Dean is an economic demographer and development economist. His research areas include the health, growth, and survival of children, especially in India; the environment, air pollution, and climate change; and population dimensions of social well-being. Dean is Assistant Professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, is a visiting economist at the Economics and Planning Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Delhi Centre, is a founding Executive Director of r.i.c.e. (research institute for compassionate economics), and is an affiliate of IZA (Institute of Labor Economics) and of the Climate Futures Initiative at Princeton University. With Diane Coffey, he is the co-author of the award-winning book Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted Development, and the Costs of Caste.