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.
More important than the specific issues discussed is the
exposure to a different form of analysis, always valuable in approaching
anything of interest. Yet, even for
anyone that has had significantly studied economics, the conclusions and how
they were arrived at will probably still spark significant interest. The two “freaky” chapters, on sumo wrestling
and the Ku Klux Klan, are amusing. The
two crime chapters, on drug dealing and abortion, are enlightening even though
Levitt definitely takes certain stances outside of his conclusions on those two
subjects. The two parenting chapters are
interesting, but probably the books most dull.
Even as Levitt makes claims on larger trends which are necessarily
damaging to certain groups, he does an amazing and careful job of emphasizing
exceptions at the end of his chapters so as not to discourage individuals. This important distinction is countered by
how the authors tendency to prop up economics as all encompassing truth, in the
same breath that they present their conclusions, which are at best specific
truths.