REU Site: The Economics Summer Training Program at UC Santa Barbara

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal would allow 20 undergraduate students to attend the American Economic Association Summer Training Program. The goal of the AEASTP is to prepare undergraduates from non-research-intensive campuses for Ph.D. study in economics, by conducting an original, mentored research project supported by intensive coursework. The two-tier structure of the program (foundations and advanced levels) allows students to participate in two successive years, returning, if appropriate, to the same research topic in greater depth in the second year. AEASTP has been in operation for 34 years at various campuses around the U.S.; for this funding period the program will be located at UC Santa Barbara. The shift of the program to UCSB coincides with an increased emphasis on the research component, and more generally on the why of doing economics in addition to the how. Among other changes, students will have greater latitude to collect their own data for projects of their own choosing, and two weeks of the program will be devoted exclusively to research on this project. Broader Impacts: The road to successful Ph.D. study in economics can be a rocky one, especially for students coming from non-research-intensive and minority-serving institutions. Obstacles include undergraduate economics training that is often oriented more towards the most popular career goal of the major --business-- than to Ph.D. study, a lack of familiarity with placing students in Ph.D. programs and financial limitations affecting both the student and the institution. One consequence is a continuing lack of diversity among both economics faculty and Ph.D. students in the United States. AEASTP addresses the above roadblocks to Ph.D. study in a number of ways. The program provides advanced coursework specifically tailored to Ph.D. study, engages the student in a research project on a topic of direct interest to him or her, and provides a continuing pipeline from less-privileged undergraduate institutions into research-intensive Ph.D. programs. This pipeline includes program alumni who regularly return to teach or T.A. in the summers. Continuity of the AEASTP is therefore important to the continued progress of underrepresented minorities in the economics profession. To accelerate this rate of progress further, UCSB plans a change of emphasis towards even more student-directed, mentored research. This project demonstrates to underrepresented students in a very concrete way, how the powerful tools of economic analysis can be brought to bear on issues of direct interest to them.