Contact Information

Director of Graduate Studies
Social Sciences Ph.D. Program
HSS 228-77
Caltech
Pasadena, Ca. 91125
626-395-3964
fax: 626-405-9841
email: DGS@hss.caltech.edu

University Location and Description

Caltech is located in Pasadena, California, a beautiful city of 130,000
people just outside Los Angeles.  Pasadena has restaurants, museums, and
night life, and it lies at the foot of San Gabriel mountains.

Type of Degree Offered

Ph.D. in Social Science

Short History of the Program

Formally, there are no departments at Caltech. The Institute is organized
in six Divisions, including the Division of the Humanities and Social
Sciences. Within this division, the Social Science faculty oversee the
Ph.D. program, and it includes pieces of what would normally be thought of
as the departments of anthropology, economics, political science,
psychology, law, and business. Nonetheless, we are compared to departments
of economics and political science in a number of rankings. Some of these
list us in the top ten in both areas.

The Social Science Ph.D. Program at Caltech offers the opportunity for
highly motivated and quantitatively-oriented students to pursue
interdisciplinary research in areas common to anthropology, economics,
political science, history, law, and public policy. The program is based on
the belief that a wide variety of social phenomena are best understood as
the consequence of intelligent decisions by individuals pursuing their own
ends, that such decisions can be modeled, and that conclusions concerning
social events should be based on observable and measurable parameters of
those theories. Graduates of the program have been eagerly sought and have
found positions in leading departments of economics, political science, and
law as well as in government and industry. 

The program was created in the 1970s, and while it is small, it has turned
out a number of people who have done significant work in economic history.
One of the virtues of the program is that it is interdisciplinary.  Besides
doing rigorous work in economics, all students pass prelims in rational
choice political science, which turns out to be extremely useful in
economic history.  Further information on the program (including a complete
list of alumni) is available at http://www.hss.caltech.edu/SSHome.html

Students
	
21 current students, of whom 1 is doing economic history.

One student has completed an economic history dissertation in the past five
years: Dean Williamson, Economist, Economic Analysis Group, U.S. Department of
Justice.

Others have done a portion of their dissertations on historical topics.

Faculty

1. Lance E. Davis: Evolution of capital markets, institutional change,
technological change. 
Contact email: led@hss.caltech.edu

2. Caroline M. Fohlin: Corporate finance and governance, financial
intermediation, industrial organization, economic history, international comparative political economy.  
Contact email: fohlin@hss.caltech.edu

3. Philip T. Hoffman: Economic history of early modern Europe, economic
development, institutional change.
Contact email: pth@hss.caltech.edu

Required Courses in Economic History
	
SS229abc.  Theoretical and Quantitative Dimensions of Historical Development.

Offered Courses in Economic History
	
An 123 Rich Nations and Poor Nations
Ec/SS 128 Economic and Financial Development in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Ec/SS 129 Economic History of the United States
Ec/SS 130 Economic History of Europe from the Middle Ages to the Industrial
Revolution
H/SS 154 Race Relations in History and Social Science
SS231abc American Politics
SS 232abc Historical and Comparative Perspectives in Political Analysis
SS229abc.  Theoretical and Quantitative Dimensions of Historical Development.

Seminar Series

Although there is no formal seminar, we do have talks in economic history
and in other areas of the social sciences.  The schedule can be found at: 

http://www.hss.caltech.edu/Events/Soon.html

General Department Information

There are currently 22 tenure track faculty in the social sciences and 21
graduate students, for a faculty student ratio of 1.05 professors per
student.  Ranking information is available at:

http://www.hss.caltech.edu/SSGrad/Rankings.html


Ranking: While we do not have separate departments, we have been included
in published surveys and studies that rank departments and programs. Each
study uses a different methodology, giving somewhat different rankings.
Here is a summary for Caltech's social sciences:

Ranking :  Field : When : Where : Criterion/Methodology

1 : Political Science : 1998 : PS : Quality adjusted publications per capita

3 : Business and Economics : 1998 : Science Watch : Citations per paper

6 : Political Science : 1996 : PS : Publications

10 : Microeconomics : 1998 : US News : Survey of department heads

8 : Economics : 1996 : Economic Inquiry : Pages per capita in top 36 journals

6 : Economics : 1995 : National Research Council : Survey of top department heads
 
Here PS = Political Science and Politics (December 1998), published by the
American Political Science Association
Further details about the rankings are available at: 
http://www.hss.caltech.edu/SSGrad/Rankings.html
	
Links

Caltech Home Page: http://www.hss.caltech.edu
Social Science Home Page:  http://www.hss.caltech.edu/SSHome.html
Ph.D. Program Home Page: http://www.hss.caltech.edu/SSGrad/Ph_D.html
List Ph.D. Alumni: http://www.hss.caltech.edu/Alumni.html