Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
About the Book (Wikipedia)
The book is a collection of economic articles written by Levitt, an expert who has already gained a reputation for applying economic theory to diverse subjects not usually covered by "traditional" economists; he does, however, accept the standard neoclassical microeconomic model of rational utility-maximization. In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner argue that economics is, at root, the study of incentives.
The book's topics include:
Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers
Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents
Chapter 3: The economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low earnings and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers
Chapter 4: The controversial role legalized abortion may have played in reducing crime. (Levitt explored this topic in an earlier paper entitled "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.")
Chapter 5: The negligible effects of good parenting on education
Chapter 6: The socioeconomic patterns of naming children
The book's topics include:
Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers
Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents
Chapter 3: The economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low earnings and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers
Chapter 4: The controversial role legalized abortion may have played in reducing crime. (Levitt explored this topic in an earlier paper entitled "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.")
Chapter 5: The negligible effects of good parenting on education
Chapter 6: The socioeconomic patterns of naming children
About the Author
Levitt was born in 1967 and attended St. Paul Academy and Summit School, graduated from Harvard University in 1989 with his B.A. in economics, and received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1994. He is currently the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor and the director of the The Becker Center on Price Theory at the University of Chicago. In 2004 he won the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded bi-annually by the American Economic Association to the most promising U.S. economist under the age of 40. In April 2005 Levitt published his first book, Freakonomics (coauthored with Stephen J. Dubner), which became a New York Times bestseller. Levitt and Dubner also started a blog (www.freakonomics.com).
Dubner grew up in Duanesburg, New York as the youngest of eight children in a devout Roman Catholic family. His parents, Paul and Veronica Dubner, had converted to Catholicism from Judaism. Stephen Dubner explains his own choice to practice Judaism as an adult as follows: "I did not grow up Jewish, but my parents did. . . . But for my parents -- and now, for me, as I am becoming a Jew -- there is a pointed difference. We have chosen our religion, rejecting what we inherited for what we felt we needed."
Dubner's first published work was in the American children's magazine Highlights for Children.[citation needed] Dubner received a scholarship from Appalachian State University in North Carolina, and graduated in 1984. At Appalachian he formed a band, "The Right Profile," which was signed to Arista Records. In 1988, he stopped playing music to focus more on writing, going on to receive an MFA in Writing from Columbia University (1990), where he also taught in the English Department.
Dubner currently resides in New York City with his wife, Ellen Binder, and their two children
Levitt was born in 1967 and attended St. Paul Academy and Summit School, graduated from Harvard University in 1989 with his B.A. in economics, and received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1994. He is currently the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor and the director of the The Becker Center on Price Theory at the University of Chicago. In 2004 he won the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded bi-annually by the American Economic Association to the most promising U.S. economist under the age of 40. In April 2005 Levitt published his first book, Freakonomics (coauthored with Stephen J. Dubner), which became a New York Times bestseller. Levitt and Dubner also started a blog (www.freakonomics.com).
Dubner grew up in Duanesburg, New York as the youngest of eight children in a devout Roman Catholic family. His parents, Paul and Veronica Dubner, had converted to Catholicism from Judaism. Stephen Dubner explains his own choice to practice Judaism as an adult as follows: "I did not grow up Jewish, but my parents did. . . . But for my parents -- and now, for me, as I am becoming a Jew -- there is a pointed difference. We have chosen our religion, rejecting what we inherited for what we felt we needed."
Dubner's first published work was in the American children's magazine Highlights for Children.[citation needed] Dubner received a scholarship from Appalachian State University in North Carolina, and graduated in 1984. At Appalachian he formed a band, "The Right Profile," which was signed to Arista Records. In 1988, he stopped playing music to focus more on writing, going on to receive an MFA in Writing from Columbia University (1990), where he also taught in the English Department.
Dubner currently resides in New York City with his wife, Ellen Binder, and their two children
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