Riley's research is at the intersection between public and labor economics, and explores topics such as households' decisions to move to economic opportunity, marriage and fertility decisions among disadvantaged households, and responses to market interventions by the government. His work has been cited in the Washington Post, the Freakonomics Podcast, Marginal Revolution, and The Economist. He received his Ph.D. from the University Maryland in 2018 and earned BA in Economics and Russian from Brigham Young University in 2013. He is a Research Affiliate at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
