Research mentorship for economics students | RISE Research

TL;DR: This post explains what original economics research looks like for high school students, which topics are achievable without access to proprietary data, which journals publish student work, and how research mentorship for economics students translates into stronger university applications. RISE scholars who publish economics research are admitted to top universities at rates significantly above the national average. If your child is in Grade 9 to 12 and interested in economics, book a free Research Assessment before the April 1st priority deadline.

Most high school students who love economics spend their time solving problem sets and memorising supply-demand curves. A small number go further. They identify a real-world question, collect and analyse data, build an original argument, and publish it in a peer-reviewed journal before they submit a single university application. The gap between those two groups is not intelligence. It is access to the right guidance at the right time.

Economics is one of the most research-ready subjects for high school students precisely because so much of it runs on publicly available data. Government databases, central bank reports, World Bank indicators, and academic datasets are open to anyone with a laptop and the analytical skills to use them. The barrier to original economics research is not equipment or institutional access. It is knowing how to frame a research question, choose a methodology, and execute it with enough rigour to satisfy a peer-reviewed journal.

This post covers what high school economics research actually looks like, who the mentors are, what real student projects have produced, where the work gets published, and how the RISE Research mentorship program structures the entire process from first conversation to final submission.

What kind of economics research can a high school student actually do?

High school students can conduct original, publishable economics research using publicly available datasets, regression analysis, literature synthesis, and policy evaluation. No proprietary financial data or institutional access is required. The research question determines the methodology, and most strong economics questions can be answered with tools a motivated student can learn in weeks.

Economics research at the high school level spans a wider range of methodologies than most students realise. Quantitative work using regression models and panel data sits alongside qualitative policy analysis, behavioural experiments, and systematic literature reviews. A student does not need Bloomberg terminal access or a university library subscription to produce work that a journal editor will take seriously.

The following are five specific research directions that RISE students have explored or that fit squarely within what high school researchers can achieve:

• The effect of minimum wage increases on youth employment in OECD countries: A panel data study using OECD labour statistics and difference-in-differences methodology, suitable for journals like the Journal of Economics and Finance Education.

• Inflation expectations and consumer spending behaviour during supply shocks: A behavioural economics analysis drawing on Federal Reserve survey data and existing literature, structured as a mixed-methods study.

• The relationship between mobile banking penetration and financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-sectional regression study using World Bank Financial Inclusion Database indicators, with strong relevance to development economics journals.

• Carbon pricing mechanisms and their distributional effects on low-income households: A policy analysis and comparative case study drawing on published government reports from the EU, Canada, and the UK.

• Does school funding inequality predict income mobility? Evidence from US county-level data: A quantitative study using publicly available Census and NCES data, combining education economics with inequality research.

The right topic depends on your child's specific interests within economics. That is exactly what the first mentorship session is designed to find.

The economics mentors who guide RISE students

RISE matches students to mentors based on research overlap and subject fit, not availability. A student interested in development economics is not paired with a macroeconomist simply because a slot is open. The match is made on the basis of where the student's question and the mentor's expertise genuinely intersect.

Dr. Harper holds a PhD in Development Economics from the London School of Economics and researches financial inclusion, microfinance, and poverty reduction in South Asia. RISE students exploring questions at the intersection of banking access and economic mobility are frequently matched with Dr. Harper because her fieldwork and quantitative methods align directly with the data sources those students use.

Dr. Leila Osei holds a PhD from Princeton's Department of Economics and researches labour markets, wage inequality, and the economics of education. Students whose questions touch on employment, earnings gaps, or education policy draw directly on her expertise in panel data methods and policy evaluation frameworks.

You can browse all economics mentors on RISE to see the full range of research backgrounds available to students in the Summer 2026 cohort.

What a real economics research project looks like from start to finish

Arjun was a Grade 11 student from Singapore with a strong interest in development economics and a particular curiosity about why some countries recovered faster from the 2008 financial crisis than others. He had read widely on the topic but had never structured his thinking into a research question. He joined RISE Research in the summer before his final year of secondary school.

In his first session with his RISE mentor, a PhD economist from Oxford, Arjun's broad interest was narrowed to a specific, testable question: whether the depth of a country's domestic credit market in 2007 predicted the speed of GDP recovery between 2009 and 2012. The methodology they settled on was a cross-country regression analysis using World Bank and IMF data, both fully open-access.

Over eight weeks, Arjun built his dataset, ran his regressions in R, and drafted each section of the paper with structured feedback from his mentor after every session. The mentor did not write the paper. He asked the questions that forced Arjun to justify every methodological choice. The final paper was submitted to the Journal of Economics and Finance Education, where it was accepted after one round of peer review.

Arjun was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School the following spring. His Common App essay centred on the moment he realised that a dataset could tell a story no textbook had told him. You can read more examples like Arjun's on the RISE student projects page.

Which journals publish high school economics research?

Four journals consistently publish strong high school economics research: the Journal of Economics and Finance Education, Undergraduate Economic Review, the Young Economists Journal, and the International Young Physicists' Tournament Proceedings for interdisciplinary economic modelling work. Each has different selectivity levels and scope, and the right choice depends on the research question and methodology.

The Journal of Economics and Finance Education publishes quantitative and pedagogical economics research and is well-suited to empirical studies using publicly available macroeconomic data. It is peer-reviewed and indexed, which means it carries weight in a university application in a way that a school newspaper or blog post does not.

The Undergraduate Economic Review, published by Illinois Wesleyan University, accepts submissions from pre-university researchers when the work meets undergraduate standards of rigour. It is selective, and acceptance signals to admissions committees that the student's work was evaluated against a real academic benchmark.

The Young Economists Journal is specifically designed for student researchers and accepts work across microeconomics, macroeconomics, development, and behavioural economics. It is a strong first publication venue for students whose research question is well-defined but whose methodology is less complex than a full econometric study.

For students whose economics research intersects with policy, the Journal of Student Research provides a peer-reviewed venue that accepts interdisciplinary work and is indexed in major academic databases. You can explore how RISE students approach the publication process on the RISE publications page.

Your RISE mentor will advise on which journal is the right fit for your specific research question. Some topics suit more than one venue.

How RISE economics research mentorship works, week by week

The process begins with a free Research Assessment. This is a conversation, not an interview. There is no right answer to any question. The goal is to understand where your child's interests sit within economics, what analytical skills they already have, and which research direction would produce the strongest work in the time available. Most students leave the assessment with a clearer sense of their research direction than they had going in.

In the first two weeks of the program, the student and mentor work together to develop the research question. This is not a process of the mentor assigning a topic. It is a structured dialogue in which the student's existing curiosity is sharpened into a question that is specific enough to answer, original enough to publish, and scoped appropriately for the program length. For economics students, this often means deciding between a quantitative data study, a policy analysis, or a behavioural literature review.

Weeks three through eight form the active research phase. Weekly one-on-one sessions with the PhD mentor cover data collection, methodology, analysis, and writing in sequence. For a student running a regression study, this means working through dataset construction, variable selection, and interpretation of results with a mentor who has done this work at a doctoral level. For a policy analysis student, it means building a comparative framework and learning to evaluate evidence the way an academic reviewer would.

In weeks nine and ten, the focus shifts to submission and application strategy. The paper is finalised and submitted to the target journal. At the same time, the mentor helps the student articulate the research experience for their Common App or UCAS personal statement. Admissions committees at top universities read research descriptions carefully. A student who can explain what they found, why it matters, and what they would study next stands out from a student who simply lists a publication.

RISE scholars are admitted to top ten universities at three times the rate of the general applicant pool. The RISE results page details acceptance rates by institution, including an 18% Stanford acceptance rate and a 32% UPenn acceptance rate for RISE scholars.

The Summer 2026 cohort is now open for applications, with a priority deadline of April 1st. If your child wants to publish original economics research before their university applications go in, book a free 20-minute Research Assessment here to confirm timing and availability.

Frequently asked questions about economics research mentorship

Can a high school student do original economics research without access to proprietary financial data?

Yes. The majority of publishable high school economics research uses publicly available data from the World Bank, IMF, OECD, Federal Reserve, and national statistical agencies. Proprietary financial data is not required and is rarely used even in undergraduate economics research. The quality of the research question and the rigour of the analysis matter far more than the exclusivity of the dataset.

Students are often surprised by how much high-quality data is freely accessible. World Bank Open Data alone covers over 1,600 indicators across 217 economies. A motivated student with a clear research question and basic statistical software can build a publishable study from these sources alone.

What economics background does a student need before starting a research program?

A student should have completed at least one year of economics at the IB, A-level, AP, or equivalent standard. Familiarity with basic supply and demand, market structures, and macroeconomic indicators is sufficient. Advanced econometrics or statistics is not a prerequisite. The mentor teaches the analytical tools the research requires.

Students who have taken AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, or IB Economics HL are well-positioned to begin immediately. Students earlier in their economics education can still participate, but the research question is scoped accordingly to match their current analytical foundation.

Will the research be original, or will my child just be summarising existing work?

All RISE research is original. Students do not write literature reviews or essay summaries. They develop a research question that has not been answered in the existing literature, collect or compile data, apply a methodology, and produce findings. The work is submitted to peer-reviewed journals that explicitly reject derivative or non-original submissions.

The originality requirement is not a marketing claim. It is a condition of publication. Every journal on RISE's publication list uses peer review, which means an external academic evaluates the work against the standard of original contribution. If the work is not original, it does not get published.

How does economics research appear in a university application?

A published economics paper appears in the activities section of the Common App and can anchor the personal statement or supplemental essays. It signals intellectual initiative, analytical ability, and subject-matter depth in a way that grades and test scores cannot. Admissions readers at selective universities see thousands of strong transcripts. They see far fewer peer-reviewed publications.

Beyond the application itself, research experience prepares students for university-level economics coursework in a way that classroom study alone does not. Students who have run a regression, read academic papers critically, and responded to peer review feedback arrive at university with skills their classmates spend the first year acquiring. You can see how RISE scholars have used their research on the RISE awards and recognition page.

How early should a student start economics research to maximise the impact on their application?

Grade 10 or early Grade 11 is the ideal starting point. This gives enough time to complete the research, go through peer review, receive a publication decision, and have the result in hand before Early Decision or Early Action deadlines in Grade 12. Students who start in Grade 11 can still publish in time if they begin before the summer.

Starting earlier also allows students to present their research at competitions or conferences, which adds another credential to the application. RISE mentors advise on relevant economics competitions throughout the program. Students who want to understand the full timeline can visit the RISE FAQ page for a detailed breakdown by grade level.

Economics research is something your child can do now

The three things worth taking from this post are these. First, original economics research does not require lab access, proprietary data, or an undergraduate degree. It requires a well-formed question, the right methodology, and a mentor who has done this work at a doctoral level. Second, the journals that matter to university admissions committees are peer-reviewed and indexed, and RISE students publish in them regularly. Third, the difference between a competitive application and a forgettable one often comes down to whether the student has done something with their interest in economics, not just studied it.

The Summer 2026 Priority Deadline is April 1st. If this is the year your child moves from being strong at economics to producing original work in it, schedule a free Research Assessment and we will take it from there.