60 Quotes by 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.

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.

Education campaigns ... may not be enough, at least not alone. If people have no incentive to avoid AIDS on their own, even if they know everything about the disease, they still may not change their behavior.

When I meet people on airplanes and they find out I'm an economist, they usually ask about stock tips.

As people do a task, they improve at it.

The most active period of the witchcraft trials coincides with a period of lower than average temperature known to climatologists as the "little ice age"...In a time period when the reasons for changes in weather were largely a mystery, people would have searched for a scapegoat in the face of deadly changes in weather patterns. 'Witches' became target for blame because there was an existing cultural framework that both allowed their persecution and suggested that they could control the weather.

All’s fair in love and purchasing.

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.

For many women – myself included – pregnancy brings on tremendous anxiety and confusion, along with the joy.