The John Locke Institute is seeking final-year undergraduate and graduate students who might be interested in becoming graders of our Essay Competition for appropriate remuneration.
The globally renowned John Locke Institute annual essay competition covers topics in the categories of Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Law, Theology, and Psychology. Free to enter, the competition attracts entries from students of 14 to 18 years old from all over the world. Since its launch, it has been growing apace. Last year, we received about 7,400 entries from students with the widest possible range of socioeconomic backgrounds from over 100 countries.
For most participants, the competition provides their first opportunity to research, write and have graded a university-style essay that makes an original argument. The experience motivates many of them to raise their sights to institutions of learning of the highest quality – such as the Ivy League in the USA, and Oxbridge in the UK – that they would otherwise have not considered.
Submitted essays are graded in the first instance by academically talented graduates and final-year undergraduates, before the very best of them are sent to Professors in the relevant disciplines for final marking and the selection of prize-winners.
The three questions in the Economics category for which we are looking for graders are as follows.
Q1. A government funds its own expenditure by taxing its population. Suppose, instead, it relied solely on money newly created by the central bank? What would be the advantages and/or disadvantages?
Q2. In his thought experiment, the Iowa Car Crop, David Friedman tries to show that growing wheat is, in an important sense, just another ‘technology’ we can use for manufacturing cars, and in some circumstances a much more efficient one.
If international trade is thus a way of using less valuable inputs to produce more valuable outputs, why would governments impose trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas, thereby forcing producers to be more wasteful and less efficient?
Q3. What would happen if we banned billionaires?
The grading work will be intense, interesting and satisfying, and begin on July 1, to be completed in about two weeks. Graders have flexibility regarding their hours and speed at which they work.
Essays are up to 2000 words long and need only be given a numerical grade. We will pay $2 per essay and require a commitment to grade 500 essays (or more only if the grader wishes to do more). A grader who has hit his or her stride should be able to make at least $25 an hour.
Further details and examples of previous years’ questions can be viewed on our website.
Interested final-year undergraduate and graduate students should email global.essay.prize@johnlocke.com to declare their interest and obtain further details.
