Emily Oster

EXCLUSIVE
  • Expert on Health Economics
  • NYT Bestselling Author of 'The Family Firm', 'Expecting Better', and 'Cribsheet'
  • Author of the Biweekly Newsletter, ParentData, and Contributor to The Atlantic
  • Associate Professor of Economics, Brown University

Economist, academic, and New York Times bestselling author Emily Oster brings a data-driven focus and champions a strategic approach to today’s most important questions. Oster holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, and is a Professor of Economics at Brown University. Known for her New York Times bestselling books The Family FirmExpecting Better, and Cribsheet, Oster proposes a classic business school framework for making decisions thoughtfully and deliberately – which she says is less about a specific answer and more about taking the right approach. She is a highly sought-after speaker for events with groups like Spotify, Athena Health, Capital One, and more.

Oster’s thought leadership is featured in her twice-weekly newsletter ParentData, which has over 100K subscribers on Substack, as well as her contributions to The Atlantic. She is an in-demand voice on health economics and statistical methods, and has been featured in The New York TimesWall Street JournalSlateThe Cut, and others. Oster was named to TIME’s list of “The 100 Most Influential People of 2022, and the profile by Steven Pinker described her work saying: “Oster shows how ‘data’, a scary word, can be a humanizing force.” Though her approach discusses parenting specifically, her talks offer a smart and winning guide on how to think clearly – and with less stress – about any key decisions in life, for both organizations and individuals.

 



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Past Hosts Include:
  • Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco
  • Nanit
Rave Reviews About Emily Oster as a Speaker
I got lots of rave reviews and many people thanked our group for hosting Emily. We loved it!

Keynote - The Power of Data & Its Limits with Emily Oster | SXSW EDU [59:51] - Get Sharable Link
Talks & Conversations with Emily Oster
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The Behavioral Economics of Health

Health care costs are skyrocketing, due to plenty of reasons, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. In this talk, Dr. EMILY OSTER discusses how to encourage people to change their health behaviors in positive ways. The talk goes through what we understand about people’s desire and ability ...

Health care costs are skyrocketing, due to plenty of reasons, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

In this talk, Dr. EMILY OSTER discusses how to encourage people to change their health behaviors in positive ways. The talk goes through what we understand about people’s desire and ability to change their behavior in several domains (HIV and health behaviors, genetic risks, etc.). Dr. Oster will also reveal how behavioral economics can teach us about encouraging better health behaviors in these areas.
 

The Family Firm

How can lessons from firm decision-making help us make better decisions for our families? ...

How can lessons from firm decision-making help us make better decisions for our families?

Evidence-Based Parenting

How can data help us parent better? Is some data “better” than others and how would you know?  Using examples drawn from pregnancy and parenting, this talk goes through the power -- and limitations -- of data for making family decisions. ...

How can data help us parent better? Is some data “better” than others and how would you know?  Using examples drawn from pregnancy and parenting, this talk goes through the power -- and limitations -- of data for making family decisions.

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Speaker News
<p><strong><em>New York Times</em> bestselling author Emily Oster brings a data-driven focus to today’s most important questions for <em>The Atlantic</em></strong></p>

New York Times bestselling author Emily Oster brings a data-driven focus to today’s most important questions for The Atlantic

Economist, academic, and New York Times bestselling author EMILY OSTER brings a data-driven focus and champions a strategic approach to today’s most important questions in her writing for The Atlantic. Known for her bestsellers The Family Firm, Expecting Better, and Cribsheet, Oster proposes a classic business school framework for making decisions thoughtfully and deliberately – which she says is less about a specific answer and more about taking the right approach. Her thought leadership is also featured in her twice-weekly newsletter ParentData, which has over 100K subscribers on Substack. Oster is an in-demand voice on health economics and statistical methods, and has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Slate, The Cut, and others. Though her approach discusses parenting specifically, her talks offer a smart and winning guide on how to think clearly – and with less stress – about any key decisions in life, for both organizations and individuals.

Read Oster’s writing for The Atlantic here >>

<p>Economist Emily Oster shares the next step in data driven parenting – how to use good decision-making skills to make purposeful choices for your family</p>

Economist Emily Oster shares the next step in data driven parenting – how to use good decision-making skills to make purposeful choices for your family

In her book The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years, Brown professor of economics and mom of two EMILY OSTER offers a classic business school framework to data-driven parents to think more deliberately about the key issues of the elementary years: school, health, extracurricular activities, and more. Though her approach discusses parenting specifically, it is a framework that can be applied to any life choices, from relationships to business to sports. 

Making these decisions is less about finding the specific answer and more about taking the right approach. Parents of this age are often still working in baby mode, which is to say, under stress and on the fly. That is a classic management problem, and Oster takes a page from her time as a business school professor at the University of Chicago to show us that thoughtful business process can help smooth out tough decisions. Oster’s talks are a smart and winning guide to how to think clearly--and with less ambient stress--about the key decisions in your life, whatever they are. Oster has gotten a lot of buzz, including being featured on NPR, Parade, and more. Oster is also the author of Cribsheet and Expecting Better.

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Books by Emily Oster
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Biography

Emily Oster is a Professor of Economics at Brown University and the author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet and The Family Firm. She holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard. Prior to being at Brown she was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Emily’s academic work focuses on health economics and statistical methods. She is interested in understanding why consumers do not always make “rational” health choices — why do people not eat a fully healthy diet, or pursue all recommended preventative health behaviors? Her work also concerns methods for learning causal effects from observational data.

Emily’s books analyze the data behind choices in pregnancy and parenting. Expecting Better analyzes the data behind many common pregnancy rules, and aims to improve decision-making for pregnant women. Cribsheet does the same for early childhood — what does the evidence really say on breastfeeding, co-sleeping or potty training. Finally, The Family Firm takes this approach to parenting in the early school years, looking at data on school, extracurriculars, sleep and also providing a framework to make unexpected decisions and address the logistical challenges of this period of parenting.

Emily writes a newsletter called ParentData on data, pregnancy, child rearing and whatever else is on the mind of parents. In recognition of this work, she  was named to TIME's list of "The 100 Most Influential People of 2022."