economics essay competition 2022

Harvard International Economics

Essay contest (hieec).

HIEEC provides students the opportunity to demonstrate an accomplished level of writing and understanding of economic theory. Through the contest, students hone their academic and professional skills and exhibit their knowledge. 

HIEE C 202 3 -2024

Hieec 2023-2024 is now closed. .

The 2023-2024  Harvard International Economics Essay Contest is sponsored by the Harvard Undergraduate Economics Association (HUEA). This essay competition is open to high school studen ts of any year and is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrat e an accom plished level of writing and understanding of economic the ory. T hrough the contest, student competitors hone their academic and professional skills and exhibit their knowledge to future employers and academic programs. 

Competitors must construct a convincing argument using economic theory and real-world examples. Winning essays will be published on our website  and will be available for the greater Harvard community to read. Essays should focus on argumentation supported with facts and references, although data-based support is also welcome.

Yiheng Lyu​

Audrey Ku k​

Hyoungjin Jin

Juyoung Chun

Kevin Zhang

Matthew Choi

Mikayil Sadikhov

Raunak Agarwal

Vallabh Himakunthala

Highly Commended

Aronima Biswas

Aryan Nangia

Kridaya Gupta

Leonardo Jia

Rohan Mathur

Anagha Chakravarti

Amberlynn Gong

Neha Shanavas

Donghyeon Oh

2023-2024  Essay Questions

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to affect growth, inequality, productivity, innovation, and employment. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, in particular, has greatly increased public awareness about the significance of AI and its implications for the future. What impact will the development of AI have on economic inequality, the composition of the workforce, and economic output as a whole? How can nations prepare for the micro and macroeconomic changes brought about by AI?

Measuring national and global economic activity allows us to understand how economies change in size and structure—how they grow and contract. In addition to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), government budgets, and the money supply, alternatives like the Human Development Index (HDI) and Gross National Income (GNI) are used to assess economic progress. What are the advantages of our current economic indices, including GDP, HDI, GNI, government budgets, and the money supply, and in what areas are they lacking? Which of these indices do you find most helpful, and how can we enhance or combine them to improve our understanding of economic measurement?

Proponents of income redistribution support the idea that redistribution policies will increase economic stability and give more opportunities to the less wealthy. Others, however, are more skeptical and believe it could have negative consequences for economic growth. Current methods of redistribution include taxation, welfare, public services, and other monetary policies. What strategies for income redistribution should the U.S. adopt from other countries? What economic impacts could a wealth tax or super millionaire tax have? What type of redistribution is most effective and feasible? What would be the impacts of the U.S. enacting universal basic income? Discuss the implications of any of these issues and feel free to expand on other areas of economic redistribution.

As the United States weighs the impacts of China’s rise to global prominence, economics and national security have become increasingly intertwined. As a result, the United States government has imposed both tariffs and investment restrictions on China to limit the nation’s access to both US markets and intellectual property (specifically in sensitive industries such as semiconductors). What are the economic implications of these policies for United States firms, consumers, and workers? Discuss the most important perspectives of the US-China trade war and provide suggestions on how both countries can manage the prospect of a changing economic order.

2nd November 2023 – Essay titles released

11:59pm EST 5th January 2024  – Essay submission deadline

Late February 2024*  – Highly Commended and Finalists notified

Early March 2024 * – Winners notified, results published on the website

*We received a high volume of submissions, therefore we anticipate  that it will take us a couple m ore w eeks to release the results. 

Entrants must choose one of the four prompts and write a response to it with a strict limit of 1500 words. Submission must be via the HUEA website and entrants are limited to submitting one essay with only the first submission being considered. Each essay submission will have a $20 reading fee which should be paid upon submission of the essay. If this fee will impose a significant financial burden on your family, please email us. The deadline for submitting the essay is 11:59pm EST January 5th, 2024. ​

Please submit essay submissions via this form.

If the above link does not work, use:  https://forms.gle/9NVDu9WVbU71iPpq6

*Be sure to read all the details in the submission form carefully before submitting, as failure to complete any of the steps correctly may result in your submission not being considered.

The essays will be judged by the board of the HUEA, with the top 10 submissions being adjudicated by the esteemed Harvard professor and 2016 Economics Nobel Prize winner Oliver Hart.

The top three winning essays will be published ( with the author’s permission) on our website. A finalist s list of the top  submissions will be published online and adjudicated by 2016 Economics Nobel Prize Winner Oliver Hart. A list of names that will receive the "Highly Commended" distinction will also be published online​. The judges' decisions are final.

Terms and Conditions

The word limit of 1500 must be strictly adhered to. Any words past the limit will be truncated. This limit excludes references, footnotes, titles, headers and footers.

Essays must be written only by the entrant. Any outside assistance must be declared in the beginning or end of the essay.

Only your first submission will be accepted. Any further submissions will not be read.

References must be included, and any plagiarism will lead to disqualification.

References must be in Chicago or APA format. 

The only accepted document formatting is PDF. Any other format will not be accepted, nor will refunds be given to those who do not follow this rule.

No refunds are granted.

Grades 9-12 are permitted.

The essay must not be entered in any other competition nor be published elsewhere.

No individual feedback of essays will be granted.

The decisions made by HUEA by the final round of adjudication are final.

All winners agree to their names being published on the HUEA website.

Past Winners

2022  prompts an d winners.

In recent years and decades, many countries have seen fertility rates drop, potentially leading to falling populations. Currently, China has a fertility rate of 1.3, one of the lowest in the world. However, in 2021, China experienced GDP growth of 8% with output totaling $17.7 trillion. Will this lowered fertility rate (with potential to fall further) affect China’s economic growth and policy? How so? What, if anything, can the Chinese government do to limit the risk of falling fertility rates?

U.S. mortgage rates recently passed 7%, making the purchase of a new home increasingly unaffordable. Meanwhile, the United States has suffered from a chronic shortage of available housing for decades, particularly in urban areas, leading to what many scholars and advocates call an affordability crisis. Why is housing so unaffordable in the U.S.? What can (or should) be done by private actors, state and local governments, and the federal government to alleviate the affordability crisis?

It is often suggested that a tradeoff exists between economic growth and the health of the environment, especially now as the threat of climate change becomes more dire. What economic risks does a changing climate pose? Can economic growth be consistent with a healthy environment? What policies, either market-based or otherwise, should governments enact to protect the environment while posing the least danger to economic efficiency? 

Central banks such as the Federal Reserve in the U.S. and the Bank of England in the UK manage their nation’s macroeconomies with the goal of ensuring price stability and maximum employment. Globally, inflation rates are rising to levels not seen since the 1980s, particularly in the U.S. and European countries. To what extent should the monetary policies of central banks in various Western countries differ or resemble one another as a reaction to the specific causes of inflation facing their economies?

​ Click below to view each winner's essay

Ashwin t elang  *   nanxi jiang   *   duncan wong, 2019 wi n ner.

https://www.economicsreview.org/post/when-is-one-choice-one-t oo-many

2020 Winners

https://www.economicsreview.org/post/covid-19-and-the-market

https://www.economicsreview.org/post/automation-and-jobs-this-time-is-different

https://www.economicsreview.org/post/making-rational-decisions

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Harvard international economics essay competition, description.

The 2023 Harvard International Economics Essay Contest is sponsored by the Harvard Undergraduate Economics Association (HUEA) in conjunction with the Harvard College Economics Review (HCER). This essay competition is open to high school students of any year and is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate an accomplished level of writing and understanding of economic theory. Through the contest, student competitors hone their academic and professional skills and exhibit their knowledge to future employers and academic programs.  Competitors must construct a convincing argument using economic theory and real-world examples.  Winning essays will be published in the Harvard Economics Review and will be available for the greater Harvard community to read. Essays should focus on argumentation supported with facts and references, although data-based support is also welcome.

Student Essay Competition .

The dorian fisher memorial prize 2022.

• A short essay, of roughly 1,200 words, on one of the following questions:
• A 500-word answer to one of the following two questions:
• A 500-word answer to the following question.

The Monetary Policy Essay Prize 2021-22 By the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Institute of International Monetary Research, and the Vinson Centre

“Does inflation matter? And will the current inflation upturn be transitory or not?”

The IEA is an educational charity and free market think tank .

Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

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2022 Economics Essay Competition

02.07.2022 - 15.08.2022, deadline extension open until 15th august.

Please click here for this year’s prizes, the terms and conditions, and further information.

The London School of Economics Students’ Union Economics Society is honoured to collaborate once again with the Centre for Economic Performance, one of the leading economic research centres in Europe, to launch the 2022 Essay Competition. The essay competition will encourage pre-tertiary students to think critically on current social issues such as economic assimilation, diversity in the economics profession, and to explore important intellectual debates, such as the distribution of the burden of environmental policies.

In your essay, please answer one of the six questions below:

• How can the lack of gender balance in Economics be explained? Does COVID-19 represent another set-back for efforts to achieve gender parity in the subject?
• African nations will be left poorer and more economically vulnerable as a result of the invasion of Ukraine. To what extent do you agree with this statement?
• Explain the economics behind Europe’s dependence on Russian Energy. How can policymakers reduce the impact of the transition away from these sources of energy?
• Higher inflation is the inevitable consequence of the large fiscal packages and monetary accommodations introduced by Western Governments over the last few years. Do you agree?
• What economic theories from the 19th century are most relevant to 21st century problems?
• How significant is a country’s geographic location in determining its long-term development?

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The George Watt Essay Contest 2022

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives is an organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of the American volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War. We have an annual essay contest, The Watt Prize, named in honor of Lincoln Brigade volunteer George Watt, a writer, and lifelong activist central to the creation of ALBA, which is now accepting submissions. Students from anywhere in the world are invited to submit an essay or thesis chapter about any aspect of the Spanish Civil War, the global political or cultural struggles against fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, or the lifetime histories and contributions of the international volunteers who fought in support of the Spanish Republic from 1936 to 1938.

The contest offers cash prizes and accepts submissions in Graduate and Undergraduate categories. The deadline for submission is  July 5, 2022 , and all submissions should be emailed to  [email protected]

More information about the essay contest and a detailed look at the contest requirements and judging criteria are located  here on our website . The essay requirements and deadline are noted below

Undergraduate Award ( Up to $500)

• Essays must be between 2,000 and 10,500 words.
• Submissions may be in Spanish or English.
• Submissions must have been produced to fulfill an undergraduate course or degree requirement (please specify course, degree, and institution; for thesis chapters, please add a thesis abstract).
• Winners are expected to make a statement/presentation to the selection committee prior to award disbursement.
• Any work produced since August 1, 2021 is eligible for the competition.
• One essay will be awarded up to $500
• Deadline: July 5, 2022

Email Submissions to Dennis Meaney at  [email protected]

1022 International Affairs Building (IAB)

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The Nottingham-World Bank Economics Essay Competition

Winning article.

• The Nottingham-World Bank Economics Essay Competition 2021 asked, “What would be the economic consequences for Malaysia if technology replaces 50% of current jobs in the country? Who would benefit, and who would lose? Would we be better off ultimately?”
• The Competition is open to all pre-university in Malaysia.
• Published below is the Grand Prize written by Gwendolyn Chan Hui Pei from SMK Batu Lintang, Kuching.

Technology: Killer or Saviour? By Gwendolyn Chan Hui Pei, SMK Batu Lintang, Kuching

Kiva robots. That’s the name of Amazon’s “holiday workers” in a warehouse located in Tracy, California. Kiva robots are like orange suitcases on wheels that makes the shelves in warehouses come to you. More than 3000 of these robots cruise Amazon’s warehouse floors in California, helping employees complete millions of orders. Before Kiva robots, Amazon workers had to comb through warehouse aisles just to find certain products to complete shipments. Now, workers just stay on platforms while the robots bring the shelves with the items directly to them. These 320-pound robots can lift up to more than 2 times their weight, has motion sensors to detect objects in their way and can travel at 3-4 miles per hour. The robot’s small footprint allows it to fit up to 50% more inventory in the warehouses while simultaneously increasing efficiency up to 20%, filling orders in 15 instead of 90 minutes. Many worry about the jobs taken away from them by these robots, however this was not Amazon’s intention. But still, can we deny the number of workers these robots have replaced?

Applied technology can be evidently traced back to as early as the pre-16th century. In ancient Greece and Rome, many free workers became jobless due to simple ancient Greek technology in that period such as gears, screws, rotaries and mills. To overcome this, leaders in that era launched many public works such as infrastructure projects and recreational projects financed by the government to create jobs for the people. Some rulers go to the extent of refusing or banning new inventions and innovations to save labour costs. Emperor Vespasian, a Roman emperor rejected a new method of cost-effective transportation of heavy merchandise saying: "You must allow my poor hauliers to earn their bread." In the medieval and renaissance period, European authorities often sided with “guilds” or the majority of the working population and proceeded to refuse or ban new technologies. The constant dilemma of whether to adopt new technology can be seen in the 16th-18th century in Great Britain. The effect of innovation on employment became a concern which can be evidently seen when Queen Elizabeth I declined to issue a patent for a knitting machine invented by an English clergyman called William Lee on the account that it might cause the layoff of textile workers.

In the 19th century, many controversies and debates over technological unemployment arose. David Ricardo, a British political economist voiced his opinion on the implementation of technology and believing that it is often very injurious and harmful for workers when people substitute machine for human jobs. While many other economists supported his stand, a French economist named Jean Baptiste Say was the first to respond to Ricardo’s argument saying that machinery does not compete with labour, and society would be better off because of the increased productivity. Say mentioned that a new machine supersedes a portion of labour of a human worker, but does not reduce the amount of product, saying that it would be absurd to adopt it if it did. At that time, water carriers were relieved of duty due to the introduction of the hydraulic engine. Say could not deny the problem and recognised that the water carriers were still unemployed. Therefore, he believed that 3 factors would considerably alleviate the detrimental effects of unemployment:

• New machines are gradually created and still more gradually brought into use, giving those who are affected time to adjust.
• Machines cannot be created without the input of considerable human labour, which can create jobs for some workers even as machinery may put others out of work.
• The circumstances of consumers, including workers affected by the replacement with machinery, is improved by the lower prices of consumer products. [Adapted and paraphrased from Bruce Bartlett (1984) Cato Journal, vol. 4(2), pages 625-650]

How would replacing 50% of the current jobs with technology look like for Malaysia, a developing country? Firstly, the controversial problem still remains - workers in Malaysia would be susceptible to technological unemployment or tech layoff. Figure 1 below depicts Malaysian jobs at risk of automation. With AI (Artificial intelligence) on the rise, and automation replacing jobs, semi-skilled and low skilled workers are at a high risk of losing their jobs. 90% of semi- skilled jobs such as support workers and salespeople consist of Malaysians and 4 out of 5 jobs at high risk of displacement are semi-skilled jobs as compared to low-skilled jobs. Although Malaysia heavily depends on low-skill foreign labour especially in manufacturing and industrial sectors and there is a possibility of the replacement with technology reducing our reliance on it, the probability of Malaysians being put out of their jobs is higher, leaving a large figure of Malaysian workers unemployed. This is because most blue-collared jobs are highly susceptible to automation and ironically, a large portion of those positions are held by Malaysians. This might cause Malaysians to switch to lower pay jobs or not being employed at all. The sosio-economy of Malaysians would be under immense pressure. Unemployed Malaysian workers would have to suffer a lower standard of life. Occupations that are routine based and have many manual tasks are more susceptible to replacement by technology as compared to jobs that are non-routined and require high cognitive skills. At the end of the day, although our economy may be growing due to rise in productivity and lower price in the long term, the wellness of our own Malaysian citizens may be neglected in the short term.

Source: Methodology adapted from Frey and Osborne (2013) and ILO (2016) data from ILOSTAT and DOSM, author’s calculation [Adapted from The Times They Are A-Changin’: Technology, Employment, and the Malaysian Economy by Allen Ng, Khazanah Research Institute ]

Not only are the welfare of Malaysians put at risk, but also the scale of the economic equality in Malaysia will be tipped. With the replacement of workers with technology, companies that adopt labour-saving technologies will monopoly the industries. Some firms have exclusive rights to methods of manufacturing products causing smaller firms to lose out in competitiveness because of higher cost-per-unit. This will cause a great difference in terms of income among high skilled workers and technology owners versus semi-skilled and low skilled workers. A greater inequality of wages within occupations will arise as only certain workers have the skills needed for certain jobs. Skills that are hard to acquire in the technological field also can cause wages to be unequal. On top of that, income inequality may result in a higher rate of health problems and social problems.

On another note, replacement of human labour with technology will cause Malaysia to face a massive restructuring in different sectors in the economy. As higher productivity with new technology lowers prices of goods and opens new sectors to be explored, new labour demand will be created in certain sectors. The demand for jobs will switch from manufacturing sectors to services in the future, just like how the demand for jobs switched from agricultural sectors to manufacturing sectors in the late 90s in Malaysia. The chart below depicts the change in share of jobs by sector, recording the construction with the highest share and the manufacturing sector a negative figure. An increasing proportion of jobs require at least a college level certificate if not advanced degrees. This proves the need for Malaysians to upgrade their skill levels to be qualified and to keep up with the times.

Figure 2: Change in share of jobs by sector

Source: ONET, BLS, EIU, HIS, Oxford Economics, McKinsey Global Institute analysis [Adapted from Automation and adaptability: How Malaysia can navigate the future of work (2020) ]

In conjunction with creating new demand in the labour force across different sectors in Malaysia, the substitution of jobs with technology can possibly add more value to occupations with the human element, making jobs that require human interaction more valuable. For example, when Automated Teller Machines were first created to automate simple tasks such as simple transactions and deposits, the remaining tasks that cannot be automated became more valuable. Bank tellers became people who form personal relationships with the customers and can sell them financial services at a high margin.

On the flip side, wealth distribution becomes an uprising problem as not everyone is given a fair share even with increased productivity and lower cost. Advancement in various sectors may result in a digital divide between different regions and demographics. Urban areas may continue to advance whereas rural areas which are neglected continue to deteriorate in terms of technological advancements because of the failure of implementation of technology as a whole. Areas that have limited access lack the resources to advance in technology. This may possibly create a wider gap between regions and races socially and in terms of progress and cause an increase in poverty among different races in Malaysia.

However, we cannot deny the possibility of Malaysia flourishing with the implementation of technology. In the 1990s the Malaysian government has always put a priority in making Malaysia an industrialized country with the 7th prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launching Wawasan 2020. Since then, many efforts have been made in increasing Malaysia’s use of technology in different sectors. Though the replacement of jobs with technology might upset the labour force and possibly obsolete the field of manual labour in certain sectors in the short term, the demand for labour force in other trades will significantly increase in the long term. Increased production would increase supply, lowering the general cost of items, increasing the national dividend thus increasing our competitiveness in the global market. With time, a new demand of labour will be created placing new, skilled workers in those fields. Economic growth as a whole can be accelerated.

Technology replacing 50% of jobs also create high income jobs or increases the wages of existing workers that are involved in the field of technology but also widen existing income inequality at the same time. According to a study by Justin Lim, Kevin Wong, Rosaida Mohd Rasep and Sonia Kumari Selvarajan (2018), wages per worker in the ICT industry has risen proportionately from RM38,274 per annum to RM53097 per annum in 2015 whereas wages of workers in the non-ICT industry only rose by RM6150 in the course of 5 years. Because workers in the ICT industry comprise of a small share of the total labour force and small employment growth, the wage disparity between non-ICT workers and ICT workers has been widening and would likely continue to widen even more over time.

Figure 3: Wage per worker of ICT vs non-ICT Industry

Source: DOSM ICT Satellite Account, GDP by Income Approach, authors calculations [Adapted from Wage premiums in the digital economy: Evidence from Malaysia (2018) ]

With new technology being constructed, Malaysia can explore the possibility of taxing new technology or “robot taxes”. According to The Telegraph, Bill Gates even voiced out the opinion that robots that take away jobs from humans should be taxed, which can make up for income taxes from workers that lost jobs. This could slow down the speed of automation and its negative effects on the labour force. In August 2017, South Korea became the first to introduce the world’s first tax on robots by cutting tax incentives for investments to boost productivity. If 50% of jobs were to be replaced, taxes on technology could increase the country’s income and improve the citizen’s standard of life by giving back to the people, increasing economic development through new infrastructure digitally and physically.

In general, technology replacing 50% of jobs in Malaysia benefits most of the stakeholders in the long run and has the potential to generate economic wealth for Malaysia. New innovations and technology are churned out on a daily basis due to globalization. To be able to compete in the global market, Malaysia has to keep up with the times and take bold steps in adopting new technology in various sectors. Though there is a possibility of technology replacing human jobs, nothing beats the value of a human’s touch. To dampen the adverse side effects of replacing human workers with technology, policy makers need to create new alternatives in helping displaced workers readjust to new sectors and work environments. As for Malaysian citizens, we must not stand by the side lines idly, but instead hop on the wagon of change. Being active players in the labour force, we must not take the importance of education (especially in the field of technology) lightly and sharpen our sword of education thus increasing our skills. Only with technological intelligence can we as Malaysians stand out in the global market as drivers of change, standing out amongst nations that are technologically advanced.

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2022 Essay Prize in Economics

What Contribution can Heterodox Economics Make to Addressing the Climate Emergency?

The Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) and the Cambridge Journal of Economics (CJE) intend to award a prize of EUR 7,000 for the best essay on the theme, ‘What contribution can heterodox economics make to addressing the climate emergency?’ Authors are free to choose their topic and title within this wider theme.

Please read these details carefully before contacting the ISRF or the CJE with a query or submitting your essay for consideration .

Essays are invited which explore the potential contribution of any aspect(s) of heterodox economics, broadly construed, to addressing the climate emergency. Possible sub-topics include:

• Ends. What should be the objectives of climate policy, and action more generally by states, institutions and individuals, in addressing the climate emergency? How should the values at stake be conceptualised? 
• Means. Assuming some clear goals or objectives, how should these be pursued? How should we act in the face of economic, scientific, and political uncertainties?
• Discourses and strategies. In addressing the climate emergency, how are our means and ends best described and framed? Are there tensions between well-justified ends which might emerge from ethical, political economic and scientific analysis, and the means available to us?

Essays could discuss theoretical issues in general terms, or focus on specific problems or practical strategies. 

If the scientific consensus is correct, we only have a few years before serious climate damage becomes irreversible. Therefore contributors who focus on long-term structural transformations of the economy, society, or economics, may also wish to discuss how to think and act given the urgency of the situation. 

The winning essay will be selected from submissions received in the submission window commencing 1st September 2021, closing at midnight on 30th September 2021.

The essay will be judged on its originality and independence of thought, its scholarly quality, its potential to challenge received ideas, and the success with which it matches the criteria of the ISRF and the CJE. The successful essay will be intellectually radical, orthogonal to existing debates, and articulate a strong internal critique across the fields of economic research. Its challenge to received ideas will have the potential to provoke a re-thinking of the topic.

The ISRF is interested in original research ideas that take new approaches and suggest new solutions to real world social problems. The full statement of the ISRF’s criteria and goals may be viewed  here .

The CJE provides a forum for theoretical, applied, interdisciplinary, history of thought and methodological work, with strong emphasis on realistic analysis, the development of critical perspectives, the provision and use of empirical evidence, and the construction of policy. More detail about the Journal can be found on the Journal’s website .

The 2015 ISRF Essay Prize in Economics was awarded to Julie Nelson for her essay Husbandry: a (feminist) reclamation of masculine responsibility for care .

The submitted essays will be judged by an academic panel (the ISRF Essay Prize Committee) and the winner will be decided by unanimous vote. The panel’s decision will be final, and no assessments or comments will be made available. The result will be notified to applicants by email by the end of July 2022 and will then be announced by posting on the websites of  the ISRF and of the CJE. The ISRF and the CJE reserve the right not to award the prize, and no award will be made if the submitted essays are of insufficient merit.

Submissions should be made – within the submission window only – online at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cje Queries: Telephone +44 (0) 20 7262 0196 or email [email protected]

YES Essay Contest

The winners of the 2022 Young Economists' Society Essay Contest.

Winner : Hin Tak Ben Law - Eton College, United Kingdom

Special mention : Nori Law - King George V School, Hong Kong

Special mention : Eva Solway - Kellett School, Hong Kong

Essay title : Inflation in the United Kingdom rose to its highest level in almost 30 years in January 2022. Discuss the economic effects of such high rates of inflation.

Feedback from the judges:

Essays were well written with insightful analysis of the effects of high inflation in the UK. In most essays a range of reliable sources were used to support this analysis. In the best essays there was clear and nuanced evaluation of the effects of high inflation. To improve, some answers would benefit from:

Focusing on the question - the effects of inflation not why inflation is occurring.

Expanding a point fully before moving on to the next point.

Using reliable sources to support all points.

Evaluating points rather than focusing on only the positives and negatives.

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2022-23 CSEP Essay Competition is Released

Questions for 2022-23 CSEP Essay Competition is released!

Every year Cambridge Society for Economic Pluralism hosts its Essay Competition to encourage sixth form students to go beyond their curriculum and explore important questions society faces today. Our annual essay competition is open to all students starting Year 12 or 13 (or equivalent) in September 2022 (ie taking A Levels or IB or equivalents in the next two years) . We welcome essays in response to any of the 5 titles written below. When writing their essays, we strongly encourage students to consider economic ideas which are beyond the traditional, neoliberal syllabus of most economics courses and to support their arguments with real-world examples/data. Essays should be between 1000 and 2000 words in length (excluding any citations) and entries should be submitted by 23:59 UK Time (GMT+1) on September 4th, 2022. Result of the competition will be published on this page on October 2nd, 2022. Prize winner will be contacted individually regarding their prize.

For details of the competition please check our website .

For inspiration and review please check our past competition archive

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Department of Economics

First year economics student wins the iea's monetary policy essay prize 2022.

We are very proud to announce that for the second time running, Warwick Economics student is the winner of the Monetary Policy Essay 2022 competition organised by the Institute of Economics Affairs (IEA) and the Institute of International Monetary Research (IIMR).

Guillermo Sagnier, first year BSc Economics student, took the top prize in the IEA and the IIMR essay competition 2022 which was launched in October 2021 with two questions: "Does inflation matter? And will the current inflation upturn be transitory or not?" The submissions were judged on their presentation, command of theory, the relevance of the questions and persuasiveness of the argument.

The Monetary Policy Essay Final took place in-person at the Vinson Centre (Buckingham) on 3 March 2022. Guillermo Sagnier took the first prize of £500, Irakli Imnaishvili and Aislin Rees tied in second place.

This is the second time that Warwick Economics student got the top prize in this competition. Last year the winner was Warwick Economics final year student Gustaf Dillner (BSc Economics, Politics and International Studies).

Guillermo only joined Warwick in September 2021 on the three year BSc Economics programme. He is Spanish and, for three years, he lived in Chile, which sparked his interest in economics.

We congratulate Guillermo on this fantastic achievement in his first year and wish him further successes.

We wanted to find out more about his studies here and what this achievement means to him and here is what he told us:

What made you enter this competition?

Being passionate about macroeconomics and understanding the world around us, I was curious to analyse why western economies had experienced significantly above-target inflation rates in 2021, whilst Asia had not witnessed such surge. Given supply chain disruptions and bottlenecks have affected globally, what explains such difference? When researching recent monetary trends and finding this essay competition, I decided to dive into the question.

Briefly describe the content of your essay and the arguments you used

I claimed the current inflation upturn in Europe and North America is a result of the extraordinary growth in broad money supply, caused by QE, ultra-low interest rates and the partial monetisation of fiscal deficits. The creation of excess money balances, mainly across financial institutions, has translated to a rise in asset prices (equities and real estate) and subsequently strong recovery of aggregate demand. Over time, this has led to a rapid increase in the price of goods and services, which will persist beyond 2022 (given still-high money supply growth rates and likely gains in the velocity of money) and further squeeze real incomes.

Tell us about the prize ceremony you attended?

The top ten entries from around 200 submissions were invited to the final at the Vinson Centre in Buckingham. The essay competition was open to all undergraduate and sixth form students and, remarkably, the second and third prizes were given to outstanding high school pupils. The session involved a ten-minute presentation in front of a panel of experts in monetary economics, followed by a five-minute Q&A of broad questions. It was great practice for my upcoming macroeconomics test!

What was your prize and how are you going to spend it?

I was awarded £500 and summer internships at the Institute of Economic Affairs and at the Institute of International Monetary Research. I will certainly not keep it as cash and move to inflation hedges!

What have been the highlights of your degree course at Warwick so far?

Although I am still a first-year student, my time here at Warwick has been thoroughly enjoyable. The highlights of the course would be how varied the discipline is: from economic history to statistics, you gain a wide range of skills. Campus life and societies are exceptional too and, as an international student, make up a very well-rounded experience.

What is your favourite module in Year 1 of our course?

EC108 Macroeconomics provides an overview of how national indicators such as employment, output or inflation are determined and correlate with each other. Although there are alternative models beyond mainstream economics (like the Quantity Theory of Money), the depth of the analysis and modelling has far exceeded my expectations.

What are your career plans?

I am very interested in monetary policy and would look forward to engaging with forecasting and central bank policymaking in the future. I am also curious about finance, especially asset and wealth management.

Related links:

The Institute of Economic Affairs

The Institute of International Monetary Research

Last year essay prize winner - Gustaf Dillner (March 2021)

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Harvard International Economics Essay Contest (HIEEC)

• Last modified 2023-12-01
• Published on 2021-05-14

Competition Details

Introduction : The Harvard Undergraduate Economics Association (HUEA) is organizing its flagship Harvard International Economics Essay Contest with the collaboration of the Harvard College Economics Review. We jointly organize the Essay competition with HUEA, and we also publish the top three essays in our online publications. HIEEC provides students the opportunity to demonstrate an accomplished level of writing and understanding of economic theory. Through the contest, students hone their academic and professional skills and exhibit their knowledge.

2023-2024 Harvard International Economics Essay Contest Topic:

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to affect growth, inequality, productivity, innovation, and employment. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, in particular, has greatly increased public awareness about the significance of AI and its implications for the future. What impact will the development of AI have on economic inequality, the composition of the workforce, and economic output as a whole? How can nations prepare for the micro and macroeconomic changes brought about by AI?

Measuring national and global economic activity allows us to understand how economies change in size and structure—how they grow and contract. In addition to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), government budgets, and the money supply, alternatives like the Human Development Index (HDI) and Gross National Income (GNI) are used to assess economic progress. What are the advantages of our current economic indices, including GDP, HDI, GNI, government budgets, and the money supply, and in what areas are they lacking? Which of these indices do you find most helpful, and how can we enhance or combine them to improve our understanding of economic measurement?

Proponents of income redistribution support the idea that redistribution policies will increase economic stability and give more opportunities to the less wealthy. Others, however, are more skeptical and believe it could have negative consequences for economic growth. Current methods of redistribution include taxation, welfare, public services, and other monetary policies. What strategies for income redistribution should the U.S. adopt from other countries? What economic impacts could a wealth tax or super millionaire tax have? What type of redistribution is most effective and feasible? What would be the impacts of the U.S. enacting universal basic income? Discuss the implications of any of these issues and feel free to expand on other areas of economic redistribution.

As the United States weighs the impacts of China’s rise to global prominence, economics and national security have become increasingly intertwined. As a result, the United States government has imposed both tariffs and investment restrictions on China to limit the nation’s access to both US markets and intellectual property (specifically in sensitive industries such as semiconductors). What are the economic implications of these policies for United States firms, consumers, and workers? Discuss the most important perspectives of the US-China trade war and provide suggestions on how both countries can manage the prospect of a changing economic order.

Contest Rule: The word limit of 1500 must be strictly adhered to. Any words past the limit will be truncated. This limit excludes references, footnotes, titles, headers, and footers.

Competition Website : For more information about the competition, click here .

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Fall 2022 High School Essay Contest

Berkeley Economic Review is now accepting submissions for our High School Essay Contest! This semester, we have picked a multifaceted prompt and will be publishing the winning submission in the upcoming issue of our magazine.

Our prompt for this semester is: “Ever since the start of the pandemic, there has been an imminent threat of rising inflation in the United States. What do you think is the long-term impact of this? Propose a policy agenda that may help combat this issue.”

By writing one of the top responses, you will: – Have your work published in the Fall 2022 Issue of Equilibrium – Be recognized on BER’s social media and website – Receive a cash prize

Write a short essay of up to 1500 words to support your claim. If necessary, please cite your sources.

DUE DATE: December 2, 2022 at 11:59 p.m.

Please send your response as a PDF to  [email protected]  with the subject line: “F22 High School Essay Contest [Your Name]”

Feel free to message us on Facebook or email us ( [email protected] ) with any questions. Good luck!

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The Econscript :

In ter-collegia te essay competition.

Understanding the importance of sharing and exploring ideas that may not be found in a quintessential economics textbook, the Ashoka Economics Society seeks to encourage participants to think out of the box and aims to impose the broad range of economics that is not only dependent on theoretical but also practical application.

The first economics essay competition will be held in August 2022 in an online format. Students currently pursuing an undergraduate degree can participate in the competition.

Should central banks start working on creating digital currency for their own economies? If you concur, how may you advise they proceed? If you disagree, how do you suggest central banks handle the proliferation of digital currencies in all private sectors and other economies? 2) Do medieval economic theories and economists still hold water in today's world? Are they the foundation or introduction to economics? Comment with regard to a particular theory or an economist's body of work.

Do medieval economic theories and economists still hold water in today's world? Are they the foundation or introduction to economics? Comment with regard to a particular theory or an    economist's body of work.

Starts on 14th August

Registration ends  on 25th august.

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08 March 2022

2022 essay competition now open your chance to win £5,000.

Entries are invited for this year’s Rybczynski economics essay competition - kindly sponsored by KPMG.

This prestigious award is given to the best piece of writing on an issue of importance to economists, and offers the opportunity to help your own work gain a higher profile among professional colleagues.

The prize of £5,000 is kindly offered by KPMG, who are sponsoring the competition, and is awarded at the Society’s Annual Dinner and the author(s) of the final shortlisted entries will be invited to the dinner as guests of the SPE.

Essays must be submitted by 1 May 2022 and should not have been published before 1 January 2021 ie. this prize is for work written and/or published between the start of the calendar year 2021 and the closing date.

The judges will be looking for around 3000 (with an absolute maximum of 4000) well-written words. Click on page links for terms and conditions and entry form. Good luck!

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ESSAY AWARD FOR YOUNG ECONOMISTS

The Selection Panel also gave an honourable mention to Torsten Søchting Jaccard of the University of Toronto for his paper entitled “Who Pays for Protectionism? The Welfare and Substitution Effects of Tariffs”.

Winning essay

Mathilde Muñoz's paper explores the implications of “job postings” on labour market outcomes and welfare. Job posting is an increasingly important offshoring transaction falling under so-called mode 4 services trade, whereby workers move temporarily to a foreign country to perform the contracted task (e.g. plumbing services) but remain employed and paid by the foreign firm. Basing her work on evidence in the European Union, Ms Muñoz shows that the use of job postings has triggered large economic gains in low-wage countries sending employees but it hurts low-paid workers in high-wage countries where the tasks are undertaken.

“The paper brings out very interesting information that can help policymakers look at what is really happening in trade in services within the EU and draw appropriate conclusions, and I think the work can be extended even further in ways that can benefit developing countries,” Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a meeting with Ms Muñoz in Geneva. “I think the future of trade is services, is green, is digital, and this work focuses on one particular area which I think is the future. I'm very proud that the WTO has this prize and sets out to look for young people who are doing exciting, cutting-edge work.”

In the view of the Selection Panel, Ms Muñoz's essay is a novel, technically outstanding, impressive and creative paper that addresses an issue of great relevance to world trade and the WTO. It is also an area that has been largely neglected by existing literature.

Mathilde Muñoz is a French national. She received her Ph.D. from Paris School of Economics in 2022. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Wealth and Income Inequality at the University of California, Berkeley and will join the faculty of University of California, Berkeley in July 2023 as an Assistant Professor of Economics.

“I'm incredibly honoured to win this award. I think it's incredibly useful for economists and young researchers to meet policymakers and to talk about these very important issues, to connect research to people who try to implement trade policy and understand what are the actual problems and what the negotiations are about. I would encourage all young economists, in particular women and people from underdeveloped countries, to apply to this award,” Ms Muñoz said.

Honourable mention

Torsten Søchting Jaccard's paper studies the distributional costs to US consumers of country-specific tariffs. It shows that US tariffs imposed on imports from low-income countries pose a bigger burden on poorer households, with a negative impact on rural communities, while US tariffs imposed on imports from high-income countries pose a bigger burden on richer households, with a negative impact on urban communities. It shows that the urban/rural disparity in exposure to tariff policy is driven by the extent to which purchasing habits differ across urban and rural counties in the United States and by the alternatives available on the domestic market to consumers.

In the judgement of the Selection Panel, Mr Jaccard's essay is a fascinating paper that provides novel insights into the distributional costs of tariffs to consumers, highlighting the link between household characteristics, their consumption tendencies and domestic alternatives available to consumers to assess the impact on consumer welfare.

Torsten Søchting Jaccard is a Canadian and Danish national. He is a fifth year Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Toronto. He will spend the 2022-23 academic year as International Economics Postdoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College, United States, and will join the Vancouver School of Economics at University of British Columbia, Canada, in 2023 as an Assistant Professor.

Selection panel

The Selection Panel comprised Beata Javorcik (Professor of Economics, University of Oxford), Robert Koopman (Director, Economic Research and Statistics Division, WTO), Robert Staiger (Professor of Economics, Dartmouth University) and Alberto Trejos (Professor of Economics, INCAE Business School). Roberta Piermartini (Chief of Section, Economic Research and Statistics Division, WTO) coordinated the work of the Selection Panel.

DG Okonjo-Iweala with the Essay Award Winner Mathilde Muñoz.

Roberta Piermartini (Chief of Section, Economic Research and Statistics Division, WTO) with the Essay Award Winner Mathilde Muñoz.

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Call for papers for 2022 Essay competition for Young Economists

Deadline: 6 June 2022

The WTO has issued a call for young economists to submit papers for the 2022 WTO Essay Award. The aim of the award is to promote high-quality research on trade policy and international trade cooperation and to reinforce the relationship between the WTO and the academic community. Essays must be submitted by 6 June 2022.

The annual WTO Essay Award provides a prize of CHF 5,000 to the author(s) of the winning essay. In the case of a co-authored paper, the prize will be equally divided among the authors. The winning paper will be officially announced at the annual meeting of the  European Trade Study Group  (ETSG), the largest conference specializing in international trade. The award ceremony will take place on 8-10 September 2022 at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. The winning author will receive funding to attend the meeting.

An Academic Selection Panel is responsible for the selection of the winning paper. The panel comprises:

• Professor  Beata Javorcik  (University of Oxford)
• Professor  Robert Staiger  (Dartmouth College)
• Professor  Alberto Trejos  (INCAE Business School).

Dr Robert Koopman (Director, Economic Research and Statistics Division, WTO Secretariat) is ex officio member of the panel. Dr Roberta Piermartini (Chief, Trade Cost Analysis Section, WTO) coordinates the work of the selection panel.

Eligibility

The paper must address issues related to trade policy and international trade cooperation. The author(s) of the paper must possess or be engaged in the completion of a PhD degree and, if over 30 years of age, be no more than two years past a PhD defence. In the case of co-authored papers, this requirement shall apply to all authors. In addition, to be considered for the award, essays cannot exceed 15,000 words.

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GuEST Essay

Mitch McConnell: We Cannot Repeat the Mistakes of the 1930s

By Mitch McConnell

Mr. McConnell is the Senate minority leader.

On this day in 1944, the liberation of Western Europe began with immense sacrifice. In a tribute delivered 40 years later from a Normandy cliff, President Ronald Reagan reminded us that “the boys of Pointe du Hoc” were “heroes who helped end a war.” That last detail is worth some reflection because we are in danger of forgetting why it matters.

American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines joined allies and took the fight to the Axis powers not as a first instinct, but as a last resort. They ended a war that the free world’s inaction had left them no choice but to fight.

Generations have taken pride in the triumph of the West’s wartime bravery and ingenuity, from the assembly lines to the front lines. We reflect less often on the fact that the world was plunged into war, and millions of innocents died, because European powers and the United States met the rise of a militant authoritarian with appeasement or naïve neglect in the first place.

We forget how influential isolationists persuaded millions of Americans that the fate of allies and partners mattered little to our own security and prosperity. We gloss over the powerful political forces that downplayed growing danger, resisted providing assistance to allies and partners, and tried to limit America’s ability to defend its national interests.

Of course, Americans heard much less from our disgraced isolationists after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Today, America and our allies face some of the gravest threats to our security since Axis forces marched across Europe and the Pacific. And as these threats grow, some of the same forces that hampered our response in the 1930s have re-emerged.

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