Young Economist of the Year 2021 competition
in association with the Financial Times

The Young Economist of the Year Essay Competition is now closed. The results of the competition will be available near the end of September 2021.

The 2021 competition was open to all year 12 and year 13 (S5 and S6 in Scotland, years 13 and 14 in Northern Ireland) students studying for A-Level, International Baccalaureate (IB) or Scottish Highers qualifications who either normally reside or are studying in the UK.

Students do not need to be studying economics to be able to enter and entrants do not have to be members of RES.

A guidance note on essay writing is available here. Students were asked to write an essay of up to 1,000 words excluding references on one of five topics:

• 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 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?

Marco Minasi-Smith of Fortismere School was the winner of the 2020 Young Economist of the Year Essay Competition. You can read an edited version of Marco's essay on the Financial Times website, as well as the full essay here. You can also read the full announcement here.