William Levitt

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…

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…

In addition to being an Economics professor at the University of Chicago, Levitt has been awarded the John Bates Clark medal and holds the title of the most influential economist at forty. Dubner comes from a journalism background and has been a writer for the New York Times. Due to extensive knowledge and experience in their…

Week Three Freakonomics Analysis Question The authors of Freakonomics (2006) relate a gang of drug dealers and how their operation works to a tournament or a winner take all market. They imply that a person starts on the bottom of the chain like an athlete or game player would in a sporting tournament, then they work their way to the next level of the game by winning or beating all of the other opponents on that level. The player would eventually work their way through all of the levels until…

theme in the book, Levitt and Dubner have a recurring theme which states that “economists love incentives…The typical economist believes that the world has not yet invented a problem that he cannot fix if given a free hand to design the proper incentive scheme.” Freakonomics can described as the power of incentives and how one acts upon them. Similar to the definition of freakonomics, economics is the study of human behavior as it betrays itself in a murky cloud of incentives. As Levitt and…

Charles Wheelan was born in 1966 and later graduated from Dartmouth college with a major in economics. He currently is a democratic candidate the the U.S Representative for Illinois in the 5th District. He is also the author of Naked Statistics, Naked Money and Naked Economics. Wheelan wrote Naked Economics in a way that anyone can understand it, whether you are a professional economist or just a high school student studying basic economics. After reading the entire book, it is now clear to me…

The Webster dictionary defines a freak as such “one that is markedly unusual or abnormal”. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have a slightly different perspective on the term freak. “To think a bit differently, a bit harder, a bit more freely” (Think Like a Freak, 211). Throughout their novel, they encourage you, as the reader, to think diversely in your everyday life. Each chapter guides you through a new insightful way to think about situations. From admitting that you just don’t know,…

However, if they pay more attention to the problem, I believe there is always a simple way to solve the problem, which sometimes could be the best solution to the problem. As Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner state in their book titled Superfreakonomics, “But the best fix, he realized, was also the simplest one” (Levitt and Dubner 148). Nowadays, people tend to use internet and social medias most of the time, either at work or at home. However, spending too much time on social medias can cause…

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…

In chapter 3 of Freakonomics, “Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?,” Levitt and Dubner discuss the idea of conventional wisdom. Galbraith, an economist, believes that “conventional wisdom must be simple, convenient, comfortable, and comforting--though not necessarily true” (Levitt & Dubner, 2009, p. 86). For example, an advocate for the homeless was quoted saying that over 3 million Americans were homeless, which would be 1 of every 100 people. This advocate later admitted that this…