Superfreakonomics

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Critics

• Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner

  It's 2005 and America is booming. House prices are up, unemployment is down, growth is strong. Alan Greenspan is at the controls and all is right with the world. All the big economic problems have been solved.Cue the publication of Freakonomics, a co ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

• Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner

  If ever two writers were likely to suffer from "difficult second book" syndrome, it's Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, authors of the smash-hit Freakonomics, which made them the rock stars of the economics world. The reason rock stars find the secon ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

8 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  This is my most anticipated book in recent months besides Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw. Unlike the latter, however, this is a disappointment.

  Maybe because Freakonomics was such a pioneering and groundbreaking work on behavioural economics, I thought its sequel would be equally fascina ... (continue)

  This is my most anticipated book in recent months besides Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw. Unlike the latter, however, this is a disappointment.

  Maybe because Freakonomics was such a pioneering and groundbreaking work on behavioural economics, I thought its sequel would be equally fascinating and would change the way we look at things. It doesn't work this time.

  In Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner asked a number of interesting questions about every day's life and answered them via explaining how people make decisions/choices by responding to incentives. The analysis is all based on hard facts and data. The answers to questions like why New York City's crime rate fell drastically in the early 1990s (because of the legalisation of abortion - Roe vs Wade in 1973) are very convincing.

  The authors apply the same formula and methodology in SuperFreakonomics again, but none of the stories is memorable. I think the problem with this book is that the questions have not been clearly framed at the outset. Hence, after reading chunks of analysis and figures, I still don't know what problems they are trying to tackle.

  The only story that may be worth reading is the last one: the chapter on using geoengineering to tackle global warming.

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  Tracy W said on Nov 16, 2009 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  This book is less entertaining when compared to Freakonomics.
  May be because of the lack of the central theme (can "everything" be ever considered as a theme at all?) and the topics discussed are not my area of interest. Last but not least, many many books were written on behavior economics since Fr ... (continue)

  This book is less entertaining when compared to Freakonomics.
  May be because of the lack of the central theme (can "everything" be ever considered as a theme at all?) and the topics discussed are not my area of interest. Last but not least, many many books were written on behavior economics since Freakonomics. Comparatively, this book does not reveal much eye-opening finding. Simply put, I rate Freakonomics higher than this book.

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  Waleswong said on Jun 8, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Quite interesting, especially in the epilogue where monkeys were shown to exhibit all kinds of human behaviours after being taught the way of money. But overall the chapters have no logical connections, the subject matters are only lightly touched upon, and the book feels rather inconsequential on ... (continue)

  Quite interesting, especially in the epilogue where monkeys were shown to exhibit all kinds of human behaviours after being taught the way of money. But overall the chapters have no logical connections, the subject matters are only lightly touched upon, and the book feels rather inconsequential on the whole.

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  Holmes said on Apr 23, 2012 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Wasted my time

  If you are a fans of Freakonomics, then stay away from Superfreakonomics. The book has an unified theme, but has no unified way of writing. In each chapter, the authors spent many paragraphs to talk about many other things before going into the main point of the chapter, but spent too little on it. ... (continue)

  If you are a fans of Freakonomics, then stay away from Superfreakonomics. The book has an unified theme, but has no unified way of writing. In each chapter, the authors spent many paragraphs to talk about many other things before going into the main point of the chapter, but spent too little on it. For example the last two chapters, they kept telling us how great the company IV is, how clever the scientists they are, how much good deeds (inventions) or patents owned by them, how are they the saviours of our planet... but I am reading a book regarding hidden economic facts, not the IV biography!

  Lastly, why the hell economists spend their time and fund to study if monkeys are like people? Will the human world leap a big advance if monkeys are proven to have the same behaviour as human - or it is just that we can have a new subject in university - "Monkeyonomics"?

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  Wrenwin said on Jun 15, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  ... just learnt a lot of vocab... >.<
  very impressive on the monkey chapter, the shortest one haha

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  Welchung said on May 17, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  Great book. Extensive research, and interesting econometrics usage. Prove that economics can expand their horizon to every single area! Very interesting insights into prostitution, global warming, and even monkeys!

  However, feel like this book is short of chapters/short of memorable examples than t ... (continue)

  Great book. Extensive research, and interesting econometrics usage. Prove that economics can expand their horizon to every single area! Very interesting insights into prostitution, global warming, and even monkeys!

  However, feel like this book is short of chapters/short of memorable examples than the first book.

  Overall, it is still very entertaining, and a lot of interesting facts/knowledge could be gained. Recommended!

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  Lyoeleex said on Mar 29, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

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Book Details

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• English Books
• Paperback 256 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0713999918
• ISBN-13: 9780713999914
• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Pub date: Oct 26, 2009
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages 繁體書, Livres Français, Libros en Español, Nederlandse Boeken

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