Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

This is actually a pretty cool book. Being an economics major from UCBerkeley, I really like this guy's style and he does some really interesting studies. His studies on crack dealers was especially interesting and entertaining because its a little out of the box. But then as I got deeper and deeper into the book, I just got the sense that he was using Economics as a way to further his...more

This is actually a pretty cool book. Being an economics major from UCBerkeley, I really like this guy's style and he does some really interesting studies. His studies on crack dealers was especially interesting and entertaining because its a little out of the box. But then as I got deeper and deeper into the book, I just got the sense that he was using Economics as a way to further his political agenda. Maybe I'm wrong but I've always thought that economists can argue any (even opposing) points of view pretty effectively because the subject of Economics has a lot of interpretation and grey areas. That being said, I just felt like this guy came to conclusions that went with his political beliefs and to me lost the purity of what should have been a playful foray into the world of rogue economics. I'm not saying he is politically skewed or thats why he wrote the book but I just got that feeling and as an econ guy, I didn't like it. Thats all.   hide

Een econoom die eigenlijk door een objectieve studie van cijfermateriaal (voornamelijk regressie-analyse) niet bezig is met economie in de financiële / marktgerichte zin van het woord, maar eerder met sociologie. Bv. waarom is het misdaadcijfer in Amerika zo gedaald (niet door meer blauw op straat, de economische context... maar gewoon omdat we x aantal jaar na de legalisering van abortus...more

Een econoom die eigenlijk door een objectieve studie van cijfermateriaal (voornamelijk regressie-analyse) niet bezig is met economie in de financiële / marktgerichte zin van het woord, maar eerder met sociologie. Bv. waarom is het misdaadcijfer in Amerika zo gedaald (niet door meer blauw op straat, de economische context... maar gewoon omdat we x aantal jaar na de legalisering van abortus schrijven - de kinderen die er toen niet zijn gekomen zijn de adolescenten van nu die de meeste kans zouden maken in de misdaadstatiestieken terecht te komen). Of hoe kan je fraude achterhalen door leerkrachten bij de eindexamens aan de Amerikaanse high schools of bij sumowortelaars? Wat kan jij als ouder doen opdat je kinderen goede schoolresultaten behalen (bitter weinig, zo blijkt, het hangt er vnl. vanaf hoe intelligent je zelf bent)? Welke wetmatigheden vallen er in de naamgeving van kinderen mbt de sociale klasse waartoe ze behoren te onderkennen? Enzovoort.   hide

There was no main theme to this book, but the authors tend to think that is okay. They even admit themselves that there is no main theme. However, with no main theme, I thought this book would have covered a wider range of topics that are more pertinent to American Society. The most important issues they discuss are how the legalization of abortion has caused a decrease in crime, how standardized...more

There was no main theme to this book, but the authors tend to think that is okay. They even admit themselves that there is no main theme. However, with no main theme, I thought this book would have covered a wider range of topics that are more pertinent to American Society. The most important issues they discuss are how the legalization of abortion has caused a decrease in crime, how standardized testing is bogus, and what makes a good parent. The part on corruption within sumo wrestling was interesting, but of no use to me. Even though one of the authors is a prize winning economist, I don't really think there is anything brilliant about this book. I thought the data/statistics they provided were eye opening, and they did tend to give an unbiased/two-sided point of view to everything, probably to keep the book from getting too controversial. This is a somewhat interesting quick read that you might want to pick up for a slow weekend.   hide

The subtitle of the book, "A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything," gives a clue as to the authors' intent. Levitt, the economist, looks at a series of unrelated phenomena and then tries to find out what gave rise to them. For instance, he raises the question of why crime suddenly dropped in the 1990s, instead of continuing to rise to alarming levels, as had been...more

The subtitle of the book, "A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything," gives a clue as to the authors' intent. Levitt, the economist, looks at a series of unrelated phenomena and then tries to find out what gave rise to them. For instance, he raises the question of why crime suddenly dropped in the 1990s, instead of continuing to rise to alarming levels, as had been previously predicted just a few years before. Usually, the phenomena he examines have a variety of assumed causes; the drop in crime being attributed, variously, to better policing, tougher gun laws, changes in the marketplace for illicit drugs, among others. Levitt then tries to determine which of these presumed causes is actually at work. To do so he brings the tools of statistical analysis to bear, sifting through the possible explanations to the one that the data--most of the cases he examines rely on fortuitously gathered numerical data--indicate are having the greatest effect. Unfortunately...   hide

I did think the authors did a good job using statistical analysis to bring out interesting facts about novel questions. And their reasoning from the data was usually sound (the abortion/crime-rate link was particularly well-documented, from both angles using the Romanian case as well as the American). But there were some serious problems.I think one reason it didn't hold my interest was its...more

I did think the authors did a good job using statistical analysis to bring out interesting facts about novel questions. And their reasoning from the data was usually sound (the abortion/crime-rate link was particularly well-documented, from both angles using the Romanian case as well as the American). But there were some serious problems.I think one reason it didn't hold my interest was its acknowledged "lack of a unifying theme." That made it little better than a book of trivia, albeit one that only takes a handful of topics and looks at them a little more in-depth. Some of those topics were very interesting (I found the chapter on names especially entertaining, perhaps since it's an important topic to me as a writer), while others were of merely esoteric interest (cheating sumo wrestlers?).The worst chapter, however, was their outrageous comparison of real estate agents to the Ku Klux Klan. Suddenly gone was their mountain of data organized by penetrating logic, and in its place we were offered a couple of stories about "acquaintances" of the authors, who apparently hold some sort of personal grudge against real estate agents. Such testimonials are notoriously misleading, indicating that they had little real data to back up their claims. But to the extent that they did offer data, their argument was insultingly ludicrous.Real estate agents are the moral equivalent of murderous bigots, we are told, because they have knowledge that they withhold from us for their own personal gain. First of all, what the authors call "informational asymmetry" or whatever, is simply another term for specialization, which anyone with the least bit of education about economics knows is what makes our advanced industrial civilization possible. While it is true that there are unscrupulous real estate agents (I know one who happens to be a cousin of mine), and even that whole industries are notorious on this account (such as the coffin industry that the authors mention), it would be ludicrous to say that anyone who has specialized knowledge--be it doctors or lawyers or auto mechanics--by that very fact has an interest in hiding the facts from you in order to exploit you. Yet this is precisely the claim that the authors are making. I could go on and on about the fallacies, both logical and empirical, involved in this view, but I think all you have to do is look at your own motives for wanting to go into your chosen field to see what nonsense this is.As to their specific claims about real estate agents, well, why should they put extra weeks worth of work into selling your house when they will see relatively little added benefit to themselves? The authors are operating on a very Christian, altruistic premise here, that it is their duty to serve others, even if that means sacrificing themselves. Rather, if homeowners think that they can get a better price for their house, and the additional money is worth it for them to put it on the market and represent it on their own, then they should do so. Otherwise, they must either accept their agent's terms, or try to negotiate better terms with them that will not involve a sacrifice on anyone's part (for instance, the agent could get a larger cut of the difference on any subsequent offers if they agree to keep it on the market). And incidentally, what made the KKK evil was not their knowledge of stupid secret rituals which supposedly made them feared and gave them power, it was their use of violence and the threat of it against innocent individuals--while most real estate agents, by contrast, could not even legitimately be charged with fraud.Finally, even where the authors did demonstrate valid connections, such as the abortion/crime-rate case, I found it somewhat unsatisfying, because, while interesting, this does not really address the cause of crime. While it is true, as they ably demonstrated, that legalizing abortion caused the crime rate to drop, it did so only indirectly, since it would not be true to say that the unavailability of abortions is the cause of crime. If we took that reasoning to its logical conclusion, we could say that forced abortions in every pregnancy would eliminate crime altogether--which it ultimately would, since it would lead to the extermination of the human race, but that ignores that such a program of forced abortions would itself be a massive crime (not because they are abortions, but because they are forced).So that's my two cents (or two dollars) about Freakonomics. I'm just glad I checked it out from the library instead of dropping $25 for it.   hide

While this was definitely an interesting read, it did live up to a the disclaimer presented by the authors, in that it had no specific focus, and presented an eclectic set of examples and studies conducted to illustrate some of their unorthodox applications of economic theory. Whether it is possible for anyone to completely rework his or her beliefs in regards to cause and effect relationships,...more

While this was definitely an interesting read, it did live up to a the disclaimer presented by the authors, in that it had no specific focus, and presented an eclectic set of examples and studies conducted to illustrate some of their unorthodox applications of economic theory. Whether it is possible for anyone to completely rework his or her beliefs in regards to cause and effect relationships, related factors, etc., I do not know, but think highly unlikely. This book reminded me very much of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, in that it presented information that should effect the way we look at our cognitive processes, and how well we trust them and also what assumptions we make about them, but will not do much in terms of actually changing any of those things. A good read, overall, but certainly not a non-fiction best. Another thing that was disappointing was that the authors present this "expanded" and "revised" version of the book, and talk about all of their add-ins with an enthusiasm that belies the repetitive nature of these additions. You'll basically get to hear about the same studies conducted over, and over, and over again. I gave up somewhere halfway through the newspaper articles they'd included for our repeated delectation.   hide

The subtitle of this book is a very apt, if slightly exaggerated description: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Steven Levitt is certainly a rogue economist in that he uses the concepts of economy to look at many ‘givens’ in a completely new way. The results are often startling and thought provoking, although he certainly doesn’t look at everything-at least in...more

The subtitle of this book is a very apt, if slightly exaggerated description: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Steven Levitt is certainly a rogue economist in that he uses the concepts of economy to look at many ‘givens’ in a completely new way. The results are often startling and thought provoking, although he certainly doesn’t look at everything-at least in this book. Most of us probably suffered through economics in school and the thought of reading a book about it when we don’t have to does not sound like fun. Levitt, however, takes this science and spins it on its head, making it both entertaining and informative. By taking economic theory and applying it to everyday questions Levitt comes up with some theories that sound improbable and then proceeds to prove them. Many of his theories may cause some consternation; most outrageous of all is the idea that the reduction in crime over the years has less to do with more police and far more to do with the Roe v Wade decision. This book was very entertaining, written in an engaging style. My biggest complaint is the New York Times article reprints at the end of the book, which basically re-hash what we have already read. The book is also too short and since I hated economics is school I find it ironic that I could want more!   hide

Freaknomics, as the name suggests is about Economics taking a freak out journey. The exciting sojourn would take you in for surprise for it shows the reasons behind very not-so-thought-kind of questions. The content is like a consortium of various uncommonly thought common occurrences and things that we probably get to see around us. One thing that I like about the book is it is not written in...more

Freaknomics, as the name suggests is about Economics taking a freak out journey. The exciting sojourn would take you in for surprise for it shows the reasons behind very not-so-thought-kind of questions. The content is like a consortium of various uncommonly thought common occurrences and things that we probably get to see around us. One thing that I like about the book is it is not written in the conventional way by confining it to a particular topic. The Author has done an almost detective kind of job in unraveling the conundrums in questions ranging from Sumo Wrestlers to Ku Klux Klan. Essentially Levit's every chapter starts with a question that doesn’t make much sense like, What do Sumo Wrestlers and teachers have in common? Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? Is there anything called the art of good parenting? What does the crime reduction has to do with abolition? Connection between the Ku Klux Klan and Real Estate Agents. Drug peddlers living with their mothers etc. The book has some interesting statistics and fascinating numbers, which provide really intriguing answers to the questions. The book enlightens on some of the soft realities of life. One goes like this. Whatever be the philosophy, be it, liberalism, socialism, capitalism or objectivism, people strongly react to incentives. There is a motive behind anything or everything, though not necessarily in monetary or materialistic or objective terms. This deep answer is a key driver to one of the questions presented in the book. Freakonomics could leave you with the reminiscences of a beautiful mind with unconventional and logical thinking to anything and everything that you see around. Observation would become more intriguing and rewarding now. Whoever said, its true that a person is known for the questions that he doesn’t have the answer for. People who have read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, another genius, could identify in this book the similar simple and lucid writing style offered on complex issues. The solutions to the questions have been treated with an innovative fashion. The matter has been presented in an interesting way. On the flip side, though there are chances that you might get bored at times, with some of its pedantic stuff; nevertheless, it isn’t tiring at any time. The research is mind-blowing and makes the reading an intellectual and fascinating experience. Go for it you want to do some quality reading ahead.   hide

A book which constantly balances on the edge between being insightful and useful, and being plain out annoying. The authors put forward a good mix of theories and facts which help explain many phenomena in the society around us (or, rather, around people living in the USA). Theories and facts which point to conclusions both surprising and - often - very controversial, attacking and dissecting...more

A book which constantly balances on the edge between being insightful and useful, and being plain out annoying. The authors put forward a good mix of theories and facts which help explain many phenomena in the society around us (or, rather, around people living in the USA). Theories and facts which point to conclusions both surprising and - often - very controversial, attacking and dissecting commonly known "facts". If you choose to believe their conclusions is up to you. What annoys me, however, is the authors' smug praise of and compliments to themselves. The whole first chapter is a kind of sales speach about how fantastic the main author is, how great this book is and how amazed you will be by its splendor. Something we very consciously get reminded of again and again throughout the book. A kind of shameless advertising material which might had had its place on the back cover of the book - not spread out inside the book itself. What's the point? I have already bought the damn book! Do you secretly doubt the quality of your own material? The book presents a startling mix of theory and fact, but for me the smug parts put me off the book a great deal, and is what prevents me from being able to wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone.   hide