Essay Contest
Showcase your ideas on public policy and the role of markets by entering our essay competition. Each year the Institute holds a competition for students, designed to encourage and develop student writers.
- $1,750 in cash prizes awarded each year.
- Special category for high school students only.
- Winning essays may be published in Fraser Institute journals.
STUDENT ESSAY CONTEST 2012
Prizes
1st Prize: $1,000
2nd Prize: $750
High school category: $500
Topic: “Are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer?”
With the occupy protests dominating the headlines in 2011, attention focused on economic inequality and the redistribution of income. Is government intervention necessary to improve people’s lot in life or, through hard work and determination, can individuals move up the income ladder on the basis of their own efforts? Is there a permanent divide between income groups – that is, are people born into certain income groups in which they live their entire lives? What’s more important, equality of opportunity or equality of outcome? What’s a fair distribution of income? Can government enforced redistribution schemes impact people’s incentive to improve their economic position independently?
Your essay should use historical perspective, empirical evidence, and economic analysis to examine these or other questions regarding economic inequality.”
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: June 30, 2012
Sponsored by the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation
Online essay contest entry form
Application Rules:
- The contest is open to Canadian and foreign students. A student is defined as someone who attends school in the 2011/2012 school year or is enrolled to attend in 2012/2013.
- Submissions will be considered from secondary and post-secondary (undergraduate and graduate) students in all disciplines. High school students will be considered in a separate category, with a cash prize of $500. Outstanding high school submissions will not be excluded from winning the $750 and $1,000 post-secondary prizes.
- Entry must include a typed essay of 1,000-1,500 words, and a cover sheet including the student’s name, mailing address, phone number, e-mail address, and date of birth. High school students include school and grade. Post-secondary students, include school, major, and year of graduation.
- Entries will be accepted in English and French.
- Entries must include references cited from academic sources. Any academically acceptable referencing style may be used.
- Please note that if you are planning to include a graph in your essay, you must send it to us in an Excel file with the underlying data in order that we can recreate it in house. If you want to include a previously published graph for which you do not have the underlying data, you must cite its source appropriately to prove that you have permission to reuse it.
- Entries must be submitted online or by mail.
- Entries may only be submitted once. Further submissions will not be accepted.
- Failure to follow these rules may lead to disqualification from the contest.
- Entries will be judged on originality, clear expression of ideas, and understanding of competitive markets.
- All entries become of the property of the Fraser Institute. In addition to receiving cash prizes, winners may have their essays published in Fraser Institute periodicals.
For more information call: 1-800-665-3558, ext. 533
2011 Student Essay Contest Winners
Congratulations to the winners of the 2011 Student Essay Contest
1st Prize ($1,000)
A Failure to Capitalist Incentives
By Michael Dial, Maryland Heights, Missouri
Truman State University, B.A. Economics, 2012
2nd Prize winner ($750)
Is Capitalism Dead?
By Jennifer Lalonde, Cookeville, Nova Scotia
Mount Saint Vincent University, BSc Applied Human Nutrition, 2015
High School Category ($500)
Is Capitalism Dead?
By Lori Ossip, Toronto, Ontario
TannenbaumCHAT, 2011
Each of the winning essays will appear online in an upcoming issue of our student magazine Canadian Student Review. To subscribe to CSR or to read articles online go to: www.canadianstudentreview.org.
2010 Student Essay Contest Winners
Congratulations to the winners of the 2010 Student Essay Contest
1st Prize ($1,000)
Fiscal Policy: Not an Option
By Michael Dial, Maryland Heights, Missouri
Truman State University, B.A. Economics, 2012
2nd Prize winner ($500)
Let the Market Correct Itself: The Unintended Consequences of Monetary Policy
By Joshua Schultz, Ottawa, Ontario
Carleton University, Ph.D. History, 2013
High School Category ($250)
Crises and Responses: How Should Free Societies Respond to Economic Calamities?
By Ryan G. Hauser, Bluffton, Ohio
Home Schooled, 2010
The winning essays can be viewed online this October.
Student Essay Contest 2009
Economic Freedom and Global Prosperity
Congratulations to the winners of the 2009 Student Essay Contest
1st Prize ($1,000)
What's Good for Business is Good for the Poor: The Case of India's Labour Laws
By Nikhil Joseph, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Development Studies, 2011
2nd Prize winner ($500)
Property Rights and Credit as Keys to Growth
By Michal Grzadkowski, Guelph, Ontario
University of Waterloo, Honours Mathematics, 2013
High School Category ($250)
Economic Freedom and Poverty
By Mohamed Ilham B Mohamed Salleh,Singapore
Raffles Institution (Junior college), 2009
The winning essays were published in the fall 2009 issue of Canadian Student Review.