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 causes and consequences of postsecondary education choices, institutional decision-making in higher education, and the effects of public policies on educational environments and longer-term outcomes.

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

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