Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner
in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or
physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists
are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics
(written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't
need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the
right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates
to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the
existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data
gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like
McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below
minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting
methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun.
These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in
The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic,
such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say.
Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet.-John Moe
Superfreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Economist Levitt and journalist Dubner capitalize on their megaselling Freakonomics with another effort
to make the dismal science go gonzo. Freaky topics include the oldest profession (hookers charge less
nowadays because the sexual revolution has produced so much free competition), money-hungry monkeys
(yep, that involves prostitution, too) and the dunderheadedness of Al Gore. There's not much substance
to the authors' project of applying economics to all of life. Their method is to notice some contrarian
statistic (adult seat belts are as effective as child-safety seats in preventing car-crash fatalities
in children older than two), turn it into economics by tacking on a perfunctory cost-benefit analysis
(seat belts are cheaper and more convenient) and append a libertarian sermonette (governments tend to
prefer the costly-and-cumbersome route). The point of these lessons is to bolster the economist's view
of people as rational actors, altruism as an illusion and government regulation as a folly of unintended
consequences. The intellectual content is pretty thin, but it's spiked with the crowd-pleasing
provocations.'A pimp's services are considerably more valuable than a realtor's' .that spell bestseller.
Download File Size:2.18 MB
|
