a level economics essay competitions

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 2024.

The Marshall Society Essay Competition for 2024 has officially closed!

Thank you to our all those who entered and to our sponsor of the 2024 Marshall Society Essay Competition, Cambridge Global Connect (http://www.camgc-edu.com).

Cambridge Global Connect are a subsidiary of Oxbridge Global Connect, an award-winning education technology platform and research think tank founded at the University of Cambridge that offers premier tutoring services.

Marshall Society Essay Competition 2024

The competition.

The Marshall Society, the economics society of the University of Cambridge, is excited to launch its 2024 essay competition! This is an opportunity for all students who have not begun their university studies to demonstrate their ability to write a convincing and well-structured essay. Emphasis should be placed on sound explanation of economic theory and well-reasoned, original arguments, drawing on relevant real-world evidence.

Participants are invited to submit an essay response to one of the following questions:

• In the face of disinflation, policymakers are hesitant to reduce interest rates. Is this in line with economic theory?
• What are the causes and consequences of low fertility rates in advanced economies? How can we combat them?
• Is the attention economy necessarily harmful? 
• To what extent is a merger between two big firms beneficial to consumers?
• “In an efficient market, at any point in time, the actual price of a security will be a good estimate of its intrinsic va lue.” – Eugene Fama. To wh at extent does this apply today?
• Why did Britain choose to return to the $4.86 gold standard rate in 1925? Was this the right decision?
• Has the field of Economics become too mathematical? Is this a problem?

Writing the essay

Your essay should be written in English with good grammar and structure . We will evaluate your essay based on the logic and persuasiveness of the arguments presented, the quality of the evidence used to support your points, and the originality of your ideas.

Your essay should be properly referenced , citing all sources along the way. It is recommended to use the APA (Author, Year) style of citation in the text. (For example, “The persistence of high unemployment rates is mainly associated with rigidities in the labour markets (Bertola and Rogerson, 1997).”)

Please also provide a bibliography , where you list all your sources at the end of the essay. Don’t worry too much about sticking to one citation format for this; spend your time writing your essay instead (although look to the APA format as a guide for this). Just make sure all the information needed to verify your sources is in here.

Before submitting your essay, do a word count. Words in your bibliography and in any data tables don’t count towards the limit, but everything else does, including footnotes. The limit is 1,250 words (we will check!). We put a word limit so you can focus on what the really important aspects of the question are. Because of the limit, you shouldn’t worry about providing a complete overview of the topic; rather, focus on getting a really good insight into the key aspects, with facts to back it up. You may assume that the judging panel have a basic understanding of the question topic, i.e., there is no need for lengthy definitions or background information.

Finally, some notes on style:

• Include page numbers on every page
• Format your essay in Times New Roman, size 12, with line spacing 1.5
• On the first page, include the question, question number, your name and your school .

Use of Generative AI

The use of Generative AI programmes, such as ChatGPT, is not prohibited in producing your essay, and you will not be penalised for fair usage. However, any use of AI must be declared on the form used to submit your essay. All essays will be passed through software which detects plagiarism and the use of AI, including where passages have been produced by AI and manually rewritten. Any essays found to have used AI without proper declaration will be disqualified.

Use the submission form below to submit your essay. Do not email your essay to us: we will not read it if you do!

If you encounter any issues while submitting your essay via the Google Form below, please email [email protected] at least 48 hours prior to the deadline.

We have extended the deadline for submissions to Sunday 18 th August 2024, 11:59pm BST . Late submissions will not be considered.

Before submitting, please convert your file to a PDF and change the file name to “[your name] Q[question number].pdf” . (For example, “Adam Smith Q4.pdf”). Make sure this is no larger than 10 MB in size.

Competition results will be published on the Marshall Society website by late-August 2024. Prizes are as follows:

First place: £100 Finalists: £50 Commendation: No monetary prize, awarded to excellent submissions shortlisted for finalist.

Selected winning essays will be featured in the Marshall Society’s annual publication, The Dismal Scientist .

Terms and Conditions of Entry Please also observe that by entering you agree to the terms and conditions listed below:

• Your submitted essay must be your work alone and any assistance given to you must be declared in the form used to submit your essay. This includes the use of Generative AI software such as ChatGPT.
• You cannot make any revisions to your essay once it has been submitted.
• Only students who have not started an undergraduate degree can enter. Please note that you do not have to be studying in the UK to enter.
• Any personal data relating to entrants will be used solely for the purpose of this competition and will not be disclosed to any third parties for any purpose without prior consent.
• The essay that is entered may not be entered into any other competition.
• The winner, runners up and those with shortlisted essays will be contacted via the email used to submit the essay. Unfortunately, any other feedback will not be possible to any of the entrants.
• The Marshall Society reserves the final right, where necessary, to make amendments to the above terms and conditions and to select the winners of the competition.

The Marshall Society Essay Competition for 2024 has officially closed! We thank all those who entered and will aim to release results soon.

Jing, Research Director 2024/25 Chiara, Magazine Editor 2024/25

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RES Young Economist Essay Competition Guidelines 2021

The RES Young Economist of the Year competition 2021 aims at encouraging year 12 and 13 students (studying for A-Level, International Baccalaureate (IB) or Scottish Highers qualifications who either normally reside or are studying in the UK) to produce their own ideas in analysing contemporary economic problems facing the UK and the world. Participants can choose from a list of topics provided on the competition website which are selected by the RES. Students do not need to be studying economics to be able to enter this competition. The RES welcomes entries from any student who is interested in economic issues and would like to share original ideas or perspectives on these issues. The RES also welcomes a diverse range of contributions and individual insights on the competition topics.

Students (“You”) must submit a written contribution which can contain tables and charts. Depending on the topic and how you approach it, your entry may focus primarily on arguments and reasoning (an “essay”), it may concentrate on data and your perspective on its implications (a “report”), or it may have elements of both. The ‘Data, Referencing and Bibliography’ section of this document contains further guidance on where to find relevant data, and you can also make your own tables or charts.

The maximum limit of the entry is 1000 words. This word limit excludes the bibliography, the title page, footnotes, acknowledgements of help received, and any in-text references (such as “(Smith, 2020)”). It also excludes images, tables, charts, and figure captions (where applicable).

Submission Method

• Every participant is required to submit their entry in the submission portal provided in the competition website. It is the participant’s responsibility to submit their essay by the deadline. No late submissions are accepted .
• Since the entries will be marked anonymously, the participant’s name must not appear anywhere, to ensure a fair evaluation of the submissions.
• The Royal Economic Society accepts no responsibility for any technical failures which may result in any entry being lost, corrupted or not properly registered. No responsibility will be taken for damaged or lost entries.

Submission Deadline

All entries must be submitted by the deadline of 23.59 (BST) on 10 July 2021 .

• Entries should be submitted in either Microsoft Word or PDF format. (If the entry contains charts or tables, the PDF format is recommended as it preserves the formatting and layout of charts and tables.)
• All pages in the entry should be numbered, including the cover page.
• The main text of the entry should be double-spaced with a font size of 12.

Every participant must submit an originally researched and originally written entry. You can only receive help with proofreading the final draft, where assistance should be limited to grammar or clear communication of ideas. In these cases, a note must accompany your entry citing any such assistance received. This acknowledgement note will not count toward the entry’s word limit.

All short-listed entries will be checked for plagiarism using state-of-the-art software. Plagiarism is “ the process or practice of using another person’s ideas or work and pretending that it is your own ”. For example, copying sentences word-for-word from another source will be detected by the plagiarism software and constitutes a plagiarism offence. You can find more examples of what counts as plagiarism, and tips on how to avoid plagiarism, at this website: https://www.niu.edu/academic-integrity/faculty/committing/examples/index.shtml .

Entries where substantial evidence of plagiarism is detected may be withdrawn from the competition, and t he RES reserves the right to cancel any such submission . So, please ensure that your competition entry is written in your own words . In addition, you must cite content that you use from any source (such as a website, book, or news article) to support your arguments. The next section explains how to properly acknowledge sources and avoid plagiarism.

Data, Referencing and Bibliography

When you use information/material from other sources, you must acknowledge them in your work. Although we do not require a detailed in-text referencing of your arguments for the 2022 competition, a list of sources that you have consulted and have substantively influenced your arguments must be included at the end of your entry. These references do not count toward the word limit of the entry.

You are encouraged to use data obtained from reliable data sources such as the Office of National Statistics , Federal Reserve Bank websites (e.g. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/ ), the World Bank , the OECD , and Our World in Data . You may also find data on your local authority website. You can take charts and tables directly from the source, but if so this must be acknowledged as a note to the chart/table in your entry. In general, it is preferable to use the data to make your own charts and tables. Any such data sources that you use should be listed in the references .

Guidance for writing your entry

• Who is the target audience?

Your entry should be aimed at a general interest audience (anyone who is interested in the topic you are writing about), rather than specifically at people who have studied economics.

• Advice on structuring and formatting your entry

Your entry should follow the general structure of introduction, main arguments, and conclusion. The following websites contains some non-subject-specific guidance about the possible structure and format of written work:

https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/learning/NewBrandDocs-FileStore/Filetoupload,781679,en.pdf

https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/learning/NewBrandDocs-FileStore/Filetoupload,781693,en.pdf

Your readers may not have studied economics, so it is important to explain the intuition behind the economic phenomena you are analysing. ‘Intuition’ refers to a non-technical ‘common-sense’ explanation for the observed phenomena. The first challenge for you is to think of a solid and clear economic intuition about the issue you are trying to analyse. Where appropriate, support your explanations with relevant data. (For example, you can cite some appropriate statistics, and/or include and discuss charts, images, and tables in the main body of your text.)

Make sure to structure your arguments logically. To make your arguments easy to follow, you can use the following order: motivation (why is this topic important?), assumptions (where relevant), claims (what do you think about the issue?), evidence/analysis to support your claims, and conclusion. Maintaining a clear storyline from start to end will help the judges follow your line of reasoning. Keeping the overall argument in mind can help you organise your entry.

• Planning and writing your entry

Woodrow Wilson was once asked how long it took him to write a speech. He answered, ‘That depends. If I am to speak for 10 minutes, I need a week of preparation. If 15 minutes, 3 days. If half an hour, two days. If an hour, I am ready now .’

The message is clear. Since you have only 1000 words to convey your ideas to your audience, it really helps to spend as much time as possible honing and organizing your arguments. Start early and take advantage of all the available time.

Present your arguments clearly. Choosing your words carefully is important for clear communication. For example, if you use economic terminology or refer to economic concepts, make sure you are using them in the correct context. Since your readers may not have studied economics, economic terminology should be avoided where possible and any used should be defined.

Stay within the word limit by writing concisely, using the least number of words necessary to communicate your ideas. Before submitting your entry, make sure to check your work for typos, grammatical errors, and logical fallacies.

• Additional tips

Remember, help from your peers, parents, teachers in preparing your entry must be purely nominal (limited to proofreading). Trust your instincts and take ownership of your thoughts.

Avoid using emotive and informal words such as ‘massive’, ‘chaos’, ‘crashed’, ‘tanked’, or ‘awesome’. As much as possible, avoid using less-reliable non-academic sources, such as Wikipedia or Investopedia, as references.

You can read the winning entries from recent years on the RES website at https://www.res.org.uk/education/young-economist-of-the-year.html , but bear in mind that the maximum length was reduced to 1,000 words last year. Also, the competition in previous years was of a more strict essay format than this year, with less encouragement for presenting original arguments.

• Final advice

Economics is a very exciting discipline that supports the wellbeing of every walk of life. It is a field that involves critical thinking and deep research focusing on the wellbeing of society. Regardless of the competition outcome, the experience of producing an entry that addresses these social issues will be your purest takeaway from this journey.

Evaluation Criteria

Your submission will be judged on the originality of your ideas and perspectives on economic issues, clarity of communication, strength and organization of your arguments, and soundness of the evidence you use (such as others’ views, or data and numbers). Make sure that your writing has a clear structure and consistent format; and that your arguments are convincing, by using supporting sources that are referenced and can be checked.

Data Protection Statement

Any personal data which may be submitted in an entry will be processed by RES in accordance with any applicable data protection legislation, and RES Privacy Notice available at https://www.res.org.uk/resource-library-page/privacy-notice.html .

Declaration

Entrants agree that their entry is their own work, written solely for the purpose of the Competition, and warrant that their entry does not breach any applicable laws or regulations or infringe any third intellectual property or privacy rights, and is not in any way libellous, defamatory, obscene, indecent, harassing or threatening.

By entering the Competition, entrants agree to hold RES and FT harmless for liability, damages or claims for injury or loss to any person or property, relating to, directly or indirectly, participation in this Competition, or claims based on publicity rights, third party intellectual property rights, defamation or invasion of privacy.

RES Statement

The Royal Economic Society reserves the right to refuse entry or to refuse to award a prize to anyone in breach of any of the rules of the essay competition published at https://www.res.org.uk/education/young-economist-of-the-year.html .

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Disputes arising in connection with this Competition shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

The promoter is the Royal Economic Society, 2 Dean Trench St, Westminster, London, SW1P 3HE.

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2 Dean Trench St, Westminster, London, SW1P 3HE Telephone: +44 (0) 203 137 6301 Email: [email protected]

The Royal Economic Society is a Registered Charity no. 231508.

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5 Key Tips for Economics Essay Competitions

Every year there are tens of thousands of entries to economics essay competitions.

However very few essays are successful.

As an economics tutor who has given students advice on their essay competition entries, here are 5 tactics to improve your essay.

For the complete personal statement guide, click the blue button here (paid resource):

Break down the question

Consider if there are any key terms that need defining. This will help keep your essay focussed on this term.

Often the scope of the question could be quite broad. For example no country may be specified. Maybe you want to focus on a particular country or group of countries. 

There is usually a word limit. So you will have to make choices about what you do and don’t include.

Use literature!

Literature includes reports, books and academic papers.

For reports, think about which agencies may have written about this area. Books 

One key differentiator is the use of academic papers. For example, search your topic in Google Scholar https://scholar.google.co.uk/ and see if you can find any relevant papers.

Academic papers can be very hard to understand. Consider reading the introduction and conclusion to get a general idea. 

Focus on trying to understand the key takeaways rather than the details of complicated mathematics.

If you find difficulty in understanding, you could ask another student or teacher to help with understanding a particular paper or concept. Or leave the paper out and move on to another piece of literature.

One tricky thing about academic papers is being able to explain their ideas. Explanations should be succinct and easy to understand. There’s no point regurgitating what the paper says without at least expressing the ideas in your own words.

Find key statistics

First, statistics can be used to motivate the research. For example mentioning a statistic about the extent of income inequality may help introduce the topic and give reasons why intervention may be needed.

Statistics can come in handy for what I call “parameter estimates”. These are estimates of key variables in economic models. The best example of this is the price elasticity of demand. If you can find estimates of this, you can discuss the burden of a tax for example – do consumers or producers face a greater burden?

If you are looking at the harm caused by smoking, you may want to find monetary estimates for the size of the externality (at the margin).

Optional: include diagrams (if it helps explain your point)

Diagrams allow you to show off your knowledge of economic theory and simplify complex ideas.

Maybe you can use a diagram from A-level Economics, such as an externality diagram or aggregate supply / aggregate demand diagram. Maybe there is another diagram you have found from your reading that may be helpful. Make sure the diagram does not stand alone, but that you refer to it in your text.

But you do not have to include a diagram, particularly if it does not add any value to the overall piece of work.

An example diagram is below. It shows how utility changes with a change in money. The key point is that the agent is hurt more by losses than the extent to which they enjoy gains. This can explain all sorts of phenomena, for example behaviour in financial markets or how businesses frame purchases.

Can you approach the question differently?

Think about what other students might do to answer the question. 

This would likely be a standard set of arguments for and against based on their A-level economics understanding.

Consider a different way of answering the question.

Is there a unique approach you could take? Is it worth focussing explicitly on particular issues in the problem?

Maybe some mathematics would help explain the problem. Maybe the standard economic argument has serious flaws. Or you may find a paper with a key idea on which to base your essay.

Other Questions

Why should you enter an essay competition.

• Learn research/writing skills
• Look into an area that you find interesting
• Use in your personal statement

These are notoriously difficult to win because of the number of entrants. Receiving a commendation is also very tough. So a more practical mindset is to see what you can learn about the topic.

A good time to enter one of these is in year 12 when there are fewer exams.

Which economics essay competitions are there?

Some examples of economics essay competitions are:

Others include Minds Underground, LSE, Marshall Society and there are many others.

Pick competition(s) based on which titles that you find intriguing. Also bear in mind any deadlines and how much time you have.

Related Posts

For A-level economics advice, including exam technique tips (application, analysis and evaluation), click here .

The Monetary Policy Essay Prize .

The Monetary Policy Essay Prize 2023-4. By the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Institute of International Monetary Research, and the Vinson Centre What causes high inflation, and is the Bank of England responsible for the current inflation episode? If so, how would you make it more accountable?   The Submission and Style Requirements Entries should be no longer than 2,500 words long. Entries should include a bibliography and Harvard style referencing. References will count towards the word total, but the bibliography will not. The text should be double spaced, on A4 pages, in Arial size 12 font. How to Enter This year, the Monetary Policy Essay Prize will be divided into two separate competitions, the first for sixth formers , the second for undergraduates . The competitions are  free to enter, and open to both  UK and non-UK residents. However, all entrants must be able to attend the semi-finals and final in person in order to compete. Entries for the 2024 competition closed on 26 January 2024. Logistics The entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges, and the top entries will be invited to semi-finals at the Vinson Centre at the University of Buckingham in February 2024. The top participants from the semi-finals will then be invited to the final at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London in March 2024. Prizes For Sixth Form competition, £1,000 will be awarded to first prize, and £500 each to two runners up. For the Undergraduate competition, £2,000 will be awarded to first prize, and £1,000 each to two runners up. The entries will be judged on the criteria of knowledge and understanding of the economic issues raised by the challenge, use of resources, the quality and clarity of the argument and analysis presented, and the degree of originality and insight displayed. They will not be judged on the basis of adherence to a particular perspective regardless of quality or the other considerations set out. About IIMR The purpose of the Institute of International Monetary Research is to demonstrate and bring to public attention the strong relationship between the quantity of money on the one hand, and the levels of national income and expenditure on the other. The Institute – which is associated with the University of Buckingham in England – was set up in 2014, in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis (a.k.a., “the Great Recession”) of 2007 – 2009. It is an educational charity. About IEA The IEA is the UK’s original free-market think-tank, founded in 1955. 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. As part of this, the IEA runs an extensive student outreach programme including internships, summer schools, seminars and competitions. The IEA is an educational charity (No CC 235 351) and independent research institute limited by guarantee. Ideas and policies produced by the Institute are freely available from our website. The Institute is entirely independent of any political party or group, and is entirely funded by voluntary donations from individuals, companies and foundations. About the Vinson Centre The Vinson Centre for the public understanding of economics and entrepreneurship is a space for research and knowledge exchange at the University of Buckingham where individuals and teams come together to pursue exciting projects in novel ways. 2024 Winners On 25th March 2024 we ran the final for the sixth year of our Monetary Policy Essay Prize in conjunction with the Institute of International Monetary Research and the Vinson Centre. The undergraduate prize was won by Alberto Ornaghi (LSE). Christian Bulmer and Hubert Kucharski came in as the two runners up. The sixth form prize was won by Niccolo Silvestri (King’s College School, Wimbledon). YaXi Zheng and Tej Venigalla came in as the two runners up.

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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