Final Theses

Information for mathematic students

Mathematics and Business Mathematics students can send a bachelor thesis/master thesis request by mail to Elisabeth Stöckl (stoeckl@lmu.de) at any time. Please attach your CV and a recent transcript of records to your inquiry.

Bachelor theses

Prerequisites

In order to qualify for the acceptance of a bachelor thesis, you must fulfill the following prerequisite:

  • Successful participation in a main seminar qualifies you for the bachelor thesis (6 ECTS).
  • Participation in an advanced seminar in the field of finance (chairs Elsas / Glaser / Jaspersen / Richter / Riordan) is recommended.

Application

Students have to apply for a bachelor thesis before the topics are announced. This is done using the application form below, which is unlocked during the respective application period. The bachelor theses are organized jointly with the Chair of Behavioral Risk Management and Insurance (Prof. Jaspersen).

Bachelor theses can be started at the Institute of Risk Management and Insurance at four start dates per year:

  • Beginning of the winter semester: submission of the thesis before Christmas.
  • End of the winter semester after the end of the exam period: submission of the thesis in the following summer semester
  • Beginning of the summer semester: submission of the thesis in the middle/end of June
  • End of the summer semester after the end of the examination period: Submission of the thesis in the following winter semester.

Registration form for Bachelor thesis (only available in German)

When planning your availability, please note that an oral Bachelor thesis colloquium will take place approximately 2 weeks after the submission of the Bachelor thesis.

The topics for bachelor theses are given by the chair and published in time. After the topics have been specified, students have the opportunity to indicate five preferences. There is no right to a certain topic, but we try to meet topic preferences as good as possible.

An overview of topics already worked on can be found in the topic archive.

Deadlines for a bachelor thesis with start dates at the end of the winter semester 2024/25

  • 1. Binding registration at the institute until 27.01.2025 at 12:00 p.m. (online registration form)
  • 2. Announcement of the topics on 19.02.2025 (by e-mail)
  • 3. Indication of topic preferences by 26.02.2025 (by e-mail)
  • 4. Assignment of topics (by e-mail) and start of work on 05.03.2025
  • 5. Submission on 30.04.2025 (to the ISC)
  • 6. Oral Bachelor thesis colloquium (approximately 2 weeks after the submission of the Bachelor thesis)

If you have any questions, please contact Elisabeth Stöckl.

Your respective supervisor will answer any questions regarding the content of your Bachelor thesis during the processing period.

Master theses

Master theses can be started at the Institute of Risk Management and Insurance (INRIVER) at any time. We recommend students who would like to write a master thesis at our institute to successfully participate in the basic and advanced courses offered at INRIVER (e.g. Insurance Economics, Reinsurance, Value Based Management of Financial Institutions).

In order to apply for a master thesis at the institute, please fill out the registration form below.

Application Form Master Thesis (only available in German)

The currently advertised topics for master theses can be found under Current Topics. It is also possible to propose your own topics. Please refer to our guideline "Information on writing a Master's thesis" under "Further information".

An overview of topics already worked on can be found in the topic archive.

If you are interested in writing a master's thesis at the Institute of Risk Management and Insurance, please contact Elisabeth Stöckl. Please refrain from directly approaching individual assistants about taking on a master thesis.

Your respective supervisor will answer any questions regarding the content of your master's thesis during the processing period.

For all students writing their Master's thesis at our department, regular participation in the advanced colloquium is obligatory.

After around half of the processing period, each student will present the topic and focal points pursued with their thesis. This presentation is obligatory.

The presentations of the other students are supposed to stimulate constructive discussions and unveil areas of improvement for the presenter(s). In addition, they serve to broaden the professional perspective of all participants and to get to know other topics. Attendance of all students at each presentation is required.

Further remarks

  • Language: English
  • Presentation duration: Presentations should be designed for 30min. Based on experience, the remaining 30min will be used for general discussion.
  • Dates: The exact dates of the in-depth colloquium will be communicated by email in due time.

Formal requirements

Students who write a seminar paper or a thesis at our department are reminded of our formal requirements. The observance of these guidelines is generally obligatory and should give you the necessary guidance to write a formally correct paper.

If you have specific questions, please contact the respective supervisor.

Formal requirements (only available in German) (PDF, 222 KB)

Recommendations for the use of generative and other AI tools (PDF, 84 KB)

Template for thesis (DOCX, 161 KB)

Template for seminar paper (DOCX, 158 KB)

Current topics for master theses

Supervisor: Leonard Külpp

Over the past two decades, Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) has gained increasing attention, particularly from regulators, as a key approach to understanding and managing the diverse risks that corporations encounter. Unlike traditional risk management, which often addresses risks in silos, ERM seeks to integrate risk considerations across the entire organization, providing a comprehensive view of the firm's risk landscape. This approach aims to allow for a more informed decision-making process and enhance firm value by capitalizing on the interdependencies among various risks.

The objective of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the adoption and value relevance of ERM for European companies. The thesis should start by defining ERM and differentiating it from traditional risk management. Afterwards, this thesis should discuss theoretical arguments for whether ERM creates value. The focus of this thesis should then be an empirical analysis of the prevalence of ERM programs within European companies and whether these programs add value to the companies.

Note: Data for this research will need to be downloaded on your own from WRDS, Eikon (accessible through the Institute for Finance and Banking) and other sources. Basic knowledge of statistical learning techniques and experience with a programming language, e.g., R or Python, are highly recommended.

Supervisor: Leonardo Covis

Insurance companies are uniquely dependent on weather for their financial performance. Weather related natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes lead to property damage; high temperatures can lead to acute health problems; and weather anomalies such as floods or droughts affect agricultural productivity. All of these phenomena have direct and indirect effects on insurance indemnity payments and demand, and are also heavily influenced by climate change.

This thesis will explore the connection between weather and insurance firm performance. The student should collect weather or weather-anomaly data, for instance from the Actuaries Climate Index (https://actuariesclimateindex.org/) or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and combine this with insurance firm financial performance, for instance from the CRSP or Eikon databases. The aim of this thesis is to measure the financial impact of weather on insurance firm performance, for instance by using CAPM and calculating the impact of weather on stock value. The student should use appropriate empirical methods and robustness checks in their analysis.

Depression shifts cognitive processes, including how individuals handle information and make decisions under risk and uncertainty, such as educational, occupational, and investment choices. Exploring the relationship between depression and risk preferences is important for understanding the decision-making of the depressed individuals and ultimately for assessing the welfare implications of depression. While previous research has generally examined the relationship between mental health changes and risk preferences and behaviors, the specific influence of depression on these preferences and behaviors is less well understood.

The objective of this thesis is to explore how depression influences risk preferences and risk-taking behaviors. The thesis should start by reviewing proposed theoretical mechanisms through which depression influences risk preferences and decision-making in risky situations. Following this, the thesis will discuss empirical findings from various fields to provide context and support for the analysis. The core focus will be on conducting an empirical investigation to determine whether depression causally influences risk preferences and behaviors, with particular attention to how these effects may differ based on individual personality traits.

Note: Data for this research will need to be downloaded on your own. Basic knowledge of statistical analysis techniques and experience with a programming language, such as Matlab or Stata, is highly recommended.

Topic archive

Bachelor

  • Classical risk management theorems without the expected utility paradigm
  • Insurance industry response to climate change
  • The Potentials and Challenges of Microinsurance
  • Psychological and social determinants of insurance fraud
  • The role of self-control in household saving behavior
  • The role of memory for decision making under risk
  • The Impact of Disasters on Risk Aversion
  • Insurance industry response to climate change
  • The value of a statistical life and its applications in policymaking
  • Climate change and time discounting
  • "Are Insurance Companies leading the Sustainability Movement? A
    Comparative Analysis of ESG-Scores and its Value Relevance"
  • Information avoidance
  • "New Risks require New Solutions? A Literature Review of the Evolving
    Cyber Risk Landscape and the Insurance Industry’s Response"
  • Moral hazard in workers compensation insurance
  • Index Insurance: Developing vs. High-Income Countries

Master

  • The impact of macroeconomic factors on insurers' profitability
  • The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the profitability of insurance companies in the US
  • The value of a statistical life in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic
  • The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the European insurance industry
  • Climate Change and the Insurance Sector: An Application to Crop Insurance
  • Insights from behavioral economics about personal vaccination decisions
  • Company’s risk management strategies

Bachelor

  • Institutional differences in liability insurance: A comparison between the United States and Germany
  • The impact of health insurance on health
  • Risk-taking behavior of children and adolescents
  • Ambiguity in risk management decisions – What happens if we do not understand what happens?
  • The role of probability weighting in risk management decisions
  • Climate Change is Not a Hoax: The Influence of Cognitive Distortions, News, Culture and Trust on Public Climate Risk Perception
  • Evaluating risk classification bans
  • An analysis of household savings behavior
  • The impact of CEO overconfidence on firm performance
  • The Concept of Stochastic Dominance and its Relaxations
  • The Impact of Gender on the Willingness to Take Risks
  • Insurance demand in the presence of background risk
  • Violations of Expected Utility Theory
  • Individual vs. Aggregate Risk Aversion: Measurement Approaches
  • Are Companies Prepared for Cyber Risk?
  • Time-Varying Risk Aversion and Other Changes in Risk Preferences
  • The impact of social inflation on the insurance industry
  • The timing of prevention activities
  • Insurance in credence goods markets – Blessing or curse?

Master

  • Claims auditing and bonus-malus systems: An analysis of measures against insurance fraud
  • The impact of regret on insurance fraud
  • Intertemporal prevention decisions with multiple risks
  • The impact of future income worries on household saving behavior
  • The effect of telematics on moral hazard in insurance markets

Bachelor

  • The securitization of extreme event risks
  • Privacy concerns in insurance markets
  • Public-private partnerships: A means of making pandemic risks insurable?
  • Adverse selection in automobile insurance markets
  • Elicitation of Risk Preferences
  • The determinants of heterogeneous risk preferences
  • Do CEOs Matter? On CEO characteristics and corporate policies
  • Saving = investing? The determinants of stock market participation
  • The demand for insurance – a comparison between Expected Utility Theory and Regret Theory
  • The impact of machine learning on insurance fraud detection
  • The impact of the demographic change on the insurance industry
  • On the Optimal Choice between Prevention and Cure
  • Risk Preferences when Deciding for Others
  • An international comparison of health insurance concepts
  • The Newsvendor Problem: Theory and Evidence
  • An evaluation of parametric insurance
  • Asymmetric information in disability insurance
  • The design of area-based crop insurance
  • Moral Hazard in Liability Insurance
  • Risk Perception and Insurance Demand
  • The determinants of life insurance demand
  • Recent trends in life reinsurance
  • On the reduction of external moral hazard
  • Increasing Company Value through Enterprise Risk Management
  • Selection in insurance markets: A comparison between life insurance and annuities
  • Incentivizing Healthy Behaviour
  • Estimating Risk Preferences from Insurance Choices
  • Behavioral biases in the management of extreme event risks – Are natural catastrophes and pandemics two sides of the same coin?
  • Equilibrium concepts in insurance markets with adverse selection: Theory and empirics
  • Risk classification – What’s next?
  • Verpflichtende Flutversicherung – Eine kritische Analyse
  • Combating moral hazard through bonus-malus systems

Master

  • The Influence of Financial Literacy on Insurance Fraud
  • Zur Bedeutung von Zusatzleistungen in der Privaten Krankenversicherung – Eine experimentelle Untersuchung
  • Sustainability in the Insurance Industry – A Situation Analysis
  • Willingness to pay for morbidity and mortality risk reductions during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Quantifying Information in Risk Management Decisions
  • On the Interaction between Crop Yields and Weather
  • The U.S. Federal Crop Insurance Program and Information Asymmetries: Theoretical and Empirical Studies
  • Information unraveling in the case of German universities
  • On the impact of Enterprise Risk Management: Measuring ERM’s impact on firm performance with an ERM Index
  • Study of an Experimental Test on Insurance Demand
  • The effect of education and financial literacy on financial decisions

Bachelor

  • Moral Hazard in Health Insurance Markets
  • The Demand for Disability Insurance
  • Flood insurance markets around the world – A critical review
  • The Nature and Management of Interdependent Risks
  • Microinsurance
  • The concept of risk aversion: Theory and estimation
  • Analyzing insurance decisions in laboratory experiments
  • Pandemics: From Risk Perception to Risk Mitigation
  • Liquidity constraints and insurance
  • The Health Effects of Smoking Bans
  • Ambiguity Preferences: Theory and Evidence
  • The annuity puzzle
  • The Weisbrod Quadrilemma
  • Self-insurance-cum-protection
  • Testing for Adverse Selection in Health Insurance markets
  • Future Applications of Parametric Insurance: A Solution to the Coverage of Digital Risks?
  • Genetic Testing and Health Insurance Markets
  • Solvency II Put to the Test
  • Does Solvency II’s standard model adequately identify pandemic and cyber risks?
  • The determinants of insurance fraud and possible countermeasures
  • Are flood insurance markets prepared for climate change? – A critical review
  • The insurability of pandemic and cyber risks – A comparison
  • How Does COVID-19 Affect the Insurance Industry? A Situation Analysis on Impacts and Insurance Solutions
  • Moral Hazard and the Development of New Technologies to Reduce Information Asymmetries
  • The impact of choice overload on insurance decisions
  • The role of overconfidence in economic decision-making
  • Is Parametric Insurance the Breakthrough for Pandemic Disaster Risk Financing?
  • Insurance Solutions to Premium Risk in Health Insurance
  • Expected Utility Theory: Strengths and Weaknesses
  • On moral hazard and checklists
  • Decision-making under risk – a comparison between Expected Utility Theory and Prospect Theory
  • The more, the merrier? On the impact of big data on insurance
  • Do groups make better decisions? An analysis of group and individual decision-making
  • The U.S. market for flood insurance – Can the National Flood Insurance Program and the private market coexist?
  • Improving household decisions in financial contexts – Are nudges enough?
  • Covid-19, climate change, and time discounting
  • Life insurance cancellation behavior in the small and in the large
  • Higher Degree Risk Preferences
  • Equilibrium Selection in Coordination Games
  • Background Risks and Precautionary Effort
  • Exogenous and endogenous risk determinants of Covid-19
  • The Impact of Climate Change on the Insurance Industry
  • The Demand for Extended Warranties
  • The Impact of Disaster Events on Insurance Supply and Demand
  • The Influence of Opt-Out Contracts on the Demand for Natural Disaster Insurance
  • Behavioral Anomalies and Nudging: What Can Insurers Do when their Customers Behave Weird?
  • How do External Shocks Affect Customer Behavior? On the Effects of COVID-19 on Stationary and Digital Insurance Distribution

Master

  • Determinants of surviving natural catastrophes
  • The Transformative Potential of 5G Technology for the Re-/Insurance Industry
  • Robust comparative statics of risk changes: An application to precautionary saving
  • Does hindsight matter? The impact of feedback availability on risk reduction decisions
  • On the empirical validity of prevention
  • The Effect of Health Insurance Coverage on Preventive Care and Risky Health Behaviors
  • Gender-Specific Differences in Risky Health Behaviors and Preventive Care Utilization
  • On the utility of gambling in the presence of consumption commitments
  • The effect of contract nonperformance on moral hazard in insurance markets
  • The role of prevention activities under risk type uncertainty
  • The effect of insurance fraud on markets for repair goods
  • The catastrophe risk management implication of ownership form
  • Experimental Tests of Underinsurance of Low-Probability, High-Consequence Events
  • The Impact of Pre-Plant Precipitation on Crop Insurance Take-Up
  • Optimal insurance demand: An intertemporal reinvestigation
  • The Influence of Framing on Insurance Take-Up
  • Regret Theory with Unknown Counterfactuals
  • The effect of organizational form on earnings management in the insurance industry
  • Endogene Fertilität und öffentliche Rentenversicherungssysteme
  • The development of enterprise risks

Bachelor

  • The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Insurance Coverage
  • Overconfidence and Optimism
  • The U.S. National Flood Insurance Program - A critical review
  • Who Needs More Help? On the Heterogeneous Effectiveness of Disease Prevention
  • Digital Identity and the Insurance Market: A Critical Review
  • On the Analysis of Moral Hazard using Experimental Studies
  • Externe Schocks und die Nachfrage nach Versicherungsschutz
  • Health Insurance Exchanges in the United States and their impact on consumer choices
  • The loss reserve error of insurers - a measure for earnings management
  • Life Insurance and Asymmetric Information
  • Behavior under risk and uncertainty: Evidence from insurance choices
  • Altruism and the Samaritan’s dilemma – implications for the provision of insurance
  • On the Management of Privacy Risks
  • Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning
  • Habit Formation and Incentives for Exercise. A Critical Review of the Experimental Evidence
  • The insurability of cyber risks
  • Insurance Contract Nonperformance
  • On the Coexistence of Public and Private Health Insurance in Germany
  • Insurance choices and mitigation efforts in the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program
  • Moralisches Risiko in der Krankenversicherung
  • Expected Utility vs. (Cumulative) Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision-Making under Risk
  • The U.S. Federal Crop Insurance Program and Farmers’ Behavior
  • Benefits and Challenges of Nudging in Insurance Contexts
  • Gain or Loss? What is the reference point?
  • On the Value of Enterprise Risk Management

Master

  • The Influence of Risk Aversion on Life Choices in Different Domains
  • An Evaluation of the Evaluation of Risks
  • Optimal insurance demand: An intertemporal reinvestigation
  • Measurement of Health Status: Evidence from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS)
  • Health Status and Social Risk Factors: Evidence from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS)
  • The Influence of Terrorism on Health
  • Decision-Making under Risk and Underlying Risk Preferences: Different Images of the Truth?
  • Subjective Life Expectancy and Precautionary Behavior
  • Gender differences in risk-taking: Are men more willing to take (financial) risks than women?

Bachelor

  • Selektionseffekte und moralisches Risiko im deutschen Krankenversicherungsmarkt
  • Der Einfluss von Wohlstand auf Risikoaversion
  • The Effects of Health Insurance Coverage on Health Utilization and Preventive Care
  • Präferenzen hinsichtlich der Teilung von Risiken und Risikoteilungsgemeinschaften
  • "House Money Effect": Eine Analyse bestehender Literatur
  • The Influence of Games and Gamification on Health Decisions
  • Advantageous Selection in Insurance Markets
  • Why Do Private Long-Term Care Insurance Markets Fail?
  • Die (Un-)Versicherbarkeit von Terrorrisiken vor dem Hintergrund nationaler Versicherungsprogramme für Terrorrisiken
  • The Impact of Information Overload and Choice Overload on Retirement Planning
  • Analyse und Vergleich der Risikopräferenzen von Individuen und Gruppen
  • On the Explanations for the Privacy Paradox
  • On the Context Stability of Risk Preferences
  • Prozessfairness und Ergebnisfairness: Gegenüberstellung und Analyse
  • Der Einfluss politischer Verbindungen auf den Erfolg von Unternehmen
  • The General Risk Question – Characteristics and Applications
  • Religion and Risk Management
  • Optimal insurance demand under contract nonperformance risk
  • Probability Weighting: Theory and Evidence
  • Insurer risk management and natural catastrophe risks
  • The Impact of Catastrophes on the Value of Insurance Companies
  • Kreditvergabe zwischen Privatpersonen: Eine Analyse
  • Der Zusammenhang von Teamstruktur und Performance bei riskanten Entscheidungssituationen
  • U.S. insurers, higher-risk business and natural disaster insurance
  • An Economic Analysis of Medication Adherence
  • The Value of Information in Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty
  • Der Effekt von Krankenversicherung auf die Gesundheit
  • Moral Hazard in Health Insurance Markets
  • Formal Versus Informal Long-Term Care – Substitutes or Complements?
  • On the Demand for Insurance
  • Die Regulierung der medizinischen Schadenquote durch den Affordable Care Act
  • The puzzle of coexisting ownership forms – Is it affected by the rise of natural catastrophes?
  • The Economic Consequences of Terrorism
  • Die Auswirkung von erhöhter Risikoaversion auf die Versicherungsnachfrage und das Sparverhalten
  • The Influence of Natural Disasters on the Demand for Insurance
  • An Economic Analysis of Different Remuneration Systems in the Insurance Market
  • Regret and Disappointment Aversion

Master

  • The Influence of Risk Aversion on Life Choices in Different Domains
  • An Evaluation of the Evaluation of Risks
  • Optimal insurance demand: An intertemporal reinvestigation
  • Measurement of Health Status: Evidence from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS)
  • Health Status and Social Risk Factors: Evidence from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS)
  • The Influence of Terrorism on Health
  • Decision-Making under Risk and Underlying Risk Preferences: Different Images of the Truth?
  • Subjective Life Expectancy and Precautionary Behavior
  • Gender differences in risk taking: Are men more willing to take (financial) risks than women?

Bachelor

  • Management and Insurance of Cyber Risks
  • A comparison of different strategies to reduce crime
  • Learning in Game Theoretic Environments
  • Determinants of Individual Choice Quality in Insurance Markets
  • P2P-Versicherung – Das Geschäftsmodell der Zukunft?
  • Danger of terror: An analysis of economic and social factors influencing the radicalization of individuals
  • Timing of the resolution of uncertainty
  • Life Insurance Lapse Behavior
  • Motives for Reserve Error Manipulation - Theory and Evidence
  • Moral Hazard and the U.S. Crop Insurance Program
  • Die Nachfrage nach Garantieverlängerungen
  • The Annuity Puzzle
  • Variable Organizational Risk Preferences
  • Moralisches Risiko und die Entwicklung neuer Technologien zur Reduktion von Informationsasymmetrien
  • On the Merit of Information Avoidance
  • Valuing Catastrophes Using the Life Satisfaction Approach
  • Operationale Risiken und Reputationsschäden in der Finanzindustrie - eine Ökonomische Analyse
  • Asymmetric Information in Long-Term Care Insurance Markets
  • Insurance of Epidemic and Pandemic Risks
  • Externes Moralisches Risiko in Versicherungsmärkten
  • “Peer”-Effekte in Entscheidungen unter Risiko
  • Soziale Präferenzen und ihre experimentelle Überprüfung
  • Charity Hazard – Der Einfluss staatlicher Rettungspakete auf die individuelle Risikovorsorge
  • On the Economic Incentives of Health Savings Accounts
  • Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning
  • Corporate Governance in the Insurance Industry
  • The Measurement of Risk Preferences
  • Anreize und finanzielle Entlohnungsstrukturen
  • Entscheidungen von Einzelpersonen und Gruppenentscheidungen: Eine Analyse
  • External Shocks and the Demand for Insurance Coverage
  • Longevity and Long-Term Care Insurance
  • Marktmechanismen und die Analyse von Märkten in experimentellen Untersuchungen
  • The Impact of Activity Tacking Devices on Asymmetric Information in the Health Insurance Market
  • Big Data und die Grundprinzipien der Versicherung
  • Der Einfluss von Erfahrung und Beratung auf das Entscheidungsverhalten von Individuen
  • The Massachusetts Health Reform and the Affordable Care Act

Master

  • The annuity puzzle: Reasons for and strategies to overcome it
  • Wahlfreiheit und Wettbewerb in der deutschen GKV
  • An Economic Analysis of Suicide Terrorism
  • Die Verwendung von Wettbewerben zur Begrenzung von Moralischem Risiko
  • Risk Management of Policyholder Movement in Health Insurance
  • The Influence of Terrorism on the Stock Prices of Insurers
  • Changes in Risk and Optimal Prevention Effort
  • The Effect of Premium Subsidies on Moral Hazard in Insurance Markets
  • The Influence of Financial Incentives on Health-Related Preventive Behavior
  • Expected Health Care Utilization and Optimism Bias
  • Marine Reinsurance – Modelling and Economic Influences
  • Bedarfsgerechte Beratung 2.0 - Eine Betrachtung der Vereinbarkeit von regulierungskonformer Beratungsdokumentation mit der zunehmenden Relevanz des Online-Vertriebs
  • Which consumer types consider product quality ratings in their purchasing decision?