astronomy

Stephen DeCanio

Stephen DeCanio is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Stephen DeCanio rather than just read about it. In short: Stephen DeCanio (born 1942) is a Professor of economics, emeritus, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His current research deals with the impact of artificial intelligence on society, the economy, and culture.

Key takeaways

Stephen DeCanio belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Stephen DeCanio to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Stephen DeCanio from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Stephen DeCanio (born 1942) is a Professor of economics, emeritus, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His current research deals with the impact of artificial intelligence on society, the economy, and culture. His recent research has also addressed the consequences of computational limits for economics and social theory more generally. He has published books and articles in the fields of global environmental protection and energy economics, the theory of the firm, and economic history. He studied mathematics as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley and received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. After teaching at Tufts University (1970–72) and Yale University (1972–78), he joined the faculty at UCSB in 1978. From 1986 to '87 he was the Senior Staff Economist at the President's Council of Economic Advisors. He was also a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Economic Options Panel, which reviewed the economic aspects of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Awards In 1996 he was awarded the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and in 2007 he was presented with the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought by the Global Development and Environment Institute. He participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Publications In addition to numerous journal articles, DeCanio has written the following books:

Agriculture in the Postbellum South: The Economics of Production and Supply. Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1974. Taxing Energy: Oil Severance Taxation and the Economy (with Robert T. Deacon, H.E. Frech, III, and M. Bruce Johnson). New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1990. Tax Waste, Not Work (with Jeff Hamond, principal author, and Peggy Duxbury, Alan Sanstad, and Christopher Stinson). San Francisco: Redefining Progress, 1997. The Economics of Climate Change: A Background Paper. San Francisco: Redefining Progress, 1997. (A copy of this may be found in the References section of the Economics of global warming entry.) Economic Models of Climate Change: A Critique. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003. Limits of Economic and Social Knowledge. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014.

References

External links http://www.stephendecanio.com

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stephen DeCanio

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stephen DeCanio claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Stephen DeCanio before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Stephen DeCanio ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Stephen DeCanio

In research: Stephen DeCanio appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Stephen DeCanio in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Stephen DeCanio is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, 21st-century American economists, Energy economists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stephen DeCanio outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Stephen DeCanio” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Stephen DeCanio in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stephen DeCanio means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Stephen DeCanio out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stephen DeCanio in simple terms?

Why does Stephen DeCanio matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Stephen DeCanio?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Stephen DeCanio.