About

Andrew Foster is a professor in the Departments of Economics and Health Services, Policy and Practice and director of the Social Science Research Institute at Brown University. An empirical microeconomist who specializes in population, development, and environmental economics, he has particular interest in sources of long economic and social mobility in low-income rural areas. He also studies fertility, health, households, human capital, institutions, labor economics, and marriage. He previously served as director of Brown’s Population Studies and Training Center.

His recent work has examined economic growth in rural India, exploring issues including growth in the non-farm economy, the effects of local democratization, groundwater usage, forest cover, household structure, inequality, and schooling. He also is exploring the effects of changes in air quality in Delhi. Foster also has a series of projects with colleagues in the Center for Gerontology examining the market for nursing home care.  

Foster serves on the steering committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research Development Section, on the board of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, and as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Development Economics.

He received a BSE from Princeton University and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.