One of the big take-aways from a lot of economic theory is that people should engage in consumption smoothing. Emily Oster awaysbigconsumption Change image and share on social
I think women - relative to men - tend to feel that they have to do the household chores on top of everything else. This becomes even worse once you have kids. It's enough to have a full time job; a full time job plus a family is even more. Emily Oster badlychorefamily share on social
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 combinedatumday Change image and share on social
Feminists of my mother's generation argued that both mom and dad should work a little less and each do some of the household chores. My parents, for example, split everything 50/50. Even though my father is a terrible cook, he still made dinner exactly half the time. Emily Oster arguechorecook share on social
Lovingly crafted and super-creative cupcakes are not exactly on tap in my household after a full day at work, and I do not blame my mother for a second that they were not on tap in hers, either. Emily Oster blamecraftcreative Change image and share on social
As people do a task, they improve at it. Emily Oster improvepeopletask Change image and share on social
If you asked me which gives me more joy, my work or my family, there is no question that it's my family. Hands down. If I had to give one up, it wouldn't even be a contest. Emily Oster askcontestfamily Change image and share on social
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 causalcorrelationdatum share on social
My first summer in college I worked in a fruit fly lab where I had two jobs: dissect the fruit fly larvae brains and incinerate the old tubes of flies. Emily Oster braincollegedissect Change image and share on social
