WTO Essay Award for Young Economists

Overview

The WTO launched on 15 February the “2011 Essay Award for Young Economists”. The Award aims to promote high-quality research on the WTO and WTO-related issues among young economists and to reinforce the relationship between the WTO and the academic community.

Prize

The annual WTO Essay Award consists of 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), which is currently the largest conference specializing in international trade. The award ceremony will take place in September 2011 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The winning author(s) will receive funding to attend the meeting.

Selection

An Academic Selection Panel is responsible for the selection of the winning paper. The Panel comprises:

Professor Avinash Dixit (Princeton University)
Professor Robert Staiger (Stanford University)
Professor Alberto Trejos (INCAE Business School).

Ex officio panel members will include Dr Patrick Low (Director, Economic Research and Statistics Division, WTO Secretariat) and Dr Hakim Ben Hammouda (Director, Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation, WTO Secretariat).

Dr Michele Ruta (Economist, Economic Research and Statistics Division, WTO) coordinates the work of the Selection Panel.

Eligibility

The paper must address issues related to the economics of the WTO. Possible topics include the effects and design of trade agreements, contingent protection, trade facilitation, Aid for Trade, the economic aspects of dispute settlement, regional versus multilateral integration, trade agreements and the environment. 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 defence. 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.

Past winners

The 2010 WTO Prize was awarded to Dave Donaldson (MIT) and Olena Ivus (Queen's University).
The 2009 WTO Prize was awarded to Ralph Ossa (University of Chicago). The runner-up was Mostafa Beshkar (University of New Hampshire).

Important deadlines

Essays must be submitted by 3 June 2011. The Economic Research and Statistics Division of the WTO Secretariat will shortlist eligible papers by 17 June 2011 and the Selection Panel will take a final decision by 15 July 2011. 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).

World Trade Organization
Centre William Rappard,
Rue de Lausanne 154,
CH-1211 Geneva 21,
Switzerland.

http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news11_e/rese_15feb11_e.htm

Please quote Scholarization.blogspot.com on your application when applying for this award