The 2021 prize was launched on 3rd August with the question “Will the pandemic be inflationary or disinflationary?”.
This Essay Prize is open to current Year 12 and Year 13 students as well as all Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students at UK universities, with a deadline on 18th January 2021.
To find out more and to enter the 2021 prize, click here.
The Monetary Policy Essay Prize 2020

The essay question was “Is monetary policy exhausted? Is it possible that the state cannot create extra money balances? In your answer discuss in detail the methods by which the state – understood to include both the government and the central bank – can create new money balances and the implications for the economy of those different methods.”
The 2020 competition was won by UCL’s Mihir Gupta for his essay and presentation. The entries were reviewed by a panel of judges and the top 4 entries presented their papers at the Essay Prize Final on 17th February at the Vinson Centre at the University of Buckingham.
Mihir won a prize of £1,000. A second prize of £300 was awarded to Tim Edwards from Bristol University and the third place award of £200 went to Anjali Sharma who is starting her studies in Financial Maths next year.
The entries were judged on the criteria of knowledge and understanding of the economic issues raised by the challenge, use of resources, the quality and clarity of the argument and analysis presented, and the degree of originality and insight displayed.
The Dorian Fisher Memorial Prize 2020 Results:
The IEA is delighted to announce the results of the 2020 Dorian Fisher Memorial Prize, where we had a record-breaking number of schools enter. The first prize of £500 went to Harry Houillon of Sevenoaks School, while the three runner-up prizes of £250 each went to Ananyashree Goenka (Dhirubhai Ambani International School Mumbai), Ayushman Mukherjee (Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet), and Ziyan Xie (Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy). Among those who just missed out on one of the top prizes were Zsophia Balogh (Revai Miklos High School, Hungary), Neha Shah (Tiffin Girls School), Pramika Vaseekaran (Wallington High School for Girls) and Zarin Rana (Harrow School). The prize of £500 for the school with the highest number of entries went to Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe for the third year in a row, with Queen Elizabeth, Barnet a close runner up.
The Prize is named after Dorian Fisher, the wife of Sir Antony Fisher, founder of the IEA, who was a long-time supporter of the Institute and its work.