Augustine Denteh
About
Augustine Denteh is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Econometrics in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. His broad research interests are in Health Economics and Applied Econometrics, where he is interested in employing novel econometric tools to study how public policies affect people’s health. In particular, he works on impact evaluation, measurement error models, and the economics of obesity. For his fellowship at Harvard, he is currently working on techniques for generalizability in health policy.
Augustine holds a BA in Economics and Statistics from the University of Ghana, an MA in Economics from the University of Akron, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Georgia State University.
Augustine will join the Department of Economics at Tulane University in 2019.
Curiculumn Vitae
Publications
Job Market Paper
1. “The Effect of SNAP on Adult Obesity in the Presence of Endogenous Misreporting“
Abstract:
This paper estimates the effect of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on adult obesity addressing self-selection and endogenous misreporting of participation. There is increasing evidence suggesting that the consequences of reporting errors in program participation may be severe enough to render the sign of the treatment effect not to be identified by standard methods. Using a two-step procedure that accounts for endogenous misreporting of participation, this paper estimates the causal impact of SNAP on obesity using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth – 1979 cohort. From a simple partial observability model of participation and misreporting, I predict probabilities of participation which are used to consistently estimate the average effect of SNAP on body mass index (BMI). I rely on exclusion restrictions for program participation and reporting errors for identification. The estimated misreporting model confirms some prior findings in the literature regarding the correlates of reporting error. However, contrary to most previous studies, I do not find any evidence of a statistically significant effect of SNAP on BMI.
Publications
2. Denteh, A., Millimet, D. L., and Tchernis, R. (2018). The Origins of Early Childhood Anthropometric Persistence. Empirical Economics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-018-1421-z. PDF.
Working Papers
3. “On the Estimation of Treatment Effects with Endogenous Misreporting,” with Pierre Nguimkeu and Rusty Tchernis; R&R at Journal of Econometrics; PDF.
Work in Progress
4. “Estimating the Impacts of SNAP on Food Insecurity, Obesity, and Food Purchases with Imperfect Administrative Measures of Participation” (with Charles Courtemanche and Rusty Tchernis), PDF.
5. “Is there a Public Sector Skill Bias in Developing Countries? Evidence from Ghana” (with Pierre Nguimkeu)
6. “Labor Supply Effects of SNAP in the Presence of Endogenous Misreporting”
ASE News
The African School of Economics had the privilege to host the DIVIDENDS workshop, a three-day workshop organized by the Peace…