Freakonomics

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**Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything**

Author	Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Economics
Publisher	William Morrow
Released	April 12, 2005
Media Type	Hardback & Paperback
Pages	336 p. (hardback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-06-123400-1 (Hardback), ISBN 0-06-089637-X (large print paperback)

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner published in 2005. Freakonomics peaked at number 2 among nonfiction on the New York Times bestseller list, and was named the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year in the Adult Nonfiction category.

1 Overview
2 Reappraisals
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Overview

The book is a collection of economic articles written by Levitt, translated into prose meant for a wide audience. Levitt had already gained a reputation in academia for applying economic theory to diverse topics usually not covered by "traditional" economists (note that Levitt is actually not at all a "rogue" economist in that he entirely accepts the standard microeconomic paradigm of rational utility-maximization; he is merely applying it to unconventional subjects). The book's topics include:

Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers (See below)
Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents
Chapter 3: The economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low wages and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers
Chapter 4: The controversial role legalized abortion has played in reducing crime. (Levitt explored this topic in an earlier paper entitled "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.")
Chapter 5: The negligible effects of good parenting on education (instead, the authors assert that it is what the parents are, not what they do, that makes a difference)
Chapter 6: The socioeconomic patterns of naming children

One striking example of the authors' creative use of economic theory involves demonstrating the existence of cheating among Sumo wrestlers. In a Sumo tournament, all wrestlers compete in fifteen matches to stay in the top leagues. The Sumo community is also very close-knit, and all of the wrestlers at the top levels tend to know each other well. The authors looked at the final match, and considered the case of a 7-7 wrestler (i.e. a wrestler with seven wins and seven losses, and one fight to go) fighting against an 8-6 wrestler. Statistically, the 7-7 wrestler should have a slightly below even chance, since the 8-6 wrestler is slightly better. However, the 7-7 wrestler actually wins around 80% of the time. Levitt concludes that those who already have 8-6 collude with those who are 7-7 and let them win, since they have already secured their place in the league.

The authors attempt to demonstrate the power of data mining. Many of their results emerge from Levitt's analysis of various databases, and his creativity in asking the right questions. For example, cheating in the Chicago school system is implicated by detailed analysis of student's answers to multiple choice questions. But first Levitt asks, "What would the pattern of answers look like if the teacher cheated?" The simple answer - difficult questions at the end of a section will be more correct than easy ones at the beginning.

[edit] Reappraisals

In Chapter 2 of Freakonomics, the authors wrote of their visit to folklorist Stetson Kennedy's Florida home where the topic of Kennedy's investigations of the Ku Klux Klan were discussed. However in their January 8, 2006 column in the New York Times Magazine Dubner and Levitt wrote of questions about Stetson Kennedy's research ("Hoodwinked" pp 26-28) leading to the conclusion that Kennedy's research was at times embellished for effectiveness. The implication of the reappraisal of their source was that Kennedy's claims and conclusions should be reviewed for accuracy and verified, rather than being accepted at full face value.

It should be noted, however, that in the "Revised and Expanded Edition" this embellishment was noted and corrected: "Several months after Freakonomics was first published, it was brought to our attention that this man's portrayal of his crusade, and various other Klan matters, was considerably overstated....we felt it was important to set straight the historical record." (pp. xiv, Revised Edition)