Oide Young Economist of the Year: Turn a Question Into an Economics Project

Editorial overview

Oide Young Economist of the Year is unusual because it does not force every student into the same essay or exam. The Irish initiative began in 2013 and has developed around inquiry: students choose an economic question, investigate it and decide how best to communicate the result. Separate year-group routes allow younger and older secondary students to work at an appropriate scale, while the submission guidance accommodates individual and group projects and formats that can include linked video or interactive work.

The official winners show why question design matters. The 2025 senior winner examined how Ireland's reliance on multinational firms can deepen economic imbalances; the junior winner asked which economy, Earth or space, would launch the future. Both titles create a problem to investigate rather than a subject to summarise. CompeteMap's view is that YEOTY is strongest when a student starts with genuine curiosity, then uses economic concepts, trustworthy evidence and a visible chain of reasoning. A beautiful project with no clear question will struggle to show the same depth.

Quick Facts

For current dates, eligibility and registration details, see the Oide Young Economist of the Year competition page.

This guide was checked on 14 October 2026.

Begin with a question that can change

An inquiry question should not contain its answer. “Why inflation is bad” leads toward confirmation; “How did recent inflation affect two types of household differently?” leaves room for evidence to alter the conclusion.

Good questions usually contain a mechanism, comparison or trade-off. They might examine why a policy changed behaviour, how an outcome differs between places, or whether one measure captures what people mean by economic success.

Test the question before committing:

• Can it be answered with evidence a school student can access?
• Is it narrow enough to investigate within the project?
• Does it require economics rather than only description?
• Could reasonable evidence support more than one conclusion?

If the answer to the final question is no, the project may be advocacy rather than inquiry.

Match method to the claim

YEOTY resources emphasise trusted sources, clear charts and an inquiry-based approach. The method should follow the question. A project about national trends may need official statistics. A project about student choices might use a carefully designed survey. A policy question may compare two periods or places.

Students should not use a survey merely because it feels practical. A small convenience sample can describe those respondents, but it cannot automatically represent Ireland. Explain who answered, how the questions were phrased and what the results cannot prove.

Likewise, a graph should carry an analytical message. Give it a title that states what is being measured, label units and sources, and explain why the change matters. Decorative charts add volume without adding evidence.

Use economics to connect the findings

The project should make visible use of ideas such as incentives, opportunity cost, market structure, externalities, distribution or expectations where they genuinely help. Younger students can use fewer concepts with clear examples; older students should expect closer scrutiny of assumptions and causation.

A useful structure is:

1. State the research question and why it matters.
2. Explain the economic concepts needed to investigate it.
3. Describe the evidence and method.
4. Present findings without hiding inconvenient results.
5. Consider another explanation or limitation.
6. Reach a conclusion proportionate to the evidence.

The conclusion should answer the exact question. It should not become a general statement that more research is needed unless the student explains what further evidence would resolve.

Learn from the winners

Mir Hasibullah Zia's 2025 senior-winning project, The Dependency Trap, focuses on a specifically Irish economic tension: multinational investment can support employment and revenue while also creating exposure and imbalance. The title promises a mechanism, not a tour of foreign direct investment.

Iris Xinhe Li's junior-winning project, Earth or Space: Which Economy Will Launch Us Into the Future?, shows that younger entrants can begin with an imaginative comparison. The lesson is not to choose space. It is to make the project question visible and memorable while still doing analytical work.

Read official winning projects for how they define terms, handle evidence and guide the reader. Do not imitate their topics. A project becomes convincing when the student's own question controls every section.

Submission details that affect the work

The official entry page provides separate forms by year group and currently includes routes for Northern Ireland and international projects. It permits a student or teacher to upload the entry. Group entries must identify all participating students and include the required consents.

The project itself should follow the anonymity guidance: the official instructions require student and project information on the title page but say the school and mentoring teacher should not appear inside the project. Multimedia links may be submitted through a document, and linked video must be accessible to the judges.

These details can change between cycles, so students should use the live entry page and information sheet rather than relying on an old checklist.

The role of the teacher

Teachers can help most by improving the question and method, not by rewriting the conclusion. A short project conference can ask the student to explain what evidence would disprove the current view. That question reveals whether inquiry is still happening.

The official site provides teacher professional-development resources, a marking rubric and presentations on data, trusted sources and judges' perspectives. Schools new to YEOTY should use those materials before inventing their own expectations.

Who should prioritise YEOTY

YEOTY suits students who enjoy economics but may not thrive in rapid-fire tests. It also gives creative communicators room to use charts, design or multimedia when those choices clarify the analysis.

It requires sustained ownership. A group should not divide the project into unrelated sections and combine them at the end. Every contributor needs to understand the research question, method and conclusion.

Related competitions on CompeteMap

• Economics Olympiad for students who prefer an exam-based progression route.
• Discover Economics Young Economist of the Year for a focused economics writing competition.
• FCDO Next Generation Economics Competition for policy-minded students.
• National High School Fed Challenge for team research presented as a podcast script.

Key Takeaways

• Choose a question that evidence could genuinely change.
• Match the research method to the claim and state its limits.
• Make economic reasoning visible instead of producing a general topic report.
• Use official winning projects to study structure, not to copy subjects.
• Recheck the live entry forms, consent rules and format guidance each cycle.

Sources checked

• https://www.youngeconomist.ie/
• https://www.youngeconomist.ie/about-young-economist-of-the-year
• https://www.youngeconomist.ie/resources
• https://www.youngeconomist.ie/2026entries
• https://www.youngeconomist.ie/2025-winners