Liya Palagashvili is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She is also a research fellow at the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law. Previously, she was an assistant professor of economics at State University of New York-Purchase, where she also taught courses on econometrics, macroeconomics, entrepreneurship and public policy.

​Her research is broadly in political economy and applied public policy. Her primary areas of research are on labor and the gig economy, technology startups and entrepreneurship. She is also interested in questions of governance and economic development, foreign aid and institutions.

Palagashvili's work has been published in academic outlets such as the Journal of Legal Studies, Public Choice, Review of Development Economics, Journal of International Development, History of Political Economy, University of Chicago Legal Forum, Journal of Institutional Economics and Cambridge University Press, among others.

She publishes op-eds with outlets such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, Philadelphia Inquirer and Dallas Morning News, among others. In 2016, she was selected as a Forbes "30 under 30" in Law and Policy.​

She also writes policy papers on labor-related issues. She has been invited to testify with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Executive Office of the President, and her work has been cited by the Department of Labor​, as well as in regulations published in the Federal Register.