Student competitors must be enrolled in a high school in one of grades 9-12 for the current academic school year - or if home-schooled, be of high school standing.
Each team must consist of 4 students, and each school may send only one team.
All team members must be from the same high school.
Each team must be accompanied by an advisor who is a faculty member at the team's high school OR a parent/guardian of one of the team members.
16 teams will be allowed to register for the tournament. There will be a waitlist for additional teams that can enter the tournament if any already-entered teams cancel their registration.
Each team should designate a team captain, who will be responsible for answering bonus questions and signing the score sheet after each match.
Tournament Structure
The tournament consists of a team-based Power Round, which will occur virtually in the week prior to the tournament, and an Economics Bowl, which will take place on the day of the event.
The Economics Bowl consists of two segments: a round robin and a single-elimination bracket.
For the round robin, the 20 teams will be randomly divided into four divisions of four teams each. Each team will play every other team in its division. An example schedule can be found here
The top 2 teams from each division will advance to a single-elimination tournament. The matchups between group winners for the first round of the single-elimination tournament will be random. The winner of the single-elimination bracket will be declared the winner of the Economics Bowl. An example bracket to be used can be found here.
Curriculum Breakdown
The power round will consist of two exams for each division: one which focuses on macroeconomics and one which focuses on microeconomics. Each exam will consist of 3 to 4 free-response questions of different weights.
20% Microeconomics (Industrial Organization, Public Finance, Theory, Labor)
15% Current Events
15% Economic History
15% History of Economic Thought
5% Finance
5% Econometrics
5% Wildcard
POWER ROUND RULES
The power round is a written, team-based exam. All four members of a team collaborate to complete around 3 free-response questions for each exam in 75 minutes.
Each question will be worth a specific number of points, and point values will be denoted on the exam. Incorrect or unanswered questions receive zero points, and there is no penalty for guessing. Partial credit may be awarded.
Calculators and notes are allowed in the advanced division (but not in the introductory division), but the use of the internet and outside sources is strictly prohibited in both.
One of the questions will be a tiebreaker question, but teams will NOT know in advance which question is the tie-breaker question. This question will only be graded if the two highest-scoring teams earn equal numbers of points on the free-response questions. The team that earns more points on this tie-breaker question will be declared the winner.
If there is still a tie after the tiebreaker question is factored into both teams’ scores, a final tiebreaker question will be sent to both teams to complete. If both teams achieve equal scores on this exam as well, a tie will be declared and both teams congratulated for their dexterous economic knowledge.
Economics Bowl Rules
The rules and format have been slightly modified for the 2020 competition. Please review the changes below and view the NET 2020 Sample Round.
Question Styles
Questions are in pairs of toss-ups and bonuses. The team that successfully answers the toss-up will have an opportunity to answer the bonus question.
No communication between players is permitted during toss-up questions. Players are encouraged to collaborate to answer bonus questions.
Toss-ups will appear in short answer form. There will be no computational questions in toss-ups.
Bonuses will occur in Multiple Choice and Short Answer format. The question format will be specified by the moderator before the question is read. Basic mathematical computations may appear in bonuses, but not toss-ups.
Matches will consist of 15 pairs of toss-ups and bonuses (30 questions total)
Time
Round robin and single elimination matches will last 25 minutes or until all 15 questions have been read, whichever occurs first.
If the round time ends while a question is in progress, the round will end after the bonus is completed.
Answering Toss-Ups
Toss-ups are answered individually. Players may NOT collaborate to answer a toss-up.
Each player can buzz in. The moderator will read questions that all eight players have an opportunity to answer.
To answer a question, a player must buzz in using the lockout buzzer system. After a question is read, players have five seconds to buzz in.
The player that buzzes in will be recognized by the moderator explicitly, first by naming the school and then identifying the student. Only the player that is recognized is allowed to give an answer.
Players should wait until they are recognized by the moderator before giving their answer.
Once recognized, players have approximately 3 seconds to begin providing an answer. If an answer is not provided within that time or there is a significant delay while providing an answer, the moderator will call a “stall” and the question will be counted as incorrect. Prefacing remarks that do not answer a question, such as “my answer is…” will be counted as beginning an answer. Judgment calls by the moderators are final.
If a question is answered correctly, the team that answered the question correctly is awarded 5 points and the bonus will be read to them.
If a question is answered incorrectly, the team that did not provide an answer will have an opportunity to buzz in.
If the question was read in its entirety, the second team is allowed 5 seconds to buzz in after the moderator indicates an incorrect answer or blurt.
If the question was not read in its entirety (in the case of an unsuccessful interrupt), the question will be re-read for the second team, who will have five seconds to answer after it is read.
If the second team answers the question correctly, this team is awarded 4 points and the bonus will be read to them.
If both teams are unsuccessful with a toss-up, the bonus is not read. The moderator will identify the correct answer to the toss-up and proceed to the next toss-up.
Once read in its entirety, a question will not be re-read.
Answering Bonuses
The team that successfully answers the toss-up question will have an opportunity to answer the bonus.
After the bonus question is read, the team captain has approximately 20 seconds to provide an answer. After this time, the moderator will prompt the team captain for an answer. If no answer is given promptly, the bonus will be forfeited.
Team members may collaborate during a bonus. The opposing team (that does not have the bonus) should remain silent during this time.
Only the answer from the team captain will be accepted for the bonus. Attempts to answer the bonus from members who are not the captain will not be accepted.
A correct bonus will be worth 3 points.
Acceptable Answer Formats
Multiple choice questions may be answered in one of three ways:
Letter only (e.g. W, X, Y, or Z)
Verbal answer only (e.g. “upwards”)
Letter AND verbal answer (e.g. “W, upwards”)
If the verbal answer is provided, it must match the question exactly as it is read by the moderator or as is written (e.g. “leftwards” or “up” will be incorrect if the question indicates “upwards”).
For short answer questions, equivalent answers will be accepted.
For examples of equivalent answers and correct responses, see the sample video which will be released prior to the start of the competition and made available to all competitors to view.
Interrupting
A player may buzz in before a question is read in its entirety; this is called an “interrupt.”
The moderator will recognize the player who interrupted. Interruptions must be done via buzzer, which will automatically notify the moderator who buzzed in first in the event of a perceptual tie.
If a player interrupts and answers the question correctly, the player’s team is awarded 5 points.
If a player interrupts and answers incorrectly, the question will continue being read, and the opposing team will have an opportunity to answer in a manner consistent with the rules above.
The team that answered incorrectly may not buzz in again for this question.
Scoring
Questions
Correct toss-ups are worth 5 points.
Correct bonuses are worth 3 points.
Incorrect answers receive 0 points.
Penalties
If team members are found collaborating during a toss-up, the opposing team is awarded 5 points, and the collaborating team forfeits their ability to answer that toss-up question.
If a player provides an answer before they are recognized by the moderator (i.e., “blurts”) the opposing team is awarded 3 points. If applicable, the question will be re-read for the opposing team, who will have an opportunity to buzz in. The team which blurted will not have an opportunity to buzz in.
If a team is participating in distracting behavior during another team’s bonus, they will receive a warning from the moderator. Any other instances of distracting behavior after the first warning will result in 5 points being awarded to the opposing team.
At the end of each match, a representative from each team will sign a sheet verifying the round score and outcome.
The team with the most points at the end of the match will be declared the winner of that match. No ties can occur during the single-elimination bracket.
In the round robin portion, teams receive 2 bracket points for a win, 1 bracket point for a tie, and no bracket points for a loss.
The teams with the highest point values will advance to either the quarterfinal or semifinal single elimination round, depending on the size of the registered pool.
Tiebreakers
In the event that two teams in the same division are tied in round-robin points and this tie matters for purposes of determining the single-elimination bracket, the team which won the pair’s head-to-head match will advance to the single-elimination tournament.
Further, in the event that the head-to-head match resulted in a tie, the team with the highest number of points earned in all rounds will advance to the single-elimination tournament.
Further, if two teams are tied in match points, the two teams will proceed to compete in a 5 toss-up runoff tiebreaker with the same rules regarding toss-ups as above.
No ties are allowed in the single-elimination tournament. If a tie occurs once a single-elimination round has been completed, the two teams will proceed to compete in a 5 toss-up runoff tiebreaker with the same rules regarding toss-ups as above.
Challenges
There are two types of challenges: rules and content challenges. Only the eight players in a match may issue challenges. Advisors may NOT issue challenges.
Rules challenges relate to scoring or the application of the rules (e.g. scoring). Judgment calls by moderators CAN NOT be challenged.
Content challenges relate to the validity of round questions or acceptable answers.
Teams should state their challenge to a specific question before the next question is read by saying “challenge.” Once a team member challenges a question, the round time is stopped. Once a new question is read, teams may no longer challenge previous questions.
Teams are allowed to issue at most one unsuccessful content challenge per round.
Supplementary Rules
The structure of the Economics Bowl is subject to change at the discretion of NET organizers, if deemed necessary for the successful and fair execution of the tournament.
No cell phones or electronic devices may be used by players, coaches, substitutes, or spectators once the match has started. If any electronic device is audible during the match, the person possessing the device must leave the room for the rest of the match, and the device may be subject to confiscation for the remainder of the tournament.
If the buzzer system significantly malfunctions during the course of a toss-up question and officials are unable to determine which of the two players buzzed in first, the round time will be paused, the question will be discarded, and the buzzer system will be replaced. When play is ready to resume, the next toss-up will be offered to both teams, or if this situation occurs on the last question of the round, the officials will obtain a replacement question.
If the moderator inadvertently responds to someone other than the captain while indicating whether an answer is correct, or to the captain before the answer is being given, the officials will replace the game time used in that bonus, and the next bonus question will be read to the team playing the bonus. If this situation occurs on the last question of the round, the officials will obtain a replacement bonus question.
