1
Registration and Choice of Starting Slot
The registration form will be available around mid-November.
During the registration, the team selects one of the starting available slots. The competition window begins when the prompt email is received and lasts 48 hours.
2
How the 48-hour round works
At the selected starting time, every member of the team receives the competition prompt. Different starting slots receive different prompts to preserve the integrity of the competition.
The prompt assigns a broad applied economics topic. Within that topic, the team chooses an interesting research question and develop evidence aimed at identifying a causal effect (or explain the absence of it).
The objective is to produce strong and robust research. A well motivated finding of no causal effect can be a valid and valuable result: teams are not expected to obtain a statistically significant effect at all costs.
The detailed prompt requirements and submission specifications are governed by the preliminary round rulebook.
3
Anonymous Submission and Evaluation
Each team is assigned an anonymous numerical identifier. The submitted material, including the LaTeX file, must use that identifier. Only the organizers retain the mapping between identifiers and teams during the evaluation.
Papers are evaluated by a panel drawn from Bocconi Economic Journal reviewers, ESBS alumni, Bocconi PhD students, Bocconi pre-doctoral researchers and occasionally senior ESBS students.
Only after the ranking is established are teams identities matched back to the results.
4
Qualification for the Final Round
A maximum of three teams from the same university may qualify for the final round. If more than three teams from one university fall within the qualifying group, the lowest ranked team(s) from that university are excluded until the cap is satisfied.
Results are planned to be communicated by the start of March.
After qualification, the team representative provides the information required for the in-person final round and is welcome to present the opportunity to the home university for additional funding.
