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Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
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Sales rank 8,272
Customers rating (based on 1749 reviews)
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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.
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| Publisher | William Morrow | | Release date | 05/2005 | | Availability | | | Edition | Hardcover |
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An Econ Tome For Both Freaks And Geeks
: Authors use complicated concepts - such as regression - to explain many different things about the world (@ Fortune)
Year of the Economist: Freakonomics, economic hit men, undercover economists. This ain't Adam Smith. (@ Fast Company)
Data Is the World: And what a Freakonomics world it’s become. Extracting business lessons from Steven Levitt’s bestseller (@ Inc Magazine)
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 Deterministic
Speaking of statistics, one third of the book is made up of what the authors term "bonus material", which comes down to an article on Levitt, columns written by either Levitt or Dubner, and blog entries. All of which add nothing to the already skeptical "hidden side of everything". Of the 188 pages that make up the formal writing of the book, almost one third of the text relates to (directly or indirectly) the notion that legalized abortion, Roe v. Wade (1973) was the real driving force behind crime fall in New York and the rest of the US. In other words, had those baby's been born they would have eventually become criminals.
Whether you agree with this notion or not has really little to do with the fact that Levitt cleverly takes the reader by the hand and convinces rather than proves that his subjective interpretations, of nonetheless real data, are the ultimate cause behind crime drop. In essence the reader is tricked into thinking this trend of thought is actually fact based and above all logical in its process.
One can endlessly debate over this hypothesis, but at one point or another, determinism will come into mind. Try to recall Tom Cruise in his crime "avoiding" investigator role in the blockbuster movie Minority Report. Although he was preconceived to become an assassin, he willingly chose not to kill.
The rest of the stories (if I recall correctly are no more than 6, far from "everything" as the title so boldly states) are somewhat interesting from an entertaining perspective but fall exceedingly short to those of Malcolm Gladwell.
Levitt's greatest flaw is to regard himself (in an attempt to draw attention to himself more than to humbly accept his weaknesses) an incompetent in most areas of economics and everyday life in general but considers himself a revolutionary of conventional wisdom, bold and courageous, and unafraid to explore that which has been considered fact. As the closing remark in his book states, a colleague of Levitt encountered Economics Nobel Prize Winner Thomas Schelling and urged him to consider Levitt as one of his students... Schelling was unmoved.
Thought Provoking
Economist Steven Levitt's "Freakonomics" is witty, whimsical and provocative. In the genre of The Tipping Point, Levitt reaches some interesting conclusions about a broad range of socio-economic patterns and trends. From the relationship between school teachers and Sumo Wrestlers to the role of Roe vs. Wade on crime, Freakonomics studies unique relationships in our culture that have important implications for the way we live and work.
 Unique connections
Freakonomics is a book written to inform readers of many interesting, yet surprising facts. The main theme-if there is one in the story-is to show the power incentives have over the population. The book does a great job of drawing two unlikely things together and finding a connection between them. For instance, the chapter that concerns sumo wrestling corruption relates this topic to school teachers cheating. While these two topics seem to be on completely different levels, Levitt and Dubner manage to find unique connections between both. These tremendous connections make the story more intriguing and keep the reader wanting more. The simplicity of the topics helps to keep readers relating pieces of the book back to their own lives. Another part of life that is brought up in the story and that can be overlooked is a name. Ironically, this part of someone can drastically change a person's potential career opportunities. The authors do a wonderful job of connecting aspects of daily life to a bigger picture of how simple actions can affect one's future. The sources present throughout the book are legitimate and show the critical thinking that went into the making of the novel. While there is no definite motif present or an underlying theme, the book leaves readers curious about the inner workings of society.
Gymnastics For the Mind: Viewing from a Different Angle
This book was so well written that I couldn't put it down. One chapter ended with a "tickler" and led logically to the next. Most importantly it invited the reader to consider a broader range of factors that may, or may not, have led to events. Certainly the juxtaposition of materials, previously not considered related, gives one pause.
Being open to the points made creates a kind of gymnastics of the mind that is refreshing at any age. Also, I learned some new facts and quotes.
Loved the hardback from the library but had to buy a copy for myself.
Obviously Controversial
When this book was published it generated a great deal of controversy, and it is easy to see why right off the bat. The authors begin their study of "rogue economics" with the assertion that studies prove a correlation between the legalization of abortion in 1973 and the decrease in crime in the 1990s. While this is not the only controversial topic Levett and Dubner discuss, it gives you a flavor of what the aim Freakonomics is. Dubner and Leverett have done an excellent job of taking dense academic studies and turning them into well written stories. Freakonomics has inspired a few imitators since its publication. It is easy to find issues with some of the assertions in the book, but that does not detract from the thought provoking nature of this book. That in itself makes this book well worth the read.
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