Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner, Steven Levitt (2005, Hardcover)

Rarely does something live up to its buzz but Freakonomics exceeds expectations. A book about economics that doesn’t induce narcolepsy ? Its possible and the dynamic duo of Dubner and Levitt seem to have stumbled onto some sort of nerd secret sauce. There are no equations, no regressions and no Laffer curves in this book. What you’ll find instead is a series of interesting and relevant questions that, when viewed through the lens of some VERY basic economic and statistical principles, will cause you to reconsider the way you think about the underlying issues. Drug dealers, cheating teachers, children’s names and the hidden benefits of abortion are among the situations covered.

If you are a Harvard doctoral candidate doing a literature review for your thesis, this is not your book. Its light fare, ideal for an airplane ride or a weekend. Its accessible without being dumb and its provocative without being political.

Freakonomics offers a fresh new perspective on how the world works. Although Dubner's and Levitt's arguments aren't completely without flaws, they offer compelling arguments, evidence, and points of views to some interesting societal questions. Through the use of data and applied (i.e. practical) economics, Dubner and Levitt debunk conventional wisdom, providing answers that are sometimes controversial, but always interesting and well-supported.

If you're looking for a fresh, new perspective on how the world works, this book is for you. Have you been interested in questions such as: 'How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real-estate agents?', 'What do schoolteachers and Sumo wrestlers have in common?', 'Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?', 'Why did the crime rate drop so much in the 1990s?', and 'What makes a perfect parent?'? If so, this is the book for you. Although you may not agree with some of the arguments and conclusions this book puts forward, it offers an interesting view in how the world works. If nothing else, you'll leave the book armed with a new way to look at the world.

If you're a hard core economic theorist seeking the application of traditional theory, this book is likely not for you. However, if you're looking for a quick read that provides an interesting new perspective on how things work in the world, this is the book for you!

It is all how you look at it: If you are an economist you will find this to be dribble and if you are a college-prep teenager you will find this life changing. We teach financial education to teenager’s everyday and we use some of these topics as a way to introduce macroeconomic sized questions to high school seniors. It is a nice clean way to string a series of individual items that seemed unrelated into a new picture. That is what teaching macroeconomics is really about. Besides, getting most people to sign on for theoretical conversations is not very likely and this is just wacky enough to engage a classroom, a party, or a book club. This is a must-read for POP culture anyway. Here is our one stop statement: It is worth reading, but it is not here to make you into Einstein; it is just here to make the average human brain function and follow along a topic at a macroeconomics level.

RICH CHICKS specializes in financial education for women and we read hundreds of books on personal finance every year! We have left many book reviews all over this site.

First, if you're looking to learn about economics this book probably isn't the best place to start or finish. The book is truly not an economics text. Freakonomics greatest gift is its ability to explain complicated concepts in a simple manner...and to apply the science of ecomonics to questions that are interesting enough to read about.

While some of us may be interested in reading about the how's and why's of Chinese banking policy...but, for whatever reason, scientists seldom seem to write about anything that would interest anyone who is not an expert in the field. Perhaps it is a bit of scholarly snobbishness...or perhaps it is because only esoteric questions are of interest to the "experts." Levitt is different...and has been since he first began publishing as a student. Freakonomics asks questions that are actually INTERESTING...and even relevant...whether you like the answer or not. Each chapter deals with a different economic question...and the answers may change the way you think about child rearing, the way you vote, or maybe just the way you analyze issues in general.

Interesting questions include: Does a higher abortion rate equal a lower violent crime rate? Does reading to your young child increase their performance in school? Why do drug dealers often live with their mothers? Will the name you give your child effect his or her income? The questions are interesting...and the answers, and more importantly the reasons underlying the answers, may surprise you.

My recommendation: Pick this book up the next time you're in the airport...read a chapter or two while waiting for the next plane or while in the air. This is the perfect travel book. You'll be entertained...and I'd be surprised if you didn't learn a thing or two as well.

This book was actually pretty light and easy to understand. If you're into this topic already, you may have already read about some of the issues Steven Levitt addresses as his publications have been covered in the Economist, the NY Times, and even Wired Magazine.

Nevertheless, an enjoyable read if you like to hear sometimes non-intuitive arguments to long held policies and beliefs.

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner bring a fresh perspective to a host of social issues in their collection of essays that will challenge you to rethink some of your own assumptions.

Why did crime decline in major cities in the 90s or what things really matter in terms of parenting... These are the kinds of questions that they raise in a very readable prose that is sophisticated enough, and very data driven, but not at all dry/academic. Great book club book or a great read for yourself - my wife and I both really liked it.

Children often seem blessed with bottomless curiosity, but as they learn more about the world, their curiosity tends to recede, replaced by resignation. It's safe to say, however, that economist Steven D. Levitt never stopped asking "Why?" It's equally safe to assert that Levitt's omnipresent "Why?" revolves around different questions than a 4-year-old's. It's hard to imagine even the most precociously intellectual tot asking why, if gang-affiliated crack dealers make so much money, so many of them still live with their mothers? Similarly, it's doubtful a kindergartner ever pondered whether the recent decline in American crime is attributable to the legalization of abortion following Roe vs. Wade.

Those are exactly the kind of questions Levitt and co-author/journalist Stephen J. Dubner ask and answer in Freakonomics, an addictive, irresistible crash course in the populist application of economics. The book began life as a popular article Dubner wrote about Levitt for The New York Times Magazine. Accordingly, it feels less like a substantive book with a strong thesis and a distinct beginning, middle, and end than like a really neat magazine article, the kind that gets circulated among friends, breezes by in a heartbeat, and ends way too quickly.

Freakonomics' most engaging chapters explore ideas that seem initially shocking, then thuddingly obvious, even commonsensical. Levitt's controversial linkage of abortion and decreased crime ignited controversy from both the right and left wings, but it seems eminently reasonable to suggest that a policy that keeps many of society's most unwanted and consequently crime-prone fetuses from coming to term would eventually have a pronounced impact on criminality.

Levitt has a remarkable gift for gazing into a dry pile of statistics and coming away with a novel, exciting theory about how the world works, and in Freakonomics, it's well matched by Dubner's gift for conveying Levitt's ideas and theories in vivid, fun, conversational language. For much of the book, the authors steer clear of technical jargon, so when in the weaker final two chapters they finally pull out the terminology of proper economics, it feels jarring, like a lenient professor suddenly assigning a deluge of homework.

By delving deep into seldom-explored subjects like a crack gang's surprisingly regimented organizational and economic structure, the authors find a number of revelatory ways of explaining the way money flows. And while Freaknomics' ideas often feel more like theories than facts, it's nevertheless exciting to have a loopy genius like Levitt out there asking rude, surprising questions and arriving at even ruder, more surprising answers.

Freakonomics was written by two very intelligent, informed, and knowledgable academic experts in the economic research field. They also follow what I believe was Einstein's definition of true genius, and that is to explain a debatable, fluid, and complex topic in simple enough terms that a non academic economic novice can absorb and retain this relevant information and feel better informed about the ways human nature really works. using incentives and penalties, those in authority can encourage certain behaviors and discourage others. What are the real triggers that influence and motivate our behaviors?Steven Levitt only asks and analyzes 6 questions. With many more intriguing inquiries concerning human nature, if his readers ask for his thoughts on other questions and he chooses to comply with those requests, he probably left plenty of room for several sequals pending positive reception of Freakonomics. He thinks ouside the box, answering some old questions in a new way and thinking of some questions so new few, if any, have ever asked them before. Ways and means of acheiving an end, adjusting a strategy to a changing circumstance, and common methods for attainning or maintaining a competetive advantage can be strikingly similar in the most unusual and unlikely of oraganizations. Dr. Levitt can open your mind to think about the world from a fresh, unique, and sensible perspective that the avearage Joe can understand. I think I remember him claiming NASA tried to recruit him to help with the rather emabarrassing human errors in the Shuttle Prpgram and the CIA wants his thoughts on where best to look for Osama bin Laden. I think I also heard either Rove, Rice, or Powell wanted him consultig for the Bush Administration. Needless to say, he is highly sought after. He class at Berkeley is so popular, they instituted a lottery to determine who gets admitted to the class any given semester. He makes Economics interesting, germaine to our daily lives, and even enlightening.

Levitt provides an incredibly interesting perspective on a number of topics here. The overall theme really is about how economic cause and effect works, and he chooses some incredible illustrative and entertaning perspectives to share these ideas.

The style is light, without being dumbed down. It's plain yet carries a lot of hard information that is revealing.

Dubner and Levitt have changed the face of economics and statistics from the snore fests they have always been for so many business majors to become topics of mainstream public discussion. Who knew economics could be this exciting?!

This book is eye opening. You won't be able to put it down. Who would not be interested in reading about things like the correlation between abortion rates and violent crime, teachers cheating, sumo wrestlers rigging matches, real estate agents getting more for their own homes than those of their clients, the effects of names on our children and on and on?

This book contains truly fascinating insight with the further kudos of not having any political slant. The authors just lay the facts and figures out there. It's so refreshing.

A fascinating analysis of trends from a standpoint
not often used by economists. This book grounds
economics in the social fabric we all live in, so
it's anything but dry. Informative in the extreme,
if you like anlayses that take widely disparate
trends and shows you how they directly affect trends
we all feel and live, then you'll love this book.

I would strongly recommend Freakonomics to anyone with an interest in cause-and-effect relationships in American society. Having studied sociology, many of the ideas presented in the book were intuitive for me, but it is written for a lay audience. The authors' arguments are thought-provoking to say the very least. I esepcially like the correlations they found between legalized abortion and reduced crime rates 15-20 years later--and how guns get a bad rap for causing accidental deaths when, in fact, many more children drown in swimming pools each year than what are killed in accidental shootings! The subjects and arguments presented in the book are the kind that get people thinking, talking and debating--I love it!

A friend told me about this book. When I finally bought it and began to read I understood his fascination with the book. Who would've thought that abortion and the crime rate would correlate? I would not have ever connected those dots. Then he goes on to discuss cheating on educational achievement tests and rigging of matches by Sumo Wrestlers. Wow.. I really can't say enough. I was amazed! I also passed the information about realtors onto my in-laws who are getting ready to sell their house. The book is so good that they had already read and didn't need me to tell them anything!

Bottom line -- a very interesting book with lots of good data to back up their suppositions.

This book was a required reading for my Microeconomics Class. I am only supposed to be on chapter 2 but I finished the book a long time ago. Levitt and Dubner just point out so many interesting things about our world, and I just could not put the book down. Every now and then, you find one of those great, interesting reads, Freakonomics is it!

This is totally my kind of book - easy to read (well, don't get the wrong idea!), filled with lists and data. I especially like two of the chapters. One talks about parenting and what matters and what doesn't matter. Dragging your young children to a lot of museums doesn't "help" (with future achievement, etc.); cultivating an intellectually rich home environment does help(specifically having a lot of books in the house, presumably books that are actually read).

Then I loved the chapter on names. I loved that chapter! Basically it is giving lists that associate parental income and education with naming choices. It demonstrates that sort of upper class names trickle down to middle and lower classes and then become out of favor. Forgive my quick, imperfect synopsis.

Anyhow, great book, interesting unconventional take on economics, highly recommended!

Freakonomics is one of the most enjoyable economics books I've ever read or heard of.

Approaching all manner of social issues using analytical tools of economics provides a new viewpoint on the problems of society, and a new setting for the science of economics making it much more understandable and relevant.

This is not text to learn economics, or to actually solve society's problems.

It's a fun read and a mind-opener for many who didn't think they would ever understand economics, let alone enjoy it.

The book is fun to read, but is all frosting with little cake. Books like
"The World is Flat" and "Collapse" have far more substance.

I listened to this on audiobook on a long road trip and it kept me totally engaged the entire time. Have recommended it to countless friends and family since that time. Highly recommended.

this book is one that will make you re-think everything you have thought of. Have you ever related the Roe Vs. Wade decision to the drop in crime rates in the 90's? Me neither, but that and the rest of the ideas in this book really make you think.

This book has some controversial ides but is lightly enlightening. It wants the reader to open his/her mind. I read this in about 2 days. This is a def for anyone who is interested in business

The idea of a book without an unified theme stuck as as compelling read to me. When there is no unified theme, sky is the limit for the writer. Either he can be as scurry as can be or talk in depth about a topic and give multiple views to it.

Now this writer has done both. He has scurried for topics and gone dwelling into each topic at length. But the amazing part is, lengths don't seem lengthy. The book was over before i knew i started and left me thinking for days.

Amazing read!!

Fun and easy to read. I like to see economics applied to everyday issues. Explanations, and data analysis cover also a wide variety of topics... I certainly recommend it!

I am a total nerd/dork so I really wanted to check out this book. You will "freak" out when you read it, its so great.