Sharon Monica Oster (September 3, 1948 – June 10, 2022) was an American economist. She was the Frederic D. Wolfe Professor Emerita of Management and Entrepreneurship and a dean of
Yale School of Management
The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate business school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Administration (MBA), MBA for Executives ...
, where she was the first woman to receive tenure, and the first female dean.
She was widely known as an economist focusing on
business strategy
In the field of management, strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization's managers on behalf of stakeholders, based on consideration of resources and an assessmen ...
and
non-profit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
management.
Early life and education
Oster was born in 1948 at
Bethpage, New York
Bethpage (formerly known as Central Park) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 16,429 at the 2010 United States Cen ...
.
She received her undergraduate degree from
Hofstra University
Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of Ne ...
in 1970 and her Ph.D. in economics from
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1974.
Career
Oster spent her 43-year professional career as a professor and administrator at Yale University. Upon receiving her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1974, Oster joined the faculty of the Yale Economics Department, where she primarily taught undergraduates at Yale College. In 1982, she moved to the faculty of the
Yale School of Management
The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate business school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Administration (MBA), MBA for Executives ...
, where she earned tenure in 1983, as the first woman to do so, and in 1992 was named as the Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship. From 2008 to 2011, Oster served as dean of the Yale School of Management, becoming its first female dean. In May 2018, she retired from the Yale School of Management faculty.
Oster took a $100,000 pay cut from her yearly salary as the dean of the Yale School of Management in 2009 to fund internships for students. The Sharon Oster Professorship, an endowed chair in economics, was announced in 2018.
Oster wrote, co-wrote, or edited five academic books, including ''Modern Competitive Analysis'' (1990. revised 1993 and 1999) and ''Strategic Management of Nonprofits'' (1995). She also published over 40 academic articles on topics including regulatory issues, applied industrial organization, and labor economics, as well as several non-academic articles.
Board memberships
Oster served as the independent director of
Welltower Inc, a
real estate investment trust
A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of commercial real estate, including office and apartment buildings, warehouses, hospitals, shopping cente ...
that invests mostly in healthcare infrastructure. She also served on corporate boards including Aristotle Corporation, Transpro Inc., and
Bentall Kennedy, as well as nonprofit boards, including
Choate-Rosemary Hall and
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Universi ...
.
Awards and recognition
She received the first Yale School of Management Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1988 and received this award again in 2008 and 2013.
She was the 2011 winner of the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the
American Economic Association
The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals acknowledged in business and academia. There are some 23,000 members.
History and Constitution
The AEA was esta ...
.
In 2018, she was recognized by the Academy of Management with the 2018 Irwin Outstanding Educator Award for Excellence in MBA/Executive Education.
Personal life and death
In 1977, Oster married
Ray C. Fair, also a professor of economics at Yale. They had three children, two sons and a daughter,
Emily.
She died of lung cancer at her home in New Haven, Connecticut, on June 10, 2022, aged 73.
Selected publications
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References
External links
Interview with Sharon Oster, Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Yale School of ManagementThe Partnership on Nonprofit VenturesThe Program on Social Enterprise
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oster, Sharon
1948 births
2022 deaths
Yale University faculty
Yale School of Management faculty
21st-century American economists
American women economists
Harvard University alumni
American business theorists
20th-century American economists
20th-century American women
21st-century American women
People from New York City