Call for young economists to submit papers for the 2024 WTO Essay Award!
The prize seeks to strengthen ties between the academic community and the WTO while fostering excellent research on trade policy and international trade cooperation. The WTO established the annual WTO Essay Award for Young Economists in 2009. The award, which carries a monetary prize, aims to promote high-quality economic research on the WTO and WTO-related issues and to reinforce the relationship between the WTO and the academic community. The winner(s) of the annual WTO Essay Award receive CHF 5,000 as compensation. If a manuscript is co-authored, the prize money will be split equally between the authors. The European Trade Study Group (ETSG) annual meeting, the biggest conference focusing on international trade, is where the winning paper will be formally announced. The award ceremony is scheduled to occur at Athens University in Greece on September 12–14, 2024. The winning author will be compensated for travel expenses to the conference.
Trade policy and international trade cooperation are topics that need to be included in the paper. The PhD degree must be held by the author(s) of the paper, or they must be working towards one, and if they are older than thirty, they must not have completed their PhD defence more than two years ago. All authors of co-authored publications must comply with this criteria. Additionally, essays must not be longer than 15,000 words in order to be eligible for the Award.
The chosen winning paper is chosen by an Academic Selection Panel. The panel consists of Beata Javorcik, a professor at Oxford University, Professors Alberto Trejos (INCAE Business School) and Robert Staiger (Dartmouth College). An ex officio member of the panel is Professor Ralph Ossa, Director of the WTO Secretariat’s Economic Research and Statistics Division. The selection panel’s work is supervised by Dr. Roberta Piermartini, Chief of the Trade Cost Analysis Section of the WTO.
The winning essay may be published in the WTO Working Paper Series. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to endeavour to secure publication of the contribution in a journal. The Economic Research and Statistics Division of the WTO Secretariat will shortlist eligible papers by 17 June 2024 and the selection panel will take a final decision by 8 July 2024. Only the author(s) of short-listed essays will be notified.
Benefits
- The annual WTO Essay Award provides a prize of CHF 5,000 to the author(s) of the winning essay. In the case of a co-authored paper, the prize will be equally divided among the authors.
- The winning paper will be officially announced at the annual meeting of the European Trade Study Group (ETSG), the largest conference specializing in international trade.
- The award ceremony will take place on 12-14 September 2024 at Athens University in Greece. The winning author will receive funding to attend the meeting.
Eligibilities
- The paper must address issues related to trade policy and international trade cooperation.
- The author(s) of the paper must possess or be engaged in the completion of a PhD degree and, if over 30 years of age, be no more than two years past a PhD defense. In the case of co-authored papers, this requirement shall apply to all authors.
- In addition, to be considered for the award, essays cannot exceed 15,000 words.
Eligible Regions: Open for All.
APPLICATION PROCESS
All submissions should be sent to essay.award@wto.org. Submissions should include as separate attachments in PDF format:
- The essay
- The CV of the author(s), specifying (i) current affiliation(s), (ii) the academic institution awarding the PhD, (iii) the year (or the expected year) of the PhD, (iv) the date of birth of the author(s).
Application Deadline: 3 June, 2024
