Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
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Which is more dangerous: a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachersand 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 abortionaffect 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. Thus the new field of study contained in this audiobook: Freakonomics.Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives - how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of...well, everything. The inner working of a crack gang. The... The New York York Times - Jim Holt Economists can seem a little arrogant at times. They have a set of techniques and habits of thought that they regard as more ''rigorous'' than those of other social scientists. When they are successful -- one thinks of Amartya Sen's important work on the causes of famines, or Gary Becker's theory of marriage and rational behavior -- the result gets called economics. It might appear presumptuous of Steven Levitt to see himself as an all-purpose intellectual detective, fit to take on whatever puzzle of human behavior grabs his fancy. But on the evidence of Freakonomics, the presumption is earned.
Introduction : the hidden side of everything31What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?192How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real-estate agents?553Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?894Where have all the criminals gone?1175What makes a perfect parent?1476Perfect parenting, Part II; or : would a Roshanda by any other name smell as sweet?179Epilogue : two paths to Harvard205
