Freakonomics

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Paperback

English language

Published May 4, 2006 by Harper Torch.

ISBN:
978-0-06-114330-4
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
298348013

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (33 reviews)

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?

These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn the conventional wisdom on its head.

Freakonomics is a ground-breaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field …

24 editions

Review of 'Freakonomics - A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything, Revised and Expanded Edition' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I started off really liking this and found it very thought provoking. However it gets bogged down in a couple of significant but overlong explorations on education and names and this tends to lose the 'punchiness' of the initial approach. Good to make you think in different ways and to stress the need for caution in any analysis, but left me feeling it could have had much greater scope.

Review of 'Freakonomics' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Statistically seeing the world is a very fascinating approach to break down social issues and common wisdom. This is the book that provide how to see the world in this way. Through various examples, the author presented ways to apply statistical tools and methods to different topics of wide-spread interest. Although the conclusion is either mind-blowing or anticipated. Thinking purely from statistics and the power of it are the true prizes of this book.

Review of 'Freakonomics' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

It's interesting, but has a basic problem. One of the premises of the book is that you should question conventional wisdom - that 'what everyone knows' tends to be glib and simplistic and could be just plain wrong. But the examples of his own theories, though they may spring from a rigorous methodology, once distilled into a chapter of a book become glib and simplistic. And could well be just plain wrong.

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