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

智力优势：这项提议将允许8名本科生参加美国经济协会暑期培训计划。AEASTP的目标是通过实施一个由密集课程支持的原创、有指导的研究项目，为非研究密集型校园的本科生学习经济学博士学位做好准备。S的项目是两级结构(基础和高级)，允许学生连续两年参加，如果合适的话，在第二年更深入地讨论同一研究课题。AEASTP已经在美国各地的不同校园运营了34年；在这段资金期间，该项目将设在加州大学圣巴巴拉分校。S转学到南加州大学伯克利分校的同时，该校更加重视研究部分，更广泛地说，除了如何学习之外，还应该学习经济学的“为什么”。在其他变化中，学生将有更大的自由来为他们自己选择的项目收集数据，该项目将有两周的时间专门用于对这个项目的研究。广泛的影响：成功的经济学博士学习之路可能是坎坷的，特别是对于来自非研究密集型和少数族裔服务机构的学生来说。障碍包括：本科经济学培训往往更倾向于该专业最受欢迎的职业目标--商业--而不是博士学习，不熟悉将学生安排在博士课程中，以及影响学生和学校的财务限制。一个顺序是美国的经济学教师和博士生之间持续缺乏多样性。AEASTP通过多种方式解决了博士学习的上述障碍。该项目提供专门为博士学习量身定做的高级课程，让学生参与到与他或她直接感兴趣的主题的研究项目中，并提供从不那么有特权的本科院校进入研究密集型博士项目的持续渠道。这一渠道包括经常在暑期回来教书或助教的项目校友。因此，AEASTP的连续性对于经济专业中代表性不足的少数群体继续取得进展很重要。为了进一步加快这一进展速度，UCSB计划将重点转向更多以学生为导向、有指导的研究。我们希望这将以非常具体的方式向代表不足的学生展示，如何将强大的经济分析工具运用到与他们直接相关的问题上。

Intellectual Merit:This proposal would allow 8 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 program?s two-tier structure (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 program?s shift 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 havegreater 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 major's most popular career goal --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. Oneconsequence 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 theeconomics profession. To accelerate this rate of progress further, UCSB plans a change of emphasis towards even more student-directed, mentored research. We hope this will demonstrate 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.