The basic idea that incentives can be used to motivate behavior is a powerful one. It works for employees, and it has a clear place in parenting, as ….

There is some risk to increase birth defects if you do a lot of outdoor gardening when you are pregnant. That can increase rates of toxoplasmosis..

For many women - myself included - pregnancy brings on tremendous anxiety and confusion, along with the joy..

Talking to women about birth can be polarizing..

Economists typically think that your happiness goes up as you get more money, but the more you have, the less each additional dollar matters. This me….

Adhering to budgeting rules shouldn't trump good decision-making..

No one likes doing chores. In happiness surveys, housework is ranked down there with commuting as activities that people enjoy the least. Maybe that'….

In short, humans are programmed to get bored..

Being pregnant was a lot like being a child again. There was always someone telling you what to do..

Good household decision-making often relies on thinking about your household like a firm..

Prenatal testing is a complicated decision for many women, forcing us to confront concerns about a disabled child and risks of miscarriage..

I think we've moved to thinking of parenting and pregnancy as something in which you should lose yourself..

Feminists of my mother's generation argued that both mom and dad should work a little less and each do some of the household chores. My parents, for ….

The most active period of the witchcraft trials coincides with a period of lower than average temperature known to climatologists as the "little ice ….

Economists actually disagree about whether there are significant economic returns from attending an elite college versus a less-selective one..

Economics works great for planning your life when you don't have a work passion, since we tend to assume that your job delivers only money and you tr….

The key to good decision making is evaluating the available information - the data - and combining it with your own estimates of pluses and minuses. ….

You work hard for your income, and that hard work is what fuels the economy..

Education campaigns ... may not be enough, at least not alone. If people have no incentive to avoid AIDS on their own, even if they know everything a….

I travel a fair amount, read on the plane, and I read fast..

When I meet people on airplanes and they find out I'm an economist, they usually ask about stock tips..