no recession

Do it if the marginal benefits from doing so are at least as great as the marginal costs. Wouldn't you essentially be committing to, at minimum, a 6-7 year doctoral experience if you transferred? The two years you lose at Davis, to get into Berkeley, would then translate into roughly $120k in foregone wages.

But, there are other non-monetary costs and benefits to consider as well. You'd have to talk to Gen and get a sense of whether she could handle it. I wanted to do essentially this very thing. Terminate at the masters, then transfer to Wash U in St. Louis. I didn't get in when I attempted it last year, but later I wonder whether passing my prelims and writing a masters thesis would've made that a better possibility for fall of 2004/2005. But there's just no way Paige could do it. The PhD is grueling and is felt most profoundly by the spouse, who in my situation, has been forced to get four jobs on the side just so we can make ends meet. That's a different situation than ya'll, but still, the point being, you'd have to have a sense of whether Gen could realistically handle such a task.

But, there are real advantages to that - especially as you consider such a track as being what you want to specialize in. Berkeley is, all around, an excellent program, and so jumping to it could end up increasing your lifetime flow of income. But then again, Davis is also a great program.

It's a tough call. Here's what I'm leaning towards. The only thing I want anymore is just to be out of school. I want to be out there, as a practicing economist, and whatever I don't learn here, I will try to learn on the outside. But I want out, more than anything. My goal is four years - have the dissertation defended in four years, and be employed at either a research program that following fifth year, or a teach school with a 3/3 load that will allow me to continue research. You may reach this point too next year - I used to dream about other programs, but now I've stopped thinking about the grass in everyone else's lawn and just am focusing on doing my own research. I'm in a standard neoclassical program. Nothing cutting edge at Georgia. I'm going to probably do something in labor and IO, with a definite empirical slant to it, and I won't be surprised if it's in religion. But, my main goal is not to write the best dissertation, or even to find the best field, but to get a broad enough base that I can easily move into whatever it is I want to do, and to get out of here in four years. The marginal costs of each additional year, for me, seem greater than the marginal benefits, regardless of the program.

But that's a question you and your family ultimately have to wrestle with. FWIW, I'm nuts about the psychology and economics literature, too.

Dadgum, Scotty!

You only live once, so don't waste it.

Long answer: You have to weigh your forgone earnings, which may be nil if your dissertation takes forever because you aren't motivated enough, against the loss of utility coming from getting closer and closer to death every day while not accomplishing what you want to accomplish.

So, going to Cal makes sense, if you can get in, they let you do what you want to do, and it is OK with your wife.