AØKK08453U Seminar: Surveys in Macroeconomics and Household Finance (F)

Volume 2026/2027
Education

MSc programme in Economics

The course is a part of the financial line, signified by (F).

The seminar is primarily for students at the MSc of Economics.

Content

The aim of the seminar is for students to carry out independent projects based on survey data, focusing on a topic in macroeconomics or household finance. Students will select their topic in consultation with the seminar organizer, submit an initial project outline, prepare and hand in a first full draft of their paper, present their own work, provide critical feedback on another student’s paper, and finally submit a revised version of their seminar paper for assessment.

 

The list below illustrates possible topics, but students are welcome to propose their own. The suggested topics can be studied using panel data regressions, cross-sectional analysis, or other empirical methods with survey data (relevant data sets will be provided). In addition, the design of survey experiments (without implementing them) can constitute a central component of the seminar paper.

 

  • Expectation formation of households, firms, or professional forecasters (e.g. subjective job loss probabilities, inflation expectations, growth expectations)
  • Response of expectations to news (e.g. monetary policy shocks, trade shocks)
  • Impact of experiences on expectations (e.g. job loss, decline in sales)
  • Expectations and economic decisions (e.g. consumption and saving decisions of households, or investment and pricing decisions of firms)
  • Policy preferences and expectations (e.g. beliefs about monetary policy and estimating a Taylor rule)
  • Survey design and measurement topics (e.g. comparing different ways of measuring uncertainty)
Learning Outcome

After completing the seminar, the student is expected to be able to fulfil the learning outcome specified in the Master curriculum and to be able to:

 

Knowledge:

  • Define relevant research purpose and structure a seminar paper.
  • Account for key economic theories or survey approaches relevant for the seminar paper.
  • Account for alternative theories or methodological approaches relevant for the seminar paper.
  • Reflect and criticize existing theories/empirical work on the chosen topic.

 

Skills:

  • Review the existing literature and, with clear motivation, select the empirical approach to be applied in the seminar paper.
  • Plan survey experiments.
  • Analyze the chosen topic using reduced form analysis.
  • Analyze own results and evaluate those results given the existing literature on the topic.
  • Communicate own results in a scientific and professional manner.
  • Present own work and discuss other seminar papers in a scientific and professional manner


Competences:

  • Plan a research project.
  • Implement econometric methods and plan survey experiments used in the literature.
  • Initiate, be responsible for and carry out an independent empirical analysis.
  • Initiate collaborations

Coibion, Olivier, and Yuriy Gorodnichenko (forthcoming). “Expectations Matter: The New Causal Macroeconomics of Surveys and Experiments.” Princeton University Press.

 

Stantcheva, Stefanie (2023). “How to Run Surveys: A Guide to Creating Your Own Identifying Variation and Revealing the Invisible.” Annual Review of Economics 15, 205–234.

 

Haaland, Ingar, Christopher Roth, and Johannes Wohlfart (2023). “Designing Information Provision Experiments.” Journal of Economic Literature 61(1), 3–40.

BSc in Economics or similar
It is recommended that the student has followed introductory and intermediate macroeconomic and econometrics courses at least at the BSc level at the University of Copenhagen or has similar knowledge.
Students receive individual guidance from the instructor.
Students prepare a draft assignment, which they present to the teacher and the other students. The students take turns acting as opponents during each other’s presentations. The feedback should especially focus on the written presentation in the draft assignment, with particular emphasis on the introduction.
Exact dates will be available in the seminar’s course room no later than 14 days before the start of the semester

• Kick-off meeting: Week 6 / 36. See exact date in Absalon.

• Additional meetings/introductory teaching/guidance: Optional. See Absalon.

• Deadline for submission of commitment paper/project description:
No later than February 28 / September 30.

• Deadline for uploading seminar paper draft in Absalon: No later than one week before the presentations. See exact date in Absalon.

• Presentations: In the period November 20 – December 11 for the autumn semester and May 1 – 23 for the spring semester.
See exact dates in Absalon.

• Common submission date for all seminars: December 20 at 10:00 for the autumn semester and June 1 at 10:00 for the spring semester.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Project work
  • 186
  • Seminar
  • 20
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Individual
Collective
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)

 

Examples of the feedback given:

  • The teacher gives the students individual guidance on formulating a feasible research question and strategy.
  • Each student receives individually oral feedback on a written outline and presentation of the project from peers and teacher.
  • The teacher gives the students individual guidance during the execution of the project.
  • Each student receives individually oral feedback on the paper and at the presentation from peers and teacher.
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Home assignment
Type of assessment details
Individual or in groups of up to 3.
A seminar paper of 15 standard pages for one person, 22.5 standard pages for 2 and 30 standard pages for 3 students.
See further exam information in the Masters Programme Curriculum.
Examination prerequisites

Attendance in all seminar activities as stated in the Master curriculum.

Reexam: Hand in and have approved a synopsis.

Aid
All aids allowed

Use of AI tools is permitted. You must explain how you have used the tools. When text is solely or mainly generated by an AI tool, the tool used must be quoted as a source.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Exam period

The seminar paper must be uploaded in Digital Exam.

Common submission date for all seminars: June 1 at 10:00 for the spring semester.

For enrolled students more information about examination, rules, aids etc. is available at the intranet for  Master (UK) and  Master (DK ).

Re-exam

Individual seminar paper of 15 standard pages. See further exam information in the Masters Programme Curriculum.

Deadline and more information is available at  MSc in Economics - KUnet

More information about reexam etc. is available at  Master(UK) and  Master(DK).

 

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the seminar and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes in the Curriculum of the Master programme.