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

该提案将允许20名本科生参加美国经济协会夏季培训计划。AEASTP的目标是通过在密集课程的支持下进行原创的、有指导的研究项目，为非研究密集型大学的本科生准备经济学博士学位。该计划的两层结构（基础和高级水平）允许学生连续两年参加，如果适当的话，第二年可以更深入地研究相同的研究课题。AEASTP已经在美国的各个校区运作了34年；在此资助期内，该项目将设在加州大学圣巴巴拉分校。该项目转移到加州大学圣迭戈分校的同时，研究部分也越来越受到重视，更普遍的是，除了如何研究之外，为什么要研究经济学。在其他变化中，学生将有更大的自由度来为自己选择的项目收集自己的数据，并将有两周的时间专门用于研究这个项目。更广泛的影响：通往经济学博士学位的成功之路可能是崎岖不平的，尤其是对于来自非研究密集型和少数族裔院校的学生来说。障碍包括：本科经济学培训往往更多地面向该专业最受欢迎的职业目标——商科，而不是博士学位学习；对如何安排学生攻读博士学位缺乏熟悉；以及影响学生和学校的经济限制。一个后果是，美国的经济学教师和博士生之间一直缺乏多样性。AEASTP以多种方式解决了上述博士学习的障碍。该计划提供专门为博士研究量身定制的高级课程，让学生参与他或她直接感兴趣的主题的研究项目，并提供从不那么特权的本科院校到研究密集型博士项目的持续管道。这个渠道包括项目的校友，他们经常在夏天回来教书或当助教。因此，AEASTP的连续性对经济学专业中代表性不足的少数群体的持续进步至关重要。为了进一步加快这一进展速度，加州大学圣迭戈分校计划将重点转向更多由学生主导和指导的研究。该项目以一种非常具体的方式向代表性不足的学生展示了如何将强大的经济分析工具用于他们直接感兴趣的问题。

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.