Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
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Hardcover
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Book Details
Written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
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($25.95)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life-;from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing-;and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.
Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives-;how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.
What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and-;if the right questions are asked-;is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.
Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
User Reviews (4) Login or create an account to write a review.
DumbelinaTheDaft thinks this book is Excellent.
Don't let the "economics" part fool you--this isn't some dry textbook filled with complicated statistics. It's more of a study of social curiosities that have been previously ignored or oversimplified; there's the oft-mentioned corrolation between Roe vs. Wade and crime rates falling 15 years later. The authors present everything in easy-to-understand terms, making this book extremely accessible. I found it incredibly interesting; I read it straight through in a matter of hours.
Rebecca Adler thinks this book is Good.
Freakonomics is an easy to read introduction to how economics can be applied to the real world. The authors show correlations between abortion and crime. They also show how teacher help their students cheat, why drug dealers still live with their moms and how a name can say more about you than you might like.
Sometimes I felt like the issues were oversimplified, leaving out some of how they came to these conclusions. Other times they changed the subject before I felt I had a good grasp on the last issue they brought up. But the constant changing of topics makes the book move quicker. With only about 200 pages this is a quick and interesting read.
Za thinks this book is Good.
An eye-opener that forces you to think about what you believe in and the daily practices you accept as the gospel truth of economics. A snappy read that has the potential to kickstart a thought-revolution. Like an earlier reviewer has mentioned, it's not always very clear on how Levitt arrived at the conclusions he did but at the very least it inculcates a questioning attitude in the reader by way of which even Levitt's assertions can be scrutinised. A must-read for anyone interested in widening their horizons and being more aware and shrewd.
russ_gaidin thinks this book is Worth Reading.
Well written to attract a very broad demographic. Not nearly as repetitive as "Tipping Point" or "The World is Flat" and doesn't try to induce action, merely discuss situations and one method of analyzing them.