Freakonomics: Book 1
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Good but not "the answer" as so many make it out to be
“The following is a short book report I wrote during a training course - I haven't changed its format so it may appear a bit impersonal :)
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-12-29.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is an intriguing evaluation of myriad phenomena utilizing tools typically applied within the field of economics. Exploring topics of personal interest, Economist Steven D. Levitt - aided by Journalist Stephen J. Dubner - seeks to understand the causal relationship of motivation and end results as revealed through analyzing quantitative data. Such analysis leads to several intriguing conclusions, from understanding why crack dealers still live with their mothers to the association between abortion rate increases and crime rate decreases. However, while the book challenges one to think beyond one's paradigm, it suffers from the same condition that it ultimately contests: self-assuredness.
Levitt and Dubner begin Freakonomics by outlining the associative and motivational process by which Levitt evaluates data and, in doing so, inherently challenge the conventional wisdom that is used to understand various occurrences. While this author would agree that conventional wisdom often needs challenging, Levitt and Dubner eventually weave a web of causality, from which, one who is not attentive may easily elucidate that conventional wisdom is always wrong. Thus, Levitt and Dubner imply themselves to be grand apotheoses of truth and understanding, thereby positioning themselves to be challenged. Such positioning is only exacerbated by Dubner's (who is presumably doing most of the writing while Levitt is presumably providing the substance to be written) love affair with Levitt's methods and associative conclusions. Such self-assuredness reeks of bias, which does nothing to elevate their arguments.
Self-assuredness notwithstanding, there are several instances where proclamations are made with no supporting or substantiating data. For example, at one point Levitt and Dubner discuss the topic of firearms as they relate to crime, introducing the gun advocacy arguments of Professor Trent Lott. However, Levitt and Dubner invalidate Lott's arguments by simply stating that they are not replicable. They do not reveal which studies have concluded as such nor do they explain why. Furthermore, Levitt and Dubner readdress firearms when discussing the deaths of children due to accidental drowning in as compared to children's deaths due to accidental shootings, concluding that, statistically speaking, a child is safer in a home with a firearm than a home with a swimming pool. However, the drowning data set appears to be limited only to swimming pools (without including bathtubs, lakes, oceans, et cetera) while the firearm data set does not appear to include more intentional actions such as suicides.
That being said, Freakonomics is not without merit. As previously mentioned, it does challenge the reader to think outside his or her own paradigm. This is particularly true when evaluating topics that engender a great deal of debate within American social and political discourse, such as that of abortion. The potential moral repugnancy of their conclusion aside, Levitt and Dubner make a rather intriguing assessment showing positive correlation between legalization of abortion and subsequent drops in crime rates. This conclusion appears to explain the completely unexpected drops in crime in the late 1990s in ways that previously proposed explanations, such as the strong economy and increased police arguments, could not. However, intriguing revelations such as this are countered elsewhere in Freakonomics by those that are rather ambiguous. Perhaps the best example of this is the chapter that is dedicated to explaining a single commonality between teachers and sumo wrestlers: they both cheat. Given that most everyone in life tends to cheat at something (regardless of whether such cheating manifests as a single event or is habitual), such a correlation is rather self-evident and detracts from those evaluations which are (at least seemingly) more specific.
Ultimately, Freakonomics is an intriguing read that evaluates several intriguing topics in ways not typically explored and, as such, this author understands and agrees with its inclusion on any suggested reading list. However, by limiting their own data sets, Levitt and Dubner fail in their intention to correlate causalities with end results. Furthermore, while their challenge of conventional wisdom has merit, implying that conventional wisdom is always wrong creates a new conventional wisdom that is, in and of itself, biased and self-limiting. With a lack profound lack of a unifying theme and the aforementioned ambiguity, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything creates more questions than it answers.
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1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Enthrallonomics
“One of the most enthralling books I have read in the recent past - it sort of glues your attention right from the introductory chapter.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-12-29.
An extraordinary attempt at demonstrating that finding the root cause of many social happenings is easy to understand once it is explained through a line of reasoning.
It may not be very far off the mark to say that Levitt (and Dubner) are like the 'Sherlock Holmes' of empirical wisdom in Economics. Who would have thought that fall in crime rate may be correlated to an abortion law passed about two decades back? Yet it seems so 'logically straight and absurdly simple' once it is explained!” -
1 of 2 members found this review helpful.
GREAT BOOK!
“This was my son's favorite Christmas present! He read it in 3 nights & learned more in that time that in 3 years in college! :)”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-12-28. -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Economics like never before
“I find it hard to categorize it as an economics book. This is part trivia, part statistics and part folklore. The book does bring out some very interesting interconnections that is interesting as well as intriguing. The connection between abortion and fall in crime rates is one such aspect. Also Levitt brings out findings regarding online dating websites and concluded that bald men and overweight women fared badly. To me that is kind of self evident.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-12-26.
This book is a lively read, but some of the conclusions seems pretty obvious.” -
1 of 2 members found this review helpful.
Commom sense ain't too commom
“Levitt and Dubner relay fantastic anecdotes of how, through emprical study, many "commom sense" wisdoms do not hold true whem put through the rigors of modern research. This is done in a manner and is entertaining and devoid of jargon. Everyone should read this book. Everyone who bases their outlooks on feelings and intuition should read this book repeatedly.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-12-25.
