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Three sixth-formers won first place in an international economics competition with their exploration of why some life-saving medicines in the US can cost more than a car – and what should be done about that.

Keshav Aggarwal, Yash Mehta and Jasmaan Sahota, who entered Year 13 this month, took the top spot in the Youth Economics Initiative’s (YEI) EconOlympiad.

As a result, they received YEI’s backing to enter the International Economics Olympiad – an élite competition which requires an organisational endorsement for each team taking part.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to Keshav, Yash and Jasmaan on this impressive achievement. Their entry not only represents a great deal of hard work, but is also an excellent example of the free-thinking scholarship we seek to nurture here at QE.”

Yash said: “US drug pricing is one of the clearest examples of economics directly affecting people’s lives. Behind every graph, market failure, patent, and policy debate are patients who may be forced to choose between financial stability and essential medication. That made this challenge especially meaningful for me.”

The QE team, Veblen Goods*, and 52 other teams entering from around the world spent ten weeks researching a complex real-world economic issue and delivering a ten-minute policy presentation. Entrants were challenged to act as policy advisers to the US Department of Health and Human Services, developing innovative solutions to address the growing crisis of soaring prescription drug prices.

The QE boys’ ten-minute presentation video proposed a balanced policy package. They examined structural challenges within the American pharmaceutical market, including patent monopolies, information asymmetry and the influence of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). The team argued that while drug price caps may improve affordability in the short term, they risk significant adverse long-term consequences, including medicine shortages and substantial reductions in investment in early-stage medical research and development.

Instead, they proposed a sophisticated three-stage policy framework designed to reduce costs while preserving incentives for pharmaceutical innovation:

• Short term: expand Medicare price negotiations using existing legislation;
• Medium term: increase competition through reforms that encourage the production and uptake of generic medicines;
• Long term: introduce government patent buyouts with immediate generic licensing, based on the economic framework developed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Kremer. This approach, they said, would eliminate monopoly power while fairly compensating pharmaceutical companies, ensuring continued investment in the development of new medicines.

You can see the team’s winning pitch here. 

 * Named after American economist Thorstein Veblen, Veblen goods are types of luxury items for which demand increases as the price rises, which contradicts the typical relationship between price and demand.

Four sixth-formers reached the national final of a prestigious competition with their detailed plan for building on the UK’s strengths and resolving its economic woes.

The Year 12 Economics students were among only eight teams from a 173-strong field to make it to the final of the Institute of Economic Affairs and Vinson Centre Budget Challenge.

They had first swept through the initial round to win a place in the semi-final, where they emerged successfully from a face-to-face grilling on their proposals.

Head of Economics Krishna Shah said: “These four students not only demonstrated a strong grasp of current economic conditions, but also set out a credible strategy and some detailed proposals for dealing with the UK’s economic issues. Our congratulations go to all four of them on reaching the final in this well-respected competition.”

Economics is a popular A-level choice at QE. In 2025, 21 candidates secured places to read Economics at university, while ten of the 44 offers of places from Oxbridge this year were for Economics, either on its own, or as part of a wider degree, such as Oxford’s Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) course.

The IEA Budget Challenge aims to help young people: learn more about Economics; sharpen their writing, research and analytical skills; and better understand policy issues facing national decision-makers. There is a top prize of £1,000.

For the first round of the challenge, Peter Atanasov, Shreyas lyengar, Aditya Karmarkar and Ahsan Rahman had to submit a 5,000-word entry giving:

• Their analysis of UK macroeconomic conditions and prospects for the next two years
• An outline of what they considered to be the main economic goals and their broad strategy for pursuing them
• A proposed budget, setting out taxes and other sources of revenue, expected levels of spending by department, and details of expected borrowing (if any).

Their entry secured them one of 12 team places in the semi-final held at the University of Buckingham. Here, they were tasked with creating a presentation on their proposed budget.

They had ten minutes to present their revenue-raising policies, which included a move to asset-based taxation. There were also Government spending measures, such as competition policies and supply-side policies which included spending on education and vocational training.

The four were then subjected to a rapid ten minutes of questions-and-answers from their distinguished panellists Dr Steve Davies, Senior Education Fellow at the IEA (an educational charity and free-market think tank) and Professor Juan Castaneda, Director of the Vinson Centre – a research and knowledge exchange base at Buckingham.

In the final at the IEA’s headquarters in Westminster, the team delivered a presentation on the evaluation of their budget, on alternative methods they could use in the future, and on some constraints they had not considered before.

Afterwards, all four pupils reflected positively on their experience. Ahsan said: “Taking part in competitions like this gives you greater insight into how UK budgets work.” Peter benefitted from “…thinking about and understanding the changing economic landscape towards sustainability”.

Aditya enjoyed developing his teamwork and collaboration skills. And, after facing two rounds of Q&As, Shreyas said: “It certainly helps you develop the way in which you respond to rapid-fire questions under pressure and thinking on the spot!”

Internationally respected economist Dr Sandeep Mazumder has been formally inaugurated as the ninth President of Georgia’s Berry College.

Sandeep (OE 1993–2000), who frequently gives his time online to support Economics at QE, was welcomed by representatives of the college’s Board of Trustees, by faculty, by current students, and by alumni in a special ceremony.

Roger Lusby, Vice Chair of the college’s Board of Trustees, formally invested him by presenting him with the presidential medallion.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My heartfelt congratulations go to Sandeep on his inauguration: he is a good friend to QE, and I know that all here will wish him well in his distinguished new role.”

Also paying tribute was QE Governor Eric Houston, a teacher at the School from 1976 who was Second Master when he retired in 2010. After watching the livestream of the ceremony, he wrote to Sandeep: “The abiding memory for me will always be that of your happiness as you stood and acknowledged the warm and genuine applause from the audience at the end…I am certain that you will use your considerable ability, drive and energy to move the college forward, and so bring many benefits to the students and staff working there now and in the future.”

Berry College, a private university near Rome, Georgia, is named after educationalist Martha Berry, who in 1902 founded a boys’ industrial school, before going on to form a girls’ school and college. The trustees unanimously elected Sandeep to be the college’s president.

After studying at Cambridge, Sandeep moved to the US to complete his PhD at Johns Hopkins University. He served as an Economics Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Wake Forest University and then as Dean of the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University in Texas. He took up the post at Berry College in July last year.

Before giving his inaugural address, he was introduced at the ceremony by Derek Radney, pastor of Trinity Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has been a friend of Sandeep’s for over 15 years, and Sandeep is a former member of his church.

“I could tell you many things about how great he is, but instead I want to share with you what has always impressed me about him, and that’s his humility,” Mr Radney said. “…In a day and age when apologies might mean that you’re going to be cancelled, or when many leaders believe that you should never admit wrong if you want to be successful, Dr Mazumder has always been willing to apologise, to tell the truth about himself, and to take responsibility. …Because of his confidence in the forgiveness and acceptance of God through Jesus Christ, Sandeep has been willing to humbly embrace the weakness of repentance without fear or shame, enabling him to grow into into a person capable of greater love, freedom, and power for service.”

Sandeep concluded his inaugural address with these words: “Let us walk together in a way that is worthy of our calling. And I look forward to taking that journey with you all. Thank you for joining me on this special day, and may God continue to bless the pursuits of Berry College.”

During the ceremony, representatives of various parts of the college and wider community gave their own tributes to Sandeep.

Among them was Dr Laurence Ball, Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins, representing higher education. He was the primary advisor for Sandeep’s doctoral dissertation, completed in 2009. The two have gone on to co-author several publications, and Dr Ball lauded the quality of Sandeep’s research.

John Parker, Berry College Faculty member in the Department of Religion and Philosophy and a Faculty Assembly officer, said: “We are very glad that your path from London and Cambridge to Baltimore and Waco has at last led you here to Mount Berry. We stand confident in your character and skills to lead us into the future, and we wish you every success as you help us.”

Sixth-former Hardik Ingale won a visit to Downing Street and a tour of the Treasury after reaching the final of the Young Economist of the Year competition.

Hardik’s essay was one of only five entries to reach the final in the Discover Economics contest, which was backed by the Royal Economic Society.

He impressed the judges with his carefully researched exploration of How can economics explain the high price of a supercar?

Head of Economics Krishna Shah said: “Hardik entered the competition on his own initiative during the summer holidays and was meticulous in his approach. I congratulate him on this considerable success.”

Hardik’s choice of topic reflected his interest in Formula One.

His research included:

• Academic articles from the JSTOR digital library;
• Online articles offering diverse perspectives;
• YouTube videos explaining supercar production and market dynamics;
• Investigation into car companies, their products, and economic strategies.

His central argument was that the high price of supercars could be attributed to multiple economic factors – including high manufacturing costs, the costs involved in developing technological innovation and in maintaining the exclusivity of a brand, and the dominance of a small number of firms in this market. Most of all, though, he placed a strong emphasis on psychological factors – including the motivations consumers, who buy supercars for their value as status symbols.

The final of the competition was held at accountants’ KPMG’s offices. Hardik, who is in Year 12, gave a ten-minute presentation, which was followed by a five-minute question-and-answer session with the judges, who were drawn from Government policy bodies as well as the Financial Times, who sponsored the competition, together with KPMG UK.

Hardik, who hopes to read Economics or Finance at university, described his trip to Downing Street as “amazing”. As well as being photographed outside Number 10, he visited 11 Downing Street, the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, meeting the head of the Government Economic Service, Sam Beckett. He also toured the Treasury and met officials there, enjoying some discussions about careers in public service and government. The day even included meeting Number 10’s famous feline resident, Larry the cat!

A QE team has taken third place in the Economics World Cup – a prestigious competition headed by an Oxford economist.

The team, now in Year 13, impressed the competition jury, emerging among the front-runners from a record number of entries in 2025.

The QE participants also took the opportunity to join a virtual roundtable with competition organiser Dr Craig Holmes, Economist and Senior Academic Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Dr Holmes shared what it is like to work in Economics and – as someone involved with admissions to Oxford – also gave an insider’s perspective on applying to top universities.

Afterwards, Dr Holmes told his colleagues that he had been very impressed at the calibre of questions asked by the QE boys during the roundtable.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to these six students on their top-three placing in the competition, which made them the leading UK team.”

The successful QE team comprised Nayaenesh Jayabalan, Yash Kedia, Aryan Kheterpal, Adithya Raghuraman, Samrath Sareen and Vid Shankar. Their team name was Market Failures.

Open to pupils aged 12–18, the Economics World Cup is a global competition designed to test entrants’ ability to think like an economist, rather than their knowledge of economics.

The competition is for teams. but Round 1 was an online test taken individually, with 30 multiple-choice questions. If anyone in a team scored in the top 15% of competitors, the entire team then qualified for the finals.

The second and final round was a team round. Each team was charged with devising a solution for a real development project within a week. They could submit their solution as a: video up to five minutes long; report of up to 1,000 words; presentation with a maximum of 1,000 words; or a podcast lasting no more than ten minutes.

These solutions were then reviewed by a competition jury overseen by Dr Holmes.

First and second places in this year’s competition went to schools in Bucharest, Romania, and Georgia, USA, respectively.

The shadow of the 47th president of the USA looms large over the latest edition of The Econobethan – QE’s pupil-run Economics journal.

Under the overall theme of International Relations, the 24th edition of the publication includes a special front section headed Has Trump damaged the dollar? which looks at the impact of tariffs and at the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency.

Articles in the main body of The Econobethan mostly home in on specific nations, examining, for example, the economic cost of India and Pakistan’s damaged relations, or how recent problems have harmed the reputation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Citing the maxim of US founding father Benjamin Franklin that ‘no nation was ever ruined by trade’, Economics teacher and Enrichment tutor Celia Wallace said:  “This is a rich and thought-provoking edition, offering a range of perspectives on how nations interact and the economic outcomes of those interactions.”

The 50-page edition was overseen by the Year 12 editorial team of Zain Ahmed, Shourya Garg, Adithya Raghuraman and Shuban Singh.

In their introduction, they write: “The first section of the edition focuses on one of the more recent, prevalent points of contention in international relations debates…

“The articles in this section argue for and against Trump’s international policy, specifically focusing on its effect on the dollar.”

Among the writers here is Year 11 GCSE economist Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen, whose piece is entitled: The Method Behind the Madman Theory: how President Trump’s second-term agenda has affected the US dollar. He begins by explaining that the Madman Theory, also known as the Unpredictability Doctrine, is not without precedent, having reportedly been adopted by President Nixon, too. After setting out some of Donald Trump’s decisions, and his ‘promises of bold economic growth’ occurring at the same time as a $2.8 trillion jump in national debt, Vu-Lam says he hopes to ‘shed light on the rationale behind this apparent madness’.

Regarding the main section, the editorial adds: “Articles focus on the development of relationships, including the formation of the UN and the UK’s international status as both an empire and a leader of diplomacy.

“They also consider the economic vulnerability of nations when relations falter, such as the breakdown of trade blocs and the effects on landlocked nations. This edition helps to show the complexities of international relations as well as the domino-like knock-on effects of unsuitable international policy.”

Contributors come from Years 9–11. Many illustrate their articles with tables and graphs.

Others, such as Year 11 GCSE economist Aayush Shukla, in his piece on China’s economic history (From Footprints to Footing: The Evolution of China), or his fellow Year 11 pupil, Noah Morley, on his historical exploration of Japan’s relationship with Europe (Japan’s Evolving Relationship with Europe), use photographs or reproductions of paintings.

• The Econobethan may be read here.