harvard essay competition winners

Harvard International Economics

Essay contest (hieec).

HIEEC provides students the opportunity to demonstrate an accomplished level of writing and understanding of economic theory. Through the contest, students hone their academic and professional skills and exhibit their knowledge. 

HIEE C 202 3 -2024

Hieec 2023-2024 is now closed. .

The 2023-2024  Harvard International Economics Essay Contest is sponsored by the Harvard Undergraduate Economics Association (HUEA). This essay competition is open to high school studen ts of any year and is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrat e an accom plished level of writing and understanding of economic the ory. T hrough the contest, student competitors hone their academic and professional skills and exhibit their knowledge to future employers and academic programs. 

Competitors must construct a convincing argument using economic theory and real-world examples. Winning essays will be published on our website  and will be available for the greater Harvard community to read. Essays should focus on argumentation supported with facts and references, although data-based support is also welcome.

Yiheng Lyu​

Audrey Ku k​

Hyoungjin Jin

Juyoung Chun

Kevin Zhang

Matthew Choi

Mikayil Sadikhov

Raunak Agarwal

Vallabh Himakunthala

Highly Commended

Aronima Biswas

Aryan Nangia

Kridaya Gupta

Leonardo Jia

Rohan Mathur

Anagha Chakravarti

Amberlynn Gong

Neha Shanavas

Donghyeon Oh

2023-2024  Essay Questions

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to affect growth, inequality, productivity, innovation, and employment. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, in particular, has greatly increased public awareness about the significance of AI and its implications for the future. What impact will the development of AI have on economic inequality, the composition of the workforce, and economic output as a whole? How can nations prepare for the micro and macroeconomic changes brought about by AI?

Measuring national and global economic activity allows us to understand how economies change in size and structure—how they grow and contract. In addition to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), government budgets, and the money supply, alternatives like the Human Development Index (HDI) and Gross National Income (GNI) are used to assess economic progress. What are the advantages of our current economic indices, including GDP, HDI, GNI, government budgets, and the money supply, and in what areas are they lacking? Which of these indices do you find most helpful, and how can we enhance or combine them to improve our understanding of economic measurement?

Proponents of income redistribution support the idea that redistribution policies will increase economic stability and give more opportunities to the less wealthy. Others, however, are more skeptical and believe it could have negative consequences for economic growth. Current methods of redistribution include taxation, welfare, public services, and other monetary policies. What strategies for income redistribution should the U.S. adopt from other countries? What economic impacts could a wealth tax or super millionaire tax have? What type of redistribution is most effective and feasible? What would be the impacts of the U.S. enacting universal basic income? Discuss the implications of any of these issues and feel free to expand on other areas of economic redistribution.

As the United States weighs the impacts of China’s rise to global prominence, economics and national security have become increasingly intertwined. As a result, the United States government has imposed both tariffs and investment restrictions on China to limit the nation’s access to both US markets and intellectual property (specifically in sensitive industries such as semiconductors). What are the economic implications of these policies for United States firms, consumers, and workers? Discuss the most important perspectives of the US-China trade war and provide suggestions on how both countries can manage the prospect of a changing economic order.

2nd November 2023 – Essay titles released

11:59pm EST 5th January 2024  – Essay submission deadline

Late February 2024*  – Highly Commended and Finalists notified

Early March 2024 * – Winners notified, results published on the website

*We received a high volume of submissions, therefore we anticipate  that it will take us a couple m ore w eeks to release the results. 

Entrants must choose one of the four prompts and write a response to it with a strict limit of 1500 words. Submission must be via the HUEA website and entrants are limited to submitting one essay with only the first submission being considered. Each essay submission will have a $20 reading fee which should be paid upon submission of the essay. If this fee will impose a significant financial burden on your family, please email us. The deadline for submitting the essay is 11:59pm EST January 5th, 2024. ​

Please submit essay submissions via this form.

If the above link does not work, use:  https://forms.gle/9NVDu9WVbU71iPpq6

*Be sure to read all the details in the submission form carefully before submitting, as failure to complete any of the steps correctly may result in your submission not being considered.

The essays will be judged by the board of the HUEA, with the top 10 submissions being adjudicated by the esteemed Harvard professor and 2016 Economics Nobel Prize winner Oliver Hart.

The top three winning essays will be published ( with the author’s permission) on our website. A finalist s list of the top  submissions will be published online and adjudicated by 2016 Economics Nobel Prize Winner Oliver Hart. A list of names that will receive the "Highly Commended" distinction will also be published online​. The judges' decisions are final.

Terms and Conditions

The word limit of 1500 must be strictly adhered to. Any words past the limit will be truncated. This limit excludes references, footnotes, titles, headers and footers.

Essays must be written only by the entrant. Any outside assistance must be declared in the beginning or end of the essay.

Only your first submission will be accepted. Any further submissions will not be read.

References must be included, and any plagiarism will lead to disqualification.

References must be in Chicago or APA format. 

The only accepted document formatting is PDF. Any other format will not be accepted, nor will refunds be given to those who do not follow this rule.

No refunds are granted.

Grades 9-12 are permitted.

The essay must not be entered in any other competition nor be published elsewhere.

No individual feedback of essays will be granted.

The decisions made by HUEA by the final round of adjudication are final.

All winners agree to their names being published on the HUEA website.

Past Winners

2022  prompts an d winners.

In recent years and decades, many countries have seen fertility rates drop, potentially leading to falling populations. Currently, China has a fertility rate of 1.3, one of the lowest in the world. However, in 2021, China experienced GDP growth of 8% with output totaling $17.7 trillion. Will this lowered fertility rate (with potential to fall further) affect China’s economic growth and policy? How so? What, if anything, can the Chinese government do to limit the risk of falling fertility rates?

U.S. mortgage rates recently passed 7%, making the purchase of a new home increasingly unaffordable. Meanwhile, the United States has suffered from a chronic shortage of available housing for decades, particularly in urban areas, leading to what many scholars and advocates call an affordability crisis. Why is housing so unaffordable in the U.S.? What can (or should) be done by private actors, state and local governments, and the federal government to alleviate the affordability crisis?

It is often suggested that a tradeoff exists between economic growth and the health of the environment, especially now as the threat of climate change becomes more dire. What economic risks does a changing climate pose? Can economic growth be consistent with a healthy environment? What policies, either market-based or otherwise, should governments enact to protect the environment while posing the least danger to economic efficiency? 

Central banks such as the Federal Reserve in the U.S. and the Bank of England in the UK manage their nation’s macroeconomies with the goal of ensuring price stability and maximum employment. Globally, inflation rates are rising to levels not seen since the 1980s, particularly in the U.S. and European countries. To what extent should the monetary policies of central banks in various Western countries differ or resemble one another as a reaction to the specific causes of inflation facing their economies?

​ Click below to view each winner's essay

Ashwin t elang  *   nanxi jiang   *   duncan wong, 2019 wi n ner.

https://www.economicsreview.org/post/when-is-one-choice-one-t oo-many

2020 Winners

https://www.economicsreview.org/post/covid-19-and-the-market

https://www.economicsreview.org/post/automation-and-jobs-this-time-is-different

https://www.economicsreview.org/post/making-rational-decisions

HIR Academic Writing Contest Spring 2022 Medal Winners

The Harvard International Review is a quarterly magazine offering insight on international affairs from the perspectives of scholars, leaders, and policymakers. Since our founding in 1979, we've set out to bridge the worlds of academia and policy through outstanding writing and editorial selection.

The quality of our content is unparalleled. Each issue of the Harvard International Review includes exclusive interviews and editorials by leading international figures along with expert staff analysis of critical international issues. We have featured commentary by 43 Presidents and Prime Ministers, 4 Secretaries-General, 4 Nobel Economics Prize laureates, and 7 Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

Inspired by our growing high school readership around the world, we created the Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest to encourage and highlight outstanding high school writing on topics related to international affairs.

Congratulations to all Spring 2022 medal winners on the quality of your submissions!

Heidi Pan . Wardlaw Hartridge School. “ Bilge Dumping - The Environmental Disaster Going on Behind Closed Doors”

Ke Ni. Hangzhou Foreign Languages School CAL Center . “ Restricting Reproductive Rights: China's New Three-Child Policy”

Jiansheng Zhang. United World College of South East Asia. “ Less is More: How the Degrowth Movement Can Lead to the Growth of Humanity”

Zunian Luo. Weston High School. “ The Most Important Plant You Overlooked—Seaweed”

Autumn Wang. Wuhan San New School. “ Waning Wheat: Why Egypt’s Deteriorating Agricultural Resources Crumbled Under Influence of the Russia-Ukraine War”

Xi Lu,Wenqing Hu. Shanghai High School International Division. “ Vehement Assault, Coerced Marriage, and Sexual Exploitation: A Sequel to the Rohingya Crisis”

Yifan Qiao. Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School. “ Geopolitical conflict in the Pacific: China reached Security Agreement with the Solomon Islands”

Zimeng Huang. Shenzhen College of International Education. “ Is Ecotourism the Solution? Thailand’s Kayans and Dominica’s Caribs Offer Contrasting Case Studies”

Sally Shin. Hamilton High School. “ Three Ways Technology Ecosystem Expansion Can Recover Africa's Economy”

Yani Liu. Cambridge International Exam Center in Shanghai Experimental School. “ New Battlefront for Illegal Wildlife Trade: How Facebook is Falling Short of Expectation”

Raymond Tang. Shanghai High School International Division. “ The MCC Compact with Nepal: A Political Puppetry”

Junyu Piao. Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School. “ Frozen Zoos: Cloning Endangered Animals and Saving Biodiversity”

Daoyuan Shangguan. WLSA Shanghai Academy. “ COVID-19 Pitfalls in Shanghai: Warnings and Lessons from the Lockdown”

Nancy Huang. Shenzhen College of International Education. “ Racist Robots? Why AI Bias is a Serious Global Concern”

Jiarui Wu. Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore. “ The Third Pillar Underneath a Stable Indo-Pacific”

Jiahe Wang. Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy. “ From mining in mines to mining in games: where is the economy going?”

Silver Medal

Lezhi Wang. Xi'an Gaoxin No.1 High School International Course Center. “ Asian Hate Under COVID-19”

Parakram Karnik. Brunswick Scho, Greenwich, CT. The Conundrum of the US —Saudi Relationship”

Imran Gangat. Syosset High School. “ The Ukraine Crisis: Implications on EU Green Energy Plans”

Pranav Reddy Mogathala . National Public School, HSR Layout. “ Between Debt and a Lost Identity: The Worrying Indian Farmer Exodus”

Huawei Ouyang. Shenzhen College of International Education. “ Death or Taxes: Carbon Policies for a Sustainable Future”

Wenjin Wang . Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School. “ Breaking the Silence: Importance of Women in Cybersecurity”

Grace Ren. Wycombe Abbey School. “ Is Guyana The New China: Can Earth Handle Another Country's Economy Boost?”

Churan Xu. King's Academy. “ When Water Becomes a Weapon: Conflict Between Turkey, Syria and Beyond”

Tengxuan Li. The Webb School. “ Teak Wood from Myanmar: Supporting Political Insurrection and Harming the Environment”

Yixuan Wang . Zhengzhou No.7 Senior High School. “ Elderly Care: An Exigent Challenge”

Angelina Wang. Hong Kong International School. “ The Climate and Maize: An Imminent Food Crisis”

Wenxuan Cao. Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy. “ Ecotourism: the Arctic Circle’s Marketed Foe”

Richard Shin. Hamilton High School. “ Earth: Population - Too Many”

Eric Luo. The Webb Schools. “ Built on Pillars of Sand: The Ongoing Sand Crisis

Yuting Qiu. Vanke Meisha Academy. “ To Inherit or Innovate: How Education Mitigates Gender Imparity and Regional Gaps”

Indigo Lee-Wilson . Ascham School. “ There is No Planet B: The Forgotten Environmental Impacts of Smoking”

Yu Gao . Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School. “ Rolling Blackouts and Their Rippling Effects: China’s Magnesium Shortage”

Felicity Wong. Milton Academy. “ Organic Agriculture”

Zhihan Shen. No.2 High School Of East China Normal University. “ The Growing Global Threat of Cryptocurrencies: A Volatile Situation”

Bronze Medal

Arvind Salem . Novi High School.   “ Lebanon's Descent into Chaos: From the "Switzerland of the Middle East" to a Poor, Corrupt, and Starving Country”

Keke Cen . American Heritage Schools. “ Yemen: The Unspoken Humanitarian Crisis”

Meiqi Yuan. Keystone Academy. “ A Golden Ticket: Poverty Alleviation Through Livestream E-commerce in China”

Zeynep Karatas. Northwood High School. “ Ecological Impairment of Trash Exportation”

Yige Feng . Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School. “ Plastic is Not Fantastic: The PLA Promise”

Prakhar Goel . Hill Spring International School. “ South Korea’s Entertainment Industry – More to It than Meets the Eye”

Zishu Zhao. Beijing No.2 Middle School. “ #NotYou: The MeToo Movement in China”

Hu Peng . Nansha College Preparatory Academy. “ Re-inventing Harley-Davidson: an American Classic Struggles in a Global World”

Mingjie Zhou . UWC Changshu China. “ ‘ Locked’ Logistics: The Pandemic And The Global Supply”

Xuhao Li. The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University. “ CBDC: A Sustainable and Safe Cryptocurrency”

Yiping Zhou, Yining Wang. Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy. “ The Bittersweet Chocolate Economy: Ghana’s Farmers are Getting Ripped Off”

Qianyi Ying . UWC Red Cross Nordic. “ Climate Ambition And Forgotten Reality: US-China Climate Cooperation”

Ruoan Zhang. The Junior High school Attached to Harbin Institute of Technology. “ Feeding Cars or People: The Inevitable Dilemma of Using Corn-based Bioethanol”

Weiqi Ling. No.2 High School Of East China Normal University. “ The Metaverse: Planet B or Our Planet's Destruction”

Yanxi Chen,Hengle Yang . Wuhan-Britain China School. “ European Union’s Double Standards: Unequal Treatment towards Refugees of Different Race”

Pinyi Feng. Lester.B Pearson College of the United World College. “ The "Little-Africa" in China: The "invisible" discriminations towards Africans”

Jianan Shao. The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University International Department. “ Retrospection of COVID-19 pandemic: the undertaking of WHO”

Soobin Ahn . Seoul Scholars International. “ A Novel Strategy for Carbon Capture and Sequestration”

Yueming Wu. High School Affiliated To Nanjing Normal University. “ A year on from the announcement that new policies would change China's media landscape to make it less effeminate, how has the situation changed?”

Zimu Wang. Zhengzhou Foreign Language School. “ Educational Opportunities: For Upper Classes Only?”

Chih-Hsuan Chang. American International School of Guangzhou. “ China’s Sustainable Development Strategies to Improve Societal Well-Being and the Environment”

Suyan Sheng . Shanghai Guanghua School. “ The Next Pandemic: Global Hunger”

Xiaoya Li . Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School. “ Bride or Human: Human Trafficking in Asia”

Yaqi Wen. BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour. “ Soil Degradation and Crippling debt: The Agrarian Crisis in India”

Jasmine Ding. Hangzhou International School. “ Modern-Day Slavery”

COMPETITIONS & Programs

Develop your critical thinking and communication skills while having your work recognized by one of the world's most prominent collegiate newspapers., december 2023 - june 2024, grow your vision.

Welcome visitors to your site with a short, engaging introduction.  Double click to edit and add your own text.

About:   Calling all entrepreneurs! We are excited to announce the launch of our newest competition in partnership with Asdan China. This startup-style contest is tailor-made to cultivate the next generation of problem solvers. Participants will engage in two rigorous rounds—a preliminary round (virtual submissions) followed by a thrilling championship round held in-person at The Crimson. Those who qualify for the Championship Round will have an opportunity to be mentored by industry professionals and members of The Harvard Crimson's esteemed business board, offering a platform to test and refine one’s business acumen.

For more information and to submit by the April 6th deadline, explore below:

HARVARD Crimson Business Competition

January - march 2024.

About:  The Harvard Crimson Global Essay Competition brings together ambitious high school students from around the world with an interest in writing. This competition is an annual opportunity for students to showcase their talents on a global stage, compete to win exclusive educational opportunities and prizes, and explore different possibilities of a future in writing.

Harvard Crimson Global Essay Competition

Coming soon.

About:  Recently launched in the winter of 2023 in our continued partnership with Crimson Education, the Harvard Crimson Global Case Competition unites high school students across the world the opportunity to step into the shoes of a CEO and help a top global business tackle its challenges. In this immersive case-style competition, participants are presented with a real-world business challenge, and are tasked with creating innovative solutions impact recommendations.

Harvard Crimson Business Case Competition

About:  Over the course of 8 weeks, students have the incredible opportunity to learn directly from a professional in the journalism industry. This virtual series unfolds in two phases: during the first four weeks, students are led by the guest professional, followed by one-on-one mentorships with one of The Crimson’s esteemed writers to conclude the series.

HS2 Winter Internship        Program

Past competitions & programs, spring 2023.

About:  As the nation's oldest continuously published collegiate newspaper, The Crimson's newsroom has been a transformative experience for generations of young journalists. Through this competition, we hope to inspire high schoolers of all experience levels to develop their research and writing skills in the same way.

Participants will receive access to The Crimson's robust network of alumni in these fields, while winners will be invited to take an internship on The Crimson's summer 2024 content  team.

HARVARD Crimson Journalism Competition