YES! Finalists Announced

The teams who will compete in the final of the high school competition YES! – Young Economic Summit have now all been announced. In the qualification rounds of the competition, 250 high school students from all over Germany presented their ideas on how to solve some of the most pressing global economic questions of our time and had the opportunity to discuss them with economics experts. The 14 winning teams will present their ideas at the YES! final in Kiel on 28 and 29 September 2017.

YES! is a joint project of the German National Library of Economics (ZBW) – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Stiftung. The teams are mentored by expert economists from four different institutions in the Leibniz Association. As well as ZBW, these 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. As part of the competition, high school students spent six months taking part in a mentoring programme in which they tackled 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 final, which will conclude YES!, the teams will compete against one another and present their own ideas for solutions to global economic challenges.

Groups of students from Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein competed in the qualification rounds in Mannheim and Kiel. The following teams have qualified for the YES! – Young Economic Summit Final on 28 and 29 September in Kiel:

• Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium Ulm
• Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium Dillingen
• Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium Stuttgart
• Alexander-von-Humboldt-Schule Neumünster
• BBS Wirtschaft 1 Ludwigshafen
• Friedrich-List-Schule Mannheim
• Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium Stuttgart
• Heinrich-Heine-Gymnasium Hamburg
• Helene-Lange-Gymnasium Rendsburg
• Hohe Landesschule Hanau
• Max-Planck-Schule Kiel
• RBZ Wirtschaft Kiel
• Richard-Hallmann-Schule Trappenkamp
• Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium Weinheim

Director of ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics Professor Klaus Tochtermann states the mission of the YES! partner institutions as follows: “High 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, they will develop their own ideas for solutions to global economic, ecological and social challenges.”

Professor Achim Wambach, PhD, President of the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), comments: “I think it is extremely important to strengthen the exchange between the economic sciences and general society – in particular high 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: “I would like to congratulate all the teams who have made it to the final. I am sure that over the coming months they will continue to work intensively on their ideas for the final round in Kiel. I have been greatly impressed by their spirit of innovation and creativity. I am very much looking forward to see their ideas, ranging from an energy tax on robots to sustainable consumption and post-growth society.”

About YES!

The YES! – Young Economic Summit is one of the biggest school competitions aimed at getting young people to engage with economic and social issues. High 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 – the YES! – Young Economic Summit. Through discussions with leading economists and other students, they 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 in the project receive continued support and guidance in topics such as how to carry out research, give presentations and engage with the media. 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 and the Joachim Herz Stiftung.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.