[Economics] The Would-Be Chef Who Found Tax And Economics

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by Tax Notes State Commentary Editor Doug Sheppard

Growing up in a rural area of eastern Jamaica in the 1980s, the culinarily inclined Denvil Duncan dreamed of becoming an executive chef on a cruise ship.

Inspired by a cousin who worked in that capacity on the luxurious barges that pulled into Jamaican ports, Duncan saw a future in the planning, preparation, and presentation of delicacies while sailing the high seas.

Until he got a reality check.

“That did not work out in part because studying in high school in Jamaica, this would come under home economics, and my family did not have the means to support me taking this particular subject in high school,” Duncan recalled. “Because it was both theory and practical, and for the practical part, you would need to be buying all these ingredients, taking them to school, making dishes, and so on.”

Little did Duncan know that the death of this dream would lead him to study economics and take him from a modest upbringing in Guy’s Hill — a small rural town in the parish of Saint Catherine — to a prestigious academic career in the United States with stints at Georgia State University and, ultimately, Indiana University.

Economic Roots
When culinary reality set in, Duncan began studying economics in earnest at St. Jago High School in Spanish Town, the capital of Saint Catherine — earning two additional years of study by performing well on the CXC exams.

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He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in economics and accounting from the University of the West Indies in Kingston in 2001 and a master’s degree in economics from the same institution two years later. Upon attaining the latter, he started teaching at the university as an assistant lecturer in the economics department.
Around that time, one of the pivotal events that would shape Duncan’s career happened when in late 2004 he met Sally Wallace and Roy Bahl of Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, who were consulting with the Jamaican government on a tax reform package.

“Toward the end of that project, both Roy and Sally gave a presentation at the University of the West Indies — this was right around the time that I was applying for graduate school, and the plan was always to do a PhD in economics,” Duncan said. “So I was fortunate enough to meet both of them during that seminar. Both of them encouraged me to apply to Georgia State University, which I did, and my application was successful — and I joined the PhD program in the economics department of the Andrew Young School.”

Academically, Duncan was well prepared for the transition when he made the move in 2005. Otherwise, the move from Jamaica to Atlanta was a significant adjustment for someone whose only previous trip to the United States was a two-day conference in San Antonio.

Not only is Kingston (po[CENSORED]tion 1.2 million) only about a fifth of the size of metro Atlanta (po[CENSORED]tion 5.8 million), but the tropical climate is a far cry from the weather in Georgia. Customs, food, and of course the locals’ Southern accents also took some getting used to.

 

“I’m a native speaker of English, but the accent in the South was quite interesting,” Duncan said. “It was the first time I was experiencing this, and I can remember vividly the first couple of weeks — there would be a time delay between when the train operator indicated the name of the next stop and when it registered in my brain that, ' OK, that's what he just said.' There would be a gap between when that was announced and when I could understand exactly what was going on. So it took a couple of weeks for me to adjust to the accent.”

Much like his collegiate experience saw his initial interest in corporate finance and developmental economics shift to public finance, it was in graduate school that Duncan developed an interest in taxes, thanks in part to meeting public finance economist James Alm and labor economist Klara Sabrianova Peter — who both inspired his studies in public and labor economics.

“I’ve just continued with the taxation side of things and understanding how tax policy influences the decisions that economic agents make — however you define economic agents,” Duncan said.

 

“Whether you're looking at individuals, corporations, policymakers, sellers, or buyers, it's all very interesting when you think about how implementing a tax policy can have such important implications for revenue generation and expenditure policies. What can you fund and how will those policies end up influencing the lives of common people?”

By 2010, Duncan had completed his PhD studies — including a dissertation on public finance — and was ready for the job market. Describing himself as “fully committed to public finance and taxation,” he received offers from both Deloitte (working on tax policy issues) and Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs (now known as the O'Neill School) — ultimately choosing the latter .

 

“I ended up taking the [Indiana] job because I just felt like I’d have more opportunities to work on the things that interest me,” Duncan said. “And I suppose after spending three to four years working on a research project, working on research for your dissertation, it kind of becomes part of you in a sense — at least it was for me. It became part of who I am, who I was at the time, so it just seemed more natural — like a better fit — for me to go to academia than to go to industry.”

 

The job may have been a good fit, but Duncan once again found that he would have to get used to the change of scenery — namely, the colder, cloudier climate and the significantly smaller locale. Insufficient sunlight was particularly an issue for the Jamaican native, who found himself dealing with mild bouts of seasonal affective disorder.

“For some reason, that really messed me up in my first semester — to the point that I’m pretty sure my neighbors thought I was a crazy guy,” Duncan said.

“Because I would go to the back door of my apartment, a glass door that backs up to the other apartment, and on the few days when we had sun, I would be standing there in my boxers alone — trying to absorb as much of that sunlight as I could.”

 

Traffic was also an adjustment. “After spending five years in Atlanta driving two hours to cover 6 miles, I moved to a city where I could get to pretty much anywhere I wanted to be in 10 minutes — and find myself eventually becoming frustrated if I had to stop behind a car at a stoplight,” Duncan said with a chuckle. “That was quite a big difference — a favorable one, of course.”