NEW YORKâThe Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Dallas, and Richmond today announced the results of this year’s High School Fed Challenge, an academic paper competition. The competition, now in its 31st year, is open to high school teams across the nation.
In this competition, student teams research and analyze an economic theme, then write podcast scripts reflecting their work. The selected podcast scripts will be published in this year’s Journal of Future Economists, to be released this summer.
The 2026 theme was Economics of Music; teams were encouraged to think about how economic principles can be applied to what we listen to, how it’s produced, and who benefits. School teams submitted 207 papers; of those, Federal Reserve reviewers selected 12 to publish.
The schools and podcast scripts that will be included are listed below in alphabetical order by school name:
- Bergen County Technical High School-Teterboro, Teterboro, NJ: Swiftonomics: The Impact of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour
- Fairview High School, Boulder, CO: Time to Face the Music: Is Inequality in the Music Industry a Problem?
- Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT: Swinging Towards Shutdown: Why Jazz Clubs Are Losing the Market
- Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Aurora, IL: The Attention Economy of Music: How Social Media Rewired the Music Industry
- Lafayette Academy, Lake St. Louis, MO: I, Song
- Langley High School, McLean, VA: Symphonomics: The Economics of Copyright Laws in Music
- Melissa High School, Melissa, TX: All I Want for Chri$tmas is Revenue: The Economics of Xmas Music
- Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH: Polyopoly: The DOJ’s Antitrust Lawsuit Against Live Nation
- Pine View School, Osprey, FL: Touring Economics Through Time
- Princeton High School, Princeton, NJ: Spinning Back: The Resurgence of Vinyls
- Skyline High School, Sammamish, WA: The Economics of Music Catalogs: Why Yesterday’s Hits Have a Discount Rate
- University School, Hunting Valley, OH: Dead Air: The Fight to Own Your Sound
“The papers combined a deep understanding of economics and a real sense of play,” said Heather Daly, head of economic education at the New York Fed. “The students explained complex economic topics in simple terms, demonstrating both their mastery of the concepts and creativity.”
Eli Stacy, outreach advisor with the Dallas Fed, said, "This year's group of scholars were focused and clear minded in their analysis of timely yet fun economic issues. You could see the ways they stretched themselves in their research and socioeconomic critiques.”
Sarah Gunn, outreach manager at the Richmond Fed, said, “The theme, Economics of Music, allowed students to apply their understanding of economics in very interesting and entertaining ways. The different approaches to the topic allowed each group’s personal interests and economic thinking to shine.”
This is the second year the competition was open to high school students nationally. Previously, the High School Fed Challenge was sponsored solely by the New York Fed and open only to high schools in its region. Today, the competition is open to all high schools located in one of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts, as well as international Department of War Education Activity schools.
The competition aims to encourage students in ninth to twelfth grade to learn more about economics, promoting it as a field of study and a possible career. Students are not required to have studied economics to participate.
In addition to co-hosting the High School Fed Challenge, the New York Fed’s economic education team offers extensive free resources for educators. The team offers classroom visits from New York Fed economic educators, free professional development for teachers, and resources on topics including how monetary policy works, writing about policy issues, and buy now, pay later. It also offers a series of comic books on the economy, available in English and Spanish. The New York Fed’s Museum and Learning Center is open, by reservation, for guided school group visits.
“Once you look at an aspect of everyday life in economic terms, you can understand the significance of economics,” Daly said. “Our hope is that students who wrote about the economic underpinnings of topics like concerts, streaming, and Christmas music will begin to see how interwoven economics is in their daily lives.”
