Economics is often thought as the study of tedious, uninteresting market developments and financial trends, but together with Steven D. Levitt’s unparalleled work and thought in economics and Stephen J. Dubner’s skills as an author and journalist, they reveal that the tools of all economic research can easily be used in the study of the basic relationships of the problems and events that we usually confront and hear about every day. In Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Levitt and Dubner together write most of the most interesting research topics of economics Levitt has encountered and tackled throughout his career to really show the hidden side of economics.
Chapter 1 essentially describes economics as the study of incentives (something that motivates or encourages someone to do something) and how we all pursue them. Incentives are one of the things that sometimes are so delightful that most people will do anything to seize it for themselves. In this chapter, the authors explore some prominent instances in cheating, as they are one of unethical things people do to reach their …show more content…
graduate in sociology’s (Sudhir Venkatesh) findings in a Chicago black drug gang, showing everyone that all drug dealer are in fact not wealthy, but some are well below minimum wage. Sudhir, interested in the life of the gang members, lived among them for a fair amount of time learning how the gang ladder works. He turned to the socioeconomic part of different gangs to get an understanding of why many low level drug dealers still work even though they earn approx. $3 an hour with a 1:4 chance of death. He found out that the incentive of being a big drug lord was enough for these low lifes since the yearly wage for them can reach into the millions. The influence of incentives in many gangs is a great example to how the economy functions many fight for small jobs, and without them, the economy would
Chapter 1 essentially describes economics as the study of incentives (something that motivates or encourages someone to do something) and how we all pursue them. Incentives are one of the things that sometimes are so delightful that most people will do anything to seize it for themselves. In this chapter, the authors explore some prominent instances in cheating, as they are one of unethical things people do to reach their …show more content…
graduate in sociology’s (Sudhir Venkatesh) findings in a Chicago black drug gang, showing everyone that all drug dealer are in fact not wealthy, but some are well below minimum wage. Sudhir, interested in the life of the gang members, lived among them for a fair amount of time learning how the gang ladder works. He turned to the socioeconomic part of different gangs to get an understanding of why many low level drug dealers still work even though they earn approx. $3 an hour with a 1:4 chance of death. He found out that the incentive of being a big drug lord was enough for these low lifes since the yearly wage for them can reach into the millions. The influence of incentives in many gangs is a great example to how the economy functions many fight for small jobs, and without them, the economy would