Program Structure

Fundamental Courses are intended to provide the basic tools for the subsequent courses and the thesis work. As such, they are required for all students. Three courses provide the necessary background in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Econometrics. Two courses are devoted to Asset Pricing and to Corporate Finance.

Short descriptions of the content of the fundamental courses are provided here.

Money or Finance Electives are chosen from two lists of available courses, one coded Money and one coded Finance. These courses are intended to provide advanced and specialized knowledge in areas that should be chosen by the student and reflect future career plans. Results from recent, cutting-edge research in these areas are distilled in order to extract lessons relevant for banking and financial practice, as well as for policy design. Students are required to have completed at least two courses from each list by the end of the program.

The lists of Money or Finance courses are provided here, together with short course descriptions. The lists are indicative and will be continually updated to reflect new trends in relevant research and changes in the composition of the pool of instructors.

Supplementary Courses are intended to provide a close look at how academic principles are applied to policy and industry work. They are typically instructed by central bankers and practitioners in the banking and financial sector. While core and elective courses draw on the research expertise of the Goethe University, topical courses take advantage of our location by drawing on our extensive links to financial institutions in Frankfurt. Students are required to take two supplementary courses.

The list of supplementary courses is again indicative. It is expected that the list will be revised more frequently than the list of electives, in our effort to focus on current issues and state-of-the-art practices.

Seminars encourage students to read, think, and work extensively on a topic of interest to them and afterwards present their work together with all other students. A seminar provides a natural setup for learning how to make effective presentations of specialized topics, as well as how to benefit from the knowledge of others. Seminars are sometimes held outside the university, in locations that are conducive to a productive but informal interaction between students and faculty members (e.g., in university-owned facilities in Rieszlern Resort, Austria). Each student takes at least one seminar from each track.

Indicative lists of available seminars are provided here, together with short descriptions.

The Thesis Seminar provides an opportunity for final-semester students to work on their Master's thesis and present their research to faculty and to their student colleagues and to get useful feedback and guidance on completing an interesting and relevant piece of work. Each student is required to take part in the thesis seminar. This seminar will typically be offered as a "block seminar", during a 1-4 day period.

Find more information here.

Master’s Thesis research is conducted during the last semester of the program, under the supervision of a chair contributing to the MMF Program. Mutual consent of the student and of the chair’s professor is required for supervision. The thesis is a substantive piece of work that demonstrates in-depth familiarity with a particular topic in monetary economics, finance, or their interaction, as well as ability for some original work. A typical thesis will provide an original, critical synthesis of existing research, as well as evidence of some new research undertaken by the student using relevant theoretical or empirical methods. The thesis should meet high academic standards and signals the student’s potential for independent work on challenging issues to future employers.

Find more information here.