Beth Akers was formerly a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where her work focused on labor economics and the economics of higher education. Previously, she was a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a staff economist with the Council of Economic Advisors under President George W. Bush.

Akers is the coauthor of Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt. Her writing and research have been featured in, among others, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Quartz, Newsweek, and The Hill. She has appeared on CNBC, ABC News, Bloomberg TV, C-SPAN, among other TV and radio networks.

Akers received a B.S. in mathematics and economics from SUNY Albany and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.