The RES is delighted to announce that the winner of the RES Young Economist of the Year competition 2015 is:
Lok Yin Cheng of Westminster School, London, writing on "Does the economic case favour a new airport runway at Heathrow, Gatwick or elsewhere?”, who will receive the glass trophy and a prize of £1,000.
Second place goes to Hamish Hatrick of Eton College, Windsor whose essay discussed “It is immoral for the drug companies to charge large sums for drugs that are cheap to manufacture.” (£500).
And joint third place goes to: Neil Gibbons of King’s Cathedral School, Peterborough for an essay on “The rising gap between rich and poor is not just bad for society, it is bad for growth"; and Ellen To of Streatham and Clapham High School, Clapham, who examined the topic, "Countries like Greece caused the Eurozone crisis by running up too much debt, so it is only fair that they should bear most of the burden of fixing it".
From the final shortlist of 20 essays drawn from a total entry of over 2,100, the judging panel of Professor Sir Charles Bean (London School of Economics and RES Past President), Stephanie Flanders (JP Morgan) and Professor Jonathan Haskel (Imperial College, London) selected the final four winners and wish to congratulate them, together with all of the other students that made the short list. The overall standard was again high, with an increasing number of entries from international schools.
All winners have been invited to an award ceremony to take place at the RES Annual Public lecture at the Royal Institution in London on Tuesday 24 November 2015.
Read more about the Young Economist Essay competition, including the full judges reports, copies of the winning essays and lists of Highly Commended and Shortlisted applicants.
Source: Amanda Wilman, RES Office