Read Emily Oster’s Parent Data

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My parents were economists, and while I didn’t think I wanted to go into the same field at first, I had an idea that I was headed toward academia. I applied to graduate school when I was an undergraduate at Harvard, but I did not get into the programs I wanted. So I decided to take a job at an economic consulting firm and see how it went. The job was great, but it also confirmed to me that I wasn’t cut out for that type of work. So I applied to graduate school again. I had written more papers by then, so I got in.

WHEN I WAS PREGNANT WITH MY FIRST CHILD, the decisions that loomed largest to me were the medical ones, like whether to get certain prenatal screenings.