

Freakonomics
Books | Business & Economics / Economics / Theory
3.9
(3.2K)
Steven D. Levitt
Stephen J. Dubner
The legendary bestseller that made millions look at the world in a radically different way returns in a beautiful 20th anniversary edition featuring a new forewordWhich is more dangerous: a gun or a swimming pool? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? What do real estate agents and the KKK have in common?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 riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. 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 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 explore the hidden side of everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity 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. 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.This 20th anniversary edition of the book includes a gorgeous new cover design and a new foreword by Stephen Dubner, reflecting on the unexpected impact Freakonomics has had on the world over the last two decades, as well as the New York Times Magazine profile Dubner wrote about Levitt that started it all.
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More Details:
Author
Steven D. Levitt
Pages
352
Publisher
Harper Collins
Published Date
2011-09-20
ISBN
0062132342 9780062132345
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"Very interesting look at the world we live in. Forces you to think and look at things from a different perspective."
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Ryan Fisher
"Totally helped me understand the difference between correlation and causation about human behavior. Who knew there's data that proves the correlation between family reunions and the number of prostitution arrests for a given area?"
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Risse Richards
"I wanted to like this book better than I did. I’ll admit I’m still working through some of the end matter but the bulk of the book I’ve finished. <br/><br/>I enjoyed the creativity of the questions Levitt asks and the logical methods he uses to answer them. Perhaps it’s simply that this book, updated in 2006, hasn’t aged well. I found his explanations of basic science, well, basic. Correlation vs causation and basic regression analysis isn’t anything new to me, but it may not be knowledge the general public without an academic would have. <br/><br/>My biggest quibbles with Freakonomics come down to the more controversial suppositions around crime, car seats, and racism. His car seat data, based on a cursory internet search, is bogus: he focuses purely on deaths and not on serious injury. Car seats have very good evidence showing them to cut risk of death or serious injury in half or more! His conclusions that legal abortion leads to reduced crime, as do higher levels of policing, feels like he’s seriously missing the point. He throws a bone to the idea that root causes of crime need to be addressed, but essentially in the arguments dismissed that notion and concludes that the only thing that REALLY moves the needle is fewer unwanted babies (even though he wasn’t actually able to identify WHY abortions reduced crime, just the existence of the correlation) and more police. Finally, his work on racism and his claims that Black sounding names don’t create an economic disadvantage, reeks of racism. He tries to strip systemic racism and racial bias out and replace it with socio-economic status - though of course, Black Americans are much more likely to be of low status. He posits one supposition that a DeShawn Williams would be less likely to be called for a job interview than a John Williams, not due to racism, but because DeShawn “sounds lower class” and interviewers may be inclined to think that somebody lower class would be less reliable. As though somehow associating Black names with being lower class and unreliable isn’t racist...<br/><br/>Finally, in the first end matter essay, a comment is made that his student work on policing and crime was called into question for a serious math error. Yet it appears the exact same conclusions from that original research are presented as fact in the body of the book. <br/><br/>Overall I find Levitt frankly kind of insufferable and the glowing biography of him at the end just makes it worse. Don’t read this book - there’s plenty of other interesting books of popular science to be read! Find one that’s less racist maybe."
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Teresa Prokopanko
"I love the way they have the facts laid out with the story. Do you have any book recommendation ?"
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Nirmil Shah
"Freakonomics is a lot like Predictably Irrational - or rather, I should say that Predictably Irrational is a lot like Freakonomics (seeing as Freakonomics did come first). Freakonomics is a fun, easy read but I felt like it didn't really have any take-home message like Predictably Irrational did. The anecdotes and case studies were fun and interesting, but they didn't have any application to my life. Not a bad way to spend a train ride, but certainly not one of my favorite books"
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Max Nova
"I listened to <i>Freakonomics</i> as an audiobook on a long road trip a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it; so much so I'm thinking about listening to it again the next time I'm on a road trip with my husband, who I think would also enjoy it. Really interesting connections!"
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Sandra Hasenauer
"It's a good book, looks at big issues in our society with a fresh pair of lens and it makes sense."
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Ranjan Lamichhane
"Great book "
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Jennifer Egrie
"So much fun "
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Aniko TR
"No. Didn't know there was one. I'll check it out. "
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Dave Field