Following his PhD, he joined the department of economics at the University of Toronto.
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.
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.