FCDO Next Generation Economics competition 2024

The FCDO Next Generation Economics competition 2024 invites UK school students to explore and write about the biggest economic challenges.

Through the competition, they want:

• To hear your ideas on one of the biggest economic challenges facing your generation. The FCDO represents UK interests across the world, and our economists work on finding and analyzing solutions to global challenges
• To inspire the next generation of economists. Our competition aims to demonstrate how economics is a vital tool for answering important, urgent policy questions
• The next generation of economists to be even more diverse and open-minded than the current generation. We encourage you to enter the competition, whatever your background (and however much you know about economics).

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Competition themes

To enter, submit your letter responding to 1 out of these 4 questions:

• 2023 Nobel Prize laureate Claudia Goldin states that unequal division of caregiving and household responsibilities play a key role in gender pay gap. What policies could governments implement to increase female participation in the paid economy?
• International efforts to reduce carbon emissions increase demand for clean energy technology and critical minerals. How could material rich developing countries capitalize on the demand for critical minerals to boost growth?
• Climate change plus the impact of global conflict on international supply chains has enhanced risk on food security. What market intervention can governments across the world take to mitigate food security risk?
• According to the UN, 3.3 billion people now live in countries where debt interest payments are greater than expenditure on health or education. What actions could governments globally take to ensure debt does not prevent investment towards development?

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Prizes

There are several prizes on offer:

• the winner will receive a cash prize of £500
• 2 runners up will each receive 250
• 5 shortlisted entrants will receive £100 each
• The winner will present their essay to Adnan Khan, FCDO Chief Economist.
• The top 8 entrants will be offered a fully-funded visit to the FCDO and the London School of Economics in London. They will also meet with one of the co-directors of the Hub for Equal Representation at the LSE. Fully-funded visits are only available to UK-based entrants.
• They will publish the letters of the winner and runners up on the GOV.UK website and share them across the Government Economic Service.
• The top 25 entrants will each receive an economics book, chosen from a shortlist selected by the FCDO Chief Economist.

Eligibility for FCDO Next Generation Economics competition

To enter, you must be:

• Applicant must be at least 14 years old
• Be studying in the UK at secondary school level (including sixth form and elective home education or home schooling), or at a British international school
• You do not need to be studying or have studied economics.
• Entering the competition is free.

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Application of FCDO Next Generation Economics competition

Do not include any personal information in the main part of your letter. This allows us to mark entries anonymously and as fairly as possible. You should include this in the covering email instead.

Your entry should: 

• be formatted as a letter addressed to the FCDO’s Chief Economist Adnan Khan 
• be 1,000 words or fewer
• clearly reference any evidence included. We recommend using the Harvard referencing style. References are not included in the word count
• not use applications such as ChatGPT or other forms of artificial intelligence (AI)

Entries can include graphs and graphics, but these are not essential.

The FCDO Next Generation Economics Entry Template includes a table at the top with information including your name, age and school. Fill this in, remove it from the template and include it in your email to us.

How to do this: