In Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, star economist Steven D. Levitt, and New York
Times writer Stephen J. Dubner, collaborate to explore a mishmash of sensitive and amusing issues from an economic perspective. Economics, the book explains, is at root the study of incentives: economic, social, and moral. Through the manipulation of data, Levitt analyzes issues through a variety of different incentive schemes, and arrives at startling conclusions. Academically, Levitt focuses mainly on the subject of crime, where his chapter on the profitability of drug dealing, and the chapter conveying his most famous conclusion on abortion and crime reduction come from. The death of his son inspired two chapters on parenting, discussing subjects as diverse as the dangers of owning a pool and the economics of naming children. The other two chapters put the “freak” in “freakonomics” as Levitt explores cheating by schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, as well as the effects of information on the Ku Klux Klan and Real-Estate Agents. The book is basically the compilation of the works of an unconventional economist, put together in a delightfully readable format by a journalist, resulting in a quick insightful read.