Freakonomics

While Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner deal with highly controversial topics in Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, their structured approach reveals the pair’s awareness of the sensitivity of their material. After introducing a data set, the authors offer possible causes before disproving them and then verifying that the final, contentious explanation numerically supports the data. Levitt and Dubner’s carefully organized build-up to a conclusion allows…

According to Freakonomics “the science of economics is primarily a set of tools, as opposed to a subject matter” (Levitt. Pg. 13). The study of economics involves many different aspects such as societal mores, economic incentives, information asymmetry, and conventional wisdom, just to name a few. As time continues on though the study of economics boils down to humans respond to incentives. How and why do humans respond to incentives the way they do? Are these incentives always for the best?…

Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner SOAPstone When economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner published Freakonomics, many asked the authors, how do they think like this? How can one think like this? In response, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner wrote Think Like a Freak, a how-to guide on extreme outside of the box thinking. By asking obvious questions, thinking like a child, and many other strange behaviors that can only be explained with the…

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…

In the book Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Steven Levitt compares two subjects by juxtaposition analysis. Juxtaposition analysis is the comparison of two seemingly unrelated subjects and shows how they are similar, like comparing apples and oranges. They are two very different fruits with different tastes and uses; however they both are considered fruit, and have seeds. Both need water and sunlight to grow, and both grow on a tree and can be grafted. Levitt and Dubner compare…

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner takes on six different topics with an interesting type of thinking. Throughout the book the authors question what causes the variables of x and y. In this they go over if one causes the other or if they are just related and causes by another factor z. This brings to question many topics and goes deep into the analysis of what causes what and if there are hidden factors that people don’t see. To do this they use many sources of statistics to…

In their book, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner apply economics to questions and problems that we generally would not view from an economic standpoint. They show how economics isn’t strictly for goods and services, but can be applied to many—if not all—aspects of our lives. They look at seemingly unrelated subjects and link them together economically, such as how schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers are alike, or how the Ku…

a test for you to help you pass a class? Or how real estate agents are able to sell a property so easily? Have you ever thought about how criminals begin their life in crime? These are just a few of the topics that are discussed in the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. In the first chapter of this book, the main discussion is based around cheating. Almost everyone cheats depending on the situation. The book compares how school teachers and sumo wrestlers cheat.…

The Hidden Cost of Your Good Night’s Sleep In June the Freakonomics Podcast explored the recent phenomenon of mattress stores popping up all over the country. Surely you’ve seen a Mattress-Firm, Sleepy’s, or Sleep Number store pop up in your town, sometimes right across the street from another. Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics, articulated in the podcast the reality that the mattress market has become high profit because manufacturing costs, ease in marketing, low franchise fees for store…

is known for, “The Economic Emergence of Women”, “Saving Our Children from Poverty”, “In Defense of Affirmative Action”, and “Is Social Security Broke?: A Cartooon Guide to the Issues”. While on the other hand, Levitt is well known for his book “Freakonomics”. Barbara Bergmann and Steven Levitt’s differences are very clear, due to the fact that they deal with things that are completely unrelated in all…