The 2026 LSESU Economics Essay Competition Is Open: How to Enter

The 2026 cycle of the LSESU Economics Society Essay Competition is open and free to enter — with no registration of any kind. Five prompts, set by serving LSE Economics Department professors, are published openly, so you can read them and start today. The submission deadline is 1 September 2026.

After nine consecutive seasons, the Essay Competition continues to follow the format that has defined it since 2017 — one essay per candidate, up to 1500 words in English, judged blind against a published rubric. The 2026 cycle keeps every structural element of the competition unchanged: free entry, no nationality restriction, no school nomination process, and no participation certificate.

What is new for 2026

Two refinements come into the 2026 cycle. First, the integrity-screening pipeline now runs an AI-generation check on every submission in addition to the existing plagiarism check; both run automatically on receipt and any borderline result is reviewed manually before a disqualification is confirmed. Second, the Cambridge eligibility associated with the High Distinction tier is now formalised in writing in the awardee email rather than left implicit on the certificate.

Neither change affects how a candidate prepares or writes. The rubric — 25 points for argument and originality, 20 for economic theory, 15 each for evidence and critical analysis, 10 each for structure and citation, 5 for relevance to the prompt — is stable across seasons.

Five prompts, five professors

Each year the LSE Economics Department sets five prompts across the disciplinary range — labour economics, monetary policy, macro and inequality, public finance, and an applied topic of the year. The 2026 prompts cover work and monitoring devices, a Bank of England energy-policy brief, AI and labour inequality, taxing the top 1%, and the distributional effects of climate-friendly technology. Question 1 is set by Sir Christopher Pissarides, the 2010 Nobel laureate in Economics and LSE Regius Professor.

The same disciplinary rigour the Society applies internally is what we make available to high-school students through the Essay Competition.— LSESU Economics Society

When to start

As early as possible. The five questions are public, so you can start reading and drafting straight away; when your essay is ready, message us on WhatsApp for the submission link. Students who start by mid-June give themselves a comfortable ten-week writing window; students who start in late August are working against the clock. The deadline is 1 September 2026 at 23:59 GMT+1 — no extensions, no exceptions.

Schools intending to send a cohort of five or more students can arrange cohort submission via WhatsApp — there is no registration and no spreadsheet to file. Entering is free for the students and the school; results-day reports are issued to the coordinator in aggregate, with individual scores remaining confidential to each student.

What is being set this year

The 2026 cycle releases five prompts in late May, each set by a different LSE Economics Department professor. Question 1 this year is set by Sir Christopher Pissarides, the 2010 Nobel laureate for search-and-matching market analysis, and it asks how firms should balance remote-work preferences against monitoring costs. Questions 2 through 5 in any given cycle typically cover macroeconomics, development economics, microeconomic theory, and political economy or behavioural economics; the editorial desk publishes a deep-dive for each prompt within seven days of release. Candidates choose exactly one of the five prompts, write up to 1500 words, and submit by 1 September.

Eligibility, in plain language

The competition is open to students in grades 9 through 12 of any school system worldwide — IB, A-Level, AP, the Chinese gaokao or international curricula, and any equivalent national programme. There is no nationality restriction, no school nomination process, no prior economics requirement, and no entry fee. One submission per candidate is the only structural constraint. The combination of being free, open, and judged by working LSE Economics Department professors is unusual in the global pre-university competition landscape, and explains why entries arrive from more than sixty countries each year.

How China-based candidates apply via ASEEDER

Candidates from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and the wider Asia-Pacific region can enter through the Society’s official page or through ASEEDER, the official regional partner for China and Asia since the competition began in 2017. The two routes lead to the same judging pool — the same LSE Economics Department professors read every essay, regardless of submission channel, and the rubric is identical. ASEEDER routing adds two services that matter for international school candidates: structural feedback on a draft up to 14 days before deadline, and Mandarin-language guidance through the submission process. Hanlin Education operates the ASEEDER editorial desk for English-language content; both routes preserve the candidate eligibility for distinction tiers.

Timeline at a glance

The 2026 cycle runs on a familiar rhythm. Late May to early June, the five prompts are released and the editorial deep-dives appear on this site. June and July are the substantive writing window — most successful candidates start drafting in early June and revise through July. August is the structural-review window for ASEEDER-routed candidates who request feedback. The 1 September deadline is strict and is enforced for all entries; late submissions are rejected automatically rather than reviewed for late acceptance. Distinction tier results are published in October or November, and certificates dispatched in late autumn.

Frequently asked questions

Filed under2026 Season · ASEEDER · China Pathway · Foundation · Submission Deadline

This site is the LSESU Economics Society Essay Competition editorial desk operated jointly by Hanlin Education and ASEEDER — the official partner for China and Asia since 2017. Our editors verify every claim against lsesuesec.org and lse.ac.uk source material. Corrections are made within 7 working days of confirmation. We are not the LSE Department of Economics, LSE Students’ Union, or the LSESU Economics Society itself; we operate as their China and Asia outreach partner.