Winners announced in the Warwick Future Economist essay competition 2023

We are excited to announce the winners of this year's Warwick Future Economist competition jointly organised by the Department of Economics at Warwick and the Warwick Economics Society. They have been selected out of 68 entries for the outstanding quality of their economics essays.

The overall winner of the competition is Harrison Sargent from Arden Academy in Solihull, whose essay explains how nudge theory can be used to increase voter participation in the next general electionLink opens in a new window. Congratulations to Harrison who will receive the top cash prize of £250.

We also congratulate the following students in the joint-second place who receive £50 cash prize each:

• Jacob Jones, Arden Academy
• Eden Haycock, Heckmondwike Grammar School

The collaboration between Warwick Economics Society (with nearly 3000 student members from over a hundred different disciplines) and the Department of Economics at Warwick has been going strong for many years, as we combine our aims to widen access and increase diversity within the subject of economics. Tolu Odejide and Joel Cooper from Warwick Economics Society and final year students on the BSc in Economics degree, commented about the competition:

Tolu: "We were really impressed with the efforts participants had put in. I think it's really important for students to get excited about what economics can offer them."

Joel: "It's the little things like this that can make a massive difference to these young people. To engage seriously with the discipline, give themselves the opportunity to be creative with their ideas, can provide the foundations for future studies. Providing opportunities like this continues to be essential to raising the profile of economics in all schools and among all under-represented groups within this field."

Warwick Future Economist Competition was set up in order to raise the awareness of economics as a subject that is concerned with understanding the major global problems of our time, such as inequality, globalisation, healthcare, climate change and many more. The topics of the essay competition had been selected from the three key areas of economics: macroeconomics, behavioural economics, and environmental economics, and challenged the young students to write how economics can help understand better the cost-of-living crisis, voter participation in a general election and the climate crisis.

Chris Mason, Acting Head of Economics & Business and EQP Coordinator at Arden Academy in Knowle, Solihull, said:

"We are delighted that two Arden Academy students have been recognised for their hard work and achievement in placing first and second in the Warwick Future Economist competition. It's clear that, given the choice of questions, the competition enables young, budding economists the opportunity to stretch themselves beyond that of their A level specification.

"As part of my role as a class teacher of economics, I seek to enlighten students, so that they can see how economics applies to their everyday life, and what is happening in the world around them. I am passionate about making the economics curriculum accessible to all - if we can lift the understanding of economics across all demographics, the society in turn will benefit."

Dr Lory Barile, Associate Professor and Widening Participation Lead in the Department said:

"It was exciting to work with Warwick Economics Society on this competition and see high participation and good quality of work from young students. We hope that some of them will be pursuing further academic study to become economists and we wish them all the best in pursuing their dreams. We will continue to work with student societies on similar initiatives to increase the awareness of what economics is and what economists do."

Congratulations to the winners from all of us in the Department of Economics and the Warwick Economics Society.