economic essay competition 2021

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

Submissions for Equilibrium are now open! The Semester 2 regular deadline is May 12th, 2024.

Harker Oeconomia

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.

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Winners of the Young Economist of the Year 2021

• October 4, 2021

Each year the Royal Economic Society asks Year 12 and 13 students to submit an essay for The Young Economist of the Year Essay Competition, with this year’s competition open to those studying A-Level, International Baccalaureate (IB) or Scottish Highers qualifications.

For 2021, students were asked to write an essay of up to 1,000 words on one of five given topics, ranging from the pandemic to Brexit. This year the competition had over 1,000 submissions from students across the country.

The Royal Economic Society is pleased to announce that the overall winner of this year’s competition is Marc Kadir of Manchester Grammar School. Marc will receive a cash prize and have his essay published in the Financial Times , which will be available to read on our website and on the FT’s in the coming weeks. Alongside the overall winner, the Society are pleased to name the remaining three winners:

• Bruno Moura (“When, if ever, is it a good idea for central banks to set interest rates below zero?”
• Haoyu Wang (“We will fail to address climate change because Covid-19 showed we are unable to muster a concerted global response to common crises? Do you agree?” )
• Konrad Kurczynski (“Technological change will mean the wage gap between the skilled and unskilled will simply keep growing? Do you agree with this assessment?”)

The following were shortlisted and highly commended by the judging panel:

• Henry Ward of The Downs School, Newbury
• Jessica Cheung, Sutton Grammar School
• Tilly Mobley, Marlborough College
• Manav Sood, Rushcliffe School, West Bridgeford
• Oluwajoba Thomas, Bedford School, Hemel Hempstead
• Oliver Greenfield, Lingfield College, Surrey
• Jasmeen Johal, Guildford High School
• Melinda Zhu, Westminster School, London
• Yana Imykshenova, St Paul's Girls School, London

The following candidates were commended by the judging panel:

• Zhong Tong Zhang, St. Edward's School, Oxford
• Matthew Bonin, The Skinner's School, Tunbridge Wells
• Nevis Tompkins, Sutton Grammar School
• Henry Hall, Southend High School for Boys
• John Chang, Eton College, Windsor
• Sumayya Manji, North London Collegiate School, London
• Arjun Manoj Nair, St. Alban's School
• Isaac George Gilroy Baxter, King's School, Bruton
• Sameera Anjali Bhalotra Bowers, Colchester County High School for Girls
• Rachel Large, Churcher's College, Petersfield
• James Bradshaw, Lawrence Sheriff School, Rugby
• Jin Samson, Christ's Hospital School, Horsham
• James Trotman, St Paul's School, London
• Keyi Xue, The Abbey School, Reading
• Xinyu Fu, St Paul's School, London
• Helen Tianying Deng, King Edward's School, Bath
• Dylan Sellors, Aylesbury Grammar School
• Anya Saund, Westminster School, London
• Thomas Wright, Royal Grammar School, Guildford
• Dev Patel, Wembley High Technology College, London
• Luke Philipson, Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham
• Oladipo Olukanni, King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford
• Matthew Stubbs, Kimberley Sixth Form College, Bedford
• Francesca Shi, Westminster School, London
• Issah Ali Merchant, Harrow School, London
• Shampavi Sabesan, The Tiffin Girl's School, Richmond
• Samuel Oloniluyi-Abel, Finchley Catholic High School, London
• Oluwatope Omole, London Academy of Excellence
• Ollie Max McPherson Robinson, Royal Grammar School, Guildford
• Dawid Polus, Peter Symonds College, Winchester

The Society would like to congratulate all of 2021’s winners and thank everybody who participated.

The Society would also like to remind you to take advantage of free access to the Financial Times for schools and students .

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• Harvard Economics Review
• Mar 9, 2021

Announcing Our 2020 HIEEC Finalists and Highly-Commended

We are pleased to announce the finalists and highly-commended essays of our 2020 Harvard International Economics Essay Contest, co-sponsored by the Harvard Undergraduate Economics Association .

The 2020 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.

2020 Finalists

Hana O’Looney-Goto

Hyungsoon Kim

Julia Massa

Nitheesh Velayan

Sarah Ouyang

Vikas Nibhanupudi

2020 Highly Commended Essays

Ameya Dixit

Connor Greenwood-Cribbin

Hannah Cifuentes

Jingzhao Ma

Kangzi Chan

Ki Myoung Cheon

Nandini Jha

Ngoc Lan Ho

Riku Kubota

Sakshi Modi

Sofia Faghihy

Tiara Siregar

Udeshna Srimal

Vidula Mannem

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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 .

How to Write Any High School Essay

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Students in Grades 9-12

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January 5, 2024

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FT Schools competition: Young Economist of the Year

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

This article is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration  here .

School students across the UK in years 12 and 13 are invited to enter the Young Economist of the Year competition run by the Royal Economic Society in association with the Financial Times. 

Applicants — who need not be studying economics — have until July 25 to write up to 1,000 words on one of the five questions picked for this year.

The winning article will be published in the Financial Times and on the RES website and the author will receive £1,000, with £200 for each of the runners up. 

Entries will be judged on originality, quality of writing, economic content and quality of the economic argument. 

The five questions are:

When, if ever, is it a good idea for central banks to set interest rates below zero? 

How is Brexit going to change the economic geography of the UK?

Will the legacy of Covid-19 be an economically more unequal world?

Technological change means that the wage gap between the skilled and unskilled will simply keep growing. Do you agree with this assessment? 

We will fail to address climate change because Covid-19 showed we are unable to muster a concerted global response to common crises. Do you agree?

The competition is part of the  FT’s schools programme , which provides free access to the FT for students aged 16-19, their teachers and schools around the world.

Supporting ideas and data for entrants can be found in the FT. Full details and information on submission are available on the  RES competition website .

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International Edition

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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Durham University Economics Society Essay Competition 2021

24th April 2021

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tutor2u is delighted to support a competition for students run by the Economics Society at Durham University. The deadline is 25th April 2021

Our friends at the Durham University Economics Society have launched their new competition with a choice of five engaging and topical essay titles for students to consider.

This competition is open to students who are in the final 2 years of pre-tertiary education, e.g. Sixth Form (Lower and Upper Sixth), Junior College (JC 1 and JC 2), and in the last two years of high school.

Entrants can be of any nationality and studying in any country.

Essay titles:

*Answer only ONE of the following questions within 1500 words*

• With reference to at least one country of your choice, evaluate the effectiveness of central banks’ mitigatory efforts in the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Should vaccine development and distribution be left to the private sector, public sector, or both? Discuss.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of a wealth tax in fighting inequality.
• Discuss the current environmental policy challenges with regards to the renewables sector.
• Assess whether continued technological innovation and the emergence of the digital economy will benefit developing countries.

For full details of the competition including the prizes, please follow this link

Please contact the Chief Journal Editors (Charlie Fraser and Tatyana Wu), who are happy to answer your questions and/or provide more guidance, via emailing [email protected] .

Follow the DUES Facebook page for updates: https://www.facebook.com/durhameconomics

Geoff Riley

Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.

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Essay Competition

 “the ideas of economists… both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood… indeed the world is ruled by little else” ,     j. m. keynes (general theory, 1936), essay competition 2023.

We received over 750 eligible submissions this year, with each one being hand-read and marked by our panellists at the University of Cambridge. Overall, we were thoroughly impressed by the quality of the responses to some of the most challenging questions in the competition’s history. We would like to thank every student that submitted an essay this year, and extend our warmest congratulations to the winners and shortlisted essays named below.

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2023 Marshall Society Essay Competition is David Lu of Raffles Institution, Singapore. David’s essay in response to Question 4 deftly balanced advanced economic theories with real-world data, clear explanations, and rhetorical flair, and was a pleasure to read. We look forward to publishing it in the forthcoming issue of The Dismal Scientist , the magazine of the Marshall Society, and awarding our top prize of £50.

In 2nd place is You Peng of Shenzhen College of International Education, China. Peng’s essay in response to Question 2 was theoretically advanced and well structured, and we would’ve liked to see even more real-world application. It will likewise be published and receive a finalist prize of £25.

In 3rd place is Hanyun Qian of Suzhou Foreign Language School, China. Hanyun’s essay in response to Question 5 was extremely original, insightful, and entertaining to read, and we would’ve liked to see an even tighter focus on the question set. It will likewise be published and receive a finalist prize of £25.

Our shortlisted essays, in no particular order, were as follows:

To everyone that took part in the competition, thank you for the time and care spent in preparing your essay, and all the best for your future studies. We hope you’re looking forward to the 2024 edition of the essay competition.

A reminder of the essay questions set this year is as follows:

• In what ways could Artificial Intelligence reshape the labour market? Will it usher in Keynes’ ‘age of leisure’?
• ‘Policymakers can’t exploit the Phillips curve to reduce unemployment due to the Lucas critique.’ Evaluate this statement.
• The US Federal Child Tax Credit is scheduled to revert from $2,000 to $1,000 by 2025. Is this policy a mistake?
• Tensions between the US and China have been steadily increasing. Is it in the US’ interest to decouple from China economically?
• ‘There were no meaningful long-run changes in living standards until the Industrial Revolution.’ Discuss.
• Has Economics run out of big new ideas? If so, what are the implications? If not, justify with an example.

Graders Needed for Essay Competition

The  John Locke Institute  is seeking final-year undergraduate and graduate students who might be interested in becoming graders of our Essay Competition for appropriate remuneration.

The globally renowned John Locke Institute annual essay competition covers topics in the categories of Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Law, Theology, and Psychology. Free to enter, the competition attracts entries from students of 14 to 18 years old from all over the world. Since its launch, it has been growing apace. Last year, we received about 7,400 entries from students with the widest possible range of socioeconomic backgrounds from over 100 countries.

For most participants, the competition provides their first opportunity to research, write and have graded a university-style essay that makes an original argument. The experience motivates many of them to raise their sights to institutions of learning of the highest quality – such as the Ivy League in the USA, and Oxbridge in the UK – that they would otherwise have not considered.

Submitted essays are graded in the first instance by academically talented graduates and final-year undergraduates, before the very best of them are sent to Professors in the relevant disciplines for final marking and the selection of prize-winners.

The three questions in the Economics category for which we are looking for graders are as follows.

Q1 . A government funds its own expenditure by taxing its population. Suppose, instead, it relied solely on money newly created by the central bank? What would be the advantages and/or disadvantages?  

Q2 . In his thought experiment, the Iowa Car Crop, David Friedman tries to show that growing wheat is, in an important sense, just another ‘technology’ we can use for manufacturing cars, and in some circumstances a much more efficient one.

If international trade is thus a way of using less valuable inputs to produce more valuable outputs, why would governments impose trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas, thereby forcing producers to be more wasteful and less efficient?

Q3 . What would happen if we banned billionaires?

The grading work will be intense, interesting and satisfying, and begin on  July 1, to be completed in about two weeks . Graders have flexibility regarding their hours and speed at which they work.

Essays are up to 2000 words long and need only be given a numerical grade. We will pay  $2 per essay  and require a  commitment to grade 500 essays  (or more only if the grader wishes to do more). A grader who has hit his or her stride should be able to make at least $25 an hour.

Further details and examples of previous years’ questions can be viewed on our  website .

Interested final-year undergraduate and graduate students should email  [email protected]  to declare their interest and obtain further details.

1022 International Affairs Building (IAB)

Mail Code 3308

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New York, NY 10027

Essay  COMPETITION

2024 global essay prize, registrations are now open all essayists must register  here  before friday 31 may, 2024.

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, former Cambridge philosopher, Dr Jamie Whyte.

The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories - Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject. There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.

Q1. Do we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition?

Q2. Do girls have a (moral) right to compete in sporting contests that exclude boys?

Q3. Should I be held responsible for what I believe?

Q1. Is there such a thing as too much democracy?

Q2. Is peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip possible?

Q3. When is compliance complicity?

Q1. What is the optimal global population?  

Q2. Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?

Q3. Do successful business people benefit others when making their money, when spending it, both, or neither?

Q1. Why was sustained economic growth so rare before the later 18th century and why did this change?

Q2. Has music ever significantly changed the course of history?

Q3. Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?

Q1. When, if ever, should a company be permitted to refuse to do business with a person because of that person’s public statements?

Q2. In the last five years British police have arrested several thousand people for things they posted on social media. Is the UK becoming a police state?

Q3. Your parents say that 11pm is your bedtime. But they don’t punish you if you don’t go to bed by 11pm. Is 11pm really your bedtime?

Q1. According to a study by researchers at four British universities, for each 15-point increase in IQ, the likelihood of getting married increases by around 35% for a man but decreases by around 58% for a woman. Why?

In the original version of this question we misstated a statistic. This was caused by reproducing an error that appeared in several media summaries of the study. We are grateful to one of our contestants, Xinyi Zhang, who helped us to see (with humility and courtesy) why we should take more care to check our sources. We corrected the text on 4 April. Happily, the correction does not in any way alter the thrust of the question.

Q2. There is an unprecedented epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people. Can we fix this? How?

Q3. What is the difference between a psychiatric illness and a character flaw?

Q1. “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” What could the speaker mean by “spiritual”?

Q2. Is it reasonable to thank God for protection from some natural harm if He is responsible for causing the harm?

Q3. Does God reward those who believe in him? If so, why?

JUNIOR prize

Q1. Does winning a free and fair election automatically confer a mandate for governing?

Q2. Has the anti-racism movement reduced racism?

Q3. Is there life after death?

Q4. How did it happen that governments came to own and run most high schools, while leaving food production to private enterprise? 

Q5. When will advancing technology make most of us unemployable? What should we do about this?

Q6. Should we trust fourteen-year-olds to make decisions about their own bodies? 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & FURTHER DETAILS

Please read the following carefully.

Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.

Registration  

Only candidates who registered before the registration deadline of Friday, 31 May 2024 may enter this year's competition. To register, click here .  

All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on  the submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024 .  Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on that date. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)

Entry is free.

Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration). 

The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:

Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.

The candidate's name should NOT appear within the document itself. 

Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.

Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.

Submissions may be made as soon as registration opens in April. We recommend that you submit your essay well in advance of th e deadline to avoid any last-minute complications.

Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.  

Late entries

If for any reason you miss the 30 June deadline you will have an opportunity to make a late entry, under two conditions:

a) A late entry fee of 20.00 USD must be paid by credit card within twenty-four hours of the original deadline; and

b) Your essay must be submitted  before 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 10 July 2024.

To pay for late entry, a registrant need only log into his or her account, select the relevant option and provide the requested payment information.

Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud . Our determinations in all such matters are final.

Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody's mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful .

Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.

The writers of the best essays will receive a commendation and be shortlisted for a prize. Writers of shortlisted essays will be notified by 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 31 July. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that n obody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.

All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate. 

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute's website. Prize-giving ceremonies will take place in London, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes. 

The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

R egistration opens: 1 April, 2024.

Registration deadline: 31 May, 2024. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission.)

Submission deadline: 30 June, 2024.

Late entry deadline: 10 July, 2024. (Late entries are subject to a 20.00 USD charge, payable by 1 July.)

Notification of short-listed essayists: 31 July, 2024.

Academic conference: 20 - 22 September, 2024.

Awards dinner: 21 September, 2024.

Any queries regarding the essay competition should be sent to [email protected] . Please be aware that, due to the large volume of correspondence we receive, we cannot guarantee to answer every query. In particular, regrettably, we are unable to respond to questions whose answers can be found on our website.

If you would like to receive helpful tips  from our examiners about what makes for a winning essay or reminders of upcoming key dates for the 2024  essay competition, please provide your email here to be added to our contact list. .

Thanks for subscribing!

The John Locke Institute's Global Essay Prize is acknowledged as the world's most prestigious essay competition. 

We welcome tens of thousands of submissions from ambitious students in more than 150 countries, and our examiners - including distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists, historians, psychologists, theologians, and legal scholars - read and carefully assess every entry. 

I encourage you to register for this competition, not only for the hope of winning a prize or commendation, and not only for the chance to join the very best contestants at our academic conference and gala ceremony in London, but equally for the opportunity to engage in the serious scholarly enterprise of researching, reflecting on, writing about, and editing an answer to one of the important and provocative questions in this year's Global Essay Prize. 

We believe that the skills you will acquire in the process will make you a better thinker and a more effective advocate for the ideas that matter most to you.

I hope to see you in September!

Best wishes,

Jamie Whyte, Ph.D. (C ANTAB ) 

Chairman of Examiners

Q. I missed the registration deadline. May I still register or submit an essay?

A. No. Only candidates who registered before 31 May will be able to submit an essay. 

Q. Are footnote s, endnotes, a bibliography or references counted towards the word limit?

A. No. Only the body of the essay is counted. 

Q. Are in-text citations counted towards the word limit? ​

A. If you are using an in-text based referencing format, such as APA, your in-text citations are included in the word limit.

Q. Is it necessary to include foo tnotes or endnotes in an essay? ​

A. You  may not  include footnotes, but you may include in-text citations or endnotes. You should give your sources of any factual claims you make, and you should ackn owledge any other authors on whom you rely.​

Q. I am interested in a question that seems ambiguous. How should I interpret it?

A. You may interpret a question as you deem appropriate, clarifying your interpretation if necessary. Having done so, you must answer the question as directly as possible.

Q. How strict are  the age eligibility criteria?

A. Only students whose nineteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. In the case of the Junior category, only students whose fifteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. 

Q. May I submit more than one essay?

A. Yes, you may submit as many essays as you please in any or all categories.

Q. If I am eligible to compete in the Junior category, may I also (or instead) compete in another category?

A. Yes, you may.

Q. May I team up with someone else to write an essay?  

A. No. Each submitted essay must be entirely the work of a single individual.

Q. May I use AI, such as ChatGPT or the like, in writing my essay?

A. All essays will be checked for the use of AI. If we find that any content is generated by AI, your essay will be disqualified. We will also ask you, upon submission of your essay, whether you used AI for  any  purpose related to the writing of your essay, and if so, you will be required to provide details. In that case, if, in our judgement, you have not provided full and accurate details of your use of AI, your essay will be disqualified. 

Since any use of AI (that does not result in disqualification) can only negatively affect our assessment of your work relative to that of work that is done without using AI, your safest course of action is simply not to use it at all. If, however, you choose to use it for any purpose, we reserve the right to make relevant judgements on a case-by-case basis and we will not enter into any correspondence. 

Q. May I have someone else edit, or otherwise help me with, my essay?

A. You may of course discuss your essay with others, and it is perfectly acceptable for them to offer general advice and point out errors or weaknesses in your writing or content, leaving you to address them.

However, no part of your essay may be written by anyone else. This means that you must edit your own work and that while a proofreader may point out errors, you as the essayist must be the one to correct them. 

Q. Do I have to attend the awards ceremony to win a prize? ​

A. Nobody is required to attend the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London. But if we invite you to London it is because your essay was good enough - in the opinion of the First Round judges - to be at least a contender for First, Second or Third Prize. Normally the Second Round judges will agree that the short-listed essays are worth at least a commendation.

Q. Is there an entry fee?

A. No. There is no charge to enter our global essay competition unless you submit your essay after the normal deadline, in which case there is a fee of 20.00 USD .

Q. Can I receive a certificate for my participation in your essay competition if I wasn't shortlisted? 

A. No. Certificates are awarded only for shortlisted essays. Short-listed contestants who attend the award ceremony in London will receive a paper certificate. If you cannot travel to London, you will be able to download your eCertificate.

Q. Can I receive feedba ck on my essay? 

A. We would love to be able to give individual feedback on essays but, unfortunately, we receive too many entries to be able to comment on particular essays.

Q. The deadline for publishing the names of short-listed essayists has passed but I did not receive an email to tell me whether I was short-listed.

A. Log into your account and check "Shortlist Status" for (each of) your essay(s).

Q. Why isn't the awards ceremony in Oxford this year?

A. Last year, many shortlisted finalists who applied to join our invitation-only academic conference missed the opportunity because of capacity constraints at Oxford's largest venues. This year, the conference will be held in central London and the gala awards dinner will take place in an iconic London ballroom. 

TECHNICAL FAQ s

Q. The system will not accept my essay. I have checked the filename and it has the correct format. What should I do?  

A. You have almost certainly added a space before or after one of your names in your profile. Edit it accordingly and try to submit again.

Q. The profile page shows my birth date to be wrong by a day, even after I edit it. What should I do?

A. Ignore it. The date that you typed has been correctly input to our database. ​ ​

Q. How can I be sure that my registration for the essay competition was successful? Will I receive a confirmation email?

A. You will not receive a confirmation email. Rather, you can at any time log in to the account that you created and see that your registration details are present and correct.

TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR SUBMISSION

If you are unable to submit your essay to the John Locke Institute’s global essay competition, your problem is almost certainly one of the following.

If so, please proceed as indicated.

1) PROBLEM: I receive the ‘registrations are now closed’ message when I enter my email and verification code. SOLUTION. You did not register for the essay competition and create your account. If you think you did, you probably only provided us with your email to receive updates from us about the competition or otherwise. You may not enter the competition this year.

2) PROBLEM I do not receive a login code after I enter my email to enter my account. SOLUTION. Enter your email address again, checking that you do so correctly. If this fails, restart your browser using an incognito window; clear your cache, and try again. Wait for a few minutes for the code. If this still fails, restart your machine and try one more time. If this still fails, send an email to [email protected] with “No verification code – [your name]” in the subject line.

SUBMITTING AN ESSAY

3) PROBLEM: The filename of my essay is in the correct format but it is rejected. SOLUTION: Use “Edit Profile” to check that you did not add a space before or after either of your names. If you did, delete it. Whether you did or did not, try again to submit your essay. If submission fails again, email [email protected] with “Filename format – [your name]” in the subject line.

4) PROBLEM: When trying to view my submitted essay, a .txt file is downloaded – not the .pdf file that I submitted. SOLUTION: Delete the essay. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “File extension problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

5) PROBLEM: When I try to submit, the submission form just reloads without giving me an error message. SOLUTION. Log out of your account. Open a new browser; clear the cache; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Submission form problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

6) PROBLEM: I receive an “Unexpected Error” when trying to submit. SOLUTION. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If this resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Unexpected error – [your name]” in thesubject line. Your email must tell us e xactly where in the submission process you received this error.

7) PROBLEM: I have a problem with submitting and it is not addressed above on this list. SOLUTION: Restart your machine. Clear your browser’s cache. Try to submit again. If this fails, email [email protected] with “Unlisted problem – [your name]” in the subject line. Your email must tell us exactly the nature of your problem with relevant screen caps.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU EMAIL US.

Do not email us before you have tried the specified solutions to your problem.

Do not email us more than once about a single problem. We will respond to your email within 72 hours. Only if you have not heard from us in that time may you contact us again to ask for an update.

If you email us regarding a problem, you must include relevant screen-shots and information on both your operating system and your browser. You must also declare that you have tried the solutions presented above and had a good connection to the internet when you did so.

If you have tried the relevant solution to your problem outlined above, have emailed us, and are still unable to submit before the 30 June deadline on account of any fault of the John Locke Institute or our systems, please do not worry: we will have a way to accept your essay in that case. However, if there is no fault on our side, we will not accept your essay if it is not submitted on time – whatever your reason: we will not make exceptions for IT issues for which we are not responsible.

We reserve the right to disqualify the entries of essayists who do not follow all provided instructions, including those concerning technical matters.

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Home → Study Here → Outreach → Essay Competitions

St Hugh’s essay competitions are open to Sixth Formers from the UK and across the world. These are a fantastic opportunity to explore a topic of interest in a particular subject in more depth, whether something you have studied at school has inspired you, or whether you are keen to broaden your horizons in a new academic discipline.

All four competitions are now open: the deadline for submissions is 5pm (GMT) on Friday 26th July 2024.

To find out more about these competitions please click on the links below:

Mary Renault

Kavita singh, gwyneth bebb, privacy overview.

• Competition Registration
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Lawyers for Economic Advancement and Development

Essay competition registration.

Up to 15 US$500 awards will be made in February 2025 for the top-ranked essays answering this year's essay question:

    How can laws regulating climate change and the environment support economic development?

Eligible students (students with both citizenship and current enrolment in a registered academic program with at least one law class in one of the countries listed on the Home page) are to register below by 31 October 2024; essays will be accepted from registered candidates between 1-31 December 2024 (no extensions). Essays must be in compliance with competition rules (see below ) and will not be accepted from unregistered candidates or after 31 December 2024.

Note that awards may be payable to the winner's educational institution on his/her behalf and not to the winning student directly. Funds received may also be less any necessary bank conversion fees and/or taxes. Lex:lead will never charge a fee to participate. A  Certificate of Participation  will be sent to all registered candidates who submit an essay by 31 December 2024.

Reserved funding 2024:

• DLA Piper award for the highest-ranked winner from an eligible Asian country

• Jerome Poitou award for the highest-ranked award-winner from Haiti

• Linklaters carry-over funding for a wining essay from an eligible Asian country

• Skrine carry-over funding for a wining essay from an eligible Asian country

Competition instructions (please review)

Register here.

Register below completing all fields. Your email address must be accurate for us to contact you - please double-check before submitting. We will acknowledge your application on receipt but this may take a few days. In completing this form you consent to us contacting you via the email you provide.

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Call for Undergrad Essays - YRIS Acheson Prize 2024

The Yale Review of International Studies is currently soliciting submissions for our annual Acheson Prize Issue. The three best pieces will be published in our quarterly print journal and uploaded to our website. The author of the winning essay will receive a monetary prize of $700, second place will receive $300, and third place will receive $200.

We are accepting any essay broadly related to international affairs under 40 pages double spaced. A panel of Yale professors will judge the essays, and the competition is exclusively open to Yale undergraduates. Students can direct any questions or requests for deadline extensions to [email protected] . Submissions are due on May 12 at 11:59 PM and must be submitted to this Google Form .