Douglas Steigerwald

Professor Douglas Steigerwald is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a courtesy appointment in Statistics. He serves in the Department of Economics within the College of Letters & Science and leads the Econometrics Research Group. His work bridges economics with environmental science, computer science, geography, and statistics to develop innovative econometric methods.

Professor Steigerwald received his B.A. from Pomona College and completed his Ph.D. in Economics at UC Berkeley, where he studied efficiency bounds for semiparametric estimators. After completing his doctoral studies, he immediately joined the faculty at UC Santa Barbara.

Steigerwald's research focuses on frontier econometric methods applied to complex problems at the intersection of multiple disciplines. His work includes detecting latent economic events like market regimes and collusive behavior, developing likelihood ratio tests based on Gaussian processes, analyzing clustered data structures, and addressing statistical challenges when sample sizes approach population sizes. He also conducts applied research measuring journal subscription values and assessing water recycling benefits.

His publication record reveals a consistent focus on econometric methodology with applications spanning environmental economics, agricultural markets, and cybersecurity. Recent work shows increasing emphasis on causal inference methods, clustered data analysis, and applications to environmental resource management. His interdisciplinary approach connects traditional econometrics with computer science and environmental science challenges.

• Directed American Economic Association's Summer Training Program
• Advised Sloan Foundation on graduate research
• Chair of NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program in Economics
• Faculty representative on UCSB Foundation Board of Trustees

As faculty director of the Econometrics Research Group, Steigerwald mentors graduate students across multiple departments engaged in applied econometric research. His external funding includes grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office for cybersecurity research conducted with the Computer Security Group. Professor Steigerwald teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in econometrics including Introduction to Econometrics (Econ 140A), Econometrics II (Econ 241B), and Advanced Econometrics I & II (Econ 245A & B), emphasizing practical applications of econometric methods to real-world problems.