CLI Fellow Liya Palagashvili was featured in the opinion section of The New York Times (August 2, 2018) on whether ride-sharing and -hailing services like Uber and Lyft are responsible for increased road congestion in New York City. She writes, “Before the City Council chooses to limit ride-hailing services to New Yorkers, especially those in the boroughs outside Manhattan, it should test whether claims about those services are well-founded. As it stands today, there is no compelling evidence that ride hailing has been a primary or significant cause of New York’s traffic problems.”

In addition to being a fellow at the Classical Liberal Institute, Liya is Assistant Professor of Economics at State University of New York-Purchase, and a Senior Fellow with the Fraser Institute. Liya earned her PhD in Economics from George Mason University in 2015, and while in graduate school she was also a Visiting PhD Scholar with the Department of Economics at New York University.

She has published over a dozen book chapters, policy papers, and journal articles in outlets such as Public Choice, History of Political Economy, University of Chicago Legal Forum, Journal of Institutional Economics, Supreme Court Economic Review, among many others. In addition to academic writing, Liya has published over two-dozen articles in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, MSN, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and Philadelphia Inquirer.

She has presented her research both domestically and internationally on topics of law and economics, political economy, development economics, and entrepreneurship. She is currently conducting interviews with tech entrepreneurs and creating a unique survey to examine early tech start-ups and the regulatory framework in their industries, as well as, finishing up a book analyzing the policies in response to the 2008 financial crisis.

In 2016, Liya was named one of the Forbes ’30 under 30’ in Law & Policy. You can follow her on Twitter @MissLiyaP.