Booth Associate Professor Emily Oster is a newly minted advice columnist for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Oster’s column, entitled “Ask Emily,” will be published on the WSJ Ideas Market blog, where she will answer everyday questions using economic principles.

“Because economics is all about optimizing—doing the best you can with what you have—it’s usually the first place you should look for answers if you want to maximize your happiness,” she said in an e-mail.

According to Oster, the offer came as a surprise. “Chicago is a great place, which opens a lot of doors, although I will say I didn’t expect this particular one,” she said.

Oster joined the ranks of Booth in 2009 as an assistant professor, after obtaining her Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University in 2006 and teaching as an assistant professor in the University of Chicago’s Department of Economics from 2007–2009. She currently serves as a Faculty Research Fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research.