Rate My Professor Brian Duncan

Brian Duncan is Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Colorado Denver. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1998 and his B.A. in Economics from San Diego State University in 1992. Duncan joined the University of Colorado Denver in 1998 as Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005, to Professor in 2014, and became Department Chair in 2020. He previously served as Director of Graduate Studies from 2018 to 2020 and Graduate Advisor from 2005 to 2018. Since 2014, he has held U.S. Census Bureau Special Sworn Status as a Researcher.

Duncan's research centers on the economics of generosity, particularly the conflicting motives for charitable contributions, as well as the intergenerational progress of immigrant descendants, especially Mexican Americans, economic incentives in foster care and adoption, labor and demographic economics, applied econometrics, immigrant assimilation, and race and ethnic identity. Key publications include “Hispanic Americans in the Labor Market: Patterns Over Time and Across Generations” (with Francisca M. Antman and Stephen J. Trejo, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2023), “American Indian Casinos and the Rise in Native American Self-Identification” (with Francisca M. Antman, Journal of the European Economic Association, 2023), “Ethnic Attrition, Assimilation, and the Measured Health Outcomes of Mexican Americans” (with Francisca M. Antman and Stephen J. Trejo, Journal of Population Economics, 2020), “New Evidence of Generational Progress for Mexican Americans” (with Jeffrey Grogger, Ana Sofia Leon, and Stephen J. Trejo, Labour Economics, 2020), “It’s Just a Game: The Super Bowl and Low Birth Weight” (with Hani Mansour and Daniel I. Rees, Journal of Human Resources, 2017), and “Economic Incentives and Foster Child Adoption” (with Laura Argys, Demography, 2013). His awards include the Georgescu-Roegen Prize from the Southern Economic Association (2008), UCD College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence Award (2003), and Lancaster Award in social sciences (2000). Duncan has received grants as co-principal investigator or consultant from the Russell Sage Foundation, NIH/NICHD, W.E. Upjohn Institute, and Smith Richardson Foundation. He has chaired multiple faculty search committees, served on budget and planning committees, the Human Subjects Research Committee, and refereed for journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Labor Economics, and Review of Economics and Statistics.