Program
Summary
Program Description: Economics and Environmental Science (EES)
The Economics and Environmental Science (EES) Training Program at UCSB is a program for PhD training in environmental and natural resource economics. PhD training in EES is different than most graduate programs in that students acquire a deep and expert knowledge of economics as well as an understanding and appreciation of the natural science that underlies their economics research. EES prepares students for research careers in a number of professional settings including academia, government, and consulting.
Any PhD program requires depth in some area, and for EES, that depth is in economics. Students emerging from the EES program are outstandingly trained economists and there are no compromises in the depth of economics training students receive. But EES students have an added strength - their advanced appreciation of an area of natural science relevant to environmental problems. The natural science training of the students is such that students understand and appreciate research methods in their chosen area of natural science.
This dual emphasis uniquely prepares students for a wide variety of careers. Students are particularly well-prepared for faculty positions in disciplinary departments (such as economics or agricultural economics) and multidisciplinary departments (such as environmental studies programs and graduate schools of the environment). An understanding of natural science fields as well as their own field of environmental economics is particularly well-suited for multidisciplinary departments and non-academic careers in government, industry or consulting.
The EES Training Program is not a PhD program or department in and of itself. Students in the program are doctoral students in either the Department of Economics or the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and must satisfy the PhD requirements in their home unit. What the EES Training Program provides is a structure for students who wish to pursue a multidisciplinary program in environmental economics. This is achieved by supplementing their home unit's degree requirements in a well-defined manner.
The EES program typically starts in the second year of the PhD program, following successful completion of a first-year core sequence in microeconomics and econometrics. In the second year, students take coursework in environmental and natural resource economics and a second field of economics of their choosing. Students also begin to acquire an understanding of an area of environmental science. This culminates in a research experience, working in the laboratory of one of the EES natural science faculty members. A student's dissertation is typically in an area of environmental economics.