Phillips Academy · Est. 2004
AES produces the Andover Economics Review (the first high school economics journal written by and for high school students), competes in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's annual research program, and runs a behavioral economics experiment you can take in five minutes.
Spring 2026
This spring, AES members are writing policy briefs on local economic topics and presenting them to Andrew Mikula at Pioneer Institute and State Senator Barry Finegold. Julieann Thurlow of Reading Cooperative Bank is also visiting to speak on housing policy and economic development.
Try this
5-minute experiment
Test yourself on four cognitive biases that influence real decisions in policy, hiring, voting, and pricing. See exactly which mechanisms affected your choices and why they matter.
Start the experiment →About AES
AES has been part of this community since 2004. The club won the National Economics Challenge in 2009 and 2011, placing first among 1,500 teams nationally.
What the program was actually offering was thinner: a competition team of a few students, presentations, no real practice in analyzing economic problems or making decisions under constraint. Phillips Academy has almost no economics coursework before junior year. For most students, AES was the only entry point, and the entry point wasn't working.
A few students who showed up as freshmen decided to fix it. They built the journal, the Fed Challenge team, the Decision Lab, and the colloquium as they moved through the school. The programs exist because the people who wanted them didn't wait to be given them.
Programs
Publication
The first high school economics journal written by and for high school students, funded by the Abbot Academy Fund. The Winter 2025 issue is available now.
Read the issue →Competition
AES submitted its entry in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's annual research competition in March 2026. This year's theme: the Economics of Music.
About the competition →Speaker series
The colloquium runs a speaker track and a policy brief research track. Spring 2026 guests include Julieann Thurlow of Reading Cooperative Bank and State Senator Barry Finegold. Students write and present completed briefs to outside economists and policymakers.
See the archive →Join AES
The club runs on three terms. Fall is content-heavy, with weekly meetings on economic theory and policy; winter brings guest speakers and research projects; spring is for papers, the journal, and the research colloquium.
Meetings are held Thursdays in CLC. No prior economics coursework is required. Members range from students learning about economics for the first time to those already doing independent research.
If you want to write for the journal, join the Fed Challenge team, or present at the spring colloquium, reach out to the board or show up to any Thursday meeting.