Each year, Forbes magazine selects 30 top game-changers under age 30 and spotlights their entrepreneurial savvy and breakout talents. This year Mason alumna Liya Palagashvili, BS Economics ’11, MA Economics ’12, PhD Economics ’15, was among them.
Palagashvili is an assistant professor of economics at State University of New York, Purchase College. An economist and theorist, she writes about the effects of regulation on entrepreneurial capitalism and markets. Her work has appeared in academic journals and in heavyweight media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, and Newsday.
From her first economics class in high school, Palagashvili says she was “captured” by the subject. “I loved it because it was a brand-new way of thinking. It was a framework I could use to understand the world around me.” Now she enjoys introducing that passion and “opening up the world of economics to new students.”
Her current research involves interviewing tech entrepreneurs to try to understand problems startups face and “how the legal and regulatory environment impacts their abilities to do business and innovate,” she explains. She’s also working on finishing up her first book—with co-author and Mason economics professor Peter Boettke, MA ’87, PhD ’89—which analyzes long-term consequences of policy responses to the 2008 financial crisis.
Palagashvili has collaborated on a number of articles with Boettke, and counts him among the Mason professors who, she says, changed her life and cemented the career path she would follow. Inspired not only by their research and teaching skills but their assistance in guiding her toward internships and on to graduate school, Palagashvili says she couldn’t be where she is today without her Mason professors.
“They inspired me to pursue my dreams,” she says. “They taught me to think critically and to write. They are my co-authors, my career and life mentors, my biggest supporters, and my friends.”