marshall society economics essay competition

Participate in the 2022 Marshall Society Essay Competition!

2022 Marshall Society Essay Competition

19 August 2022

The Competition 

The Marshall Society, the economics society of the University of Cambridge, is excited to launch its 2022 essay competition. This is an opportunity for all pre-university 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 a sound explanation of economic theory and well-reasoned, original arguments, drawing on relevant real-world evidence. 

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

Economies are facing soaring inflation rates despite tepid growth, which commentators have attributed to various causes. Discuss what you think the appropriate policies are to address fears of ‘stagflation’. 

‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already altered the global economy.’ Discuss. 

Today’s globalised economy is vulnerable to shocks from multifarious sources. From whence will the next major recession come?

What are the likely economic effects of blockchain technology in the next decade? 

‘Public goods can be provided by the private sector.’ Discuss.

Evaluate an economic policy recently implemented by a country that of your choice and discuss its short- and long-run consequences. 

Writing the essay 

Your essay should be written in English with good grammar and structure . Try to structure your essay in an orderly way; you should build up your argument gradually, instead of asserting it in your first paragraph. The best essays will collect evidence over the course of the essay so that, when it comes to your conclusion, the outcome of your argument will seem inevitable. 

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, “Th2e 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. e limit is 1000 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. 

Finally, some notes on style: 

Include page numbers on every page

On the first page, include the question, question number, your name and your school . 

Submitting 

Use the submission form below to submit your essay. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebDz9cgW5bMPVElWvg_1uLwwOg02A7R33SF2obeYNKDoTnCg/viewform  

Do not email it to us: we will not read it if you do! 

The deadline for submissions is 19 August 2022, 11:59pm BST . Late submissions will not be considered. 

Before submitting, please convert your file to a PDF and change the le name to “[your name] Q[2question number].pdf2” . (For example, “Charlie Murphy Q4.pdf2”). Make sure this is no larger than 10 MB in size. 

Competition results will be published on the Marshall Society website by mid-September. Prizes are as follows: First place: £50 Finalists: £25 

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 . 

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 whilst writing your essay must be declared in your email.

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 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 for 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. 

We look forward to reading your submissions! 

If you have any questions, feel free to message the relevant existing committee members. Details can be found on our website at: https://marshallsociety.com/about-us/.​

That's it from us for now!

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Marshall Society Essay Competition

Resource details.

The Marshall Society Essay Competition is run by the Economics society at Cambridge, so the essays are all Economics-based. Entering essay competitions is a great way to expand your knowledge and interest into new areas, or to explore an issue you are already interested in in greater depth.

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Marshall Society Economics Essay Competition 2017

7th May 2017

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Here are details of the 2017 Economics Essay Competition being run by the Marshall Society at Cambridge University.

The Marshall Society, the Economics society of the University of Cambridge, is pleased to announce the opening of its annual essay competition. This is an opportunity for all students currently working towards A-levels, the IB or equivalent qualifications to demonstrate their ability to write a convincing and well-structured essay, making use of both economic theory and real world evidence where appropriate. Entrants are advised to make their essays as concise as the topic allows: the guideline is 1500 words. 

As always we encourage students to come up with their own titles, but they should equally feel free to use any of the suggested titles listed below should they wish to do so:

• To what extent is micro finance a revolutionary engine for growth in developing countries?
• ‘Recent years have shown us that conventional monetary policy just isn’t enough.’ Comment
• Does China provide a feasible framework for other emerging economies to follow?
• ‘The twin deficits run by the UK suggest inherent structural failure within our economy.’ To what extent do you agree?
• Is it possible to predict the next recession, if so how and what can we do about it?
• ‘Economics is the study of the individual abstracted from individuality.’ Discuss
• Does the recent political climate indicate an imminent retreat from the economic liberalisation of recent decades?
• ‘The rise of businesses like Uber and AirBnB necessitate a greater role for trust within our economy.’ Comment

Entries can be submitted via email attachment to [email protected] (please ensure that it is attached in either Microsoft Word or PDF format). The email should contain your full name, school, date of birth and a declaration of any assistance you received from teachers or tutors.

The deadline for essay submissions is 11:59pm 31 st July 2017

The essays will be judged individually and the shortlist, runners up and winner will be announced by the end of summer. The author of the winning essay will also receive £100; the two runners up will receive £50 each. In addition to this, a selection of the best essays will be published in the 2017-2018 edition of the Marshall Society’s magazine, the Dismal Scientist. If you have any queries regarding the competition please contact the magazine editor at [email protected]. 

Terms and Conditions

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 whilst writing your essay must be declared in your email.

You cannot make any revisions to your essay once it has been submitted.

Only students studying in sixth form or below (graduating in 2017 or later) or any international equivalent are eligible. 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. 

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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