Emily Oster

Oster was born on February 14, 1980, in New Haven, Connecticut. Her parents, Sharon Oster and Ray Fair, were both professors of economics at Yale University.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/10244879/Drop-the-baby-talk.html|title=Drop the baby talk|last=Hoby|first=Hermione|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=2013-08-20|access-date=2019-04-05|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}{{Cite book |last=Dieterle |first=David A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LmphDgAAQBAJ&pg=RA3-PA257 |title=Economics: The Definitive Encyclopedia from Theory to Practice [4 volumes] |date=2017-03-27 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9780313397080 |page=257 |language=en}} When she was two years old, Oster's parents noticed that she talked to herself in her crib after they left her room. They placed a tape recorder in her room in order to find out what she was saying and passed the tapes on to a linguist and psychologist with whom they were friends. Analysis of Oster's speech showed that her language was much more complex when she was alone than when interacting with adults. This led to her being the subject of a series of academic papers which were collectively published as a compendium in 1989 titled Narratives from the Crib.{{Cite web|url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674023635|title=Narratives from the Crib — Katherine Nelson {{!}} Harvard University Press|website=www.hup.harvard.edu|language=en|access-date=2019-05-04}}{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2119402/|title=The Search for 100 Million Missing Women|last1=Dubner|first1=Stephen J.|last2=Levitt|first2=Steven D.|year=2005|publisher=Slate|access-date=2006-10-15}}

After graduating from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1998, Oster studied economics at Harvard University, graduating in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts. She then did doctoral studies in economics at Harvard under Michael Kremer. She received a Ph.D. in 2006 with a thesis titled "The Economics of Infectious Disease".{{Cite journal |last=Norman |first=Kimberly |date=24 January 2014 |title=Expecting Better |url=https://issuu.com/choaterosemaryhall/docs/bulletin_winter14/63 |journal=Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin |issue=Winter 2014 |pages=61}}{{Cite tweet|number=852829082614079488|user=ProfEmilyOster|title=For the other Choate alums out there: an extremely disturbing report on sexual abuse.|author=Emily Oster|date=14 April 2017|access-date=14 April 2023}}

From 2006 to 2007, Oster was a Becker Fellow at the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory at the University of Chicago, where she was an assistant professor at the Department of Economics from 2007 to 2009, an assistant professor at the Booth School of Business from 2009 to 2011, and an associate professor from 2011 to 2014.{{Cite web |title=Emily Oster {{!}} Watson Institute |url=https://watson.brown.edu/people/faculty/oster |access-date=2019-05-04 |website=Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs |language=en |archive-date=2022-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120014413/https://watson.brown.edu/people/faculty/oster |url-status=dead }} She became a tenured associate professor of economics at Brown University in 2015, where she has been a full professor of economics since 2016 and the Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence since 2019.{{Cite web|title=Friedman, Oster and Shapiro join Brown Economics Department {{!}} Economics Department at Brown University|url=https://www.brown.edu/academics/economics/news/2015-01/friedman-oster-and-shapiro-join-brown-economics-department|access-date=2019-05-04|website=www.brown.edu}} She is also the CEO of [https://parentdata.org/ ParentData], which she founded in 2020.

Oster has been a research associate at the NBER since 2015, where she was a faculty research fellow from 2006 to 2015, and has been an associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics since 2014.

Oster's research focuses generally on development economics and health. In 2005, Oster published a dissertation for her economics Ph.D. from Harvard University, which suggested that the unusually high ratio of men to women in China was partially due to the effects of the hepatitis B virus.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121138448983510857|title=Economist Scraps Hepatitis Theory On China's 'Missing Women'|last=Lahart|first=Justin|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=22 May 2008 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-04}} "Hepatitis B and the Case of the Missing Women,"{{cite web | title=Oster's Ph.D dissertation on 'Missing Women' | year=2005 | publisher=Journal of Political Economy | url=http://home.uchicago.edu/~eoster/hepb.pdf | access-date=2007-08-01 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703224905/http://home.uchicago.edu/~eoster/hepb.pdf | archive-date=2007-07-03 }} pointed to findings that suggested areas with high hepatitis B rates tended to have higher male-to female birth ratios. Oster argued that the fact that hepatitis B can cause a woman to conceive male children more often than female, accounted for a bulk of the "missing women" in Amartya Sen's 1990 essay, "More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing."Sen, Amartya, "More Than 100 Million Womer Are Missing, The New York Review of Books, Vol. 37, No. 20 {{cite web |url=http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/gender/Sen100M.html |title=The New York Review of Books: More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing |access-date=2013-05-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130504072819/http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/gender/Sen100M.html |archive-date=2013-05-04 }} Oster noted that the use of hepatitis B vaccine in 1982 led to a sharp decline in the male-to-female birth ratio. Sen's essay had attributed the "missing women" to societal discrimination against girls and women in the form of the allocation of health, educational, and food resources.

In April 2008, Oster released a working paper "Hepatitis B Does Not Explain Male-Biased Sex Ratios in China" in which she evaluated new data, which showed that her original research was incorrect.{{cite web | title=Hepatitis B Does Not Explain Male-Biased Sex Ratios in China | year=2008 | url=http://home.uchicago.edu/~eoster/hbvnotecon.pdf | access-date=2008-05-21 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100118130724/http://home.uchicago.edu/~eoster/hbvnotecon.pdf | archive-date=2010-01-18 }} Freakonomics author Steven Levitt saw this as a sign of integrity.{{cite web |first=Steven D. |last=Levitt |url=http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/an-academic-does-the-right-thing/ |title=An Academic Does the Right Thing |work=Freakonomics: The hidden side of everything |date=May 22, 2008 |access-date=26 November 2012}}

In a 2007 TED Talk, Oster discussed the spread of HIV in Africa, applying a cost-benefit analysis to the question of why African men have been slow to change their sexual behavior.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/07/got_a_riddle_ask_economist_emi.html|title=Got A Riddle? Ask Economist Emily Oster|last=Conway|first=Laura|date=July 28, 2009|work=Planet Money: The economy explained|publisher=npr|access-date=26 November 2012}}

Oster's work on television and female empowerment in India was featured in Steve Levitt's second book, SuperFreakonomics.{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/2009/11/17/superfreakonomics-steven-levitt-stephen-dubner-opinions-book-review-richard-robb.html#44e3556930e1|title=Extreme Economics|last=Robb|first=Richard|website=Forbes |date=18 November 2009|access-date=4 April 2019}}

In her book, Expecting Better, published in 2013, Oster criticizes conventional pregnancy customs, taboos and mores. She discusses the data behind common pregnancy practices and argues that many of them are misleading.{{Cite web|url=http://freakonomics.com/2013/09/03/emily-oster-answers-your-pregnancy-questions/|title=Emily Oster Answers Your Pregnancy Questions|last=Levitt|first=Steven D.|date=2013-09-03|website=Freakonomics|language=en|access-date=2019-05-04}} As of March 2019, the book has sold over 100,000 copies.{{Cite web|url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BuzOH5QgBKD/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/instagram/profemilyoster/1996001175022867075 |archive-date=2021-12-25 |url-access=registration|title=Emily Oster on Instagram: "Guess what? #ExpectingBetter has officially sold over 100,00 copies! 🎉 I'm so grateful and excited for the new journey to come with…"|website=Instagram|language=en|access-date=2019-05-04}}{{cbignore}} A revised and updated version of the book was published in 2021.

In the book, Oster argues against the general rule of thumb to avoid alcohol consumption while pregnant, contends that there is no evidence that (low) levels of alcohol consumption by pregnant women adversely affect their children.{{cite magazine | url=https://time.com/4081343/no-alcohol-during-pregnancy/ | title='No Alcohol' During Pregnancy Is Just Another Shame Battle in the Mommy Wars | magazine=Time | date=21 October 2015 | access-date=14 March 2016 | author=Oster, Emily}} This claim, however, has drawn criticism from the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome{{cite web|url=https://nofas.org/emily_oster/|title=Emily Oster's Alcohol and Pregnancy Advice is Deeply Flawed and Harmful|date=16 August 2013|work=NOFAS|access-date=14 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315204840/https://www.nofas.org/2013/08/16/emily_oster/|archive-date=15 March 2018|url-status=dead}} and others.{{cite web|url=https://depts.washington.edu/fasdpn/pdfs/astley-oster.pdf|title=The Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Right—Do NOT Drink while Pregnant|work=University of Washington|access-date=14 March 2016}}

Her second book, Cribsheet, was published in April 2019 and was a New York Times best seller.{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/79052-the-science-of-parenting-pw-talks-with-emily-oster.html|title=The Science of Parenting: PW Talks with Emily Oster|last=Boretz|first=Adam|date=18 January 2019|access-date=4 April 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/232809/emily-oster|title=Emily Oster {{!}} Penguin Random House|website=PenguinRandomhouse.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-04}} It evaluates and reviews the research on a variety of parenting topics relating to infants and toddlers, including breastfeeding, safe sleep guidelines, sleep training, and potty training.{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a27206033/potty-training-age-cribsheet-emily-oster/ |title=The Data Driven Parenting Book You Need|last=LaScala|first=Marisa|date=23 April 2019|access-date=24 April 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.brown.edu/news/2019-04-23/cribsheet|title=In 'Cribsheet,' a Brown economist debunks long-held parenting myths|last=Kimball|first=Jill|date=2019-04-23|website=Brown University|language=en|access-date=2019-05-04}} The week of April 28, 2019, Cribsheet was also the best selling book in Washington, DC according to the Post.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/best-sellers/washington-dc-hardcover-nonfiction/|title=Washington bestsellers: Hardcover nonfiction|date=2019-04-28|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2019-05-04}}

Her third book, The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years, applies to school age children. A review discusses the relationship of her parenting approach to more permissive parenting ideas dating back to the pre-Reagan era.{{cite journal |last1=Bellafante |first1=Ginia |title=Mothers Under Pressure |journal=New York Review of Books |date=9 Jun 2022 |volume=LXIX |issue=10 |pages=36–40}} Oster suggests that parents run their families like firms in order to maximize their children's' advantage over others.{{Cite news |last=Sussman |first=Anna Louie |date=2024-10-29 |title=Emily Oster and the Optimization of Parenting |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/emily-oster-unexpected-parenting-data/ |access-date=2025-02-12 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}

Oster was an advocate for opening schools during the coronavirus epidemic, spearheading a project to collect data on the spread of coronavirus in schools,{{Cite web|title=Brown University Professor Emily Oster and Qualtrics Partner with School Superintendents and Principals Associations to Launch the National COVID-19 School Response Dashboard|url=https://www.qualtrics.com/news/national-covid-education-dashboard/|access-date=2021-02-02|website=Qualtrics|language=en}} and appearing frequently in media discussing why schools should open. In early October 2020, she wrote an influential and much cited article in The Atlantic entitled "Schools Aren't Super-Spreaders" which inspired numerous articles.{{Cite web|last=Oster|first=Emily|date=2020-10-09|title=Schools Aren't Super-Spreaders|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/schools-arent-superspreaders/616669/|access-date=2021-02-02|website=The Atlantic|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=McGowan|first=Dan McGowan|date=|title=Meet the Brown University economist who argues that K-12 schools aren't super-spreaders of the coronavirus |work= The Boston Globe|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/13/metro/meet-brown-university-economist-who-argues-that-k-12-schools-arent-super-spreaders-coronavirus/|access-date=2021-02-02|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|last=Oster|first=Emily|date=2020-09-28|title=Opinion {{!}} What Parents Need to Know About School Coronavirus Case Data|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/opinion/schools-coronavirus.html|access-date=2021-02-02|issn=0362-4331}} Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and the CDC cited Oster's work as a reason to open schools during the pandemic.{{Cite web|last=DeVos|first=Betsy|date=|title="It's now October. We are starting to get an evidence-based picture of how school reopenings and remote learning are going… the evidence is pointing in one direction. Schools do not, in fact, appear to be major spreaders of COVID-19." |url=https://twitter.com/betsydevosed/status/1321913545697710082?lang=es|access-date=|website=@BetsyDeVosED}}{{Cite web|title=CDC director cites this website to back in-school learning. Its designer calls that 'bananas'. (interview with Emily Oster) {{!}} Watson Institute|url=https://watson.brown.edu/news/2020/cdc-director-cites-website-back-school-learning-its-designer-calls-bananas-interview-emily|access-date=2021-02-02|website=Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs|language=en}} In August 2020, Oster launched a dashboard compiling information on the spread of COVID-19 in schools. Critics of Oster's dashboard said it had methodological problems that they believe undermine its usefulness.{{Cite web|last=Cohen|first=Rachel M.|date=2020-10-28|title=Why Reopening Schools Has Become the Most Fraught Debate of the Pandemic|url=https://prospect.org/api/content/89b4aab8-18a4-11eb-b096-1244d5f7c7c6/|access-date=2021-02-02|website=The American Prospect|language=en-us}}

On May 18, 2021, Oster published another piece in The Atlantic titled "Your Unvaccinated Kid Is Like a Vaccinated Grandma", which generated much heated response.{{Cite web |last=North |first=Anna |date=2021-07-19 |title=How Emily Oster became one of the most respected — and reviled — voices of the pandemic |url=https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22556296/emily-oster-covid-schools-expecting-better-cribsheet |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=Vox |language=en-US}} The controversy surrounds Oster use of vaccination as an individualistic risk-reward proposition, insinuating that unvaccinated kids are still relatively safe from COVID, and the lack of mention of kids being spreaders of the infections themselves. Critics pointed out such rhetoric may lead the lay audience to wrongly believe there is no urgent need to vaccinate.

In September 2021, Oster launched the COVID-19 School Data Hub which includes information on virtual and in person status of schools across 31 states. According to The New York Times, the data hub is "one of the most comprehensive efforts yet to document how schools operated during the pandemic."{{Cite news|last=Goldstein|first=Dana|date=2021-09-15|title=Emily Oster, the Brown economist, is launching a new data hub on schools and the pandemic.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/education/emily-oster-covid-data-schools.html|access-date=2021-09-15|issn=0362-4331}}

On October 31, 2022, The Atlantic published an opinion piece written by Oster in which she called for "amnesty" following the COVID-19 pandemic, citing the "tremendous uncertainty" surrounding topics such as the virus, face masks, social distancing, school closures and COVID-19 vaccines.{{Cite web |last=Oster |first=Emily |date=2022-10-31 |title=Let's Declare a Pandemic Amnesty |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/covid-response-forgiveness/671879/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031233551/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/covid-response-forgiveness/671879/ |archive-date=2022-10-31 |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}

Emily is the daughter of Sharon Oster and Ray Fair, both professors of economics at Yale University. She married Jesse Shapiro, also an economist,{{cite web | title=Jesse Shapiro | year=2006 | publisher=University of Chicago | url=http://home.uchicago.edu/~jmshapir/ | access-date=2006-10-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061105030913/http://home.uchicago.edu/~jmshapir/ | archive-date=2006-11-05 | url-status=dead }} in June 2006,{{cite news | title=Emily Oster and Jesse Shapiro | work=The New York Times | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/fashion/weddings/18oste.html?pagewanted=all/ | access-date=2007-12-31 | date=2006-06-18}} and they have two children.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.brown.edu/research/projects/oster/ Oster's research home page (Brown)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422202007/https://www.brown.edu/research/projects/oster/ |date=2018-04-22 }}
• [http://www.ted.com/talks/emily_oster_flips_our_thinking_on_aids_in_africa Emily Oster: What do we really know about the spread of AIDS?] TED, March 2007
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/10leonhardt.html?ex=157680000&en=fa3881ee19f13f8c&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink The Future of Economics Isn't So Dismal] New York Times, January 10, 2007
• [http://research.uchicago.edu/highlights/item.php?id=211 Preventing HIV in Africa: Understanding Sexual Behavior Change] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610004435/http://research.uchicago.edu/highlights/item.php?id=211 |date=2010-06-10 }} Video Interview
• [https://externalmedicinepodcast.com/emily-oster/ Interview with Emily Oster] External Medicine Podcast Interview 2021
• [https://www.stitcher.com/show/honestly-with-bari-weiss/episode/bad-moms-with-emily-oster-210520679 Bad Moms with Emily Oster] Honestly with Bari Weiss Podcast 2023

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oster, Emily}}

Category:American women economists

Category:American health economists

Category:1980 births

Category:Living people

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:University of Chicago faculty

Category:Brown University faculty

Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Category:American women non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century American economists

Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century American women writers