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The Department of Economics has 29 permanent faculty
members, all active in research, and by various ranking criteria the
department consistently ranks between number 25 and 35 in the country.
The Ph.D. program is patterned similar to most other programs. The core
first year sequence of microeconomics, macroeconomics and quantitative
methods is followed by three elective fields chosen from advanced economic
theory; econometrics; economic development; economic history; economy,
justice and society; industrial organization; international economics;
monetary economics and public economics. To assist graduate research the
department maintains an active program of
seminars and workshops.
The Ph.D. program is relatively small with sixty to seventy students
across all years. Its effective size is increased by complementarities
with the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, which has a
similar sized Ph.D. program.
Financial aid assistance varies for first year students. In subsequent
years some students receive fellowships or work as research assistants,
while the majority work as teaching assistants. At Davis teaching assistants
do not teach their own classes. Instead they support faculty in teaching
through holding discussion sections, office hours and grading.
The Department is proud of its job placement record relative to similarly-ranked
departments. Over one-half of Ph.D. graduates get an academic job, including
placements at top fifty universities (Tennessee, Oregon and Washington
State since 1993). The remaining students usually obtain employment as
economists in the California state government, the federal government or
their own national government in the case of some foreign students.
U.C.-Davis is ideally located in
northern California. The city
of Davis, with 55,000 residents, doubles as a classic college town
and a desirable "suburb" of the state capital Sacramento which is twelve
miles away. Most students live on campus or within three miles of the campus
in a city that provides an extensive bus system and a renowned system of
bike paths and bike lanes. The Sierra Nevada mountains, California coast
and city of San Francisco are all within two hours drive.
The university campus itself is old by California standards, starting
in 1909, and has grown to 25,000 students. The campus is historically known
for its tradition in agriculture and biological sciences and for supporting
interdisciplinary research. More recently it has enjoyed success in many
fields and supports professional schools in Law, Management, Medicine and
Veterinary Medicine, in addition to Colleges of Letters and Science, Agriculture
and Environment, and Engineering. The university usually ranks number ten
amongst public universities in the U.S., according to the widely-cited
rankings in U.S. News and World Report. U.C.-Davis enjoys all the advantages
of being part of the University of California, including prestige and access
to journals on-line via the California Digital Library.
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