NEW YORK—The Federal Reserve Bank of New York today announced the results of this year’s High School Fed Challenge, an academic paper competition in which student teams researched and analyzed an economic theme, then wrote podcast scripts reflecting their research. The selected podcast scripts will be published in this year’s Journal of Future Economists, to be released this summer.
The theme of this year’s competition was the Economics of Work. School teams submitted 80 papers; of those, New York Fed reviewers selected 12 to publish. The schools and podcast scripts that will be included in the journal are as follows, listed in alphabetical order by school name:
- Bergen County Technical High School, Teterboro, NJ; The Elderly Economy: America’s Aging Workforce
- Bridgewater-Raritan High School, Bridgewater, NJ; The AI Takeover: A Hoax or Reality?
- Cold Spring Harbor Jr./Sr. High School, Cold Spring Harbor, NY; Tipping Culture: A Comparative Analysis
- Floral Park Memorial High School, Floral Park, NY; The BTS Effect: Growing South Korea's Economy and the Workforce Both Indirectly and Directly
- Glen Rock High School, Glen Rock, NJ; Sheconomics: Beyond Plastic─Barbie and Women Shaping the Workforce
- Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT; Gig-a-Bite: Food Delivery and the Rise of the Gig Economy
- High School for Math, Science, and Engineering at CCNY, New York, NY; America's Trucking Industry: The Hard Road Ahead
- John P. Stevens High School, Edison, NJ; Ear to the Ground: Unearthing the Decline of Labor in Corn Farming
- New Canaan High School, New Canaan, CT; Why Money Matters: Immigration and the American Workforce
- Passaic County Technical Institute, Wayne, NJ; Nurses on Strike: Who Will Take Care of Them?
- Ridge High School, Basking Ridge, NJ; Four-Day Forecast
- The Brearley School, New York, NY; Deflating the Productivity-Compensation Puzzle
The High School Fed Challenge aims to encourage students in ninth to twelfth grade to learn more about economics, promoting economics as a subject of study and a career possibility. Students are not required to have studied economics to participate.
“All the papers we reviewed displayed the curiosity, creativity, data analysis skills, and attention to detail that are the hallmarks of a gifted economist,” said Heather Daly, director of economic education at the New York Fed. “Students tackled everything from the aging workforce in the trucking industry to the possibility of standardizing a four-day workweek.”
In addition to hosting the High School Fed Challenge, the New York Fed’s economic education team offers a host of free resources for educators. The team has drafted worksheets and lesson plans on globalization, the flow of money, redlining, and changes in the cost of living over a century; a series of comic books on the economy, available in English and Spanish; and a series of interactive worksheets spotlighting pathbreaking economists. The New York Fed also conducts classroom visits and professional development training for teachers and hosts the College Fed Challenge in the fall. The New York Fed’s Museum and Learning Center is also open, by reservation, for guided school group visits.
“The critical thinking skills we aim to foster by exposing students to economics are also essential in every other discipline, as well as everyday life,” Daly said. “Our goal is for our work to have a multiplier effect, helping students throughout their studies and careers.”
