Emily Oster

Emily Fair Oster (born c. 1980) is an American economist. After receiving a B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard in 2002 and 2006 respectively, where she studied under Amartya Sen, Oster joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she taught prior to moving to Brown University, where she currently holds the rank of Professor of Economics. Her research interests are unusually wide-ranging, and span from development economics to health economics to research design and experimental methodology. Her work is perhaps best-known among non-economists for her writings and appearances in mainstream media, including the Wall Street Journal, the best-selling SuperFreakonomics book, and her 2007 TED Talk. 2Early life When Emily was two years old, her parents noticed that she often talked to herself in her crib after they said good night and left her room. In order to figure out what she was saying, they placed a tape recorder in her room, which they turned on once they had tucked her in. Those tapes were eventually passed on to psychologist and linguist friends of her parents. Careful analysis of Emily's speech showed that her language was much more complex when she was alone than when interacting with adults. This led to her being the subject of a series of academic papers which were collectively published as a compendium in 1989 titled Narratives from the Cri