David Foot
Canadian economist
David K. Foot is a Canadian economist and demographer. Foot did his undergraduate work at the University of Western Australia and his graduate work in economics at Harvard University, where he was supervised by Martin Feldstein. Following his PhD, he joined the department of economics at the University of Toronto.
Economic demographics
After some early works on macroeconometrics, Foot turned his attention to economic demography. His research focuses on the impact of demographics on economics, especially as pertaining to the aging of the baby boomers. He argues that demographic shifts tend to have important social and economic consequences that are often neglected by policy makers, including aspects such as the changing patterns in crime, leisure activities and school enrollment. In his own words, demographics explains "two-thirds of everything".
A non-technical summary of his research on Canadian demographics was presented in his 1996 book Boom Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift, co-authored with journalist Daniel Stoffman. The book went on to become a Canadian national bestseller, and Foot has taken an active role in debates concerning Canadian public policies.
Selected readings
David K. Foot, "Population Aging", in A Canadian Priorities Agenda: Policy Choices to Improve Economics and Social Well-Being (edited by J. Leonard, C. Ragan and F. St.-Hilaire), Institute for Research on Public Policy, Montreal, 2007, 181–213.
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