Freakonomics Analysis

Freakonomics can be seen as the study of economics based on the principle of incentives. In the movie, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner gives multiple examples of how incentives govern our thoughts and actions and its role in economics. The first example explored was the unlikeliness of a house agent to wait to sell a client house for a higher price. The simple reason is the low incentive. If the agent was to wait another week to sell the house for a price that is only 10k higher, they would get less out of that then if they sealed the deal and made another sell with another client. Because of this, they might rush the client to sell the house quickly with the first offer they get in order to benefit themselves in the long run. This can be seen as selfish because the agent is not …show more content…
Students should work harder to gain the incentive. Although this is a good way to increase student´s motivation to pass, there could be loops holes that students can find to take advantage of the system. Cheating could increase in order to meet the criteria, which in the long run, would not help the student. Incentives are tricky and sensitive so I think we should be cautious when putting them in place. Another interesting example that was given was name. Because of the perceptions we have of certain ethnic groups, black people might opt to give their children a more ¨typical¨ name such as Tom instead of Da'quan to increase their success in the future. I think this situation is depressing because no one should be judged on their capabilities based on the stereotype of their culture. You should be judged on your skills and I think everyone should have a fair opportunity. Freakonomics is an interesting topic because it´s principle is one of the bases of human nature. We do things based on reward and consequence and freakonomics is all about our willingness to do something due to