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Freakonomics
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Freakonomics: Book 1

Freakonomics (2005) (edit title/settings)

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Steven D. Levitt (Author), Stephen J. Dubner (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

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? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These may not sound like... read more

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

  • - CSI for the economist.
  • - If Indiana Jones were an economist, he’d be Steven Levitt
  • - Economists apply economic theory to non-traditional topics such as sumo wrestling.
  • - A swimming pool is more dangerous than a gun and teachers cheat too....
  • - People are greedy. People are gullible. I got you to buy this book, no?
  • - "Incentives are the corner stones of modern life."
  • - People respond to incentives.
  • - Levitt digs through piles of information and proves our world is full of hypocrisy, stereotypes, and bigotry.

Summary edit see section history

Freakonomics started as a New York Times Magazine article in 2003. Stephen J. Dubner, a journalist for The New York Times, was assigned to write a profile of economist Steven D. Levitt. Levitt and Dubner hit it off, and thousands of New York Times readers also felt a connection. Readers... read more

Freakonomics started as a New York Times Magazine article in 2003. Stephen J. Dubner, a journalist for The New York Times, was assigned to write a profile of economist Steven D. Levitt. Levitt and Dubner hit it off, and thousands of New York Times readers also felt a connection. Readers responded to the content of the article, which talked about the unique questions Levitt was finding answers to by applying economic analysis to problems.

Sound dull? That's because you have not read the articles or Freakonomics yet. I was skeptical that Freakonomics would hold my attention, but once I started reading it, I had trouble putting it down. The writing was fresh and the content engaging. I found myself interested in what school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common and amazed at how much relevance the answer had to my life.

Levitt and Dubner maintain that "if morality is how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work." They also show that conventional wisdom is often a convenient way to think about a problem more than a correct way to think about it. Freakonomics asks some good questions, and it inspires readers to do the same. The appeal of Freakonomics lies not in the answers it gives, but in the revelation that answers exist and can be discovered if only we know the right questions to ask.

People edit see section history

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Anything worth having is a thing worth cheating for.”
    W. C. Fields
  • “For every clever person who goes to the trouble of creating an incentive scheme, there is an army of people, clever and otherwise, who will inevitably spend even more time trying to beat it. Cheating may or may not be human nature, but it is certainly a prominent feature in just about every human endeavor.”
  • “And an exclamation point in a real estate ad is bad news for sure, a bid to paper over real shortcomings with false enthusiasm.”
  • “Since the science of economics is primarily a set of tools, as opposed to a subject matter, then no subject, however offbeat, need be beyond its reach.”
  • “Morality, it could be argued, represents the way people would like the world to work - whereas economics represents how it actually does work.”
  • “If you learn how to look at data in the right way, you can explain riddles that otherwise might have seemed impossible. Because there is nothing like the sheer power of numbers to scrub away layers of confusion and contradiction.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

  • Chicago: Author Steven Lewitt is a professor at Chicago University. A great deal of data was gathered in the Chicago area, most notably the study on Chicago public schools.
  • New York City: Many studies were conducted in the New York area.
  • Atlanta
  • Washington, D.C.
  • Madison

Organizations edit see section history

  • Ku Klux Klan: Chapter 2 compares the Ku Klu Klan to real-estate agents.
  • Black Disciple Nation: Chicago gang that was the focus of a study as to why drug dealers live with their parents.

First Sentence edit see section history

Anyone living in the United States in the early 1990s and paying even a whisper of attention to the nightly news or a daily paper could be forgiven for having been scared out of his skin.

Table of Contents edit see section history

An Explanatory Note

Introduction: The Hidden Side of Everything

1. What do School teachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?
2. How is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?
3. Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?
4. Where Have All the Criminals Gone?
5. What Makes a Perfect Parent?
6. Perfect Parenting, Part II; or: Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?

Epilogue: Two Paths to Harvard
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

Glossary edit see section history

  • Incentives: Expectation of a reward, that induces action or motivates effort.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 2 in Freakonomics. (standard series)

Followed by Super Freakonomics.

This is book 21 of 100 in Top 100 Books That Defined The Noughties (Telegraph). (authoritative list)
This is book 73 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This book is in Population Economics. (community list)
This is book 86 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 91 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 83 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Steven D. Levitt (Author)
  2. Stephen J. Dubner (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: William Morrow
Country: United States
Publication Date: April 12, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-123400-1
Page Count: 336

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: HB 74 .P8 L479 2005
  • Dewey: 330

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Discusses some topics that may not be appropriate for young children.

Movie Connections edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Super Freakonomics
  • Outliers
  • The Undercover Economist
  • The Black Swan
  • The Drunkard's Walk

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • The Wealth of Nations

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history

   
  • After Appomattox: How the South Won the War
  • Evaluating Gun Policy: Effects on Crime and Violence
  • My Life
  • Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms (Social Institutions and Social Change)
  • The Blank Slate
  • The Economics of Discrimination (Economic Research Studies)
  • A Matter of Taste
  • The Affluent Society
  • The Black-White Test Score Gap
  • The Theory of Moral Sentiments
  • Giant Steps: the autobiography of kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  • Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification
  • The Fiery Cross
  • The Klan Unmasked
  • Crime and Public Policy

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