Prize date announced
A press conference will be held to announce the winner at 9:00 (BST) on 5th July 2012 at Policy Exchange, in London.
All five finalists will be battling it out to win the prize: Catherine Dobbs, Roger Bootle and the team from Capital Economics, Jens Nordvig and Dr. Nick Firoozye, Neil Record, and Jonathan Tepper have confirmed that they will be continuing to the next round of the competition.
The finalists have received feedback from the judge and have until midnight on the 5th of June to refine and resubmit their entries.
Read more in the full press release
Finalists Announced
The Wolfson Economics Prize, which challenges the world’s brightest economists to prepare a contingency plan for a break-up of the Eurozone, today (3rd April, 2012) unveiled a shortlist of five finalists.
The shortlisted entries, though all very different from each other, provide valuable ideas about how best to manage a member state leaving the euro.
The judges have given the finalists the opportunity to address key questions about their entry. Finalists will be given until the 29th of May to develop and resubmit their entries. Everyone who has progressed to this stage will be guaranteed a £10,000 share of the prize. The winner(s) of the Wolfson Economics Prize will be announced on the 5th of July.
The finalists' essays can be seen below. To read the full press release for the announcement of the finalists please select your language: 
The Shortlist
Introduction from Lord Wolfson
a) Catherine Dobbs - The NEWNEY approach to unscrambling the
Euro ***No video available***
b) Roger Bootle - Leaving the euro: A practical guide
c) Jonathan Tepper - A Primer on the Euro Breakup: Default, Exit and Devaluation as the Optimal Solution
d) Jens Nordvig - Planning for an orderly break-up of the European Monetary Union
Additional entries of interest
In addition to the shortlist, the judges have decided to publish papers which they thought were of interest. Those of note, who will each receive a £1,000 prize, are:
Arnab Das - A How-To Manual for an Amicable EZ Divorce
Charles Dumas - Untitled
Julian Le Grand - QIR and EMU: A Proposal for Managing a Member State’s Departure from the European Monetary Union
Michael Redican - Untitled
Youngest entrant
An eleven year old boy from the Netherlands has received a special mention from the judging panel of the Wolfson Economics Prize for his application to the prize.
Jurre Hermans, a school boy from Breedenbroek in Gelderland Achterhoek, was the youngest entrant to the Wolfson Economics Prize. He decided to enter the prize after watching Jeugdjournaal, and because of his concern about the Eurozone crisis. Jurre’s paper, complete with diagram, proposes that Greece should leave the euro. Greek citizens would exchange their euros for drachmas and anyone caught moving euros abroad would be penalised financially.
He will receive an €100 gift voucher for his efforts.
You can read Jurre's entry here. To see the full press release on Jurre's entry, please select your language: 
Judging panel
The judges are:
- Mr Derek Scott (UK) – former Economics Adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chairman of the Wolfson Economics Prize
- Prof. Dr. Manfred Neumann (Germany) – Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Bonn and former adviser to the German Bundesbank and the Academic Advisory Council of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
- Prof. Charles Goodhart CBE FBA (UK) – Emeritus Professor of Banking and Finance with the Financial Markets Group at the London School of Economics and former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee
- Prof. Jean-Jacques Rosa (France) – Emeritus Professor of Economics and Finance at the University Sciences Po, Paris, and former member of French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin’s Conseil d’Analyse Économique
- Prof. Francesco Giavazzi (Italy) – Professor of Economics at Bocconi University, Milan, and former economics adviser to the President of the EU Commission, the Italian Prime Minister and member of the External Evaluation Committee of the Research Activities at the International Monetary Fund.
Further details and comments from the judging panel can be found in the following press release:
About the Wolfson Economics Prize
The Wolfson Economics Prize will be awarded to the person who is able to articulate how best to manage the orderly exit of one of more member states from the European Monetary Union.
There is now a real possibility that political or economic pressure may force one or more states to leave the Euro. If the process is managed badly it would threaten European savings, employment and the stability of the international banking system. The Wolfson Economics Prize aims to ensure that high quality economic thought is given to how the Euro might be restructured into more stable currencies.
The Wolfson Economics Prize, worth £250,000 (€286,000), is the second biggest cash prize to be awarded to an academic after the Nobel Prize. Deadline for submissions will be January 31st 2012.
For further information or to make a submission please email
The original press release announcing the prize can be downloaded here:
Information pack for applicants
Details of the entry requirements and prize rules can can be downloaded in the following languages:
Q&A Webinar
Q&A Event
A copy of the slides displayed during the event can be found here. Pictures of the event can be found on Policy Exchange's Flickr page.