Economic Summit for School Students “YES!” Launches Across Germany

The "YES! – Young Economic Summit", an economics competition involving schools from six different federal states in Germany, will be launched soon. This year, YES! is working together with new scientific partners from the Leibniz Association, namely the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies. The "YES! – Young Economic Summit" is expanding from its base in North Germany to become a nationwide programme. This year, 22 teams from Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg will compete. There are plans for "YES!" to become a nationwide competition with 50 schools from every federal state in Germany taking part in the project by 2019. YES! is the biggest annual conference for school students in the field of economics in Germany.

In the run-up to the summit, students will be "trained up" with the help of a six-month mentoring programme. This programme aims to provide them with an understanding of economics, information and media literacy as well as a sense of accountability. The project is set to launch on 17 February 2017 with a kick-off event for the Southwest region in Mannheim, followed by a kick-off event for the North region in Kiel on 24 February 2017.

 As part of the "YES! – Young Economic Summit", around 300 school students will be tackling the key questions, causes and possible solutions to issues such as migration, populism and European integration, fair international taxation, climate change and sustainable consumption. At the two-day summit which will conclude the YES! project, the school teams will compete against one another and present their own ideas for solutions to global economic challenges.

YES! is a joint project of the German National Library of Economics (ZBW) – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Stiftung. The academic mentoring part of the programme involves experts from four different Leibniz institutions supporting the school teams with their scientific work and devising their solutions. As well as the ZWB, these institutions are ZEW in Mannheim, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) and the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg.

"Strengthening the exchange with society – in particular school students"

Director of ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics Professor Klaus Tochtermann states the mission of the YES! project's partner institutions as follows: "School students are going to be given the tools they need for the digital age. Along the way, they will be introduced to the methods of open science early on and, with the right tools, will develop their own ideas for solutions to global economic, ecological and social challenges."

ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach also explains the significance of YES!: "I think it is extremely important to strengthen the exchange between the economic sciences and society – in particular school students. "YES! is a great way to achieve this, particularly at a time when, as a result of Brexit, as yet unresolved problems in the eurozone, and an increased tendency towards isolationism in global trade following the US election, so many things that in past decades seemed so certain are now being called into question."

Andrea Pauline Martin, vice-chair of the Joachim Herz Stiftung, adds: "We want school students to understand how the economy works and what it means to assume responsibility. The YES! summit is a great opportunity for young people interested in how economic links can be made. I am personally always impressed by the solutions put forward by these young people. I'm sure that this year will be no different."

The Young Economic Summit - YES! launches this year with two kick-off events to which media representatives are cordially invited.

Southwest Region Kick-Off

North Region Kick-Off

 About YES!

The "YES! – Young Economic Summit" is one of the biggest school competitions aimed at young people which deals with economic and social issues. School students come up with their own solutions to global economic, ecological and social problems and present them in English as part of a conference for other students, also known as the "YES! – Young Economic Summit". Through discussions with leading economists and other students, they will focus on global connections and develop their own innovative solutions. There will be a vote to determine the best solutions. The winning solutions will be awarded a prize and publicly forwarded to those in a position to investigate how they might be put into practice. In the run-up to YES! all students participating will receive continued support and guidance in topics such as investigation, research, presentation and media relations. YES! included these topics following the recommendation from the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs that school students should be taught how to exercise critical judgement when using media applications. The "YES! Young Economic Summit" falls under the patronage of the Federal Minister of Economic Affairs, Brigitte Zypries, and is a joint project by the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (www.zbw.eu/en) and the Joachim Herz Stiftung (www.joachim-herz-stiftung.de/en). The Leibniz Association's scientific partner institutions are the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) and the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg: www.young-economic-summit.org

German National Library of Economics (ZBW) – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

The ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics is the largest research library for economics in the world. The institute holds around 4 million books and provides access to millions of online documents relating to economics. In 2016 alone, around 6 million digital texts were downloaded through the library. Apart from this, the ZBW also offers a rapidly growing collection of Open Access documents. EconStor, the library's digital publications server, currently contains over 128,000 essays and working papers that can be accessed for free. Through EconBiz, a specialist portal for technical economic information, students and researchers can access over 9 million different data sets for their research. On top of this, the ZBW also publishes two economics magazines: Wirtschaftsdienst and Intereconomics. The ZBW is a research-based academic library. Three professorships and an international group of PhD students are conducting research into the digitisation of science following an interdisciplinary approach. The ZBW has a vast international network of contacts through its research. Principal collaboration partners come from large EU projects, German Research Foundation Projects as well as from the Leibniz Research Alliance Science 2.0. The ZBW is a member of the Leibniz Association and a foundation under public law. On multiple occasions, the ZBW has been awarded the international LIBER award for its innovative work as a library. The ZBW was named "Library of the Year" in 2014.

The Joachim Herz Stiftung

The Joachim Herz Stiftung is an economically independent, politically neutral non-profit foundation which supports education, scholarship and research in science and economics as well as the personal development of teenagers and young adults. The Stiftung was founded in the summer of 2008. More information can be found at: www.joachim-herz-stiftung.de/en

For further information please contact:

Gunter Grittmann, Phone: +49(0)621 1235-132, E-mail: grittmann@zew.de