Dates

The 2024 Canadian Economics Olympiad is conducted in two rounds. The first round will be on Saturday, April 13, from 5pm to 8pm Eastern Time. The second round will be on Saturday, April 27, from 5pm to 8pm by invitation, based on the results of the first round. Both rounds will be conducted online.

2024 International Economics Olympiad will be Hosted by Hong Kong from July 22 to July 31. Most likely, Team Canada will participate in-person. While most of the costs will be covered by our partner, Lorvale Academy, students may be asked to pay for a portion of their air tickets from Canada to Hong Kong as well as for their transportation within Canada. Virtual participation may be another option but we try to avoid it if possible.

The Canadian Economics and Business Case Competition will be conducted in early April by our partner, Lorvale Academy. The preliminary dates for Round 1 and 2 are April 6 and April 20. The details will be available at https://www.lorvale.ca/canadian-economics-olympiad and interested students should contact Lorvale Academy directly.

 

Contest Day

The contest will consist of two rounds.

The first round will be on Saturday April 13. On or around 5pm Eastern time, the contest question will be posted on the Home page of this website and/or sent by email to registered students. All questions will be Multiple Choice or “answer only” questions. We are still working on the submission method.

You are allowed and encouraged to use online and offline resources during the contest. However, you may not discuss the contest or ask any questions related to economics or finance until after 8pm. Soliciting help from other people or artificial intelligence (chat GPT) in any way, including posting online or copying any part of the question to any online resource, is not allowed.

During the contest, if you feel that a question requires clarification or correction, please email canadian.economics.olympiad@gmail.com. You will be emailed should any major clarifications or corrections arise, so, please, monitor your email periodically

The top 10% of students who participated in the first round (but not less than 8 and not more than 15) will be invited to participate in the second round on April 27. Approximately 5 more students may be added to the second round based on their performance in the first round and in the Canadian Economics and Business Case Competition (CEBCC) conducted by our partner, Lorvale Academy. The second round will consist of more complex “show your work” problems and will take place online on April 27 from 5pm to 8pm Eastern time.

The Olympiad is conducted on the honor system without monitoring. The organizers reserve the right to conduct online interviews with selected students before finalizing the results of the CEO and Team Canada selection for the IEO. The organizers reserve the right to disqualify any student whom they suspect of using outside help or Chat GPT to answer some of the contest’s questions.

 

Content & Preparation

The contest questions draw on concepts typically covered in high-school, Advanced-Placement, and first-year-university courses on economics and finance. The questions do not derive from any specific reference resource or syllabus. All students are encouraged to participate regardless of prior economics coursework.

Students can find success using any resource(s), whether it’s class notes, Youtube playlists, an AP review book, a university textbook, MIT OCW online course material, or a MOOC, to list a few possibilities. However, for those who are unsure where to start, the following resources were popular among past CEO competitors:

We also highly recommend that students review previous CEO questions on our History page. Students may also wish to review past IEO economics questions.

 

Format & Scoring

The first round will consist of 40 Multiple-choice and “answer-only” questions.

The second round is by invitation based on the performance in the first round and it will consist of “show your work” questions.

 

Results & Recognition

Students who place in the top 10% and top 25% in the first round will have their names posted in alphabetical order and are recognized on the Distinguished Honour Roll and Honour Roll, respectively. In addition, students invited to the second round will be named “National Finalists”. The weighted average of the first and second rounds with weights of 30% and 70% respectively will be used to compute the total scores of National Finalists and to determine the absolute winner. Students who place in the top 10 will have their names, scores, and rankings posted. If you do not want your name posted, please, say so in your submission email.

Canada can send 5 students to the IEO each year. The absolute winner of the CEO will automatically qualify for Team Canada (subject to successfully passing the online interview, if necessary). Another member of Team Canada will be determined by the results of the Canadian Economics and Business Case Competition (CEBCC) conducted by our partner, Lorvale Academy. The remaining 3 spots will be allocated based on a holistic approach with the most weight given to the students’ CEO results. However, when CEO results are relatively close (e.g. within 5 points), other parameters, such as CEBCC results (if any), past IEO results (if any), grade (with preference given to students in grades 10 and 11), and anything else students may wish to report while registering (e.g., AP scores, business case competitions, etc.) will be used to finalize the team. If necessary, additional online interviews may be conducted to finalize the selection for Team Canada. At least 3 places on the team will be reserved for students in grade 11 and below.

Past CEO results and IEO delegations are available on our History page.