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

这项提案将允许20名本科生参加美国经济协会暑期培训计划。AEASTP的目标是为非研究密集型校园的本科生提供博士学位。经济学研究，通过进行由密集的课程支持的原创，指导研究项目。该计划的双层结构（基础和高级水平）允许学生连续两年参加，如果合适，在第二年更深入地返回到同一研究主题。 AEASTP已经在美国各地的各个校园运行了34年;在此资助期间，该计划将设在加州大学圣巴巴拉。该计划向UCSB的转变与对研究部分的日益重视相吻合，更普遍的是除了如何做经济学之外，为什么要做经济学。除其他变化外，学生将有更大的自由度为自己选择的项目收集自己的数据，并且该项目的两周时间将专门用于该项目的研究。更广泛的影响：成功的博士之路经济学的学习可能是一个不稳定的过程，特别是对于来自非研究密集型和少数民族服务机构的学生。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，而不是博士学位。研究，缺乏对博士学位安排的熟悉。计划和财政限制影响学生和机构。结果之一是经济学教师和博士之间持续缺乏多样性。学生在美国。 AEASTP解决了上述障碍，以博士。以多种方式学习。该计划提供专门为博士量身定制的高级课程。研究，从事对他或她直接感兴趣的主题的研究项目的学生，并提供了一个从较不特权的本科院校到研究密集型博士学位的持续管道。程序.这个管道包括定期返回教学或助教的计划校友。在夏天。 因此，AEASTP的连续性对于经济专业中代表性不足的少数民族的持续进步至关重要。为了进一步加快这一进展速度，UCSB计划将重点转向更多的学生指导，指导研究。 该项目以非常具体的方式向代表性不足的学生展示了如何将经济分析的强大工具应用于与他们直接相关的问题。

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.