Edit Thesis Methodology & Results

Feedback from Professor, Thank you for sending me the revised version of your thesis. I have now reviewed Chapters 3, 4 and 5 and added my comments directly to the document. Overall, the empirical analysis is well structured and the main results are clearly presented. However, before preparing the final version, there is one point that I consider particularly important and that I would like you to address carefully. Since your research question explicitly compares the explanatory role of commodity prices with that of global financial conditions, you need to provide a more rigorous basis for this comparison. In particular, please report standardized beta coefficients for the regressors. At present, some statements about the US dollar index being the “strongest” variable appear to rely partly on the magnitude of the raw OLS coefficients. Since the regressors have different variances, these coefficients cannot be directly compared in terms of relative importance. Standardized beta coefficients allow the effects of the different regressors to be compared on a common scale. (I have included instructions in the Word document on how to calculate them.) Please report these coefficients, briefly interpret them, and revise expressions such as “strongest”, “dominates”, or “greater explanatory power” accordingly. I have also included a number of smaller comments in the document, which I would ask you to address when revising the final version. More generally, I would suggest slightly softening the tone of the conclusions, especially when comparing the relative importance of commodity prices and global financial conditions. Try to avoid overly assertive statements and make sure that the wording of the conclusions closely reflects what can be supported by the empirical results. Overall, I think this is a good piece of work, and addressing these final points will further strengthen the thesis and make the conclusions more robust.