A development economist working on microeconomic issues, Lori's research interests are centered on two themes: social networks and gender. Her work has evaluated the impact of a political affirmative action program on gender bias in rural India; how social networks affect labour market opportunities among women in Malawi; and how to encourage African farmers to adopt profitable agricultural technologies, particularly women farmers. Her work has been published in Science, the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics among others. After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali for two years, she received her PhD in Economics in 2007 from Yale University.