Books & Articles

My books take a data-driven look at pregnancy and parenting. And if you want to go deeper, my articles often do that. Enjoy!

Books

The Family Firm

Preorder Now! Coming August 3, 2021. A guide for navigating the complexities of life with school age kids. You don’t just need the data (although that’s in there!), you also need a decision framework. It’s a business book for the business of parenting.

Expecting Better

What to Expect When You're Expecting meets Freakonomics: an award-winning economist disproves standard recommendations about pregnancy to empower women while they're expecting. Pregnant women are told to avoid cold cuts, sushi, alcohol, and coffee without ever being told why these are forbidden. Rules for prenatal testing are similarly unexplained. Moms-to-be desperately want a resource that empowers them to make their own right choices.

Cribsheet

Armed with the data, Oster finds that the conventional wisdom doesn't always hold up. She debunks myths around breastfeeding (not a panacea), sleep training (not so bad!), potty training (wait until they're ready or possibly bribe with M&Ms), language acquisition (early talkers aren't necessarily geniuses), and many other topics. She also shows parents how to think through freighted questions like if and how to go back to work, how to think about toddler discipline, and how to have a relationship and parent at the same time.

Articles

New York Times

• Do Men and Women Have Different Brains?

• There’s Evidence on How to Raise Children, but Are Parents Listening?

• The Data All Guilt-Ridden Parents Need

The Wall Street Journal

• Take Back Your Pregnancy

The Atlantic

• Why the C-Section Rate Is So High

• New Evidence on Pot During Pregnancy

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

• End the Plague of Secret Parenting

• Thinking About Pregnancy Like an Economist

Medium

• How Much Does Diet Matter When You’re Breastfeeding?

• What to Expect When You Have a Miscarriage

• An economist's data backed case for vaccines

• The Complicated Truth About C-sections

SLATE

• When You Give Birth, Your Body … Rips

• Nearly All Infants Lose Weight After They’re Born

• Why Parents Panic Way Too Much Over Kids who Learn to Walk Late

• Is Your Toddler Straight-Up Refusing to Poop in the Toilet? Join the Club

FiveThiryEight

• ‘Screen Time’ For Kids Is Probably Fine

• Men, Those Tightie Whities Really Are Killing Your Sperm Count

• Cellphones Do Not Give You Brain Cancer

• New Prenatal Tests Aren’t Perfect — But They’re Close

• Do Concussions Lead To Suicide?

• Calorie Counts On Menus Won’t Change What Americans Eat

• Don’t Take Your Vitamins

• Why States Should Aim For 100 Percent Vaccination

• What Do We Really Know About the Safety of E-Cigarettes?

• How a Woman’s Weight Before Pregnancy Affects Childbirth

• Eat More Nuts (And Vegetables, And Don’t Forget to Exercise And Quit Smoking)

• Are Older Men’s Sperm Really Any Worse?

• Are Mammograms Worth It?

• Reports of a Drop in Childhood Obesity Are Overblown