About

Registration opens each September with theme announcement; teams submit completed research papers by mid-March, with publication decisions communicated in May. The 2025–2026 theme is Economics of Music. Teams may select any research topic that explicitly relates to the annual theme — no specific format for team size is specified beyond the requirement that it be a school team. No prior study of economics is required; the program explicitly welcomes students with only intellectual curiosity and interest in the theme. Federal Reserve personnel evaluate submissions and select papers for publication; all entering teams receive recognition in the Journal of Future Economists regardless of selection outcome. For schools participating in the New York State Education Department's Seal of Civic Readiness program, the Fed Challenge can count toward the 6-point civic readiness requirement.

The credential requires honest framing. All teams receive journal recognition upon submission — the meaningful outcome is having a paper selected for full publication, which represents a genuine competitive distinction evaluated by Federal Reserve economists. The Federal Reserve imprimatur gives the program real institutional credibility, and publication in the Journal of Future Economists is a meaningful signal for economics-interested students applying to economics, finance, and public policy programs. The honest comparison: this is a research writing program with a publication outcome rather than a winner-take-all competition, closer in structure to the Concord Review than to the National Economics Challenge. For a student who has done genuine economic research and wants external evaluation and potential publication by Federal Reserve economists, it is a worthwhile and distinctive program.

The National High School Fed Challenge is the right program for a high school student with serious economics or policy interests who wants to develop and publish original research — the Federal Reserve backing is genuine, the publication credential is meaningful, and the research process itself is a significant educational experience regardless of selection outcome.