Topic outline

  • General

    If you are starting your master’s studies in economics in Fall 2017, your economics capstone is the course 31E99906 Capstone: Microeconomic Policy, so go to the MyCourses page of that course.

    If you have started your master’s studies in economics earlier than in Fall 2017, and you have not taken the old course 31E12100 Microeconomics: Policy, your economics capstone is the new course 31E99906 Capstone: Microeconomic Policy, so go to the MyCourses page of that course.


    For all others (i.e., students who have taken the old course 31E12100 Microeconomics: Policy), the economics capstone is 31E99904 Capstone: Economics, so continue reading this page.

    31E99904 Capstone: Economics consists of

    1) an elective course (this can be a course you have already taken or which is lectured during the semester when you are taking the capstone)

    2) an essay on a topic that is related to the course 

    3) a seminar event where student essays are presented. There may be alternative seminar times, but you need to participate only in one of them. 

    Grade and credits are given for the combination of the course and the essay, 6 cr in total (no separate credits for the course and capstone).


    Essay:

    Write a short essay (3-5 pages) which is related to the topic of the elective course. The essay should be non-technical (no equations), aimed at more general public. Therefore the writing style has to be different from e.g. master's thesis. You can be polemic, but still use economic arguments. You could think of this as something that you would write in an op-ed or blog. Good examples can be found e.g. in The Economist and Financial Times.

    In the seminar each student has to present an essay written by some other student, i.e. nobody presents his/her own essay. The presentations should be concise (1-2 powerpoint slides) and constructively critical. The essays should be sent to Pekka Ilmakunnas one week before the seminar day, after which the presentations are assigned.

    You can sign up to the capstone by sending an e-mail to pekka.ilmakunnas (at) aalto.fi, preferably two weeks before the seminar at the latest. Tell your student number and the elective course you are going to use as the capstone.

    See also Instructions below.

    Timetable, 2017-2018:

    In the spring term, there last seminar event will be on May 17 (13-16) (depending on the number of students, there may be an additional day). 

    Registering for the capstone:

    Send an e-mail to pekka.ilmakunnas (at) aalto.fi. Then confirm your participation in the seminar event two weeks before the seminar day and send the essay one week before.