Professor Gigi Foster

Gigi Foster is a Professor with the School of Economics at the University of New South Wales, having joined UNSW in 2009 after six years at the University of South Australia.  Formally educated at Yale University (BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics) and the University of Maryland (PhD in Economics), she works in diverse fields including education, social influence, corruption, lab experiments, time use, behavioural economics, and Australian policy.  Her research contributions regularly inform public debates and appear in both specialised and cross-disciplinary outlets (e.g., Quantitative Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Economic Psychology, Human Relations).  Her teaching, featuring strategic innovation and integration with research, was awarded a 2017 Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.  Named 2019 Young Economist of the Year by the Economic Society of Australia, Professor Foster has filled numerous roles of service to the profession and engages heavily on economic matters with the Australian community.  As one of Australia’s leading economics communicators, her regular media appearances include co-hosting The Economists, a national economics talk-radio program and podcast series premiered in 2018, with Peter Martin AM on ABC Radio National.

Selected Research Grants:

• 2015-2017: ARC Discovery Project Grant - AUD$231,800 awarded over three years by the Australian Research Council for project entitled The Economics of Cooperative Behaviour with Ben Greiner, Paul Frijters and Attila Ambrus
• 2009-2011: ARC Discovery Project Grant awarded over three years by the Australian Research Council (2008) for project entitled, 'Should Rational Individuals be Optimistic? Theory, Survey Evidence, Experimental Evidence, and Policy Implications' (with Paul Frijters and Benno Torgler), AUD$221,000
• 2008-2010: ARC Discovery Project Grant awarded over three years by the Australian Research Council (2007) for project entitled, 'Distributional Consequences of Mass-Market Higher Education in Business', AUD$89,740

Research Interests:

• Economics of education
• Behavioural economics
• Social influences on economic behavior
• Time use

UNSW Business School Profile: https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/our-people/gigifoster