Michael R. Strain is Director of Economic Policy Studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. His research focuses on labor economics, public finance, and social policy, and his papers have been published in both academic journals and policy journals. He is the author of The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It), the editor of The US Labor Market: Questions and Challenges for Public Policy, and the co-editor of Economic Freedom and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Political Philosophy. He was a member of the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity, which published the report “Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream.”
He also writes frequently for popular audiences, and his essays and op-eds have been published by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among others. He is frequently interviewed by major media outlets, speaks often to a variety of audiences, and has testified before the United States Congress.
Previously, Dr. Strain worked in the Center for Economic Studies at the U.S. Census Bureau and in the macroeconomics research group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University.

Michael Strain joined IZA as a Research Fellow in August 2017.