Finance & Economics research projects for high-school students

Explore how markets behave, learn the craft of financial modeling and engage with economic theory, all with the support of expert mentors who work in these areas.

In the Finance & Economics track, you work one-on-one with a mentor who guides you all the way from an initial question to a finished, original research project. Along the way you learn research methodology, data analysis and academic writing in a hands-on way, by applying them to your own work, and publication in reputable journals is set out as an explicit goal from the very beginning rather than left as an afterthought.

Every project is built around your own interests and paced so that it fits comfortably alongside school, rather than competing with it. By the end, you have a concrete and verifiable achievement that you can present with confidence in competitive university applications.

Mentors in Finance & Economics

How a research project at D-LABS works

  1. 01

    Start from a real question

    Working together with your mentor, you gradually narrow your broad interests down into one specific research question. The aim is to choose a question you can genuinely answer with the time you have available and the tools you can realistically access, rather than one that sounds impressive but cannot be finished.

  2. 02

    Learn the field's methods

    You read the key papers that surround your question, so that you understand what is already known and where the open gaps are, and then you choose a method that is feasible for your project. This is exactly the way university researchers scope out a study before they begin.

  3. 03

    Do the work, one-to-one

    You meet your mentor live online in one-to-one sessions, collect and analyse your data or your sources, and refine your approach step by step as the project develops. Research rarely goes in a straight line, so revisiting and improving your work is a natural part of the process.

  4. 04

    Finish with a real output

    You finish with a real output, either a written paper or a working project. Where the quality of the work merits it, you also receive support in taking it further toward reputable third-party journals and competitions.

What you finish with

You finish with a concrete and verifiable piece of work, an original paper or project that you can point to directly in your university applications. Just as importantly, you also come away with the research methods and the academic writing skills you need to do it all again on your own, without a mentor beside you.

Where the quality of the work merits it, your mentor supports you in preparing the work and submitting it to reputable third-party student journals and competitions. Because your mentor has followed the project closely from the start, they can also speak to it first-hand in a recommendation letter.

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