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Loading... Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (original 2005; edition 2006)by Steven D. Levitt
Work InformationFreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt (2005)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This book seems to be everywhere. Hard to look in a bookshop and not see it featured heavily...and the sequels....."Super Freakonomics" etc.. So, I felt obliged to read it to be informed. And, whilst I was reading it at my usual coffee shop it was commented upon by others...."Fascinating book!" etc. Well yes. It is interesting. I was interested to learn about the breakdown of the financial structure of drug distributors with the clever punch line that the foot soldiers have to live with their mothers because their income is so low. But I didn't see any thoughtful suggestions coming out of this such that ......if these poor guys had a reasonable shot at getting a decent job then the incentive to distribute drugs would vanish in a flash.......So here's some suggestions for doing this. I also found it fascinating that the decrease in crime rates could largely be attributed to the Roe vs Wade case that legalised abortion in the USA and allowed women to reduce the number of unwanted babies (who tended to grow up and commit crimes). Do I buy this? Well, after finishing the book, I admit to lingering doubts that maybe they were underplaying the role of aging population, increased policing, etc. But, I've just re-read the section on abortion and I must confess that they have convinced me. They seem to have done all the right kind of checks: early abortion States saw a decrease in crime before the later adopters. ...and so on. So, seeing the US Supreme Court (stacked by Donald Trump) revoke Roe vs Wade seems to be a very sad day for the USA. I guess, this will be a decent test of the Freakonomic's assertion that crime will start to rise. There are some interesting things there but the only one that really stood out for me was the link between crime and legalised abortion. Oh...there was the demise of the Ku Klux Klan because of exposure of their secret (and stupid) rites and passwords. Seems that nothing quite like shining the light on the secrecy to undermine it all. And interesting that the guy who was given most of the credit had a few secrets of his own....namely he was claiming credit for infiltrating the Klan when some other guy (John Brown) had actually done all the really risky stuff. But scary that the Klan should have become so powerful and a real force for evil deeds. I enjoyed reading the book and it gets four stars from me.
Economists can seem a little arrogant at times. They have a set of techniques and habits of thought that they regard as more ''rigorous'' than those of other social scientists. When they are successful -- one thinks of Amartya Sen's important work on the causes of famines, or Gary Becker's theory of marriage and rational behavior -- the result gets called economics. It might appear presumptuous of Steven Levitt to see himself as an all-purpose intellectual detective, fit to take on whatever puzzle of human behavior grabs his fancy. But on the evidence of ''Freakonomics,'' the presumption is earned. The book, unfortunately titled Freakonomics, is broken into six chapters, each posing a different social question. Levitt and Dubner answer them using empirical research and statistical analysis. And unlike academics who usually address these matters, they don't clutter the prose with a lot of caveats. They just show you the goods. Freakonomics is about unconventional wisdom, using the raw data of economics in imaginative ways to ask clever and diverting questions. Levitt even redefines his definition. If, as he says, economics is essentially about incentives and how people realise them, then economics is a prospecting tool, not a laboratory microscope. Is contained inFreakonomics Set - Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Signed Edition - Easton Press); Super Freakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance; Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt Has the (non-series) sequelInspiredHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
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 an economist to ask--but Levitt is not a typical economist. He studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life--from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing--and his conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. The authors 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 this book, they set out to explore the hidden side of everything. If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work.--From publisher description. No library descriptions found. |
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Bad point: I was hoping to read a book about economy for dummies.
Good point: It was fun to read, with lots of silly factoids.
Bad point: the factoids were not all that interesting for people outside of the USA.
Good point: It gave me nice ideas for data mining projects.
Bad point: the cheese. It was everywhere.
Bad point: the ending of each chapter contained at least one paragraph singing praise of Mr. Levitt. Really. I don't care if he's child prodigy / genius / revolutionary. I'm interested in his work, not his person. It's not bloody Bertrand Russell. Let his brilliancy speak for itself.
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