[1] He is also Professor of Practice in the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University,[2] a research fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics,[3] and a columnist for Project Syndicate.

[8] He is the editor of The US Labor Market: Questions and Challenges for Public Policy[9] He co-edited, with Stan Veuger, the Economic Freedom and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Political Philosophy.

[13] Strain has published research articles on the Paycheck Protection Program, fiscal and monetary policy following the 2008 financial crisis, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the gender pay gap, the effects of minimum wage laws and unemployment insurance, the Affordable Care Act, "wage theft" and payday lending, increasing employment,[14] the "socially optimal" top marginal income tax rate,[15] worksharing unemployment insurance programs, the effects of job loss, and the federal budget.

[16] In 2013, National Review's Reihan Salam described him as the "most important conservative reformer, and the one who could have the biggest beneficial impact on the well-being of Americans struggling to climb the economic ladder.

Strain was cited by The New York Times,[24] The Wall Street Journal,[25] and The Washington Post[26] as being among the first economists to warn that President Biden's stimulus plans could spark inflation.

[28] In January 2020, Strain published The American Dream is Not Dead: (But Populism Might Kill It), in which he writes that despite popular conceptions about long-term economic stagnation, America is still broadly characterized by upward mobility.