Levitt: Freakonomics

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Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. New York : William Morrow, 2005. ix + 242 pages.

Economics as science. Economics as leisure reading. Economics as a tool to explain the workings of everyday life. All of these may seem, at the least, unlikely to you, but Freakonomics sets out to do all these in a very unpretentious way. I was reminded, as I read each chapter, why I found economics so appealing in college--the logic and practical application.

This book, a joint effort between Steven Levitt, a renowned economist currently teaching at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Dubner, a writer for the New York Times and The New Yorker, tackles a variety of topics. Through them, the reader learns to evaluate other subjects, using this method of constructing good questions and acquiring answers through the analysis of data. The examples the authors use to demonstrate this technique are compelling. Among them: Do Sumo wrestlers cheat? Why do drug dealers live with their mothers? Why doesn't capital punishment deter criminals? What do on-line daters lie about? Which is more dangerous: a gun or a swimming pool?

But while these are interesting to read through, the real value is in learning to apply the technique through critical thinking.

-- Notes by LFW