Write a 1500-word essay. Set by LSE.
The LSESU Economics Society Essay Competition is a free, global writing competition for high-school students worldwide, running annually since 2017 and drawing submissions from more than sixty countries. Every prompt is set by a current LSE Economics Department professor — including Sir Christopher Pissarides, 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics. Submit one essay of up to 1500 words by 1 September 2026, choosing exactly one of the five 2026 questions.
A nine-year track record
The Essay Competition has run annually since 2017 and now draws submissions from students in more than sixty countries. Each year the LSE Economics Department sets five questions across macroeconomics, microeconomics, and the political economy of the day.
Five prompts, five LSE professors
Pick the question you can defend with the most original evidence — not the one that sounds most prestigious. A tight argument on Q4 typically beats a vague survey of Q1.
Each candidate chooses exactly one question to answer. The 2026 questions cover work, monetary policy, AI, taxation, and the green transition. Below is the full set of prompts, published in the open — there is nothing to unlock, so you can start reading and drafting today.
The five questions are deliberately varied — labour economics, central-banking policy, macro and inequality, public-economics taxation, and environmental economics — so every candidate can find one within reach of their reading, and stretch themselves on the rest. The rubric explicitly rewards specificity of evidence and depth of critical analysis over breadth of coverage.
Work, monitoring, and the home office
Workers like to work from home but they hate monitoring devices. How should firms balance the incentive case for remote work with the supervision case for the office?
A monetary policy brief for the Bank of England
Write a policy brief to the Bank of England setting out the monetary policy response to a sustained rise in energy prices.
AI, labour displacement, and inequality
If artificial intelligence cuts the demand for many jobs, what measures might limit the resulting inequalities in pay and hours of work?
Taxing the top 1%
Is it possible and desirable to raise taxation on the top 1% of earners? Argue from the evidence — incentive effects, distributional effects, and political-economy effects.
Green technology, inequality, and the distribution of wealth
How will the development of climate-friendly technologies reshape inequality and the distribution of wealth — within countries, and between countries?
Four steps from prompt to certificate
Most candidates spend six to ten weeks writing — reading background literature, drafting, then redrafting against the rubric. The hard deadline is 1 September 2026; there is no extension policy.
Pick a prompt
Choose exactly one of the five 2026 questions. Read the rubric on the rules page; all five prompts are published in full on this site, so there is nothing to unlock and you can start today.
Draft your essay
Up to 1500 words excluding references. Times New Roman 12pt, 1.5 spacing, page numbers. Use Harvard referencing for citations. No AI-generated content.
Submit by 1 September
Message the Society on WhatsApp for the submission link, then send your essay through it — free, no portal or account. Filename in English: NAME+QUESTION X. Submissions automatically AI-checked and plagiarism-screened on receipt.
Results in October
Winners are announced in October. High Distinction (top 5%) certificates carry the LSESU EconSoc President’s signature; Top 3 per question add the prompt-setter’s signature.
The only academic society exclusively supported by LSE Economics
The LSESU Economics Society is the largest and most influential academic society at the London School of Economics. With over 800 active members, it operates with the exclusive support of the LSE Department of Economics. Its flagship publication, Rationale, is a peer-reviewed academic journal; its Sen Club seminar series has hosted Nobel laureates Amartya Sen, Eric Maskin, and Oliver Hart.
The Society has run the Essay Competition annually since 2017, building it into one of the most respected pre-university economics writing competitions in the UK and increasingly worldwide. Every prompt is set by a current LSE Economics Department professor; every certificate above Question Winner is signed by the prompt-setting professor in person.
For a high-school student, writing 1500 words against a question set by a Nobel laureate or a Regius Professor is the closest pre-university exercise to undergraduate economics teaching. The constraint is unusual: there is no exam pressure, no formula sheet, no marking grid that rewards memorisation — only the rubric, the rigour of the argument, and the discipline of citing sources properly. A High Distinction certificate is, in effect, an external statement that the candidate can think and write at first-year LSE undergraduate standard.
Read the full society profile →Four tiers, every certificate hand-signed
An admissions officer reading a Top 3 or Question Winner certificate knows it was judged against a six-criterion rubric calibrated by serving LSE faculty and signed by the prompt-setting professor in person — not by a generic competition administrator.
Unlike most competitions, the Essay Competition does not issue participation certificates. The four tiers below are reserved for genuine distinction — and every certificate above High Distinction carries the signature of the LSE professor who set the prompt.
The deliberate scarcity is what makes the certificate worth submitting on a university application. It is awarded against a pool of thousands of submissions from sixty-plus countries, judged against a six-criterion rubric calibrated by serving LSE faculty.
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The five most common questions
Short answers below. The full catalogue is on the FAQ page.
Who can submit an essay?
How long should the essay be, and what format is required?
PETER SMITH+QUESTION 1.Is AI-generated content allowed?
When is the deadline, and can I get an extension?
Do I get a participation certificate even if I don’t win?
Free to enter. No excuses.
Scan our WhatsApp QR for the official submission link, the full rubric, and answers from the support team. We respond within one working day, in Mandarin or English. Most candidates write between mid-June and late August — message us early so you can ask any prompt-clarification questions before drafting.
