How the pandemic turned Gigi Foster from economist of the year to academic outcast
In 2019, UNSW professor Gigi Foster was named Young Economist of the Year. Today, the Yale-educated academic says few of her peers will even speak to her.
Gigi Foster is scathing about the contribution most academic economists make to the national debate.
“It’s just too easy to not say anything and get a fat salary and feel good about yourself,” the UNSW professor tells Capital Brief.
“I think most academic economists probably aren’t worth their salaries. I hate to say it. But in terms of their social value … We had a whole profession almost sit by and watch while huge amounts of Australian wealth, health, joy and happiness were destroyed by our governments [during Covid]. And most of us didn’t say anything.”
Foster was one of the most outspoken critics of Australia's Covid-era policies and, in particular, lockdowns. While the national debate about the pandemic has fallen out of the mainstream, for Foster it is still front of mind.
