Economics Research Topics for High School Students (2026): 50+ Ideas That Go Beyond Stock Tips and Crypto Hype

Most high schoolers meet "economics" online through stock-picking videos, crypto hype, "side hustle" content and finance influencers. If that's where your interest started, that's fine. Wondering why prices move or how people make money is a good instinct, and plenty of economists started in the same place.

But none of that content is economic research. A video telling you which coin will take off is a prediction, and usually a sales pitch. A real research topic asks a question you can measure with data, a survey or existing studies, and then answer with evidence. It doesn't try to beat the market or tell anyone what to buy.

The useful part: nearly every money trend you scroll past has a real research question underneath it. This list is meant to help you find one you can actually finish.

Quick summary

• A real economics research topic is a narrow question you can answer with data or published studies, not a prediction or a tip.
• This list has 54 economics research topics for high school students.
• They're sorted into nine subfields, from behavioral economics to the economics of social media, and each one is tagged by difficulty and data type.
• Free data is easy to find: FRED, World Bank Open Data, the BLS, the OECD, the IMF and the U.S. Census Bureau are all covered below.
• You don't need an economics degree or advanced math to start. Curiosity, a spreadsheet and a narrow question will get you far.

Jump to a section

• What You See Online vs. Real Research
• Behavioral Economics
• Development Economics
• Labor and Education Economics
• Environmental and Energy Economics
• Public Policy and Taxation
• International Trade and Globalization
• Digital Economy and Fintech
• Health Economics
• Economics of Social Media
• Where to Find Free Data for an Economics Project
• How to Turn an Online Trend Into a Research Question
• What Our Students Have Researched
• Where This Fits With a Research Program
• Frequently Asked Questions

What You See Online vs. Real Research

Here's what some familiar money content looks like once it becomes a question someone could answer.

What You See Online	The Real Research Question Behind It
"This crypto will 10x"	How did the 2022 stablecoin collapses change public attitudes toward cryptocurrency regulation?
"Side hustle income"	How does social media exposure to "passive income" content relate to teenagers' spending and saving habits?
"Everything is so expensive now"	How did food price inflation in 2022 compare with wage growth for workers in one country?
"Buy now, pay later is free money"	Do "buy now, pay later" options increase how much shoppers spend per online order?
"Influencers made me buy it"	Are teenagers more likely to buy a product recommended by an influencer they follow than one shown in a regular ad?

Each research question names a group, a measure and a comparison. That's what turns a reaction into something you can study.

These economics project ideas for high school students are grouped by subfield. The tags tell you the rough difficulty and what kind of data you'd use.

Behavioral Economics

Why people make money decisions that a textbook model would call irrational. Many of these work as small, anonymous surveys or classroom experiments.

1. Do students choose a smaller reward today over a larger one next week more often when the choice is made on a phone than on paper? *[Beginner, survey data]* 2. Does showing a "was $60, now $40" price make teenagers rate a product as better value than the same product listed at $40 alone? *[Beginner, classroom experiment]* 3. How does the default tip option on card readers affect how much people tip at local cafes? *[Intermediate, observation]* 4. Are students more likely to save part of an allowance when it is paid into a separate "savings" account by default? *[Intermediate, survey data]* 5. Does framing a school fundraiser goal as "per student" instead of as a total change how much families donate? *[Intermediate, school data]* 6. How strongly does loss aversion show up when teenagers are offered a coin-flip bet with real but small stakes, like snacks? *[Beginner, classroom experiment]* 7. What do published studies say about whether "buy now, pay later" options increase the size of online purchases? *[Advanced, existing studies]*

Development Economics

How income, health and opportunity change in lower- and middle-income countries. Public datasets make most of these doable without travel.

8. How did mobile money adoption relate to household savings rates in East African countries between 2010 and 2020? *[Advanced, public datasets]* 9. Is there a relationship between female secondary school enrollment and fertility rates across South Asian countries? *[Intermediate, public datasets]* 10. How have remittances as a share of GDP changed in Central American countries over the last 15 years? *[Beginner, public datasets]* 11. What does existing research say about the effect of free school meal programs on attendance in low-income countries? *[Intermediate, existing studies]* 12. Does access to electricity correlate with the share of women in paid work across sub-Saharan Africa? *[Advanced, public datasets]* 13. How do microfinance repayment rates compare between group and individual loans in published field studies? *[Advanced, existing studies]*

Labor and Education Economics

Jobs, wages and schooling. You are inside the education system, which makes some of these unusually easy to study.

14. How do part-time jobs during the school year relate to self-reported study hours among students at one school? *[Beginner, survey data]* 15. How has the wage gap between workers with and without a college degree changed in the U.S. since 2000? *[Intermediate, public datasets]* 16. What happened to teenage employment in U.S. states that raised their minimum wage above the federal level? *[Advanced, public datasets]* 17. Do students who expect to take on student loans choose different intended majors than those who do not? *[Intermediate, survey data]* 18. How does the youth unemployment rate in European countries relate to how common apprenticeships are? *[Intermediate, public datasets]* 19. How have remote and hybrid work patterns changed commuting costs for workers, according to published surveys? *[Beginner, existing studies]*

Environmental and Energy Economics

The costs and trade-offs behind climate and energy choices. Expect to work with prices, taxes and emissions data.

20. Did plastic bag fees reduce bag use in the cities that introduced them, based on published before-and-after data? *[Beginner, existing studies]* 21. How does household electricity price relate to rooftop solar adoption across U.S. states? *[Intermediate, public datasets]* 22. How have carbon taxes in countries that introduced them compared with emissions trends in similar countries without them? *[Advanced, public datasets]* 23. Would students pay more for a cafeteria meal labelled "low carbon," and how much more? *[Beginner, survey data]* 24. How did fuel price spikes in 2022 change public transport ridership in large cities? *[Intermediate, public datasets]* 25. What do existing studies say about the cost per ton of carbon avoided by electric vehicle subsidies? *[Advanced, existing studies]*

Public Policy and Taxation

What governments tax, spend and subsidize, and who ends up paying. Good for students interested in law or politics too.

26. How did sugar-sweetened beverage taxes affect soda purchases in the places that adopted them, according to published evaluations? *[Intermediate, existing studies]* 27. How does the share of tax revenue from sales taxes relate to income inequality across U.S. states? *[Advanced, public datasets]* 28. Do residents of your town know roughly how their local property tax is spent? A short survey compared with the actual budget. *[Beginner, survey data]* 29. How did direct cash payments during the pandemic relate to household spending in the following months, based on existing studies? *[Advanced, existing studies]* 30. How has the gap between inflation and the growth of public school teacher salaries changed over the last decade? *[Intermediate, public datasets]* 31. Did rent control in a city that adopted it change the number of rental listings, according to published research? *[Advanced, existing studies]*

International Trade and Globalization

Tariffs, exchange rates and supply chains. Trade data is public and surprisingly easy to work with once you know where it lives.

32. How did the 2018 to 2019 U.S. tariffs on washing machines affect their retail prices, based on published studies? *[Intermediate, existing studies]* 33. How does a currency's depreciation relate to tourism arrivals in the following year for a set of small economies? *[Intermediate, public datasets]* 34. Which countries became bigger exporters of electronics to the U.S. as imports from China fell after 2018? *[Advanced, public datasets]* 35. How do prices of the same branded product compare across five countries once converted at market exchange rates? *[Beginner, online price data]* 36. How much did shipping container costs change between 2019 and 2022, and what does research say about how that reached consumer prices? *[Intermediate, existing studies]* 37. Is there a link between trade openness and GDP growth among countries that joined the WTO after 2000? *[Advanced, public datasets]*

Digital Economy and Fintech

Digital payments, apps and cryptocurrency, studied as economics rather than as investment tips. None of these asks you to predict a price.

38. How did the 2022 stablecoin collapses change public attitudes toward cryptocurrency regulation, based on published polls? *[Intermediate, existing studies]* 39. Do teenagers spend more in a month when they pay mostly by phone than when they pay mostly in cash? *[Beginner, survey data]* 40. How has the share of cash payments changed in countries that launched instant payment systems? *[Intermediate, public datasets]* 41. How do food delivery app fees compare with restaurant menu prices for the same order in your area? *[Beginner, online price data]* 42. What do central bank reports say are the main risks and benefits of a central bank digital currency? *[Advanced, existing studies]* 43. How do the fees for sending $200 abroad compare between banks, money transfer services and mobile apps? *[Beginner, online price data]*

Health Economics

What health care costs, who pays and how prices shape behaviour. Many of these rely on published studies rather than new data.

44. How does health spending per person relate to life expectancy across OECD countries? *[Beginner, public datasets]* 45. How did the price of insulin in the U.S. compare with prices in other high-income countries, according to published studies? *[Intermediate, existing studies]* 46. Do students know the cost of a typical doctor visit in their area? A survey compared with published price data. *[Beginner, survey data]* 47. What does research say about whether cigarette tax increases reduce smoking more among teenagers than adults? *[Advanced, existing studies]* 48. How did the cost of school sports injuries change for families after a district changed its insurance policy? *[Advanced, local records]*

Economics of Social Media

Attention, influencers and advertising as an economic system. Closest to what you already see online, and easy to make too broad, so stay narrow.

49. How does social media exposure to "passive income" content relate to teenagers' spending and saving habits? *[Intermediate, survey data]* 50. Are students more likely to buy a product recommended by an influencer they follow than the same product shown in a regular ad? *[Beginner, survey data]* 51. How does disclosing "#ad" on a post change how much viewers trust the product recommendation? *[Beginner, classroom experiment]* 52. How has digital advertising's share of total ad spending changed over the last decade, according to industry reports? *[Intermediate, existing studies]* 53. Does "limited drop" marketing on social media make teenagers willing to pay more for sneakers or clothing? *[Intermediate, survey data]* 54. How do creator payouts per view compare across major short-video platforms, based on what the platforms publish? *[Advanced, public reports]*

Where to Find Free Data for an Economics Project

Good research topics in economics live or die on data. These sources are free, public and widely used by professional economists.

• FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis): U.S. and international time series like inflation, interest rates, unemployment and GDP, with built-in charts.
• World Bank Open Data: country-level indicators on income, education, health, energy and poverty, good for comparing countries.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): wages, employment, prices and the Consumer Price Index, broken down by job and region.
• OECD Data: comparable statistics for member countries on taxes, health spending, education and labor markets.
• IMF Data: macroeconomic figures like government debt, exchange rates and balance of payments.
• U.S. Census Bureau: household income, population, housing and business data, down to the county level.

Start with one source, download a small table and make a chart before you commit to a topic. If the data you need doesn't exist, it's better to find out in week one.

How to Turn an Online Trend Into a Research Question

You can use this on almost any money video or post.

1. Write down the claim. Note exactly what the content says. 2. Find the economic idea inside it. Most claims hide a cause and effect, or a comparison between groups. 3. Check for data. Is there a public dataset or a published study that measures both parts? If not, reshape the idea. 4. Narrow it. Pick one group, one place, one time period and one measure.

```example Trend: A finance video says "Paying with your phone makes you spend more without noticing."

Step 1, the claim: Phone payments increase spending.

Step 2, the economic idea: This is about the "pain of paying." Behavioral economists have studied whether less visible payment methods, like cards, change how much people spend compared with cash.

Step 3, is there data? Yes. There's published research on card versus cash spending to build on, and you can collect your own anonymous survey data on how classmates pay and roughly what they spend.

Step 4, narrow it: Drop the "without noticing" part, which is hard to measure. Focus on one group and one month of spending.

Final research question: *Among students aged 15 to 18 at one school, do those who mostly pay by phone report higher monthly spending on food and entertainment than those who mostly pay in cash, after accounting for how much money they receive?*

That question has a group, a comparison, a measure and a control. It could be finished as a survey study in a few weeks, and nobody is being told how to spend their money. ```

What Our Students Have Researched

Here are a few economics research paper topics our students have taken all the way to a finished, published paper:

• *Behavioral Economics & Social Media: To What Extent Does Content Consumption on Instagram Reels Affect Consumer Behavior and Spending Patterns for Gen-Zs?*
• *Differences in Spending Habits Influenced by UPI in Rural and Urban Indian Populations*
• *To What Extent Has the Adoption of Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador Influenced Financial Inclusion Among Its Citizens?*

Notice that each one names a specific place, group or policy. You can browse these and other titles on our published papers page.

Where This Fits With a Research Program

Choosing a topic is the first step. After that come the reading, finding the right data, a method that holds up and the writing itself. Most students get stuck around the data stage, when a topic that sounded simple turns out to need numbers that don't exist.

If you're not sure what structured support looks like, our guide on what a research mentorship program is explains how it works. Students in grades 8 to 12 who want to take one of these topics to a finished paper can look at the Research Publication Fellowship, where Harvard student mentors guide you until the paper is accepted in a peer-reviewed journal. Still deciding on a subject? The free Topic Finder can help you narrow things down, and the psychology research topics list is a good companion if your interest leans toward how people think about money.