Everything you need to write the essay
Free preparation resources for the 2026 LSESU Economics Society Essay Competition — a 5-question strategy guide, a curated reading list of academic sources, a Harvard referencing primer, and a 10-week writing timeline. All free, all openly available — there is no registration for the competition, and nothing to unlock to read the guidance below.
Four documents, one bundle
All four documents below are free and openly available — there is nothing to register for and no account to create. Message the Society on WhatsApp and we will send the full pack as a single PDF bundle within one working day; the summaries on this page give the public-facing version, with a more detailed copy available on request.
Question strategy guide
For each of the five 2026 prompts: how the prompt-setter is likely to read it, the most common framing trap, the strongest counter-argument candidates should pre-empt, and three classes of evidence that work well on the rubric.
Recommended-reading list
An annotated list of academic papers, policy reports, and recent book chapters that bear directly on each 2026 prompt. Curated by the editorial committee; weighted toward open-access and library-accessible sources.
Harvard referencing primer
A short, applied tutorial on Harvard style — in-text citation, reference list ordering, how to cite journals vs working papers vs central-bank speeches. Includes a one-page reference template you can copy into your draft.
10-week writing timeline
A week-by-week plan from “first read of the prompt” through “submit by 1 September”. Includes recommended milestones for first draft, peer-read, redraft, and the final 48-hour formatting check against the published specification.
Five strategy notes, one per question
Pick the question whose framing you can defend with the most original evidence, not the question that looks most prestigious. A tight argument on a less-glamorous prompt beats a vague survey of a Nobel-laureate one — the rubric rewards specificity over coverage.
Remote work & monitoring
Treat this as a principal-agent problem with a productivity-signal trade-off. The strongest essays cite empirical evidence on monitoring’s effects on intrinsic motivation, not just survey data on worker preferences. Bloom’s work on remote productivity (2015 onward) and recent Microsoft Workplace Insights studies are common citation anchors.
Bank of England energy brief
Write to the format — a policy brief is concise, technically literate, and ends with a decision recommendation. Distinguish first-round (supply-shock) and second-round (wage-price spiral) inflation effects. Strong essays cite recent Monetary Policy Committee minutes and Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin papers, not just textbook AS-AD.
AI & labour inequality
Distinguish task-level automation from job-level displacement (Autor’s framework). Discuss policy levers explicitly — reskilling, UBI, working-time reduction, sectoral redistribution — and weigh them on incentive and feasibility grounds. Citing recent IMF or OECD reports on AI labour-market effects is more current than 2010s automation literature.
Taxing the top 1%
Separate the “possible” question (elasticity of high-income earnings, Laffer-curve calibration, capital mobility) from the “desirable” question (distributive justice, productive incentives, political economy). Citing Saez-Piketty-Zucman or Diamond-Saez frameworks signals literature awareness; mentioning the UK non-dom debate gives recency.
Green tech & wealth
Distinguish within-country distributional effects (skill premium for green workers, energy-cost regressivity) from between-country effects (lithium supply chains, carbon border adjustment). Strong essays go beyond “climate is bad” framing to discuss who benefits and loses from each specific green-tech transition pathway.
Five source categories that score well
The rubric awards 10 points for “Citation & sources” — high-quality sources cited consistently in Harvard style. Below are the categories the editorial committee considers high-quality, ordered by the depth they signal.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives. JEP is particularly useful — its survey articles are written for non-specialist economists and are well within reach of a strong A-level student.
Working papers · NBER, CEPR, LSE
Pre-publication working papers from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and the LSE Department of Economics. Often free to download and more current than published journal articles.
Policy reports · IMF, OECD, BIS
IMF World Economic Outlook, OECD Economic Outlook, Bank for International Settlements quarterly reviews. These give global comparative data and policy commentary; useful for Questions 2, 3, and 5 in particular.
Central-bank publications
Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Federal Reserve FEDS Notes, ECB Working Papers. Essential for Question 2; useful colour for any inflation- or interest-rate-related argument in the other prompts.
Long-form commentary · VoxEU, Project Syndicate, The Economist
VoxEU.org publishes short policy-relevant columns by working economists — excellent for finding a contemporary angle on any of the five 2026 prompts. The Economist is acceptable as commentary but not as a primary academic source. Project Syndicate gives you Nobel-laureate commentary at near-textbook accessibility.
In-text and reference list templates
In-text citation · author-date
Cite the author surname and year in parentheses where the claim appears: (Smith, 2024). For a direct quotation, add a page number: (Smith, 2024, p. 47). For two authors, use both surnames: (Smith and Patel, 2024). For three or more, use the first author plus “et al.”: (Smith et al., 2024).
Reference list · alphabetical by author surname
Journal article: Smith, J. (2024) ‘Title of article in sentence case’, Journal Name in Italic Title Case, 42(3), pp. 100–125.
Working paper: Smith, J. (2024) Title of working paper. NBER Working Paper 12345. Available at: https://nber.org/papers/w12345 (Accessed: 15 July 2026).
Book: Smith, J. (2024) Title of Book in Italic Title Case. 2nd edn. London: Publisher Name.
Central-bank publication: Bank of England (2024) Title of Bulletin Article. Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin Q3. Available at: bankofengland.co.uk (Accessed: 15 July 2026).
Style consistency matters more than which system. The published guidance recommends Harvard, but APA or Chicago are accepted if the candidate uses them consistently throughout. What loses marks is mixing systems — a few APA in-text citations in an otherwise Harvard essay reads as carelessness on a 10-point rubric criterion.
From first read to submitted essay
Four prep questions
For paper format and the rubric see rules; for the master FAQ see faq.
I haven’t read any academic economics paper before. Where do I start?
How many sources should a 1500-word essay cite?
Can I use ChatGPT or Claude to help me write?
Should I take a paid coaching programme as well?
Scan to receive the free preparation pack
Scan our WhatsApp QR and ask for the free preparation pack. Within one working day you receive the four documents above as a single PDF bundle. There is no registration — when your essay is ready, message us again on WhatsApp and we will send you the submission link. The competition is free and open to everyone.
