The WTO has issued a call for young economists to submit papers for the 2018 WTO Essay Award. The award aims to promote high-quality research on trade policy and international trade co-operation and to reinforce the relationship between the WTO and the academic community. Essays must be submitted by 1 June 2018.
At the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), we would like to encourage economists from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to submit their work for the contest.
Prize
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, the largest conference specializing in international trade, which will take place in September 2018 in Warsaw, Poland. The winning author(s) will receive funding to attend the meeting.
Selection
An Academic Selection Panel will select the winning paper. The panel comprises:
- Professor Avinash Dixit (Princeton University)
- Professor Robert Staiger (Dartmouth College)
- Professor Alberto Trejos (INCAE Business School).
Dr Robert Koopman (Director of the WTO's Economic Research and Statistics Division) is ex officio member of the panel. Dr Roberta Piermartini (Chief of the WTO's Trade Cost Analysis Section) coordinates the work of the selection panel.
Eligibility
The paper must address issues related to trade policy and international trade co-operation. The author(s) of the paper must possess or be engaged in the completion of a PhD and, if over 30 years of age, be no more than two years past a PhD defence. In the case of co-authored papers, this requirement shall apply to all authors. To be considered for the award, essays cannot exceed 15,000 words.
Past winners
- 2017 Meredith Startz (Princeton University)
- 2016 Matthieu Bellon (Columbia University)
- 2015 Christoph Boehm (University of Michigan), Aaron Flaaen (Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C.) and Nitya Pandalai-Nayar (University of Michigan)
- 2014 Jonathan Dingel (Columbia University) and Claudia Steinwender (LSE)
- 2013 Felix Tintelnot (Princeton University)
- 2012 Treb Allen (Yale University)
- 2011 Rafael Dix-Carneiro (University of Maryland) and Kyle Handley (Stanford University)
- 2010 Dave Donaldson (MIT) and Olena Ivus (Queen's University)
- 2009 Ralph Ossa (University of Chicago). The runner-up was Mostafa Beshkar (University of New Hampshire).
Deadlines
Essays must be submitted by 1 June 2018. The WTO's Economic Research and Statistics Division will shortlist eligible papers by 18 June and the selection panel will take a final decision by 20 July. Only the author(s) of short-listed essays will be notified.
Publication
The winning essay will be published in the WTO Working Paper Series and it is the responsibility of the author(s) to endeavour to secure publication of the contribution in a journal.
Submissions
All submissions should be sent to essay.award@wto.org. Submissions should include as separate attachments in PDF format:
1. the essay
2. 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).
If you would like to reuse any material published here, please let us know by sending an email to EIF Communications: eifcommunications@wto.org.
