2018 YES! Regional Final at ZEW

On 15 June 2018 the regional final of the high school economics competition YES! – Young Economic Summit will take place at ZEW in Mannheim. The eight teams from the Southwest region mentored by ZEW economists will have the opportunity to present their solutions to current economic problems and discuss them with experts in the field. The high school students themselves will then vote on which three teams should represent the Southwest in the national final to be held in September in Hamburg.

The competition is heating up: Which of the eight high school teams mentored by ZEW will make it through the Southwest regional final to compete in the grand final? Could this year’s winner be one of the ZEW teams? In 2017, one of the teams mentored by ZEW from BBS Wirtschaft 1 Ludwigshafen was crowned the winner of YES! by German Federal Minister of Economic Affairs Brigitte Zypries at an official ceremony held in Berlin.

YES! – Young Economic Summit is one of the biggest high school competitions in Germany looking at issues affecting the future of our world. The YES! programme, a joint project run by the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Stiftung, is under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Over the course of a six-month mentoring programme, teams of high school students – divided into four different regions – will come up with their own solutions to key issues likely to face our society in the near future. Researchers from various Leibniz institutions are supporting the students by providing their scientific expertise. Since encouraging young researchers is a key concern of ZEW, our research staff were all in agreement that the institute should continue to support the competition in the Southwest region in 2018.

The student teams will present their solutions to the following issues on 15 June:

• eGoverning Germany: The Future of Public Administration, mentors: Sebastian Blesse & Thomas Schwab (ZEW)
• Promoting Digitsation in Businesses, mentors: Jörg Ohnemus & Steffen Viete (ZEW)
• Media Usage in the Digital World, mentors: Daniel Erdsiek & Thomas Niebel (ZEW)
• How to Combat Child Poverty and How Can Children and Adolescents Be Best Supported?, mentor: Holger Stichnoth (ZEW)
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship:Highly Skilled Migrants, mentors: Bastian Krieger & Maikel Pellens as well as Florence Blandinières & Markus Trunschke (ZEW).