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Riley Acton

@riacton.bsky.social

5.2K followers 1.6K following 590 posts

education & labor economist ap at miami university (yes, the one in ohio) https://www.rileyacton.com/

www.rileyacton.com

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Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · Sep 8

🚨 New working paper alert! 🚨 #econsky

Emily Cook, Paola Ugalde, and I are thrilled to share "Political Views and College Choices in a Polarized America" — now out with both @iza.org and @annenberginstitute.bsky.social EdWorkingPapers

www.iza.org/publications...

edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1280

Political Views and College Choices in a Polarized America

Riley Acton
Miami University & IZA

Emily Cook
Texas A&M University & CESifo

Paola Ugalde A.
Louisiana State University

We examine the role of students’ political views in shaping college enrollment decisions in the United States. We hypothesize that students derive utility from attending institutions aligned with their political identities, which
could reinforce demographic and regional disparities in educational attainment and reduce ideological diversity on campuses. Using four decades of survey data on college freshmen, we document increasing political
polarization in colleges' student bodies, which is not fully explained by sorting along demographic, socioeconomic, or academic lines. To further explore these patterns, we conduct a series of survey-based choice experiments that quantify the value students place on political alignment relative to factors such as cost and proximity. We find that both liberal and conservative students prefer institutions with more like-minded peers and, especially, with fewer students from the opposite side of the political spectrum. The median student is willing to pay up to $2,617 (12.5%) more to attend a college where the share of students with opposing political views is 10 percentage points lower, suggesting that political identity plays a meaningful role in the college choice process.

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Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · 6h

Thank you! 😊

Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · 9h

Happy to have this paper with @loismiller.bsky.social @camilantmorales.bsky.social and Kalena Cortes accepted at Econ of Ed Review!

And honored it will be in the special issue in memory of Rodney Andrews. ❤️

Paul Bruno @paul-bruno.com · 10h

Distance to degrees: How college proximity shapes students’ enrollment choices and attainment across race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Distance to degrees: How college proximity shapes students’ enrollment choices and attainment across race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status

Leveraging rich data on the universe of Texas high school graduates, we estimate how the relationship between geographic access to public two- and fou…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · 9h

Thank you!

Reposted by Riley Acton

p.a.lapid, phd 🎃👻💀🪦 @palapid.bsky.social · 9h

congrats @riacton.bsky.social et al for this article!

Paul Bruno @paul-bruno.com · 10h

Distance to degrees: How college proximity shapes students’ enrollment choices and attainment across race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Distance to degrees: How college proximity shapes students’ enrollment choices and attainment across race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status

Leveraging rich data on the universe of Texas high school graduates, we estimate how the relationship between geographic access to public two- and fou…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Riley Acton

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 23h

The end of federal enforcement of special ed laws. Some states - including MN - will likely be ok. But a lot of disabled kids in a lot of states are going to lose the education that federal law and decades of jurisprudence say they are owed.

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

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Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · 1d

"An ED staffer told USA TODAY the agency laid off just about every employee who works to administer funding for the IDEA, the primary federal law supporting students with disabilities. He was unsure how those programs will exist moving forward."

An absolute disaster for this nation's children.

Honesty for Ohio Education @honesty4ohioed.bsky.social · 1d

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education fired nearly everyone in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in a wave of new layoffs that began Friday, according to the union representing the agency's employees.
www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 1d

15% of American kids are served by IDEA.

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Kirsten Slungaard Mumma @kslungaardmumma.bsky.social · 3d

Prospective PhD Students:

I am planning to accept a PhD student for AY 2026-27 in the economics and education program at Teachers College. Apply if you want to use the economics of education to study immigration or politics/political engagement and public schools. :-)

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Lucy Sorensen @lucy-sorensen.bsky.social · 2d

New working paper on contemporary child labor in the U.S. and its impacts on school attendance ⬇️

edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1302

With absolute dream team @mimiarnoldlyon.bsky.social @stevebholt.bsky.social & PhD student Ji Hyun Byeon

Contemporary Child Labor and Declining School Attendance in the U.S.

The United States has experienced a 400% increase in reported child labor violations over the past decade, coinciding with declines in K-12 school attendance and enrollment. We examine the causal rela...

edworkingpapers.com

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Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you!

Reposted by Riley Acton

Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · 3d

I'm on the Stats + Stories podcast today talking about this research: statsandstories.net/education1/c....

Thanks for having me on, @rompenni.bsky.social & John Bailer!

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Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · 2d

Dream team of colleagues right here! 😍 @jimflynn9.bsky.social @jieezhong.bsky.social

And we are very thankful to @russellsagefdn.bsky.social for supporting our work. 🙏

Miami University Economics @miamiecon.bsky.social · 2d

Congratulations to a few faculty, Professors Riley Acton (@riacton.bsky.social ), Jim Flynn (@jimflynn9.bsky.social ), and Jiee Zhong (@jieezhong.bsky.social ) on receiving a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation!

miamioh.edu/news/2025/09...

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 2d

Immigrant Nobel Prize winners exiting the United States

Florian Scheuer @florianscheuer.bsky.social · 2d

I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.

🧵 1/7

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Reposted by Riley Acton

ACLU @aclu.org · 2d

BREAKING: A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Trump from deploying federalized National Guard troops into Chicago.

This ruling reinforces what we already knew: It is illegal for the president to use manufactured emergencies to send soldiers into our cities.

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Dan Garrett @danggarret.bsky.social · 3d

I have been thinking this year will be a particularly rough year for economists seeking employment, and this new data tool from the AEA definitely shows that is the case with 1/3 less listings than the same time last year, basically matching COVID lows.

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Reposted by Riley Acton

John Cawley @johncawley.bsky.social · 3d

Three big announcements concerning new data from the AEA on the #EconJobMarket

First, there are now live dashboards on AEA JOE that show the # of jobs listed on JOE each week, with comparisons to recent years. These will be updated weekly.
www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/co...

#EconSky
1/many

JOE Openings by Week - Pre-ASSA

www.aeaweb.org

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Miami University Economics @miamiecon.bsky.social · 3d

Be sure to check out a recent podcast Professor Riley Acton
was on discussing some of her recent work. (@riacton.bsky.social)

Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · 3d

I'm on the Stats + Stories podcast today talking about this research: statsandstories.net/education1/c....

Thanks for having me on, @rompenni.bsky.social & John Bailer!

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 3d

RIP the null hypothesis

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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Riley Acton @riacton.bsky.social · 3d

I'm on the Stats + Stories podcast today talking about this research: statsandstories.net/education1/c....

Thanks for having me on, @rompenni.bsky.social & John Bailer!

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham @paulgp.com · 4d

Posted a short blog post with updated data (and public repo with data) of current state of Econ job market:

paulgp.com/2025/10/08/j...

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Reposted by Riley Acton

eric gonzalez juenke @egojunk.bsky.social · 4d

If you aren't failing you aren't trying. Grad students and new faculty: the most prolific scholars are also the most prolific at getting rejected. Rejections suck but they are a big part of the publication process.

Mirya R. Holman @mirya.bsky.social · 4d

Here are my published articles in each year and the number of times each was rejected before publication

A scatterplot of the number of rejections (y axis) by year (x axis)

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Reposted by Riley Acton

John Cawley @johncawley.bsky.social · 5d

Many thanks to Jim Flynn @jimflynn9.bsky.social for interviewing me for the ASHEcon Newsletter @ashecon.bsky.social. It was fun to chat about risky health behaviors, priorities for ASHEcon, the #EconJobMarket, and even favorite movie/book/teams. #EconSky

www.ashecon.org/activities/n...

John Cawley Interview – ASHEcon

www.ashecon.org

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Joshua Goodman @joshua-goodman.com · 5d

🚨Important paper alert🚨

"Who Wants to Be a Teacher in America?"

"Lower interest among men, students of color, and high-achieving students... Recommenders rate students interested in teaching as having lower intellectual promise... but greater concern for others."

edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1285

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Elisa Taveras @elisatp.bsky.social · 6d

Happy to share my new working paper, "𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳𝘀: 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻", coauthored with Ozlem Tonguc (Binghamton University), Maria Zhu (Syracuse University) and Nicola Miller (Binghamton University) #Econsky

www.elisataveras.com/s/Taveras_et...

www.elisataveras.com

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Reposted by Riley Acton

Miami University Economics @miamiecon.bsky.social · 6d

We had a wonderful fall Economics Advisory Board (EAB) meeting. Board members got to engage with many faculty, administration, and students. We also had a wonderful board meeting with those both in person and virtual.

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