Emily Oster Quotes

As an economist, I'm aware that life is full of trade offs.

Economics is a choice between alternatives all the time. Those are the trade-offs.

About the only useful thing my economics degree taught me was that, in all decisions in life, you have to do a cost-benefit analysis.

Economics is everywhere, and understanding economics can help you make better decisions and lead a happier life.

Economics is built on the assumption of scarcity. Therefore, it deals with values and calculations. It cannot seek the good that fits a specific person within a given human condition. Where scarcity rules, ethics is reduced to numbers and utility. Further, the person engaged in the manipulation of mathematical formulas loses his or her ear for ethical nuance; one becomes morally deaf.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

The law of diminishing returns is something I really believe in.

Every thing receives a value from its use, and the Value is raised [or lowered], according to its Quality, Quantity and Demand.

The dictates of economics, that "dismal science," limit the benefits of medical science

Economics is not about goods and services; it is about human choice and action.

We make choices every single day of our lives and those choices mean we must give up something in exchange for another. In economics it's called an 'opportunity cost.'

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Understanding economics can help you make better decisions and lead a happier life.

Whereas economic man maximises, selects the best alternative from among all those available to him, his cousin, administrative man, satisfices, looks for a course of action that is satisfactory or 'good enough'.

It is not possible to spend on one thing and then not have consequences on something else.

The reality is that we are all economists. We all deal with scarcity as we make choices and calculate how to ration various items and resources that we consume, produce and utilize.

The economist rarely examines the presuppositions of the models with which he works. The economist simply commences with individuals as evaluating, choosing, and acting units. This starting point for analysis necessarily draws attention to the choice or decision environment for the individuals who must make selections from among the alternatives.

Everything we do in public policy prevents us from doing something else. To govern is to choose.

I tell my micro students everything I teach them is important, but the truth is that some things are more useful than others, and opportunity cost is near the top.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

People don't trade money for things when they value their money more highly than they value the things.

Most economic fallacies derive … from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

'There are no easy pickings.' That would be a more accurate, less dramatic statement than 'There's no such thing as a free lunch.'

Need always plays into your decisions more as the draft unfolds.

The first rule of economics is that there is an infinite number of desires chasing a finite number of goods, services and resources. The first rule of politics is to ignore the first rule of economics.