Lucia Foster


Lucia Smith Foster is the Chief of the Center for Economic Studies and the Chief Economist at the U.S Census Bureau in Washington, D.C..

Biography

Foster received a B.A. in economics from Georgetown University in 1983 and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland in 1988.
Foster worked as a research assistant at the Congressional Budget Office between 1983-1986, working on forecasts of the U.S. economy, and as an assistant economist at the Federal Reserve Board during the years 1986-1990, working primarily on forecasts of U.S. international trade. Between 1986-1990, she worked at the Federal Reserve Board as an Assistant Economist working primarily on the forecast of U.S international trade. Foster joined the Census Bureau as a research assistant in the Center for Economic Studies while she was completing her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland. She joined CES full time in 1998 after completion of her studies. In 2008, she became the CES Director of Research. She has served as the Chief Economist of the U.S. Census Bureau and Chief of the Center for Economic Studies since 2011.
Married to John Haltiwanger.

Work

As Chief Economist of the U.S. Census Bureau, Foster is “responsible for identifying gaps in our understanding of the dynamic and complex U.S. economy and then finding ways to fill these gaps by working with our talented staff and outside experts in researching and developing new data products and improving and enhancing existing data production.”
In her research, Foster uses Census microdata to research firm dynamics, productivity, and management practices. Foster and a team of other researchers proposed and established the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, first fielded in 2014 . Foster was instrumental to the effort to have the Management and Organizational Practices Survey added as a supplement to the Annual Survey of Manufactures. She is one of the key Census Bureau members of the Collaborative Micro-Productivity Project, a joint project with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has created the public use dataset Dispersion Statistics on Productivity

Honors and Awards

Commerce Department Gold Medal for Leadership
2016 Bronze Medal Award for Superior Federal Service – Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs
2010 Bronze Medal Award for Superior Federal Service – Decennial Analysis Team

Selected publications

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