Harvard International Economics Essay Contest

Not as of 20 September 2026. The HUEA site says only that full rules and prompts will be posted when the contest opens this fall, so treat the official page as the source of truth. Recent cycles released prompts in October or November, closed around January and announced results in the spring - a window that falls right between an Irvine student's fall coursework and finals. Subscribe to the site's mailing list now: past editions capped the number of submissions, so registering early matters.

It is run by the Harvard Undergraduate Economics Association, a student organisation, in partnership with the Harvard College Economics Review, with economics faculty involved in final judging. It is not a project of the university or its admissions office, and a win has no direct bearing on Harvard admission - be sceptical of anyone who claims otherwise. The value is an academically reviewed piece of economics writing.

Roughly 1,500 words excluding references, footnotes and headers, submitted as a PDF in a standard citation style. At that length there is no room for a literature review: state a precise economic question in the opening paragraph, commit to one analytical frame - supply and demand, externalities, game theory or empirical data - and close the argument with one or two pieces of evidence. AP Micro or Macro plus some outside reading is enough; econometrics is not expected.

Grades 9 to 12 are all eligible and no coursework is required, but a true beginner entering straight away rarely places. A better path is one semester with an introductory text such as the opening chapters of Mankiw's Principles of Economics, plus practice writing 800-word arguments, then entering from tenth grade, or waiting until after completing AP Micro or Macro. Irvine students who want structured argument practice outside their school coursework can also work through the HIEEC prep course. The most common failure mode - an essay that reads as news summary plus opinion - is exactly what a lack of framework training produces.

Past prompts have tracked live policy questions - inflation, trade and tariffs, labour markets, development economics - as open-ended questions rather than computational problems. A useful test when choosing: can I explain this with one mechanism diagram or one model? The prompt you can diagram usually produces a stronger essay than the one you have the most opinions about. This year's prompts are still to be posted.

Harvard undergraduates on the HUEA board screen entries, and the strongest go to a Harvard economics professor; past judges have included 2016 Nobel laureate Oliver Hart. Winners, Finalists and Highly Commended entrants are named on the HUEA site, and winning essays may be published by the Harvard College Economics Review with the author's permission. The return is academic recognition and a publication credit rather than a large cash prize.

Recent editions capped the total number of submissions and charged a reading fee, but the fee and cap for 2026-27 have not been posted yet, so check the official page when the contest opens rather than budgeting from last year's numbers. Practically, register as soon as the announcement appears: if the cap fills, there is no late route in.

The deadlines do not actually clash. The Marshall Society prize (Cambridge, around 1,500 words) and the IEA Monetary Policy Essay Prize (2,500 words) both close at the end of August, which lands squarely in summer break for Irvine students, while HIEEC releases prompts in the fall and closes in winter. A workable plan is one UK entry over the summer and HIEEC after school starts - two essays from one genuine subject interest, rather than scattering entries everywhere.