Riley Acton is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Farmer School of Business at Miami University.

She completed her B.S. in economics and mathematics at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania in 2015 and her Ph.D. in economics at Michigan State University in 2020. Her research focuses on the economics of education, including the determinants of postsecondary education choices, the impact of local labor market shocks on educational outcomes, and the strategic behavior of colleges and universities.

Riley's work has been published in scholarly outlets such as the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Health Economics, and Education Finance and Policy, and has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Riley Acton joined IZA as a Research Affiliate in October 2021.