Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

By Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
A non-fiction book written by Steven D. Levitt, an Economist at the University of Chicago, and Stephen J. Dubner, a journalist with The New York Times, Freakonomics analyzes a theme of unconventional wisdom and the incentives that act as foundation to modern life, while the authors study of conventional wisdom show that it is often misleading.

A collection of economic articles that originally stemmed from an article on Levitt that was written by Dubner and published in The New York Times, the book moves away from the stereotypically boring economic read, arranged in six easily comprehensively chapters that come as a fun read.

Levitt and Dubner detail intriguing tales through data representation and evaluation, revealing overshadowed insights of daily living and human functionality, applying economic theory to subjects generally not covered in the typically economical statistical analyzing, like whether reading to your body will improve their cerebral development. In whole, the six chapters cover theory, information control, socioeconomic patterns, and uniquely controversial topics like how to discover cheating, the poor economics of drug dealing, and the correlation between legalizing abortion and its impact on future crime rates.

Logically, Levitt and Dubner emphasis that everyday mysteries are easier to detect and analyze than people are led to believe, simply by asking the right questions and finding the proper connections.

Levitt, recognized as the economic field’s “brightest young economic mind”, at age 43, was mentioned as owning “the most interesting mind in America” by fellow American best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, who has written such books The Tipping Point and Outliers.

Add to: del.icio.us | Digg | NewsVine | Mixx | FaceBook | Twitter