2026 Canadian Economics Olympiad:

rules, dates, and Team Canada selection

The information below is preliminary and is subject to change!

 

Good news: we are in the final steps of signing a partnership agreement with the Economics Olympiad (EO), so this year, 10 Canadian students will participate in two most prestigious international Economics competitions for high school students: International Economics Olympiad (IEO) and Economics Olympiad International Final Round (EO IFR).

 

Preliminary dates for the 2026 Canadian Economics Olympiad are as follows:

  • Round 1: Saturday, February 21, 2026 (online)

  • Round 2 (“National Finals”): Wednesday, April 8, 2026 (in person, by invitation based on results of Round 1)

  • Mini Business Case: End of April (online, by invitation based on results of Round 2). Mini Business Case is not a part of the Canadian Economics Olympiad, but one of the steps used to select Team Canada for the IEO

 

Preliminary rules for the 2026 Canadian Economics Olympiad are available here.

Preliminary rules of Team Canada selection for 2026 IEO and 2026 EO IFR are available here.

Past CEO results are available on our History page.

 
 

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:

From MIT OCW, courses 14.01 (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/14-01-principles-of-microeconomics-fall-2018/) and 14.02 (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/14-02-principles-of-macroeconomics-spring-2014/) would nicely complement the AP Micro and Macroeconomics material, but these lectures go beyond what you need to know for CEO and IEO. Course 14.54 (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/14-54-international-trade-fall-2016/) on International Trade goes way beyond what you need to know. Course 14.12 (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/14-12-economic-applications-of-game-theory-fall-2012/) is an introduction to Game Theory in the Economics context: it is a very good course but also covers much more than you will need for this Olympiad.

Recently, IEO added finance to its syllabus, so, CEO will also include financial topics such as time value of money and its application to bonds and stock valuation, CAPM and risk/return tradeoff, and investment criteria. Any undergraduate Introductory to Financial Management textbook will be sufficient. Unfortunately, there are no Undergraduate MIT OCW courses on this topic, but you can check (again, way too advanced) graduate course 15.414 (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-414-financial-management-summer-2003/) . Finally, some basic knowledge of International Economics and Finance (such as comparative advantage, quotes/tariffs, Purchasing Power Parity, and Interest Rate Parity) is also expected.

We also highly recommend that students review previous CEO questions on our History page. Students may also wish to review past IEO economics questions. Our exclusive education partner, Lorvale Academy, offers courses specifically designed for the CEO. Lorvale Academy has no advanced knowledge of the CEO questions and designs its courses based on topics covered in past CEO and IEO contests and on the official IEO syllabus. Some students find these courses useful as they offer a focused coverage of the required material in a single package.