R. J. Briggs is an economist whose work examines insurance markets, catastrophic risk, and public policy. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and brings more than fifteen years of experience at the intersection of quantitative research and policy analysis.
From 2018 to 2025, Briggs served as an economist at the RAND Corporation, where he led research teams delivering peer-reviewed analyses to senior federal decisionmakers. His RAND portfolio spans cyber insurance, property insurance, terrorism risk, disaster grant policy, climate change, and long-range strategic planning. He co-authored Insuring Catastrophic Cyber Risk, the 2025 RAND report on federal cyber backstop design, and led work for clients that include the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Office of the National Cyber Director, the U.S. Treasury Federal Insurance Office, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and each of the military services. He also served as Professor of Policy Analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, co-teaching a seminar on policy analysis for climate change.
Earlier in his career, Briggs led scenario modeling and liability analytics at Praedicat, Inc., the casualty catastrophe modeling firm later acquired by Moody’s. At Praedicat he developed analytic tools for emerging liability risks that include induced seismicity from wastewater injection, oil-by-rail accidents, natural gas pipeline explosions, and hydraulic fracturing. He also served as Assistant Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at the Pennsylvania State University, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses and leading funded research on electricity markets and geologic carbon storage.
Briggs’s peer-reviewed work appears in Energy Economics and Resource and Energy Economics, and his policy commentary has reached audiences through outlets that include RealClearDefense and Carrier Management. At the Alliance for Policy Research, he translates rigorous economic analysis into practical guidance for decisionmakers confronting catastrophic and systemic risks.