Phillips Academy · Est. 2004
AES produces the Andover Economic Review, the first high school economics journal written by and for high school students. The club also competes in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's annual research program and runs a behavioral economics experiment that takes five minutes to complete.
Fall 2026
This fall, the club’s work centers on the Andover Economic Review. Submissions close on September 25, and papers are now with the editorial board for peer review — each one read by the board and by another submitting author, with authors receiving a decision within eight weeks. The next issue will be published once the accepted papers have cleared revisions.
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.
For most of that history, though, the club itself offered much less than its trophy case suggested: a competition team of a few students, occasional presentations, and little structured practice in analyzing economic problems or making decisions under constraint. Phillips Academy has no economics coursework available before junior year. For most students, AES was the only entry point into economics, and that entry point was not working for them.
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 did not 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.
Competition
AES submitted its entry in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's annual research competition in March 2026. This year's theme was 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 Wednesdays in the 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 Wednesday meeting.