Beginning in June, the University of California, Santa Barbara, will host the Summer Training Program in Economics, sponsored by the American Economic Association (AEA) and the National Science Foundation. The annual program seeks to prepare talented undergraduate students for doctoral programs in economics and related disciplines. UCSB is the 10th university to present the summer program, which is located at a host site for three to six years. The program will remain at UCSB through 2011. Previous host universities include Duke University; the University of Colorado at Denver; the University of Texas, Austin; Stanford University; Temple University, the University of Wisconsin, Madison; Yale, Northwestern, and UC Berkeley.
"The shift of the program from Duke to UCSB and the added investment by both the National Science Foundation and the American Economic Association reflect the quality of research and graduate training in UCSB's Department of Economics," said Doug Steigerwald, a professor of economics at UCSB and director of the program. "With this funding we hope to alter the face of research in economics."
Thirty-five students have been selected to participate in this year's program, which, as in past sessions, will emphasize economic theory, quantitative skills, and a research project. The program, which was established in 1974, offers courses at foundation and advanced levels, and participants who are not ready for the advanced courses may begin at the foundation level and return for a second summer.
Although the program is open to any United States citizen or permanent resident, preference is given to members of underrepresented minority groups who have demonstrated financial need. While approximately 12 percent of bachelor's degrees in economics are earned by members of underrepresented minority groups, the same can be said for only about five percent of doctorates in economics. The AEA, which serves as the leading professional body of academic economists in the United States, is committed to addressing this gap. A number of participants receive funding from the AEA's Minority Scholarship Program, whose purpose is to increase the number of African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans who earn doctorates in economics.
UCSB has a top Ph.D. program and an economics faculty renowned both for teaching and research in economic theory, econometrics, finance, and a variety of applied fields. Adding to UCSB's strength is its partnership with the University of Texas-Pan American and North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University. The University of Texas-Pan American is second in the nation in the number of bachelor's degrees and fifth in the number of master's degrees awarded to Hispanics while the historically black North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University is one of the nation's leading producers of African-American engineers.
In addition to the National Science Foundation, program sponsors include MIT Press, Princeton University Press, Cengage Learning, Houghton Mifflin Co., W.W. Norton & Company, and McGraw-Hill.
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