Freakonomics

Steven Levitt

Freakonomics is a best-selling book by economist Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. The book aims to explain everyday phenomenon by applying the principles of economics. It touches on a wide variety of topics ranging from cheating in sumo wrestling and the public schools to the economics of drug dealing. One of the book's most controversial proposals, especially to conservatives, is that Roe v. Wade may be responsible for the reduction in crime seen approximately 15 years later. The authors propose that this effect is due to more poor single mothers aborting children who would have otherwise been likely to live a life of crime.

The authors maintain a blog that aims to cover the same types of topics that the book did but on a daily basis. Conservapedia was mentioned in a recent entry on alternatives to Wikipedia.

Structure

The book consists of an introduction, six chapters and an epilogue. The chapters consist of a question regarding seemingly unrelated subjects or that were of a nature that most economists paid them little attention.

• Chapter 1 What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?
  • A review of incentives includes examples of their dark side, cheating. A review of standardized test results in Chicago Public Schools reveals cheating from an unexpected source, teachers. A review of fight results reveals cheating within the Sumo wrestling profession, where fights may be won or lost to maintain ranking.

• Chapter 2 How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real Estate Agents?
  • A review of how the proliferation of information can undermine the activity of an otherwise clandestine organization or how information experts can use that information against the people they are presumed to be assisting.
    • The story of Jackson Kennedy's work to undo the KKK and the unexpected way he was able to achieve success is presented.
    • A review of real estate transactions, on behalf of themselves and others, reveals the inside thinking of real estate agents.
• Chapter 3 Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms?
  • Sudhir Vankatesh took a survey on urban poverty and turned into a deep undercover investigation of Chicago's Black Disciples gang that resulted in his eventually becoming a Harvard fellow (where he would meet Steven D. Levitt). The chapter reveals why, despite the reported money to be made by selling narcotics, most drug dealers still lived with their mothers in poverty.
• Chapter 4 Where Have All the Criminals Gone?
  • During the late 1980s and into the 1990s public media discussed the coming advent of the super-predator and ever increasing crime. In exploring why the grim forecasts did not come to pass, the authors discuss the impact of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
• Chapter 5 What Makes a Perfect Parent?
• Chapter 6 Perfect Parenting, Part II; or: Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell As Sweet?
• Chapter 1 What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common

References

• Freakonomics Stephen J. Dubner.