I am Berenger Djoumessi Tiague, Ph.D. graduate in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (UMN). I am interested in Development Economics, precisely agriculture, development, climate change & the impacts of natural disasters.
Since mid-August, 2022, I aa a Research Scientist at Meta (formerly Facebook) and I work for the Demography & Survey Science (DSS) unit in the Monetization team.
Prior to joining the Applied Economics PhD program at UMN, I received my Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Dschang (Cameroon). I received my Masters of Science degree from the University of San Francisco (USF) in International and Development Economics (HERE is my Master’s thesis), and shortly after as an Interim Program Manager for the Department of Economics at USF, then worked after as a Consultant for the World Bank – Living Standard Measurement Surveys (LSMS) team in Washington D.C.
The work involved data management, manual and survey design, and fieldwork (e.g., enumerator’s training, field data collection process checks) with partner firm (e.g., ICRISAT) in Mali, Africa.
Read Article resulting from that work by Lobell et al. (2020)
P.S.: My name is listed in the Acknowledgements section in case you care to see it. 😉
Here are some nice souvenirs from my fieldwork experience:
Bamako, Mali, 2017
Work on Measurement Units
with the A Team in a village in Mali. 2018.
I strongly believe in the power of diversity of skills/competencies, and over time I developed a passion for constant learning and skill acquisition. I also like to share them with the world to help solve specific problems.
My technical skills range from survey design, data collection, rigorous academic research, and geospatial data management to building an online business (entrepreneurship), graphic and web design, photo & video editing, social media marketing, and much more.
I want to use empirical research to better guide policy-makers so that decisions on policies that aim to improve poor people’s lives are made based on facts rather than intuition.
On the Academic Side
I was part of 3 amazing labs at my university.
The first one is a PhD Lab run by Audrey Dorélien (committee member) and my academic advisor Jason Kerwin, whose goal is to help students get feedback on their work and stay connected. The lab includes their advisees as well as other students who are working on research projects with them.
I was also part of the amazing Bellemare Research Group (BERG), a very interactive lab run by my other advisor, Marc Bellemare. The goal is also to help students get feedback on their research.
Each week of the semester, a student presents either a current research project/paper or an idea for a paper. The lab group includes his advisees.
The third lab I was part of is the Johnson Polasky lab, which mostly focused on environmental and natural resources-related topics. We also meet every week on Tuesdays to discuss research, and updates and collaborate on projects. Students also get the chance to present their work and receive feedback.
What I love about all the labs is the diversity of students, the feedback on research, and the vibe!
Blogs I like (Click to access)
Economics
- Development Impact
- Marc F. Bellemare
- Jason Kerwin (Ceteris Non Paribus)
- Jeff Bloem
- James Heckman
- Across Two Worlds
Entrepreneurship
As mentioned above, I often make tutorials in my free time for my YouTube channel to help solve specific problems related to (but not limited to) entrepreneurship.
This is an example of video tutorials I make to help people. Click to watch.
For more info about me: View My CV
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Download my Masters Thesis here