by increasing the space between triangles in response to Brexit, or so they claimed

Is well publicised price increases for products such as the Freddo bar a motivation for firms to engage in Shrinkflation in lieu of attracting negative publicity for passing cost increases through price hikes?

Surprisingly, there is several online sources of data for the historic prices of the Freddo bar and any change in the weight of the bar too. One of our recommended sources shows a chart which compares the price of a Freddo bar against other economic indicators

If you are looking to produce an original and unconventional economics dissertation then you should consider the economic analysis of this British favourite confectionery bar. You can bulk your dissertation by analysing literature on inflation, product branding and empirical data on shrinkflation. We have a great Office For National Statistics article on Shrinkflation which will help you review this strategy within your analysis

A standard competitive labour market model would predict that an increase in labour costs would be met with a reduction in demand for labour services. Critics argue that an increase in labour cost will increase the propensity to invest in labour saving technology which will typically impact low skilled workers

Firms may switch to hiring superior skilled workers in response to a mandatory increase in labour cost outlay. This is a plausible hypothesis given that companies cannot control the labour cost, but they can control the quantity and quality of their labour force

However, counterarguments may claim that firms in a competitive homogenous market will pass on the labour costs through price inflation. This can be done safe in the knowledge that competitors are doing the same thing

In 2016 the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipment from the US landed on European shores. The fracking revolution had increased the supply of exportable natural gas (NG)

Due to Russia’s close proximity to Europe and massive natural resources – Russia had been supplying NG is massive volumes. However, the state majority owned Gazprom began to temper the supply of NG for political reasons. Russia had enough market power to control the price of NG is Europe

Shipments of LNG to European ports offered an alternative to Russian supplies and disrupted the price setting ability of Gazprom. This economics dissertation idea can make the use of monopoly theory and also the price setting equilibrium

Barriers to entry is a fundamental concept to economic theory. It helps determine the composition of industries and the success of firms within it

UK bookmakers have relatively low barriers to entry yet firms such as William Hill and Ladbrokes have maintained market share very well over the years. Is advertising expenditure creating a moat causing new market entrants to fall short of capturing market share?

Your dissertation should feature comprehensive analysis of the sector and use economic modelling to show how significant advertising expenditure could be underpinning market share

Privatisation has been a prominent paradigm in the UK under a Conservative Government. But does it spur innovation?

Jaguar, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, Britoil, British Gas and Royal Mail have all been privatised in the UK. Selecting a specific case study to centralise your research on should not be too much of an issue. There has been numerous empirical publications in the past relating to the link between privatisation and innovation

Use theory and empirical observations to build a hypothesis and then test this using your own data

The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) maintains that market prices for equities are a true reflection of all information in the public domain. However, this has been contested by many scholars

Using the 2008 financial crisis as a case study, does the market movements support or refute the EMH? Collect closing prices for an index such as the FTSE 100 leading to, and proceeding the crisis

Gathering sources for the literature should be no problem given the popularity of the EMH. Closing prices of the FTSE 100 is also readily available. Use the literature to construct a hypothesis and then test the hypothesis empirically

The Swiss Franc’s previous fixing to the Euro was broken in 2015 which caused shocks in the foreign exchange (FX) markets. How did this effect the Swiss Economy?

The allure of this case study is that there is a wealth of economic data straddling the announcement to break the currency peg. Analysing how different indicates (such as GDP or employment) preceding and immediately after the effect will help build a hypothesis

Did any Economic indicators react to the policy change? If so, how certain are you that it was caused by the FX change? Using past literature on the subject may be able to show you the different methods of manipulating the data and also to explain your results

One of the exemptions to the theory of the output gap is the curious case of Zimbabwe. Economic growth was falling yet there was a hyperinflation in the economy

This proposal will be able to make use of data analysis given the amount of widely available data in the public domain on GDP and price inflation for this economics dissertation idea

The Photovoltaic sector has been subject to sustained innovation, allowing energy from solar panels to compete with fossil fuels. How did the cost of producing solar fall so drastically from the technology’s inception?

Solar is an excellent candidate to base your dissertation on if you wish to research innovation in a technological perspective. Applying economic theory to this work will be simple given the relevance of the learning curve model

The gravity of the fall in the price of solar panel per watt of electric justifies using solar as an example in your dissertation, it is also a well documented subject – making procurement of data relatively simple

For behavioural economics students, this proposal features the study of consumer behaviour where agents spend in excess of £5,000 for a watch that functions almost identically to a watch 10% of the price of a Rolex

Reviewing past theory relevant to the demand for ostentatious items may shed light on the subject and the review of literature should determine which theory is best appropriate to describe the behaviour. Luxury good definitions, conspicuous consumption and price elasticity of demand are economic theories that will assist the researcher reach a conclusion

Surveying Rolex vendors and consumers will provide further insight that will help to underpin or refute theory – this sort of primary data will help achieve a higher grade on your economics dissertation

Economic game theory is a popular behaviour prediction instrument for economists. Determining a payout for each payer can identify dominant strategies, equilibrium and multistage games

The option to comply with fishing quotas or over-fish can be examined through a series of payoffs in the short and long term. This economics dissertation idea can explore the differentials between international agents who can choose to cooperate in allowing fish stock to recover, or, can freeride by fishing when the other party decides to attempt to allow fish stock to recover

This is a popular topic in economics and there will be no shortage of similar studies that you can use as an anchor for your own. Try to use a different perspective to previous papers so that your research can add value to exisiting literature on the subject

A very interesting topic is reviewing the assumptions of the Phillips curve in relation to the lack of observed inflationary pressures that the model predicts at zero-lower bound

Since the 2008 financial crisis, western central banks have reduced the base rates to zero lower bound. The Philips curve model will predict high employment and excessive inflation, yet, inflation has been below target for a decade

Reviewing the Phillips Curve assumptions and literature that attempts to explain the lack of inflation within the economy will be a major constituent of your dissertation. It is recommended that you select one theory, such as lowered production costs from outsourcing, and base your argument on that

Externalities arise from all sorts of market activities. The consumption of sugar is known to cause various medical conditions which has added to the demand of the NHS. Could applying a Pigovian tax to those choosing to jeopardize their health through poor dietary choices be a solution to the NHS demand crisis?

As the NHS service is free at the point of treatment, a passage on moral hazard should be considered – is there a lack of incentive for citizens to maintain a balanced diet if treating any ailments is instant and free of charge?

Exploring official empirical data published by the UK Government when sugar tax was introduced with theoretical evidence on effectiveness of Pigovian taxes should provide ample content for this economics dissertation idea

Enron’s implosion is one of the most referred to case study when the agency theory is explained. Can the catalog of events that lead to the Enron crisis show how to prevent agents from destroying a healthy company?

Previous literature that conflates theory and empirical observation will help build a conclusion on the matter. It is important that your dissertation finds several recommendations that are underpinned by evidence

If you do not want to use Enron as an example, the banking syndicates immediately prior to the 2008 crisis provides several examples of agentic behaviour which can feature in your analysis – the important consideration for this economics dissertation idea is to review past literature, identify the key events and then construct recommendations to avoid these in the future

Barriers to entry is a key aspect of economic theory. For this economic dissertation the publicly listed funeral provider will be analysed. Barriers to entry are relatively low in the fragmented sector. Dignity’s board began to buy up competition to allow them to raise prices, but the strategy was not sustainable due to the low barriers to entry. The sector is comprised of the Co-op, Dignity and many family owned parlors

Suggest how companies who have significant market share of a fragmented sector should adjust their strategy in order to maximise profit and to preclude the ceding of market share. Use economic theory such as price setting models and empirical data analysis of data published within Dignity’s annual reports

Assessing how the firm’s market share and profit share changed over a specified period may help to refute or underpin theory that you provide from a literature review. Has Dignity managed to use their market share to set prices? Why did this strategy fail? We have specialist writers in Microeconomics who will be able to help with a paper of this nature

Electricity (power) prices fluctuate daily and power suppliers usually hedge prices on a seasonal basis into the future, however, rising prices have fed through to consumer bills. Couple this with government embedded benefit subsidies such as renewable obligation certificates for green power generators have all caused power prices to increase. The question is – does power price perturbation cause a change in demand?

From an behavioural economic perspective, this is an interesting topic given that we consider power as an essential ingredient to our daily lives, however, we also have the ability to reduce wastage and conserve energy. Do high prices increase the propensity to ration power usage? Demand Side Response practices will need to be mentioned in your research – this is where the National Grid manages imbalance by facilitating a reduction in demand rather than an increase in power supply

This economics dissertation idea will likely interest the mathematical economists due to the emphasis on data analysis. Power is sold in two ways in the UK: either charges at a “System Imbalance Price (SIP)” or on a day ahead auction. Each are measured in pounds per Megawatt hour (£/MWh)

Interestingly, power prices can actually be negative at times of high wind output and low demand – meaning that power generators are charged rather than paid for the power they put onto the grid. Historic price data is widely available in the public domain and we have enlisted the source for you. It will be your decision as to whether to use SIP or Day ahead prices for your analysis

The same website also records power demand and so it will be simple to marry the demand for power against the price to establish if any statistical significant trends can be confirmed. We have several economic writers who work in the energy sector who will be able to customise a model answer for this dissertation

Prior to the UK’s referendum on EU membership – several economists claimed the pound sterling was overvalued and that the currency suffered from a case of Dutch disease. The large capital inflows from banking and financial activity was propping up the value of the pound. An interesting study for this economics dissertation idea will be to test correlation between UK listed financial sector profitability and value of the pound sterling

Exactly how to conduct this study is subjective based on whether your preference is to look for weakness in the value of the pound and then determine if financial sector performance was lagging in the period preceding the pound devaluation and, conversely, if a rise in finance sector profitability causes a rise in the pound sterling value

Determining correlation between the two will initiate discussion as countries with cases of Dutch disease in oil centric economies show currencies trending with underlying commodity price movements. Caveats will be needed as correlation does not necessarily infer causation

For this economics dissertation topic idea you should choose one country that is either emerging/developing or industrial that has experienced a financial crisis over the past decades (e.g., countries of the European periphery, Latin American or East Asian countries that suffered severe banking/currency crises in the 1980s, mid/late 1990s or other countries such as Turkey, Russia, Argentina)

You should focus on a large economic downturn (crisis) that is related to debt default, banking collapse, massive currency depreciation, or hyperinflation. Please focus on a crisis period associated with a large economic downturn rather than a recession

The dissertation aims at uncovering the origins of the latest crisis, but also a past crisis and then understanding similarities and differences

This economics dissertation topic idea requires the review of merging and acquisition (M&A) within the Russian oil and gas sector. Your dissertation will likely focus on the performance of the acquirer companies. One of the challenges for this proposal is that financial markets in Russia are very illiquid and very few companies are publicly listed, this precludes the researcher from using market returns. However, the Orbis database has accounting information that will enable you to download enough data to complete your analysis

Your literature review can be segregated by exploring M&A theory. Then reviewing literature in relation to the Russian energy sector itself before finally focusing on M&A activity within the Russian oil and gas sector

The Zephyr database will help identify acquirer firms. Both Orbis and Zephyr are provided by Bereau Van Dijk and will enable you to review data containing information on M&A, IPOs and venture capital deals. The database will contain other information in regard to the M&A deals themselves

How has Russian acquirers fared after M&A activity? How does previous research explain your results? These are central questions that will form the basis for this economics dissertation idea

The Economist has reinforced similar studies by stating that jet fuel represents around one third of an Airline’s costs. Given the volatile nature of oil markets, this can have a severe impact on the profitability of airline companies. One would usually expect companies to contain this cost through technological innovations. However, financial instruments allow airlines to have some certainty over their fuel costs by buying fuel using options or forwards

This economics dissertation topic idea will require you to gather information on a range of airlines to assess whether there is a link between the percentage of fuel hedged and innovation. There is a large dispersion between different airlines and their risk appetite with fuel hedging. For instance, Ryan Air has historically hedged 90% of their fuel requirements whereas Air Canada was hedging around 20% of their fuel requirements over the same period

You will need to delve into company annual reports to obtain the data that you need for fuel hedging strategies and volumes. There are other industry indicators such as Revenue Passenger Mile that will help with your analysis. The economics dissertation topic is very expansive as you can change the angle of your study to compare, for example, Ryan Air who hedges 90% of their fuel against Delta Airline who has a natural fuel hedge after purchasing a fuel refinery