IEA Student Essay CompetitionsMonetary Policy Essay Prize / Dorian Fisher Memorial Prize

Unclear. The IEA's Dorian Fisher page and its student essay competition page still show the 2022 edition with no newer call for entries. The competitions the IEA is clearly running are the Monetary Policy Essay Prize, whose 2026 deadline was 31 August, and The Budget Challenge for school teams. Prepare against the Monetary Policy rules, not the old Dorian Fisher format of a 1,200-word essay plus two 500-word answers.

The organisers say international entrants are welcome. The Sixth Form division corresponds to the final two years of secondary school, roughly US grades 11 and 12, so Irvine Unified School District juniors and seniors map straightforwardly; the Undergraduate division is for university students, and the two are judged separately with separate submission forms. Because curricula differ by country, email the education address listed on the IEA site to confirm how your grade maps before you submit into the wrong division.

Yes, and attendance is in person - this is the first thing an Irvine family should price out. In the 2026 cycle the semi-finals were held at the Vinson Centre, University of Buckingham in October (19 October for sixth formers) and the finals at the IEA in London in December (1 December for sixth formers), and the organisers state that entrants must attend both rounds. Confirm you can make two autumn trips to the UK before committing.

The cap is 2,500 words using Harvard-style citations; in-text references count toward the limit while the bibliography does not. Formatting must be A4, double-spaced, Arial 12-point, submitted as a PDF through the online form for your division. Your name and contact details go in the form only, never in the document. 2,500 words is generous for this level, but since citations count, budget them before you start drafting.

The question asked whether imposing tariffs raises the price level and/or inflation, with comment on Donald Trump's enthusiasm for tariffs. The distinction that decides these essays is between a one-off rise in the price level and sustained inflation; conflating the two costs marks almost automatically. The level expected sits just above A-Level or AP Macro: able to read central bank and IMF material and use empirical literature properly rather than paraphrasing news coverage.

In 2026 the Sixth Form winner received GBP 1,500 with two runners-up at GBP 750 each, while the Undergraduate winner received GBP 2,500 plus a Hayek Research Internship, with two runners-up at GBP 1,000. That is at the high end for a school-level economics essay contest. The historic Dorian Fisher Prize paid GBP 500 to the winner and GBP 250 to each of three runners-up. No entry fee is listed and past editions have been free.

No, and simply echoing them backfires. Judging turns on the quality of the argument and the use of evidence. Knowing the free-market canon - price signals, regulatory cost, public choice - helps you engage seriously, but an essay that repeats the institute's position without handling objections reads as weak reasoning. The safer structure is to give one full paragraph to the strongest counter-argument before answering it.

Yes, but only after a round of foundational reading. A workable path: get clear on inflation, money supply, the price level and supply shocks using an AP Macro text or the first half of Mankiw; then read two or three policy papers from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England or the IMF plus one empirical paper on tariffs; and pull data from primary sources such as FRED, the IMF and the BLS. Two summer months is enough - just do not skip the concepts. Irvine students who want structured argument practice beyond the reading list can also work through the IEA essay prep course.