About

Duncan Thomas is the Norb F. Schaefer Distinguished Professor of International Studies in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University. He holds multiple faculty positions including Professor of Economics and Professor of Public Policy Studies. Additionally, he is a Faculty Research Scholar of Duke's Population Research Center and the Center for Population Health & Aging. He is an associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society, an affiliate of the Duke Global Health Institute, and an affiliate of the Duke Center for International Development. His office is located at 314 Social Sciences Building, Durham, NC, and he can be contacted at (919) 613-7401.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Medicine
• Demography
• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Environmental health
• Geography
• Internal medicine
• Economics
• Economic growth
• Medical emergency
• Clinical psychology
• Socioeconomics
• Biology
• Business
• Surgery
• Virology

Selected publications

• Effort, Identity, and Employee Mental Health

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-05-01

  reportOpen accessSenior author

  Why do workers exert effort at their tasks and what are the implications for their well-being when greater effort is necessary?This paper, which studies university employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, provides empirical evidence that identity -in terms of both the importance of work to employees' sense of self and the extent to which their employer shares their valuesis related to both effort and productivity.Those employees who feel work is important to them and feel the university does not share their values report exerting more effort but accomplishing less, relative to a pre-pandemic benchmark.Furthermore, all these factors are associated with employee's reported mental health.Stress and anxiety are particularly elevated for employees for whom work is important and who feel the employer does not share their values, with similar patterns for depression symptoms and worse overall mental health relative to pre-pandemic.These relationships hold across job roles (faculty vs. staff) and the number of co-resident children.The research suggests a new direction in the study of incentives and organizations: links between non-pecuniary motivations and work-related mental health.

  PublisherDOI

• Effort, Identity, and Employee Mental Health

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Extreme events, educational aspirations, and long-term outcomes

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-30

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• EFFECTS OF INTEGRATED NUTRIENT AND WEED MANAGEMENT ON WEED DYNAMICS AND MAIZE PERFORMANCE IN MINNA, SOUTHERN GUINEA SAVANNA OF NIGERIA

  Journal of Agripreneurship and Sustainable Development · 2024-04-30

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  A field trial was conducted during the rainy season of 2023 at Minna, southern guinea savanna of Nigeria to determine the effects of inorganic NPK fertilizer and poultry manure as nutrient sources, and control of weeds using manual (hoe) weeding and chemical methods on weed dynamics and performance of maize. The treatments consisted of four nutrient sources (control, NPK fertilizer at the rate of 90-30-30 kg ha-1; poultry manure (PM) at 10 Mg ha-1; NPK fertilizer at the rate of 45-15-15 kg ha-1 combined with PM at 5 Mg ha-1) and four weed management (control; pre-emergence herbicide at planting and post-emergence herbicide at 5 weeks after sowing (WAS); two hoe-weeding at 2 and 5 WAS; pre-emergence herbicide at planting and one hoe-weeding at 5 WAS). These were factorially combined and laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance and means were separated using Student Newman Keuls (SNK). The results showed that integration of inorganic NPK fertilizer with manure and control of weeds using pre-emergence herbicide and one hoe-weeding at 5 WAS gave significant reduction in weed density and significantly higher weed control efficiency compared to control. The integration of inorganic NPK fertilizer with manure, and control of weeds using pre-emergence herbicide and one hoe-weeding at 5 WAS had significantly higher yield and yield attributes than control. The integration of inorganic fertilizer with manure and control of weeds using pre-emergence herbicide combined with one hoe-weeding at 5 WAS seems to enhance maize production and is recommended for farmers in the study area.

  PublisherDOI

• Extreme Events, Educational Aspirations and Long-term Outcomes

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-07-01

  reportOpen accessSenior author

  The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was an extremely destructive event in Aceh, Indonesia, killing over 160, 000 people and destroying infrastructure, homes, and livelihoods over miles of coastline. In its immediate aftermath, affected populations faced a daunting array of challenges. At the population level, questions of how the disaster affected children’s and parents’ aspirations for education and whether it permanently disrupted schooling progression are critical in understanding how shocks affect human capital in the short and long term. We use longitudinal data from the Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recovery (STAR) to examine how disaster exposure affects educational aspirations and eventual attainment. We find that damage to one’s community depresses aspirations in the short term but that this weakens with time. With respect to educational attainment 15 years after the event, children’s aspirations, parents’ education, and family socioeconomic status are more important determinants of whether children complete high school and go on to tertiary schooling than disaster exposure. While these results likely reflect, at least in part, the successful post-tsunami reconstruction program, they also establish enormous resilience among survivors who bore the brunt of the tsunami.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Farm profits, prices and household behavior

  Journal of Development Economics · 2024-11-26 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evolution of risk aversion over five years after a major natural disaster

  Journal of Development Economics · 2023-04-14 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Impacts of Disaster-Induced Death and Destruction on Health and Mortality Over the Longer Term

  National symposium on family issues · 2023-01-01

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Understanding the Impacts of a Natural Disaster: Evidence from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

  Social and ecological interactions in the Galapagos Islands · 2023-01-01 · 2 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Exposure to the Indian Ocean Tsunami shapes the HPA-axis resulting in HPA “burnout” 14 years later

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023-10-16 · 11 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Despite significant research on the effects of stress on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, questions remain regarding long-term impacts of large-scale stressors. Leveraging data on exposure to an unanticipated major natural disaster, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, we provide causal evidence of its imprint on hair cortisol levels fourteen years later. Data are drawn from the Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recovery, a population-representative longitudinal study of tsunami survivors who were living along the coast of Aceh, Indonesia, when the tsunami hit. Annual rounds of data, collected before, the year after and 2 y after the disaster provide detailed information about tsunami exposures and self-reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Hair samples collected 14 y after the tsunami from a sample of adult participants provide measures of cortisol levels, integrated over several months. Hair cortisol concentrations are substantially and significantly lower among females who were living, at the time of the tsunami, in communities directly damaged by the tsunami, in comparison with similar females living in other, nearby communities. Differences among males are small and not significant. Cortisol concentrations are lowest among those females living in damaged communities who reported elevated post-traumatic stress symptoms persistently for two years after the tsunami, indicating that the negative effects of exposure were largest for them. Low cortisol is also associated with contemporaneous reports of poor self-rated general and psychosocial health. Taken together, the evidence points to dysregulation in the HPA axis and "burnout" among these females fourteen years after exposure to the disaster.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01AG030668

  NIH · $2.3M · 2014

• NIH Grant P01HD028372

  NIH · $11.8M · 2005

• NIH Grant R01AG031266

  NIH · $4.8M · 2020

• INTERNATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN HEALTH, SES, CONSUMPTION AND COGNITION IN OLDER POP

  NIH · $44.7M · 2022

• NIH Grant R01HD040245

  NIH · $799k · 2007

Frequent coauthors

• Elizabeth Frankenberg

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  109 shared

• John S. Strauss

  Island Health

  36 shared

• Cecep Sumantri

  26 shared

• Janet Currie

  Princeton University

  25 shared

• Wayan Suriastini

  21 shared

• Bondan Sikoki

  18 shared

• Jed Friedman

  17 shared

• Daniel LaFave

  15 shared