Dr. Briones is a Senior Research Fellow at PIDS, where he conducts policy research for the Philippine government, with specialization in agriculture. He has authored numerous published research papers and co-edited five books, on the economics of agriculture and natural resources, rural development, food security, international trade, and the macro economy. His edited volume on irrigation policy won a National Academy of Science and Technology Outstanding Book Award of 2022 for Policy.
He is a Board Member of the consultancy group Brain Trust Inc (BTI), current Board Member of the Philippine Economic Society (PES), as well as a Fellow of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) and the Social Weather Stations (SWS). In 2017, he was a University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) College of Economics and Management Outstanding Alumnus for Economics and Public Policy in 2017. In 2023 he was a Gawad ng Pangulo ng PIDS awardee for exceptional dedication and transformative contributions to policy research. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the Philippine Journal of Development.
Previously, he was an assistant professor at Ateneo de Manila University and UPLB. He obtained his Ph.D. from the UP School of Economics in 2000 and did postdoctoral research at the WorldFish Center in Penang, Malaysia.