Gregory M Duncan
University of Washington · Economics
Active 1979–2023
About
Gregory M Duncan is an Affiliate Faculty member in the Department of Economics at the University of Washington. His fields of interest include Algorithmic Processes, Data Science, Econometric Theory, Econometrics, Industrial Organization, Labor Economics, Machine Learning, and Microeconomics. He teaches courses such as Econometrics and Data Science, and Research Issues in Econometrics. His office is located in Savery 346, and he is available for office hours on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. Duncan has contributed to the field through his involvement in research and teaching, with recent activities including hosting the 2023 Econometrics and Optimal Transport Workshop and introducing a Machine Learning Economics course.
Research topics
- Developmental psychology
- Demography
- Medicine
- Gerontology
- Biology
- Psychology
- Endocrinology
- Genetics
Selected publications
International Journal of Obesity · 2022 · 35 citations
- Demography
- Medicine
- Developmental psychology
BACKGROUND: Body mass index (BMI) shows strong continuity over childhood and adolescence and high childhood BMI is the strongest predictor of adult obesity. Genetic factors strongly contribute to this continuity, but it is still poorly known how their contribution changes over childhood and adolescence. Thus, we used the genetic twin design to estimate the genetic correlations of BMI from infancy to adulthood and compared them to the genetic correlations of height. METHODS: We pooled individual level data from 25 longitudinal twin cohorts including 38,530 complete twin pairs and having 283,766 longitudinal height and weight measures. The data were analyzed using Cholesky decomposition offering genetic and environmental correlations of BMI and height between all age combinations from 1 to 19 years of age. RESULTS: The genetic correlations of BMI and height were stronger than the trait correlations. For BMI, we found that genetic correlations decreased as the age between the assessments increased, a trend that was especially visible from early to middle childhood. In contrast, for height, the genetic correlations were strong between all ages. Age-to-age correlations between environmental factors shared by co-twins were found for BMI in early childhood but disappeared altogether by middle childhood. For height, shared environmental correlations persisted from infancy to adulthood. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the genes affecting BMI change over childhood and adolescence leading to decreasing age-to-age genetic correlations. This change is especially visible from early to middle childhood indicating that new genetic factors start to affect BMI in middle childhood. Identifying mediating pathways of these genetic factors can open possibilities for interventions, especially for those children with high genetic predisposition to adult obesity.
Recent grants
TWINStudy of Environment, Lifestyle Behaviors and Health
NIH · $690k · 2011–2019
Validation and application of portable particulate device in the UW Twin Registry
NIH · $387k · 2015–2017
NIH · $348k · 2007
Validation and application of portable particulate device in the UW Twin Registry
NIH · $1.5M · 2017–2021
NIH · $2.2M · 2016
Frequent coauthors
- 66 shared
Ally R. Avery
Washington State University Spokane
- 60 shared
Eric Turkheimer
- 60 shared
Siny Tsang
University of Virginia
- 44 shared
Nathaniel F. Watson
University of Washington
- 40 shared
David S. Siscovick
Tufts University
- 37 shared
Dariush Mozaffarian
Tufts University
- 37 shared
Luísa Soares‐Miranda
Hospital de Santo António
- 37 shared
Jacob Sattelmair
Awards & honors
- Congratulations to our 2016 Graduates and Award Winners (Jun…
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