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Freakonomics

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

By Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

(855)

| Others | 9780060731328

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Book Description

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 a Continue

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.

Critics

Findings of the Dismal Science

This is the sort of book we can expect to see a great deal more of in the future. After Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point — a study of the way products or ideas move from niche positions to mass markets — economists and journalists have been racki ... (read full critics)

spectator published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

You may be freaked out by listening to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's fascinating bestseller Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, but if you follow Levitt's carefully constructed, mind-stretching correlati ... (read full critics)

bookpage published on Tue, 14 Sep 2010

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70 Reviews

11 people find this helpful

Two quotes from the last chapter:
"The most likely result of having read this book is a simple one: you may find yourself asking a lot of questions. Many of them will lead to nothing. But some will produce answers that are interesting, even surprising."
"You might become more skeptical o ... (continue)

Two quotes from the last chapter:
"The most likely result of having read this book is a simple one: you may find yourself asking a lot of questions. Many of them will lead to nothing. But some will produce answers that are interesting, even surprising."
"You might become more skeptical of the conventional wisdom; you may begin looking for hints as to why things aren't quite what they seem; perhaps you will seek out some trove of data and sift through it, balancing your intelligence and your intuition to arrive at a glimmering new idea"

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disturbingtheuniverse said on May 27, 2006 | Add your feedback

4 people find this helpful

I don't know what the hype on this book is all about. It has one or two interesting ideas and that's it.
Easy to read for non-economists though.

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Tracy W said on Apr 11, 2007 | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

Hilarious and enlightening

This book is immensely interesting! Just as the title reads, it shows you the "hidden side of everything", providing alternative perspectives that you have probably never thought of. A good book that inspires you to think more critically in daily life instead of blindly adhering to conventional wisd ... (continue)

This book is immensely interesting! Just as the title reads, it shows you the "hidden side of everything", providing alternative perspectives that you have probably never thought of. A good book that inspires you to think more critically in daily life instead of blindly adhering to conventional wisdom.

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larukucafe said on Aug 6, 2006 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

i found it hard to understand why everybody thinks freakonomics is such a great book. basic statistics, regression, correlation applied to a unusual range of topics, so what?

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Piet said on Jan 22, 2012 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Bello questo libro, soprattutto per noi economisti (in erba e non) che molto spesso dimentichiamo il filo conduttore di ciò che stiamo studiando. Soprattutto utile la parte degli articoli sul NYT.

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Markorules said on Dec 23, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

This book was recommended to me by my husband and friends who had borrowed it from him. It sat on my TBR shelf for some time as I was worried I would find it too dry and it would take me ages to read. Not so, I finished it within my two weeks holiday in France. Levitt pulls out the stops to turn ... (continue)

This book was recommended to me by my husband and friends who had borrowed it from him. It sat on my TBR shelf for some time as I was worried I would find it too dry and it would take me ages to read. Not so, I finished it within my two weeks holiday in France. Levitt pulls out the stops to turn theories on their head. I was intrigued by the Klu Klux Klan secrets being divulged but in the copious notes and acknowledgments the authors admitted that they had found their source of information to be dubious on that particular subject. Which leaves the reader wondering at the 'real' impact. I agree with the logic that a backyard swimming pool is more dangerous to a child than a home that owned a gun. Statistics stand up to this, but the author's are not saying guns are not dangerous. Great theories which do make sense. I read the book but I am not interested in checking out the information for myself at this stage. If you want to read challenging information, go ahead, you may enjoy it.

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Booketta said on Sep 7, 2011 | Add your feedback

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Book Details

Rating:
(855)
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English Books
Others 242 Pages
Edition: 1
ISBN-10: 006073132X
ISBN-13: 9780060731328
Publisher: William Morrow
Pub date: May 01, 2005
Dimensions: 1484 mm x 968 mm x 194 mm Just how big is that?
Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD and eBook
In other languages: other languages 繁體書, 简体书, Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Livros em Português, Libri Italiani, Nederlandse Boeken