The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has issued a call for young economists to submit papers for the 2021 WTO Essay Award, which aims to promote high-quality research on trade policy and international trade co-operation.

Essays must be submitted by June7, 2021.

The essay award, now in its 13th year, has grown to be a prized achievement for young trade economists and brings to light novel evidence important for evaluating trade flows and policies.

“It's an honour to be selected for this award,” said last year's winner, Xiang Ding, who received his PhD from Harvard University in 2020 and is currently Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. Xiang Ding's paper provides novel and quantitatively important evidence on cross-industry linkages, particularly joint production arising from industries sharing knowledge inputs such as research and development, information technology, and other professional services.

“It's gratifying to have my research recognized by the WTO, especially at a time when our interests and trade policies are shifting towards the digital economy,” he said.

The annual WTO Essay Award provides a prize of CHF5,000 ($5,470) 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, which is the largest conference specializing in international trade. The award ceremony will take place on September 9-11 2021 in Ghent, Belgium. The winning author will receive funding to attend the meeting.

The paper must address issues related to trade policy and international trade cooperation. 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. – TradeArabia News Service