Richard Gallenstein specializes in development economics and his research focuses predominantly on issues related to risk management, agricultural investment, and microfinance in developing countries. He has co-managed a three-year randomized control trial experiment investigating the impact of index based drought insurance on credit market access for small scale farmers in Ghana. In Tanzania he conducted field experiments to investigate the impact of index-based drought insurance on farmers' agricultural investment decisions. Gallenstein has also served as a program manager for the Innovative Agricultural Research Initiative in Tanzania where he helped to build research capacity at the Sokoine University of Agricultural through student mentorship and educational seminars on research methodologies. Gallenstein completed his Ph.D.  at The Ohio State University.