Zach Rutledge: Graduate Student Researcher

What do you do as a graduate student researcher?

I study academic journal articles and other relevant material to understand econometric modelling methodology for immigration-related research, use statistical software to process US Census data (including summary statistics, graphs, and regression analysis), develop econometric models to estimate the effect of immigration on wages and employment levels of construction workers in the US, and write research papers.  My work consists of lengthy hours reading complicated economic journal articles, sitting at a computer writing computer code to clean and analyze data, and writing reports and research papers.

How did your UC Davis education prepare you for this work?

My UC Davis education helped me develop a routine of discipline, allowed me to learn the fundamentals of economic research (especially econometrics), and helped me develop my writing skills for professional-level writing.