AAEO 2024

The second annual Australasian Economics Olympiad (AAEO), run in July 2024, consisted of an essay-based Round 1 individual essay component, followed by a Round 2 individual quantitative paper-and-pencil exam, and finally a Round 3 team-based component. National teams from Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, Romania, China and Taiwan competed in 2024, with each team consisting of five top high-school level economics students. For Australia, these were the five winners of the Australian Economics Olympiad (AEO) run the previous month. Teams were brought to Sydney, with accompanying teachers and parents, to work in country teams at UNSW on the Round 3 economic policy case study. Overseas visitors paid for their own flights, but the AAEO budget covered accommodation and all meals and incidentals, as well as underwriting the travel to Sydney of interstate AEO winners.

The in-person AAEO 2024 event kicked off with an informal reception on the evening of Thursday 4 July, and the group was taken by bus to visit the RBA and the NSW Treasury on Friday, punctuated by lunch at a restaurant in the crypt near Hyde Park. On Friday night students and teachers enjoyed dinner together at a local restaurant in The Spot Randwick, a 15-minute walk from UNSW's Kensington campus. On Saturday, students attended a mini-lecture on quantitative methods and data in economics and sat the Round 2 individual quantitative examination, and worked intensively in country teams on the case study on campus in state-of-the-art teaching and presentation rooms at UNSW Business School, with lunches and Saturday dinner provided on campus. On Sunday, each team presented their analysis and recommendations under strict time requirements to observers and a panel of judges (all professional economists). The New Zealand team won the Gold medal, the Singaporean team the Silver, and the Australian team the Bronze. Individual AAEO winners were also selected by the AEO organising team based on students' performance in both the Round 1 essay examination and the Round 2 individual quantitative examination components of the AAEO, with a New Zealand student earning the individual Gold medal, a second New Zealand student taking the Silver, and a Singaporean student taking the Bronze.