Emily Oster quotes

The key to good decision making is evaluating the available information - the data - and combining it with your own estimates of pluses and minuses. As an economist, I do this every day. (Emily Oster)
For many women - myself included - pregnancy brings on tremendous anxiety and confusion, along with the joy.
Emily Oster
There is some risk to increase birth defects if you do a lot of outdoor gardening when you are pregnant. That can increase rates of toxoplasmosis.
Emily Oster
I think we've moved to thinking of parenting and pregnancy as something in which you should lose yourself.
Emily Oster
Being pregnant was a lot like being a child again. There was always someone telling you what to do.
Emily Oster
Economists actually disagree about whether there are significant economic returns from attending an elite college versus a less-selective one.
Emily Oster
Prenatal testing is a complicated decision for many women, forcing us to confront concerns about a disabled child and risks of miscarriage.
Emily Oster
In short, humans are programmed to get bored.
Emily Oster
Good household decision-making often relies on thinking about your household like a firm.
Emily Oster
Economists typically think that your happiness goes up as you get more money, but the more you have, the less each additional dollar matters. This means that you value money most in times when you have less income and more expenses.
Emily Oster
Talking to women about birth can be polarizing. (Emily Oster)
As people do a task, they improve at it.
Emily Oster
Because economics is all about optimising, doing the best you can with what you have - it's usually the first place you should look for answers if you want to maximise your happiness.
Emily Oster
All's fair in love and purchasing.
Emily Oster
One of the big take-aways from a lot of economic theory is that people should engage in consumption smoothing.
Emily Oster
Adhering to budgeting rules shouldn't trump good decision-making.
Emily Oster
You work hard for your income, and that hard work is what fuels the economy.
Emily Oster
No one likes doing chores. In happiness surveys, housework is ranked down there with commuting as activities that people enjoy the least. Maybe that's why figuring out who does which chores usually prompts, at best, tense discussion in a household and, at worst, outright fighting.
Emily Oster
When I meet people on airplanes and they find out I'm an economist, they usually ask about stock tips.
Emily Oster
Young women who live in areas with high maternal mortality change their behavior less in response to HIV than young women who live in areas with low maternal mortality.
Emily Oster
Much of what I do in my job is think about whether relationships we see in data are causal, as opposed to just reflecting correlations. It's exactly these issues which come up in evaluating studies in public health. (Emily Oster)
I think that there's a real sense in which pregnancy should be something that you do with your doctor, but I think that for a lot of women the time you have with your doctors is limited and it can be difficult to get all of the answers to your questions.
Emily Oster
The basic idea that incentives can be used to motivate behavior is a powerful one. It works for employees, and it has a clear place in parenting, as anyone who has tried to potty-train a recalcitrant toddler with sticker rewards knows.
Emily Oster
I travel a fair amount, read on the plane, and I read fast.
Emily Oster
Every time you have a carrot instead of a cookie, every time you go to the gym instead of going to the movies, that's a costly investment in your health. But how much you want to invest is going to depend on how much longer you expect to live in the future, even if you don't make those investments.
Emily Oster