Papers
8
Total Citations
577
H-Index
7
About
Lucia Foster is a prominent economist whose research sits at the intersection of technology adoption, firm dynamics, and labor markets. Working extensively with U.S. Census Bureau data, she has made foundational contributions to our understanding of how American firms adopt and deploy advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence and automation. Foster's most influential work leverages the Annual Business Survey (ABS), a large-scale survey covering hundreds of thousands of U.S. firms, to document patterns in advanced technology adoption across industries. Her 2020 paper introducing this survey module has garnered 169 citations, establishing a critical new data infrastructure for the field. Her research on AI adoption — examining technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, and machine vision — has collectively accumulated over 200 citations, illuminating which firms adopt AI, why, and where adoption clusters geographically. A recurring theme in her work is the relationship between firm size, growth trajectories, and technology adoption, finding that adopters tend to be larger and faster-growing even before adoption occurs. Her 2022 research on automation and the workforce further extends these insights across all economic sectors. Through rigorous empirical analysis, Foster has become an essential voice in policy and academic debates surrounding technological change and its consequences for American workers and businesses.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2AI adoption in America: Who, what, and where96 citations · 2024
- 3
- 4AI Adoption in America: Who, What, and Where76 citations · 2023
- 5
- 6Advanced Technology Adoption: Selection or Causal Effects?48 citations · 2023
- 7AI Adoption in America: Who, What, and Where39 citations · 2023
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