The reputation and value of a degree in Economics from UC Davis depends heavily on the quality and the reputation of our students and faculty, and the research done here at UC Davis. Giving to the following key opportunities ensures the excellency of our department and helps us to provide better education and research to society.

Departmental Fund for Excellence: The Department of Economics Fund for Excellence plays a crucial role in the overall effort to strengthen the department and its impact on the campus. As the only source of unrestricted funding available, the Fund provides much-appreciated support for academic and faculty/student life programs in the Department of Economics. With this Fund, the Department Chair has the flexibility to support important programs and initiatives when other sources of funding are not available or are inadequate to fulfill the need. The Fund supports any events and priorities that advance the mission and vision of the department. It includes among others

• invitation of speakers on future job opportunities of our students,

• student scholarships,

• development of a new major "Statistical Finance" joint with the Statistics Department,

• research by faculty and students, and

• conferences and workshops.

A gift to this Fund - your gift - has a direct and immediate impact on the Department. Please know that gifts of any amount are appreciated and are truly needed to sustain the intellectual vitality of the UC Davis Department of Economics.

For substantial gifts, the funding of endowments, fellowships and research programs are available.

Economics Speaker Series: The Economics Department’s Speaker Series forms the center of the intellectual life of the department. Actively exchanging the newest research with other economists around the world is absolutely essential for world class research and education. Every week speakers of various fields within economics present their work in the Economics Department. Financial support towards our Speaker Series allows us to expand these links to the world’s research community, bringing in a greater number of speakers and allowing us more flexibility to invite top researchers, regardless of their location.

Graduate Student Fellowships: Graduate students play an important role in undergraduate education. Many of our undergraduate students appreciate the close mentor relationship with graduate students assisting in teaching. Attracting the most promising graduate students can be as challenging and competitive as attracting the best faculty. Graduate students also require research funds for their dissertation, for example to acquire data or travel to conferences.

Endowed Professorships and Chairs: An endowed professorship provides a distinguished faculty member with a permanent stream of funding to conduct research. Research expenditures include graduate student support, funding for lecture programs and conferences, scholarships, laboratory expenses, among a host of other needs. A chair is financial endowment held in perpetuity; the research is funded by the interest it earns. Sometimes the endowment is restricted to research in a particular subject area. At UC Davis, the state budget pays the faculty member’s salary, but funds to support research must be raised from other sources. For that reason, endowed chairs are particularly instrumental in our department’s ability to attract top scholars. The department is grateful to C. Bryan Cameron for funding our first endowed chair, the C. Bryan Cameron Distinguished Chair in International Economics. The current chair holder is Robert Feenstra.

UC Davis Laboratory for Experimental Social Sciences: Controlled experiments in Social Sciences play an increasingly important role in learning about economic, political and social behavior. Together with our colleagues in other fields of social sciences, we seek to establish an interdisciplinary laboratory for experimental research into social sciences. We seek funding for the computer infrastructure and for running such a laboratory. The voluntary participants in such experiments are most undergraduate students. For instance, experiments on markets allow undergraduate students to experience as traders the interaction in markets and earn real money commensurate with their performance.

If you are interested in those key giving opportunities, please contact Vicky Austin, Director of Development, Social Sciences, at vsaustin@ucdavis.edu or (530) 754-2223.