Emily Oster Books
Emily Oster is an American economist and professor at Brown University. She is known for her work on health economics and data-driven decision-making, as well as for her bestselling books that apply statistical reasoning to everyday life choices, including pregnancy and parenting.
Known for: Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool, Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong—and What You Really Need to Know, The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years
Books by Emily Oster
Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool
Cribsheet is a data-driven guide to parenting by economist Emily Oster. Drawing on empirical research, it helps parents make informed decisions about topics such as breastfeeding, sleep training, dayc...
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong—and What You Really Need to Know
In this groundbreaking book, economist Emily Oster applies data analysis to pregnancy, challenging conventional medical advice and empowering women to make informed decisions. Drawing on extensive res...
The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years
In this book, economist Emily Oster applies data analysis and evidence-based reasoning to help parents make informed decisions during their children's early school years. She explores topics such as e...
Key Insights from Emily Oster
Decision-Making Framework
Parenting often feels like being thrust into a world with too much information and too little clarity. In this chapter, I offer a structured decision-making model drawn from how economists handle uncertainty. Every parenting choice involves costs, benefits, and trade-offs. For instance, choosing to ...
From Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool
Birth and Early Days
The earliest moments of parenting are filled with decisions that seem to define everything — hospital versus home birth, epidural versus natural delivery, skin-to-skin contact, early feeding. In this chapter, I use data to unpack outcomes that tend to worry parents most. Hospital practices and inter...
From Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool
Decision-Making Framework
When you think like an economist, every choice begins with two questions: What are the potential outcomes, and what are the probabilities of each? Throughout pregnancy, you are flooded with advice that ignores these questions entirely. Instead of being told, “Don’t,” I wanted to know, “What happens ...
From Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong—and What You Really Need to Know
First Trimester Overview
The first trimester is often the most emotionally complicated phase of pregnancy. It’s a time when joy coexists with uncertainty—when the risk of miscarriage is highest, symptoms are strongest, and decisions can feel simultaneously urgent and opaque. Here, I lay out what the data actually tells us a...
From Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong—and What You Really Need to Know
The Family Firm Framework
When I refer to the 'family firm,' I’m introducing a decision-making framework modeled on how successful organizations operate. Every company has objectives, metrics to evaluate progress, and systems to navigate choices under constraints. Families, likewise, face multiple stakeholders, limited time,...
From The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years
Defining Family Priorities
Every analysis begins with a question: What do we actually value? Without explicit priorities, even the best information can lead you astray. I encourage parents to articulate, in concrete language, what success in their family looks like. Is it academic excellence, emotional stability, creativity, ...
From The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years
About Emily Oster
Emily Oster is an American economist and professor at Brown University. She is known for her work on health economics and data-driven decision-making, as well as for her bestselling books that apply statistical reasoning to everyday life choices, including pregnancy and parenting.
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Emily Oster is an American economist and professor at Brown University. She is known for her work on health economics and data-driven decision-making, as well as for her bestselling books that apply statistical reasoning to everyday life choices, including pregnancy and parenting.
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