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Emily Oster

Emily Oster is an economist at Brown University. She is the author of The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years and Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong—and What You Really Need to Know.
  • Katie Martin / The Atlantic; Paolo Veronese; Getty

    Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty

    Let’s focus on the future, and fix the problems we still need to solve.

    • Emily Oster
    • October 31, 2022
  • Eric Gay / AP

    Don’t Make Your Own Formula

    How parents should, and should not, manage the shortage

    • Emily Oster
    • May 17, 2022
  • Getty; The Atlantic

    Masking Policy Is Incredibly Irrational Right Now

    Why must only the youngest children wear face coverings?

    • Emily Oster
    • March 9, 2022
  • Nick Oxford / Bloomberg / Getty

    Kids-Last COVID Policy Makes No Sense

    Kids should face fewer restrictions than their parents, not more.

    • Emily Oster
    • February 21, 2022
  • Paul Bersebach / Orange County Register / Getty

    Universities Need to Catch Up to the Post-vaccine Reality

    Remote learning hurts students.

    • Emily Oster
    • January 5, 2022
  • The Atlantic

    The COVID Externalities Have Changed

    This phase of the pandemic need not be about individual sacrifice. What’s required now is merely communal common sense.

    • Emily Oster
    • December 21, 2021
  • Trekandshoot / Alamy / The Atlantic

    What’s Safe for Kids Now?

    Parents need to hear from the CDC.

    • Emily Oster
    • May 22, 2021
  • Annice Lyn / Getty

    Your Unvaccinated Kid Is Like a Vaccinated Grandma

    Parents should bet on vacations with their kids this summer.

    • Emily Oster
    • March 18, 2021
  • John Moore / Getty

    Schools Aren’t Super-Spreaders

    Fears from the summer appear to have been overblown.

    • Emily Oster
    • October 9, 2020
  • Jean Gaumy / Magnum

    Parents Can’t Wait Around Forever

    We need to know the facts about kids and COVID-19. Now.

    • Emily Oster
    • July 2, 2020
  • Samuel Aranda / Panos Pictures / Redux

    The ‘Just Stay Home’ Message Will Backfire

    We need less extreme and more nuanced recommendations for navigating life during the pandemic.

    • Emily Oster
    • May 14, 2020
  • William Gottlieb / CORBIS / Getty

    The Chart That Reveals Your Kid’s Adult Height

    Researchers crunched longitudinal data to provide a simple predictive equation, and a chart.

    • Emily Oster
    • February 26, 2020
  • Getty Images

    Why the C-Section Rate Is So High

    A doctor and an economist note that doctors are generally paid quite a bit more for a C-section than for a vaginal birth.

    • Emily Oster and W. Spencer McClelland
    • October 17, 2019
  • Associated Press / Steven Senne

    New Evidence on Pot During Pregnancy

    An unusually good study examines how marijuana use in pregnancy may affect birth outcomes.

    • Emily Oster
    • July 8, 2019
  • d3sign via Getty

    When Parents Try to Do It All, They Do It Poorly

    New parents are given a lot of rules to follow, but little guidance for how to choose among them when constrained.

    • Emily Oster
    • June 14, 2019
  • Shutterstock / The Atlantic

    End the Plague of Secret Parenting

    If mothers and fathers speak openly about child-care obligations, their colleagues will adapt.

    • Emily Oster
    • May 21, 2019
  • Torsten Mangner/flickr

    Thinking About Pregnancy Like an Economist

    How it became clear that I needed to sort through the valuable, and useless, information — on alcohol, prenatal testing, deli meats — for myself.

    • Emily Oster
    • August 21, 2013
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