Possible Oral Exam Topics

Please choose one of the following ten topics

1. Energy: Are renewables becoming cost competitive? Focus on the business aspects.
2. Development: How can the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa catch up? Choose one country to focus on.
3. Internet Economy: Focus on one of the Internet ‘giants’ (e.g., Google, Facebook or Amazon). What is its business model and what lies ahead?
4. Eurozone: Does the Eurozone provide a framework for long-term sustainable economic growth? Will the euro fragment over the next 10 years? Is t he euro, as a single currency,  dividing Europe and should it  be abolished?
5. Financial crisis: What caused the recent financial crisis? Has the world moved towards a safer financial system, or are we headed for the next crisis?
6. TTIP: Would the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership be on balance good or bad for the European economy?
7. Taxes: Should there be an international system for the taxation of multinational corporations?
8. The oil industry: Discuss the current state and future possibilities of the oil industry.
9. Manufacturing and the West: Will manufacturing return to the West?
10. State capitalism: is state capitalism  a viable alternative to liberal capitalism.

The following are debates from the Economist and could provide some useful information for some of the above topics:

Big Banks: Should big banks be broken up?

Africa and China: China's growing involvement in Africa is to be welcomed.

Regulating business and financial risks:  by intervening to regulate business and financial risks, goverments have made things worse.

Tech bubble: are we  in a new tech bubble?

Banking: does more competition make banking more dangerous?